Frescas a la Muerta

tiz

2010-05-14T04:36:00.001-07:00

holy moley it's been quite some time, hasn't it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-tOsM6F4Y

this kid is the shiz.

Also, last night i played poker and, starting with 3 dollars, I left with 6.70! Drunk Jano and I laughed for awhile about the phrase bring home the bacon.

Rafa is in Madrid and looking as good as eva.

Saturday Jano and I are going snowboarding in a mall!

Sevilla

2010-04-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

Seville! Happy Holy Thursday! We are on spring break here and Jano and I just got back from Seville.

The drive to Seville from Toledo was about 5 hours. We stopped for lunch and had sandwiches that Jano´s mom made for us. We had tons of snacks and when we got into Andalusia some of the signs were in srabic! We arrived on Sunday, checked in the hotel and took a nap. Then we walked around a litte that night and ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant that had the biggest spring rolls that I have ever seen. They were like the size of half a plate.

Monday we got up at 10 and went out to see the city! First we went to plaza de espana which was right by our hotel. We took some cool pictures, but the plaza was under construction so that took away from the atmosphere a bit. Then a stupig gypsy woman tried to put a branch of some plant in my hand and I told her I didn´t want it, but she said don´t worry no pasa nada and she wouldn´t let me go. Then she tricked Jano into giving her two euros. stupid gypies. Then I got interviewed by some student doing a survey about tourism in Seville. After the plaza, we walked toward downtown and went to a hookah bar, where we had juice and smoked. I also learned that Habibi means love or dear in arabic and was in every single song they played there. Then we went to the royal fortress/palace where we got in free because we were students! It would have cost 7.50 each so we saved 15 euros! woo! The gardens were really cool with the orange trees in bloom and some other tree that makes the whole city smell really good! After the gardens, we walked by the cathedral and the Giralda, a big tower, but didn´t go in because there was a really long line. Then I was a good tourist and bought some postcards, a shot glass, and a little something for calley´s birthday. Then, e went to a bar downtown that one of Jano´s sister, Alba´s friends from Sevilla, recommended for tapas. I had a calamari sandwich and manchego cheese sandwich. While we were snacking at the first bar it started to rain. It took us forever to find the second bar, and we were walking around in the rain. Finally, some guy told us where it was, and, it turns out, we were right next door to it. Then for lunch we had steak with a goat cheese sauce that was really yummy, fries and fried chipirones (Í´m not sure how to say it in english but it´s like calamari). After lunch, the rain let up and we bought tickets for a boat tour on the river. While we were waiting for our boat to leave, I had a coffee at a cafe on the riverside. The river tour was cool. We saw bridges, the gold tower where they stored all the gold that came from america, isla magica, the amusment park, and other cool things. After the boat cruise, we bought an ice cream and we tried to see a procession, but it turned out to be harder than we thought because we didn´t have the schedule. We ended up just going back to the hotel and had crackers with meat and cheese for dinner that we had bought. The next day we got up and went to take out more money and then went to Triana the neighborhood in Seville where are all the famous flamenco singers and dancers used to live and had lunch there. Jano had a serranito, which is a sandwich with pork, ham and grilled pepper and was our favorite moment of the trip. hehe. I had cod al pil pil which was some sauce that was good and garlic shrimp. After lunch we went to the grocery store to buy chocolate and drinks for the trip home the next day. Then we walked back toward the hotel to drop that off. Our plan was to buy doner kebabs and eat them in the park, but the kebab place we went to didn´t look very good so we decided to get VIPS to go. On the way, we bought penny candy because we are fatasses. On the way to VIPS we saw our first procession. They consist of music, people wearing KKK outfits carrying candles, crosses, or lantern things and a big statue of Jesus on the cross or the virgin Mary, depending on the brotherhood. We ordered salad and chicken fingers and then went to the park to eat our lunch. After lunch we took a nap and then later went downtown to see more processions. Monday we didn´t see any processions, but Tuesday they were everywhere. We had dinner at a little terrace downtown and ate croquetas and fried anchovies. We ended up walking A TON on Tuesday and went to bed tired but having seen almost all of Seville!

Wednesday we woke up, showered and packed and went home. We stopped at a Mcdonalds on the way home for lunch. We also passed through Cordoba on both trips which I forgot to mention earlier!

Now we´re in Toledo just relaxing and tomorrow we are going to have a barbecue I think!

love you and miss you all, there are pictures on facebook. I´ll try to put some on here later, but we are going to watch a movie now. mwaaa

FALLAS

2010-03-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

PAELLA!

ME BALANCINA A BEER AND CUP ON MY HEAD FOR LIKE 10 MIN

SO MANY PEEPS

PARADE FINALE

BEACH, I'VE OFFICIALLY BEEN IN THE MEDITERRANEAN--IT WAS COLD

YO <3>Hey guys I had an exciting week!

Wednesday was St. Patty's day, so I went to Orange, a bar in Arguelles, with the gang. It was 5 to get in with free drinks for an hour (if you were wearing green) and one free shot after that. It was a fun time except that the bartender tried to skeet Laura out of her free drink cup and by the time it was figured out free drinks were over! That night I spent the night at Laura's so I wouldn't have to take the night bus home which really isn't working out well for me..

Last Thursday, I went to a mexican restaurant with some american friends and it was awesome! Free chips and salsa and guac (no queso or tortillas) None of us, however, knew what mole was, so all of us ordered the enchiladas with mole on top. We then discovered that mole is a nasty sauce made from chiles and chocolate. but the chalupa I had was delish! After that Laura and I went to Jano's basketball game. They lost, but its ok! After that we went to Burger King with his team where I ordered a BK Fusion, chocolate cake flavored. Then I went to Janos house and later home to pack for Valencia!

Friday I had to be at Plaza de Espana at 9 to get the buses to Valencia! woooo Of course, the whole thing was completely unorganized, but still fun. We stopped halfway at this rest stop where literally EVERY bus going to Valencia stops. There must have been 1000 people there. Then, when we got to Valencia, we went to the beach! We had sandwiches and tinto de verano that the ESN provided! Then we decided it would be a great idea to walk downtown from the beach to meet up with our other friends. 2 hours and a bottle of sangria later, we found them! Laura bought us chocolate covered churros which ranks very very very high on the goodness of foods that I've eaten lately scale. Then, we walked around downtown for a bit and looked at some of the statues. Again, there were people everywhere. Every street was like walking through a mosh pit. Then at 7 the parade started. It pretty much consisted of music, dancers, girls in fancy dresses (falleras) and at the end fireworks! The fireworks were really cool because it wasnt like in the US where there usually far away; it was right up the close and the whole sky was smoke and everyone smelled like fire. Then we went to the bar where we were supposed to meet the coordinators and had agua de valencia (orange juice, brandy, champagne and other shiz) and beers of course. We got really mad at ourselves that we didnt think ahead and buy stuff to drink outside. Laura and I had dinner at the restaurant next door to the bar. Later we went to watch the burning and that was when we had the most fun probably. Afterwards we went to a discoteca with everyone from the erasmus trip and were reallly tired by that time and some biatch stole Laura's sweater...hmmm I also realized that every single song they played was the same song. They would play 5 seconds of the beginning so I would get excited and then go right back in to the techno beat. We left at around 6 and got to the hotel around 7 which was of course super organized and we could go straight to bed...not. I ended up sleeping from around 8 to 12:30 and then got up to have Paella!

Saturday was a chill day for most normal people, but, as I discovered, Italians either snort coke or have extra batteries somewhere because they were drinking, having water fights, stripping, fighting with table legs all day. (straight out of Jersey Shore) We left at 6 and got back to Madrid around 12:30. No comment about the night bus...

Sunday I went to see Shutter Island with Jano which was reallllly weird but it was pretty cool.

Today I found out I won one of the MLLL scholarships! I don't know how much it's for yet but I'm still pumped!

St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Last Friday Jano had a basketball game on Friday and I went to that with Laura and Laura. It ended up that the other team didn't show (they were afraid) so we just watched them play around, but it was still fun. Later that night, we went over to Laura Hill's apartment. It was Jano and I, Laura, her roommate Terez, her other roommate Heleen and Heleen's boyfriend Yurun (im guessing), Billy, and Jano's friends Juan and Jesus (ketchup). We played my new game Party! It was so much fun and interesting because the game is in Spanish but we had Heleen who speaks English and Dutch and her boyfriend who only speaks Dutch, so someone had to translate the questions from Spanish to English than she had to from English to Dutch. hehe Apparently 2 liters is a lot more than I thought because I always buy two liters of beer and am like, this is not enough, so I bought a budweiser to go with my 2 liters of Mahou. A few hours later I was throwing up in the parking lot on my new boots (just a little).

Then on Saturday, I was pretty much wiped out, obviously. I was sleeping on and off with some attempts at eating and taking medicine and throwing up mixed in there until 5 pm. Then, after I finally got some medicine down, I was fine! We ordered pizza and watched some movie that right now I can't remember.

Sunday I hung out at Jano's most of the day and he made yummy pasta for lunch!

Monday, nothing really exciting happened. I went to class and bought myself a fresh orange juice which is ALWAYS delish but costs 1.40 for a small glass. Oh! I also booked a hotel for spring break in Sevilla! We are going from Sunday the 27th to Wednesday the 31st! woo happy holy week!

Tuesday was yesterday. I came home and studied bunches! I've been so good this week! Then Jano and I went to dinner at Gino's. I had farfalle primavera which was sooo good! BUT, European service has dipped to a new low. They now have buttons on your table that you press when you want the waiter. Now the server can literally do nothing all the time. He or she doesn't have to pay attention to you AT ALL until you press a little button and it calls. hmmm...Jano likes it though.. Then we started to watch el secreto de sus ojos but I fell asleep..I also had to do my first translation assignment on Tuesday and it's hard! It's so much more difficult than just talking without translating. I also made an english friend in my translation class because she's in my group.

Today is Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day! Today I had one class and I came home and was super productive again! so much studying and translating going on in there. except for the break I took to watch American Idol..and since I've been so good this week I'm going to go out to celebrate St. Patty's with my American posse.

Friday is Valencia!! wooo

sorry my blog is so boring and pictureless..

love you guys!

Lauren's birthday!

2010-03-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!

Last Friday, Jano and I went to Toledo. It was pretty rainy and we didn't really want to spend any money so we just went out and had a couple of drinks with his friends for about an hour and a half and then came home.

saturday, Jano and I went to a nice dinner. We ordered an appetizer sampler platter and really good venison with like a marsala sauce I think. Then when we got home Jano made crepes with nutella. That night we went to some girl's apartment for her birthday party, but it wasn't really even her birthday! It was mine! Not to steal her thunder or anything...

Sunday, all of Jano's family came over to celebrate his sister's birthday and mine. Jano's parents got me the board game Party, Jano got me a toaster, earrings and a necklace, his aunt got me a bracelet and his grandma got me a coin purse! I didn't expect so many gifts! They even made us each our own cake and mine had candles that said 21 on it! We played Party once and then we played poker. I got second place because on the last hand we both had a pair of 7's , mine with a 10 and his with a 4, and then on the river another 4 comes up! :( Oh well! When I got home on Sunday night, I had a birthday card from Buddy and Vickie waiting for me!

Monday, I went shopping to buy my parents gift! I got jeans and a shirt from Zara and a pair of lace-up short boots! Thanks guys! I also got my eyebrows waxed, and went to lunch with some friends from school. That day when I got home, I had four cards waiting for me from my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Vince, Aunt Bette and Uncle Steve, Lauren, and my grandparents! They gave me a little bit of money that I will most likely, unfortunately, spend on books for school.

Tuesday was productive. I washed my sheets, swept and mopped the floor in my room and typed up my notes in a new blog so that all of my friends and I can share notes from class. I also went to the Taste of America store. I bought homemade tortillas, black beans, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a chocolate chip cookie mix to make cookies for my roommate's birthday which is today!

Today is Wednesday and I just got home from class and there were flowers from my very wonderful, thoughtful, sweet and amazing mother waiting for me! They are beautiful! Now I'm going to watch the American Idol episode from last night and read El Lazarillo. love u all

Lauren has a visitor!

2010-03-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Rachel came to visit me this weekend!

but first! on Thursday, Jano, Cris, David and I went to Rodilla! They make sandwiches and stuff that are really good but usually overpriced. Howevverrrr, All of us are members so we got 4 sandwiches for 3.20! woo hooo. The best one was pollo al curry, curry chicken.

Then on Friday, when I got out of class, Jano and I went to the airport to meet Rachel who was supposed to arrive at 5:30. Apparently, due to an air traffic controller strike in France, her flight was delayed and didn't get in until 7:30. As much as we tried not to waste money on food, we ended up buying a chocolate pastry (napolitana, my fav) and a bag of chips that Jano swore cost 90 cents. Then, when the cashier said they cost 1.30, Jano said, no, they cost 90 cents. Anyway, it didn't say 90 cents anywhere...hmm. These are the kind of crazy things that happen to me in Madrid. When Rachel arrived, we went out to have sangria and tapas. We ordered Iberian Ham, croquetas, tortilla espanola and sangria. Rachel didn't like the sangria or the tortilla. Then Jano decided he was still hungry so we went to Don Oso (home of reallly really good burgers for only 2.10!!) and after to McDonalds where I have discovered coffee with ice cream! I don't think we have that in the states but it's really good and only a euro! Again, really exciting stuff going on here!

Then, Saturday, Rachel and I got up to go site-see a little bit, but it was raining so it wasn't as active and impressive as it could have been. We went to Plaza Mayor, Sol, Gran Via and the palace. After that we went home, had lunch and siestaaa. That night was supposed to be a huge party with all of Jano's friends from home, from school and my American friends. Welll, it ends up it was Jano, Rachel, Jano's friend Juan and me, but it was still really fun! We went barhopping in tribunal, ordered the smallest pitcher of beer I have ever seen and then kicked ass at fusbol! Oh yea! We decided to take the night bus home to save some money, something I have never done to my new house. Inevitably, Rachel and I ended up in the middle of nowhere at 4 in the morning freezing our assess off. (Don't worry mommy I was totally in control of the situation.) Thanks to the ipod and cell phones, Jano was able to come to the rescue on his shiny, yellow horse. It ends up we were in Christiano Ronaldo's neighborhood, so I don't think we could have been much safer anywhere else in Madrid!

Sunday we went to Jano's house and he made us very very yummy chicken. Then Rachel took a 5 hour siesta. That night we went to VIPS for dinner and went home to watch U.S. vs Canada in hockey! It took us awhile to find somewhere to watch it online, and many porn ads came up. We were even just watching the facebook posts people were putting up about the game to know what was happening for awhile. We found a website just in time to see the last-minute goal and overtime. After we lost, we went to bed. Rachel also gave me a present! A shot-book page converted into a page for people who don't have shot books, haha. Thanks so much for coming and everything, babe. It was so nice to see you.

Monday morning we got up at 4:45 to take Rachel to the airport. Good news, that early in the morning we didn't have to pay the tolls! I got home at 6:15 and was able to sleep for another hour and a half or so before I had to get ready for class. Monday, I was informed of something extraordinary! There exists a website where I can watch not only project runway, but also The Bachelor, American Idol, America's Next Top Model, 30 Rock, Dexter, Californication and pretty much anything else. Not to mention they have movies on there! So far I've caught up on Project Runway, watched 4 hours of American Idol, an episode of The Bachelor and The Lovely Bones. :) I almost feel like I'm in the U.S.

Tuesday nothing exciting happened. I spent the night at Jano's and we had sandwiches for dinner.

Wednesday, today, I went to the store and bought myself a second pillow and a second towel!! It's almost like I have a real home now! The only thing I couldn't find was the clear plastic hair rubberbands I use, sooo if anyone was thinking of sending me a care package...haha

OH! I almost forgot, one of my roommate's friends told me about an American store where they sell American brand food and stuff. Rachel and I checked it out online, and basically it looks really expensive. A box of Lucky Charms is 8.50 euros. The only thing I considered buying were the measuring cups and spoons for making American recipes. They also had chocolate chip cookie mix that was pretty reasonable.

I also signed up and paid for a trip to Valencia for las Fallas on March 19th! wooo. Las Fallas is a festival in Valencia where they spend all year building these wooden figurines and then burn them at night, eat Paella and drink. A couple of friends and I are going to do that, and I'm suuuppeer excited..

P.S. Think of me on my birthday :( I wish I could be there to celebrate with you guys. It's going to be hard to celebrate my 21st here, but I know Jano and his family will make it special for me.

Lauren: Weekend in Toledo

2010-02-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!
Last Wednesday is when i left off I suppose, so if I can remember I´ll start there.

I don´t really remember what I did Wednesday and Thursday...

Friday February 19th
On Friday Jano and I went to Toledo. When we got there we went straight to the car dealership where Jano´s parents (for Jano´s mom and sister) bought a new car. They bought a Skoda Fabia (blue with a white roof). Then Jano and I went to dinner at his friend Huxiao´s Chinese restaurant in the historic part of Toledo. So yummy! I know this sounds stupid, but the spring rolls here are so much better! After the spring rolls we had Peking Duck with rice and then bombon things for dessert. After that we went home and watched The Pianist on Jano´s new home cinema.

Saturday February 20th
Saturday I got up around 11 i think, then we had breakfast and watched tv until lunchtime. We had albondigas (meatballs, but really yummy) Then after lunch I studied for awhile and at 6 jano and I went to see some of his friends play soccer and had a beer and tapa with them after. Then Jano let me drive his car a little bit around the parking lot. I am pretty fine doing that; I think I need to move up to real roads and hills and parking and stuff. Then we went home for dinner. Fish (with bones of course). Then we went out for botellon. Jano and I both got pretty drunk and at 4 we left because Jano decided he really needed to eat a Doner Kebap, but! they were closed. Good thing we had chocolate in the car.

Sunday February 21st
I got up at 12 and we left at 1 to go to Madrid because it was Jano´s cousin Paula´s birthday and she was in town from England. (She is there for a semester to try to learn English). The lunch was really yummy. There was ham, of course, salad, mussels, almond soup (my fav) and then the main dish was stuffed squash which is fine but nothing great.

Monday February 22nd
This is today. This morning was weird. I left my house at 9:07 and was waiting for the bus 50 min (therefore getting on at 957) because apparently there was an accident. Then my class starts at 10 so I got there late, at around 10:15. Then I open the door to the class and there´s a different class in there. Anyway, I found out later that they had switched rooms but I wasnt aware since I got there late. Then I found out that on Mondays I don´t have my second class, so I got up at 815 to go to one class at 1 oclock. Then I was going to go to the erasmus office to pay for the trip to Valencia for las Fallas and it was closed. Pretty much a day full of failures. but its ok!

i love you and miss you all.

Lauren´s first week

2010-02-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

hey! por fin escribo algo!
hola chavales. mira lo k pasa es k jano dejo el convertidor de enchufe en toledo asi k me quede sin ordenador hasta ahora! pero nada! mucho k escribir. empecemos al principio.

hey! finally im going to write something!
hey guys. i havent written yet because jano left the outlet converter in toledo and my computer didnt have any battery until now. lots to write, ill start at the beginning.

EL Martes 9 de Febrero
pues el vuelo muy bien! eramos unas 5 personas en el avion y tenia una fila para mi para dormir! pero no he conseguido dormir mas de una hora porque tome un cafe justo antes de despegar pero no pasa nada! hemos llegado just al amanecer (a las 7 y 40 mas o menos) y he hecho algo k hace mucho k no lo hago. me he pegado a la ventana los ultimos 30 minutos para ver madrid y no veis como molo! primero vi toda las luces de la ciudad y las carreteras y luego sale el sol! en ese momento me emocione! luego nada, a casa a dormir un ratillo y comer en casa de la tia de jano. muy rica la comida! muchas gracias mi amor! despues de comer fuimos a ver mi casa y a dejar mis cosas. esta muy bien la casa, bueno por lo menos a mi me gusta y no es muy cara. luego subo fotos. mi habitacion es pequena pero tiene una cama grande, escritorio y armario muy amplio pero tenia k comprar una almohada (me han timado. 20 euros) y perchas. la tia de jano me dejo una manta y yo traje sabanas. Luego fuimos al VIPS y dormi con jano en su casa.

tuesday february 9th
the flight was good! there were like 5 people on the plane with me and i had a whole row for myself to sleep but I could only sleep an hour because i drank coffee write before we took off. but its ok! we got to madrid right around sunrise (around 740) and i did something i havent done in a long time. For the last 30 minutes of the trip i had my nose up to the window waiting to see the city. it was so cool! first i saw all the lights and the streets and then the sun started to come up. i was so excited and i remembered how much i love madrid and spain. jano picked me up and we wen to his house to sleep and then eat lunch. thanks for the yummy lunch jano! after we went to my house! I like it, my room is small but it has a double bed, a desk and a big closet. I did have to buy a pillow (fucking rip off. 20 euros) and hangers. janos aunt let me borrow a blanket. After that we went to VIPS and i slept at janos house.

El miercoles 10 de Febrero
me desperte pronto para ir a mi uni, matricularme, comprar la almohada y sacar dinero para pagar el alquiler. todo muy bien he vuelto a casa de jano y hemos comido cocido ahi. tambien rico! despues dormimos la siesta y fuimos a hacer la compra para mi casa. dormi en casa de jano otra vez el miercoles.

wednesday february 10
i woke up early to go to my school to check in, buy a pillow, and go to the atm so i could pay the rent. That all went fine and afterwards i went back to janos to eat lunch. His aunt made cocido which was really good too! After lunch we took a nap and went grocery shopping for my house. I slept at janos house on wednesday too.

el jueves 11 de febrero
el jueves jano tuvo que ir a la uni para hacer una exposicion y luego llevar a su padre a toledo asi que yo fui a mi casa y vi la tele un buen rato...pero no consegui encontrar ni eligeme ni password ni nada...k decepcion. despues he salido con mis amigos americanos!!! siiii tengo amigos. jejej. fui a casa de laura (de OU) y cenamos en un bar y bebi una cerveza despues fuimos a kapital k hubo fiesta de erasmus! entrada y dos copas por 10 euros. ahi lo he pasado muy bien aunque una copa cuesta 12 euros. eramos laura hill (la conozco del instituto y de las girl scouts) evan y laura hauck (de OU) y unos amigos de laura hill a las 3 y poco nos fuimos laura hauclk y yo a casa. y hacia un frio en su piso k no podeis imaginar. yo me desperte a las 5 y no podia dormir. tenia puesto el abrigo y todo. asi k a las 6 cuando se abre el metro me fui a casa de la tia de jano (jano esta en toledo pero tenia k devolver el secador de pelo a su tia, larga historia y da igual)

thursday februrary 11
thursday jano had to go to school to do a presentation and then take his dad to toledo so i went home and watched tv pretty much all day..but i couldnt find eligeme, passoword or any of the shows i like..very disappointing. Later I went out with my american friends! yes I have friends! haha. I went to Laura Hauck´s (de OU) apartment and we had dinner in a little bar and had a beer. Then we went to Kapital (a big discoteca) because there was an erasmus (erasmus is what they call exchange students) party there. We got in and got two drinks for 10 euros. That was awesome. There I hung out with laura hill (ive known her since elementary school) evan and laura hauck (OU) and some friends of laura hill until around 3 and laura and I went back to her house to sleep. It was so cold in there that I woke up at 5 and absolutely could not sleep even with my coat on so at 6 when the metro opened i went to janos aunts house (he was in toledo but i had to take her back her hairdryer, its a long story and it deosnt matter) i slept there until 11.

el viernes 12 de febrero. el viernes he ido a una reunion para estudiantes de erasmus en la facultad de filologia a la 1. despues quede con jano en su uni para ir a extremadura!!!!!! una amiga de jano, cris, tiene ahi una casa rural asi k fuimos quince ahi para FIESTA! llegamos a las 8 y algo, hicimos pizza para cenar y despues bebimos. jugams al poker (perdi pero jano gano) al party (el mejor juego del mundo) y mas! despues bailamos algunos se disfrazaron y a las 3 me fui a dormir.

friday februrary 12.
Friday I had to go to a meeting for all the erasumus students in the college of languge and literature at 1. Then I met jano at his school to go to Extremadura! (it is the ¨state¨ to the west of madrid about 3 hours away) One of janos friends has a house there and 15 of us went there to PARTYYY!! We got there around 8, made pizza for dinner and then we drank. We played poker (I lost but jano won),party (the best game in the world) and more! Later we dancedd and some people put on their costumes (here people dress up for mardi gras like we do for halloween) and at 3i went to bed.

el sabado 13 de febrero.
el sabado nos levantamos a las 12 o asi, desayunamos y volvi a la cama, k me dolia mucho la cabeza. despues comimos pasta (un poco fria pero bien). luego por la tarde jugamos al party otra vez. luego carnaval! yo me disfrace de asistente francesa y jano del papa. teniamos mucho sueno asi k nos fuimos a dormir a las 2 pero yo me desperte a las 4 y volvi a la fiesta! luego me dormi a las 10 y media de la manana.

saturday february 13.
Saturday we got up at 12, ate breakfast, and i went back to bed because my head hurt. Later we ate pasta (kind of cold but fine). Then we played party some more! THEN MARDI GRAS! I dressed up as a french maid and jano went as the pope. We were tired so we went to bed around 2 but i woke up at 4 and went back upstairs to the party! Around 10:30 am i went to bed.

el domingo 14 de febrero (San Valentin!!!)
el domingo me desperte a las 12 y jano y yo nos fuimos pronto porque tuvimos que ir a toledo a por el abrigo de jano y lo del enchufe para mi. llegamos ahi a las 5 mas o menos. yo me duche porque en extremadura solo salia agua fria. despues estuvimos un rato con su familia y nos fuimos a las 7 para poder ir al cine. Fuimos a ver Invictus y no nos ha gustado nada. supongo k en ingles tiene k ser mejor pero es k en espanol todas las frases inspirantes no inspiraban. nos hacian reir. luego yo me fui a casa a dormir en mi cama por primera vez!

sunday february 14 (Valentines Day!)
Sunday I woke up at 12 and Jano and I left early because we had to go to toledo to get his coat and my outlet converter thing, We got there around 5. I took a shower because in extremadura the water was freezing. Then we just hung out with his family for a little while and at 7 we left so we could go to the movies. We saw Invictus and we didnt really like it. I assume its better in English but in Spanish all of the inspiring speeches just sounded silly and werent convincing. After I went home to sleep in my bed for the first time!

el lunes 15 de febrero (primer dia de clase)
esta mañana me desperte a las 7 para ir a clase a las 8 y 30. la primera clase fatal. Fui a gramatica espanola 1 y yo no sabia k fueron la mitad de las cosas k dijo. hablaba de complementos de regimen y cosas k yo no habia oido en mi vida asi k a esa clase no pienso volver. despues tuve teatro espanol del siglo de oro. ese profesor me cae bien y creo k va a ser facil. luego otra reunion inutil, pero me regalaron una mochila y una agenda! despues comi en la cafeteria de la uni con laura hill y su companera de piso y fuimos juntas a mitos literarios espanoles. estuvieron evan y laura hauck tambien. El mismo profesor de la otra clase, el k me cae bien tambien da esta. :) Cuando sali vine a la uni de jano k el tiene clase hasta las 830 y yo me quedo aqui con su ordenador hasta k salga. luego iremos juntos a su casa para cenar y ya. como podeis ver tengo mucho tiempo para escribir todo esto en espanol y luego traducirlo.

monday february 15 (first day of class)
this morning i woke up at 7 because i had class at 830. The first class was just terrible. I went to spanish grammar one and i didnt know what half the things he said were. He was talking about complements of regimen and things that i had never heard of in my life so I am not going back to that class. Then I had spanish theater of the golden century. I like that professor and i think hell be pretty easy. Then I had another stupid meeting for exchange students but they gave me a bookbag and a planner! I ate lunh with Laura Hill and her roommate in the cafeteria and we went to the next class together--spanish literary myths. Laura Hauck and Evan are in that class too and its the same professor that I like. :) When I got out of class I came to Janos university because he has class until 830 and im hanging out in the library with his computer until he gets out. Then well eat dinner together. As you can see I have a lot of time to write all of this and then translate it.

Love you and miss you all!

Cindy's First Post

2010-01-14T18:03:00.000-08:00

This is me (see below) and I am excited!!

Because I am studying abroad this semester in Lima, Peru. Its going to be awesome. Hopefully my experiences will live up to all the hype i've dreamt up over the past few months, ever since I chose Lima for my new home. As some of you may know,
I have a semi-overactive imagination. And now I have 2 school free months on my hands, (classes don't start until March) and I don't know what

to do with all this newfound free time.

Luckily, the local Sonic Drive-In was hiring. Thats right, you're reading the blog of a Sonic Car-hop, tell all your friends. Doesn't that food look appealing?

Not after you smell it and run around like an idiot for 6 hours delivering it to the eve

r so classy people of Norman, Ok. Well, its actually not all that bad. The conversations inside the mysterious and tiny Sonic building are quite entertaining. Two co-workers have already been to jail, and the usual scope of conversation runs from sex to drugs, to baby daddy's, the po-lice, and strippers. By the way, I heard it on great authority (aka my boss) that Night Trips is the best strip club in Oklahoma City. The girls are hotter and can dance better than those at X-stacy ranch. Oh but also, only take Mike (the nice man who trained me and had 20+ stitches in his noses from getting "sucker punched" at a party with his 2 lesbian roommates) when he's on ecstasy because then he'll only look at the lights and wont spend money on lap dances.

Its an interesting work environment and mindless really. Its a nice escape. 2 months of running chili cheese tots and limeaides. I'm looking forward to this vacation of sorts. I can sleep late every day, go work my shift at the sonic, by done by 5 when i can hang out with my friends and distract them from schoolwork. No responsibilities! Whoot! Free time in Norman..we'll see how this goes.

I know Lima will be a blast, but its going to come with responsibilities.

1. Depending on my Spanish to get me by day to day.

2. Classes at the Pontifical University (very academically challenging i've been told, and not being a native speaker on top of that)

3. Living in a capital city of over 8 million people

4. Finding my way around the city (where the buses have no specific courses and you can't hail a taxi on the street because they prey on foreigners)

Of course I'm looking forward to taking on those responsibilities and explore Peru and the rest of South America, make new friends, perfect my Spanish, have wonderful and life changing experiences, "grow" as a person, and all the other good stuff I know is going to happen. Of course, here goes the hype building i was talking about...

Well, Lauren is heading to Madrid early next month, and Elizabeth is in Bordeaux now, struggling a little but shes a strong one. I'm getting antsy to start my adventure. Better soak up all the Norman time i have left. And that starts now, going to the boy's to watch project runway :)

Ashley- Montevideo!

2009-07-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

I recently got back from a short trip to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. It's a pretty little port town on the Rio de la Plata that sits on the southern coast of the country. To go with the cheapest travel agency equates to a 30 minute bus ride to Tigre, followed by a 2 hour boat ride to Carmelo (in Uruguay), and then a 3-1/2 hour bus ride through plains located just inland of the coast. The boat ride was not particularly special, mainly because the water of the Rio de la Plata is a murky brownish-gray and the inside of the cabin was too cold to do much of anything, including sleep.

The Uruguayan countryside was very beautiful, even though there wasn't anything outrageously different or distinct to see; just a lot of rolling plains about the color of Northern California's hills in January and February (a bright, almost plastic-looking chartreuse) punctuated by small, dark semi-tropical shrubbery. Every now and then the water was just barely visible on the horizon. It was the kind of simple, hardly-touched scenery Steinbeck might exalt. Every now and then we passed a pueblo, which consisted of a small clump of even smaller brightly colored buildings falling apart with age and connected by dirt roads. The outskirts of the little villages confirmed the central role of farming in the region. It started raining not too long into the trip, which was nice inside the bus, but not so great upon arriving to Montevideo. Not unlike many big cities, the outer neighborhoods didn't show any signs of wealth. In fact, I thought I was getting ready to spend time by myself and without any contacts in South America's Baltimore at first. But the further into the city we got, the more I realized that this was going to be way safer, cleaner, and easier to get around in than Buenos Aires.

From the main bus terminal, I took a taxi to the Centro/Ciudad Vieja area of the city to find a hostel to stay in. Luckily, of the addresses I had marked, the first one I found had a bed available and ended up being a good place to stay. Just for reference to other travelers, I highly recommend hostels that are part of the Hostelling International chain. Having taken care of that, I decided to brave the wet weather and go exploring since I only had 2 days to see everything I wanted to. After about 30 minutes the steady drizzle turned into a downpour and I gave in and bought the second umbrella I've purchased in South America (because I don't check the weather forecast), but it only cost 100 Uruguayan pesos (just a little over US$4). I was able to see the Iglesia Matriz (a beautiful old church downtown), the Gurvich Museum, check out a coffeehouse (Montevideo is well-known for high-quality cafes), and see most of the downtown area before deciding that I was too drenched to do much else for the night. Especially considering that I had decided not to bring any other clothes with me for such a short trip. Lesson learned: ALWAYS carry a pair of clean, dry socks when traveling...it sucks to have to put on cold, dirty, and still damp socks the next morning.

Pedestrian-only walkway in La Ciudad Vieja in the rain.

I got an early start the next day and spent most of the morning and afternoon walking all over the city with a Chilean girl from my hostel. After walking most of the length of La Rambla (the coast-side path), we decided to head back toward the Mercado del Puerto near the hostel via small, residential streets. The smaller streets easily could have been plucked out of an older, more colorful part of San Francisco. Because the water can be used as a reference point, it would be pretty hard to get lost in the main part of Montevideo. It was well past lunch time when we got back to the Mercado del Puerto, a large ware-house like structure that's been turned into a tourist-friendly gallery of restaurants with a special emphasis on seafood. Although most of the restaurants were showy and over-priced, in one corner there was a pared-down joint that may not have been very pretty or clean, but had reasonable prices and food that probably tasted better than most of the other places. A plate of well-prepared sole, mashed potatoes, and two glasses of wine set me back about 8 dollars. I'd call that a deal. Also, I may or may not be notorious for claiming to be vegetarian and then eating fish a few times a year, especially in port cities. I always feel a little guilty about eating an animal, but if the fish is fresh, it's usually worth it (said with a malicious grin).

Walking along La Rambla.

My lunch came from there!

After lunch, I went walking around more, checking out little shops, museums, and street vendors downtown before heading back to the hostel to try Uruguayan mate (mah-tay) and getting ready to head back to the bus station. The yerba mate is one of the few things better in Montevideo than in Buenos Aires, which makes sense because (I'm pretty sure) the drink originated as a Uruguayan custom before moving across the border. The other ways it's better? It is so much cleaner! One of the first thoughts I had when I got to Montevideo was that Buenos Aires is so disgustingly dirty and I had gotten so used to it that I was surprised not to have to worry about dodging trash, cigarettes, and dog crap. Also, drivers actually let pedestrians cross the street. When a woman slowed down and signalled for me to cross, I wanted to run up to the car and hug her. The relative politeness can be transcribed to almost any social interaction. If I asked for directions or advice about getting around the city, I was greeted with a smile and helpfulness. Even girls my age were friendly. Aside from a few friends from my classes, the only girls in Buenos Aires that have ever been nice or even talked to me have been from other countries (mainly Brazil). It was so refreshing! The men in Montevideo also seemed a little different. Although the cat-calling is also a part of their culture, it was much more subtle and the things they said were much less douchebag-y than some of the things you'd hear on the streets in BsAs (i.e. Hola Bombon; No me vas a regalar una sonrisa/un beso?; Hola amor, que rica que sos!). There was only one time that I felt at all threatened, but in the end I think it was just an older drunk man trying to entertain himself.

I know that last paragraph pretty much bad-mouthed Buenos Aires, and although Montevideo was pleasant, it would have been boring had I been there much longer. The sun had just started to rise around 8 the next morning when the bus pulled into downtown Buenos Aires, and I felt like I was back "home" (a word that has become pretty transient for me). Even with all it's trash, horrible drivers, bitchy girls, and pretty-boy machistas, I love Buenos Aires, and would choose to spend five months here over Montevideo without a second thought. With less than two weeks left here, I'm getting excited to see everyone at home, but at the same time, it makes me sad to think about leaving. So, I just won't think about it until I'm on the plane.

Ashley - Something for your appetite...

2009-07-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

I heard this story on the radio in a taxi the other day and had to share it. A woman in Buenos Aires was dating a man here for a few weeks, and on Monday she "disappeared". (Side note: people "disappear" here a lot. It's a pretty common euphemism). Well, on Friday her body was finally found. It wasn't much of a surprise that she had been killed. Apparently the man was wanted for other crimes as well. The twisted part of the story is where she was found: in a public water source. So, several people had been drinking, washing with, and bathing in water infested with microbiotics from her decaying body. A lovely thought, right?

Also, I was being silly the other day and didn't even mention that July 9 was Argentina's Independence Day. The celebration pretty much consisted of people going out and partying on the 8 because NOBODY worked on the holiday. It was like a ghost town. Only the Chinese-run markets were open!

It's been getting colder, but it's still really sunny and the skies are just as blue as in the summer, which explains the flag:

Well, I have to go write my last paper for history...If it's good enough I don't have to take that final! Pictures of my barrio will be coming up in the next blog! Chau!

Ashley - The end is near...Only three weeks left!

2009-07-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

I think we are finally approaching weather that actually constitutes winter. It's supposed to cool off quite a bit in the upcoming weeks and it's been raining more the past several days as well. The thunder and lightning has even woken me up from my hibernation-type sleeping patterns several times. I generally like winter weather...but that usually means snow for me...and at least the possibility of skiing. When it's just wet and chilling, it's not quite as enjoyable...especially when everyone else is enjoying hot summer weather, going to the lake, and trying to cool off! Oh, August will be such a nice change of pace!

With the exception of a few more things I want to do/see, I think I'm (almost) ready to come home. The city is great and I could totally live here someday, but without having any kind of schedule or responsibility, I'm starting to get bored. There is always something "fun" to do, but I get the impression that it's out of the ordinary for girls to go out to bars or clubs without a boyfriend or at least some male companions. Humph. And the next time I hear, "well, women usually do/don't like this" I think I will scream. Also, I was talking to a guy one day and the theme came up that my apartment was messy. He looked at me and said, "It can't be, not with two women living together". SERIOUSLY? For a country that has elected a female president (even if she is Kirchner's wife), there are some serious issues with stereotypes about women and their role in society. A common joke between Joyce and I is that a woman's reason for doing anything (including being born) is to find a boyfriend/husband. I personally had the intention of finding a man to marry, moving to the Argentine countryside to be a full-time housewife, and start having children when I decided to study abroad. That's about the attitude here. Or maybe we just attract idiots. Who knows? Ahh, but enough of that. I can already hear my dad saying "See, aren't you glad to be an American?".

I have met some more interesting characters recently as well. Yesterday Joyce and I went to a boutique pretty close by and a middle-aged woman and a girl around our age were working there. They were SO interested in hearing about where we are from, what we're doing here, what we think about Argentina. The woman was asking me if I'm from Poland or Russia...In fact, I've never been targetted as an American. Even when a neighbor in the building came to our door one day when I was home alone, she assumed I was the Brazilian...But, aside from these two women in the shop, it seems like almost everyone I've met here is interested in hearing about the Argentine experience from a foreigners' perspective.

Another interesting character: our taxi driver last night. With the flu being pretty bad, we are avoiding the subte as much as possible. On our way home last night, we were going to take a picture in the back of the cab but I wanted to make sure the flash wouldn't bother the driver so I asked him first. He was a greasy older man and started saying, you can take a picture if you kiss each other and weird stuff like that. And then he continued to flirt the whole ride home, and asked for our numbers. Errr, no thanks...and, please, get a different job.

Today, we went to Alicia's birthday. Alicia is best friend's with the aunt of one of Joyce's friends from Brazil and they always invite us to do things with them. We were also a little out of place at her party (it seems like we're always a little out of place, haha). Joyce is 24 and I'd say there was at least a 20-year gap between her and the next youngest person. Despite that, we learned a lot of Argentine jokes...not all very appropriate, but all very funny. We had a good time, except that Alicia has a cat and Joyce and I are both allergic...hello itchy nose and watery eyes!

This is us showing the flu what's up/impersonating ducks (I'm not sure why there's so much extra space in the mask).

In one of many old-school elevators.

Ashley - Get me out of here!

2009-06-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm not actually ready to leave South America, but it does seem like the most recent events have taken on a "glass half-empty" character.

First, the ATM's here have retained my debit card...twice. The first time it happened I didn't think much of it because I tried to withdraw from a distinct bank for convenience. But yesterday, I made the trip downtown to use the ATM's at the bank I've been using the whole time, and it happened again! It's a good thing I instinctively revert to English when using profanity, because I probably would have offended anyone understanding me when the little ticket printed reading "su tarjeta fue retenida". Because the bank itself was already closed, that means a trip down there today to get it back and hopefully get some money...I'm down to 15 pesos and I need to buy texts for my next test (on Monday, gah!). What was I thinking coming to Argentina for 5 months with nothing more than a Bank of America account?

Also, it seems I've stumbled upon a month of paper-writing and test-taking. It's not so bad, but I have no enthusiasm to write for my literature class; after the last paper I got back I stayed to talk to the teacher about it after class. Her main points for docking my grade were that "students don't use figurative language" and there were some instances where my word choice wasn't the best. And she knows Spanish is not my native language. I just have to pass though. But it still makes me cringe at the idea of turning in another paper to the same person who pointed out that it is strange for a biochemistry exchange student to take a literature class.

To finish ranting and leave my pessimism behind, the swine flu has hit Argentina, particularly Buenos Aires, probably due to the fact that it is "winter" here. There are around 1,500 cases in the country and 21 deaths so far (20 of which have occurred in the province of Buenos Aires). I don't understand how a developed country couldn't have been more prepared after seeing the outbreak in the northern hemisphere months ago. I'm not certain, but my guess is that most of the cases are spreading in the outskirts of the city, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

In a note of interest related to the country, it seems some argentina has led to the political demise of South Carolina Governor Stanford...pretty scandalous. I really hope that whatever form of political punishment he receives is based on the fact that he disappeared without informing anyone rather than his relationship. It kind of reminds me of the question I've pondered about why the Clinton "scandal" received more publicity and meant more career problems for Bill than, say, the use of torture by the Bush administration...or the fact that he openly admitted making false statements about the entering Iraq...I could go on, but I think I'll step off the soapbox now.

In other news, my roommate's parents are here for the week. It's interesting because they speak to me in Portuguese and I reply in Spanish. There's a little communication barrier, but speaking slowly and the use of hand gestures fills the gap when Joyce's not around to translate. As much as I like the quiet nature of our apartment, it's nice to have a little more activity and a family-type setting around here. Although, it has made me miss my family a little more than normal.

I need to start taking more pictures again. I'll try to get on that since I've only got a month left here!

2009-06-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Just a general update on things going on here.

So, I thought maybe I was just being a baby about having cold water in the shower. Turns out, the water heater was totally destroyed and had to be replaced. It's much better now, but there were a few days in the process where the water was about the same temperature as Tahoe in May or early June (Brrrr!) which also meant that there were a few days when cleanliness was relative...

National legislative elections are coming up at the end of the month, so it's pretty impossible to leave the apartment without campaign ads/bulletins/propaganda getting shoved in your face. I want to wear a sign that says "I'm not from Argentina; I can't vote" to avoid it. In light of this, manifestations, protests, and paros (strikes that usually only last a day and are announced beforehand) have seemed to be more frequent.

About a week and a half ago, my 4-hour long history class got cut short (after only 1 hr) by a bomb threat at the school. When the security guard entered the classroom and told us that, my face must have shown the shock/panic I was feeling. My friends in the class laughed and quickly assured me that this happens all the time and that it just means that someone has to take or turn in an exam they aren't ready for. Wow. There's a cultural difference. I had to remind them that we've actually had serious cases of violence in schools in the United States. Apparently, here, they just make empty threats instead of faking sick.

The winter here seems to be really mild. I get asked all the time "Aren't you cold?" because everyone else is bundled up from head to toe, but I'm comfortable in just a sweater or light jacket. Also, standards of promiscuity change drastically with the weather. Or maybe the cat-calling just increases. I'm not sure. But I feel like if more than my hands and face are showing, way too much is showing...how can this be the same country as a few months ago? Then, some of the things other women would wear would be enough to make me blush, but weren't out of place for the argentinos. Now, I wear a dress with tights, and I feel like I'm in one of those dreams where you go to school naked.

We've got a pretty busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow, we're going to Recoleta to see the cemetery and some of the museums (because Joyce has never been!) and then to an artisan market in the afternoon that is here in the barrio. On Sunday, we're off to Tigre to go to an amusement park! Also, Tigre is supposed to have a more jungle-like environment, so it should be really pretty and a nice break from the enldessness of faded buildings and cracked sidewalks in the city. It should be good to have fun this weekend, because then, it's study time once again. Blah.

I miss you all!

GUEST BLOG- Miss Cindy Sue

2009-06-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

So not even a week after departing Norman for the summer, I was off to Spain, accompanied by my faithful sidekick, Elix Mcgehee (jk). Spain was pretty much nothing of what I expected...A) because I have a twisted idea of all Spanish speaking countries from my time in Mexico and B) because I was too busy freaking out about finals and moving out and packing that I didn't have time to formulate expectations.
Elizabeth and I made our way to Zaragoza pretty smoothly, despite my first mistake. Almost my first chance to use Spanish with the locals, a lady asked me (i must have looked Spanish) how to use the buses, to which I responded ¨No sabes...NADA¨to expresses emphatically how I really didn't know anything. Then i was actually able to help her figure it out. Once on the way to Cara's apartment, I realized that translated into ¨You don´t know...ANYTHING¨. I was mortified.
Zaragoza is amazing...probably because Cara lives there, but also it has its own attributes, like beautiful architecture, statues abound, Roman ruins, and quaint plazas. Also a crazy night life which I was not prepared for but got acquainted with fast! It was basically like a huge hand had picked up Norman and placed it in Spain (with the exception of a few awesome people that were gravely missed). I couldn´t believe I was in Spain..and I made sure everyone knew it.
Hanging out in Zaragoza for four days was pretty awesome. I great way to start my summer, but probably not the best way to start my Spain experience. I´m in Alcala now, where i will be studying for 4 weeks, and things here just don´t hold up against my awesome time in Zaragoza and in Barcelona. Don´t get me started on Barcelona...it just might be my favorite place ever...for now. But of course, every new place I visit becomes my new favorite place. The day I spent solo in Barcelona was refreshing..I was able to rely on my spanish and my sense of direction to have a successful day and got to experience probably the craziest riot I could imagine when FC Barcelona won their championship game.
Since I've been in Alcala, I've made it out to Madrid to meet up with Lauren and Elizabeth before she flew home to Dallas. I also got to meet Jano...about time! Lauren and him are really good together and I´m super jealous lol. We saw parts of Madrid but I plan to acquaint myself more with the city. Its sad but I´m already counting down the days until my program is over so I can be back with friends and travel Europe with them!! Alcala is lame, everyone is taking ridiculous trips every weekend, and I live alone. (that's my only pity me sentence..be proud lol). Good thing I've got Don Quixote here to keep me busy.
Lots of love!!!
Cindy

Ashley- Church, politics, and sex.

2009-05-25T17:52:00.001-07:00

Last night I accompanied Joyce to Mass at a Catholic church a few blocks away because I was curious to see what an Argentinian service was like. It was an interesting experience. I think it was very laid-back for a Catholic church. The priest played guitar and even told some jokes en his sermon, and I didn't get told that I couldn't commune because I'm not Catholic. And it was teeming with the most adorable young children. I may or may not have paid more attention to the kids than to the actual service. One thing I found very distinct was that they spent about twenty minutes discussing political issues, pretty much declaring the ruling government a crime against the common person, saying the country hadn't come to reach any of its goals in the past two centuries, etc. Whoa. If anything, I would have intuitively expected the church to keep its sentiments quiet or to side with the more conservative ruling government, but it seems like even the Catholics here are more supportive of some sort of socialism or communalism than the current trend. This could have to do with the fact that I live in one of the poorer barrios of the city; it seems like the people with the money are the only pro-Kirchner (Cristina or Nestor) groups...probably also the reason that Cristina won the last presidential elections. At any rate, it seems like there are so many anti-K groups that they must all be fragmented, leaving not a single one with enough support to single-handedly beat out kirchnerismo.

Leaving that digression behind, on the walk back from the church, I learned something very, eh, interesting. As we passed by an unmarked building with some funky-colored lights outside, Joyce asked me, "Do you know what that is?". "Not a clue". She continued to tell me that it was a playa privada (private beach), a building where (generally young) couples go and pay to have a room for a couple of hours so they can have sex. Like a cheap motel for a few hours instead of a whole night. I guess it sort of makes sense that they would exist here, because it seems like adults continue living with their parents well into their 20's, but it's still a highly frowned upon institution.

Semi-ironically, in the time that I've been writing this, Joyce and I have managed to start arguing about the rules, fundamentals, and other nuances of organized religion (mostly about the general restrictiveness of many religions). For me, the only function of those "rules" (i.e. Priests not being allowed to marry) is to taint the fact that pretty much everyone who believes in a deity or any kind of spiritual force probably could agree on a few basic moral principles, but instead have decided to give it a different name, create different absurd customs, and even start bloody wars in the said names. Apparently, my opinion is not a very popular one. For some, the labels matter more than the basics. At any rate, I think Buddha had the right idea.

Ashley- Following suit

2009-05-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

I figured I'd continue the list-making trend our blog seems to be on right now.

Things I love about Buenos Aires:

1) The exchange rate! (Yesterday: US$1 = AR$3.74, which generally translates into everything [food, drink, clothing, entertainment] being cheaper)
2) Public transportation; when the subte is closed, there are colectivos (buses), and when those are too inconvenient, a taxi is always available and usually only costs around US$5 to get anywhere that you would want to go in the city.
3) The coffee experience. Even the simplest cafe con leche is served with a small glass of sparkling water, some sort of small cookie or biscuit, and sometimes even a shotglass of orange juice. Yum!
4) Fernet. Enough said.
5) Overall quality of the food and beverage (water is usually of the sparkling mineral variety, soda is made with natural sugar, and pizza and ice cream will just not be quite so appealing in the states...this all goes without mentioning the empanadas and dulce de leche).
6) Walk-ability of the city (have you ever tried walking on Lindsey St.? Not a fun thing to do).
7) Weather. It's usually sunny and the first placed I've ever lived without wind.
8) Enthusiasm of the students. They actually have interest in what they are studying.
9) Style
10) Presence of and interest in the arts. (Feria de arte contemporaneo this weekend!)
11) More cheap (and well-stocked) bookstores than any bookworm could ever dream of.
12) Genuine interest in the well-being of others.
13) Cheek-kisses in place of hand shakes. They only kiss on one side, and the gender doesn't matter. (I met an American the other day and we shook hands and it was the weirdest feeling ever. I was thinking, "why are you touching my hand?")
14) Heterogeneity of the city. It doesn't take long to find yourself in a barrio with a totally different atmosphere. It's like living in several mini-cities at once.
15) Appearance of boys!

Things that annoy me about Buenos Aires:
1) Actions of boys! (machismo is something I can live without....)
2) Lack of change...when you don't have change cashiers get upset, and sometimes they just don't have any change (coins or small bills) to give you.
3) Being a big city, it is kind of dirty. I just always feel like I need to take a shower, but there is a:
4) Lack of high-pressured, hot water in the showers. Gah!
5) Americans seem to be the only ones who like peanut butter (not even mentioning almond butter)...
6) The idea that all young single ladies must always be searching for a boyfriend...
7) Dead, carved-up animals hanging from windows all over the place. Yeah, that is really appetizing.
8) Washing clothes in the bathroom sink because the lavanderia dried the clothes you told them not to, causing them to shrink or de-thread.
9) Smoking as an anorexic's tool to not eating. Ever.
10) The preception guys have of American girls (roughly that which is projected by American Pie...you were right, Jimmy).
11) I'm not a supporter of imperialism, and I can agree that the U.S. has done some pretty unelegant things, but I will not agree that the nation's actions during the early XX century were "just as bad as Nazism"...and will not support that being taught in my history class. How does imperialism equate to ethnic cleansing?!
12) Most importantly, I don't have all of my lovely friends and family here!

Cara- O.M.G.!!! Cindy and Elizabeth are COMING!!!!! TOMORROW!!!

2009-05-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

That's right Ashley, this time tomorrow, my two precious roomies (and Matt on sunday) and we'll be sipping Rioja in the Plaza España and fighting off the Guapos, left and right! I am so excited! (Btw, my roommates always make fun of me for saying "I'm so excited" when something good is about to happen. I've tried explaining to them that I'm relatively stoic for an American girl, but they think it's hilarious.)

In honor of my visitors, I've decided to write a little guide to getting around in Spain.

1. Stores, almost all of them, are closed between two and five while Spaniards go home to eat lunch and then "siesta" (nap.) I finish class at two, which is usually the time I'd run around and get some errands done, so instead I go home, make a big luch, and then fall asleep till 6 or 7, when most stores are then closed. Good for my bank account, bad for my wardrobe and, when I don't have any fruit, health.

2. Meals and meal times here are extremely different from the US, and I'm pretty sure everywhere in the world. Breakfast is around 8 or 9, often at a cafe, where you can get cafe con leche and a pastry, a cookie, or toast for about $1.75 USD. The coffee here is good too, and for some reason I actually like the coffee with sugar here, which I hate in the US. Lunch is during siesta hours, and most restaurants don't open for lunch till 1 or so and don't start filling up until 2:30, although most Spaniards go home to eat lunch with their families. Lunch is the big meal here, like dinner in the US. The whole family, and even extended family is expected to attend and it usualy consists of several dishes. That's probably why they need to nap afterwards. Dinner is a much more low key affair, sometimes just a bocadillo (sandwich on baguette) or some leftovers from lunch. However, they don't eat dinner until at least 10, often later. Tapas is a process that takes place during dinnertime. Basically, you go from one bar to another ordering little plates of food and a glass of wine or beer, or a diet coke, mmm. In Zaragoza, popular tapas are various sausages (salchichas), tortilla (a potato omellete, sometimes with ham, onions, asaparagus, or peppers), various canned seafoods (clams, scallops, anchovies) on toothpicks with pickles, onions, or banana peppers, croquetas which are fried balls of meat and fat in a bready coating, french fries, or little bocadillos. Not very healthy!

3. The gap between lunch and dinner can be a problem for me so I sometimes go to my favorite bakers, Pasteleria de los Mallorquines, and get a Hojaldre which is puff pastry wrapped around ham and swiss cheese. If I want a sweet I get a corneto, which is pretty much a dessert I would have dreamed up when I was a fat kid. It's an ice cream cone, covered in chocolate, filled with chocolate or plain wipped cream, covered in chocolate jimmies. mmmmm...

4. Chinese stores are your best friend! Chinese store is a monniker for any store sun by chinese people in Spain. They're either a convenience store, a grocery store, or a five and dime. They are open almost all.the.time. They are open when everything else is closed, they're cheap, and there is ALWAYS one close by in Zaragoza. In downtown Madrid not so much. But don't worry, there are chinese people on the street corners there selling beers, candies, and drinks for a euro.

5. Obviously, Spanish time runs pretty far behind what we're used to. That applies to bars and clubs as well. Bars close at 4 or so, and discotecas are open until 7! Right in time for the busses to start running again.

6. Spanish time also means, whatever time someone says they're going to meet you at time X, in Plaza A, expect them to not even leave their house till X+30 minutes. They also seem to be big lingerers. I've seen people sit at the same cafe by our hose for like 2 hours.

7. Besos is the popular form of greeting in Spain between two females or a male and female. Basically it's that pretentious cheek kissing thing actresses and losers do in the states. It has started to grow on me though. Men just shake hands with each other. Weirdly, hugs are my prefered form of greeting between friends (expect to have the wind knocked out of you, C&E) but are kind of considered too forward here or something. Being a hugger, my oxytocin levels have taken a hit.

8. Spanish men don't live up to the hype. That is all.

9. In Zaragoza, unlike Madrid and other more touristy cities, no one speaks English, especially the older people. Not even really the standard "Hello," "How are you," "I love you," or other broken phrases that Lauren and I got our fill of last weekend.

That's all I can think of for now, I just got back from Madrid and visiting Lauren with my roommates Andrej and Michael. Post on that later (with photos) later. I also wrote an art report on Lucian Freud, maybe I'll post that to show off my broken grammar and inconsistently gendered nouns.
There's going to be 6 americans in this flat this weekend, so it should be fun, I'm counting the seconds until my roommies get here!

Besos,
Cara

Ashley- The sun is shining again...

2009-05-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

The cold weather from last week must have just been a front, because we're back to nice, early fall, fresh sunny weather. In any case, it's still pretty cool at night, but our landlord came over to turn on the heaters that hadn't been used in ages. Rather, he brought his son to turn them on. He should have known better; we are going to be breaking things all over the place from now on so that Alejandro (Sr. Ricardo's son) comes back to fix them. In Joyce's words, "Ay, su cuerpo, su cara, su sonrisa, aun sus dientes!". Too bad he's married. At any rate, our apartment (I always start to type department because the word here is departamento) is now a nice normal temperature.

On another bright note, I turned in my literature parcial (the extensive writing assignments that we have twice a semester that count for our whole grade save the final) yesterday. History was due last week, literature is now taken care of, and hopefully now I can start living a normal life again. At least I've made a pretty good friend in my history class (a local) who offered to revise and correct my paper, even for my other class. Yes! In the process of writing this assignment, I've pretty much fallen head-over-heels for Vicente Huidobro (Chilean poet who founded the avant-garde movement creacionismo), or at least for his writing. I highly recommend his work to any Spanish- or French-speaker (he lived in Paris for a good chunk of his writing career and published a lot of works in French first). For anyone who appreciates clever word-play and inventive use of the metaphor, he's definitely your guy.

Today I went to process my student visa. The DNM (Direccion Nacional de Migraciones) was about equitable to the DMV's inefficiency, but instead of old (often grumpy) ladies in frumpy sweaters, all the employees were young, and mostly of the attractive male variety. To be fair, actually getting through all the paperwork and waiting my turn in line wasn't too bad, but a couple other things made it take longer. Case A: I looked up the address to the building, Antartida 1355, and brought my map along with me. I found Antartida easily, but there are two sections of the street, one which is labeled with numbers on the street signs, and another which is not. Now, I would understand the address 1355 being in the un-numbered section if the numbered section didn't include all of the 1300's. However, this section was from 1000 to 1400, but 1355 did not fall among the addresses in this section (and actually falls before the 1000's even begin). Case B: I checked all the information my school sent me on what I needed for the tramite (visa), which included AR$200, which I had already set aside. Apparently, either the school made a mistake or the prices have recently changed because when I got there, I had to pay AR$300...and I had AR$280 in my wallet. Great. That meant another 30-minute subte trip back to my apartment to get the ATM card I had just pulled out of my wallet that morning (for security reasons), a trip to the bank, and back to the DNM where the employee with my information had just begun to process visas for a Chinese family with numbers exceeding digits on my fingers and a translator. At least there was a good view.

A couple other random things I wanted to share:

A few weeks ago when Joyce and I had gone out to a boliche (club), we left the club around 4:30, bored with the company, and realized we were hungry and had another hour and a half before the subte opened to take us home. So, we went to a pizzeria that was pretty busy (considering the time). First, we were entertained by a young guy who was there alone and had fallen asleep on the table, with a whole pizza right in front of him. This place was loud, and he was so far gone that he was snoring. Next, a group of scantily-clad, drunk American girls came in, nearly-yelling in English (but, to their credit, with a few Spanish words sprinkled in) and sat at the table right next to sleepy-head. They had a ball, trying to wake him up, poking his food in his face, and basically just not leaving the poor guy alone, all the while "blah-ing" the tune to popular Reggaeton music that they clearly didn't know the words to loudly enough for the whole restaurant to hear. All in all, they made me proud to be American.

I've learned of a cultural difference between Americans and Brazilians. Joyce was telling me the other day that oftentimes Brazilians will say that they don't care or that it doesn't matter when given a decision, but they nearly always do care, but it's considered impolite to say so (express one's opinion). As in, they say "yeah, that sounds good" if the proposed option is what they actually want and "I don't care" if it's not. Considering that about 90% of the time I'm given a choice between two things my response is "I don't care", and I sincerely don't, I finally realized why Joyce is so hesitant to believe me.

I realized that my time here is half-way over. That is depressing. I love Buenos Aires and am going to have a hard time coming back in August. It's a good thing that all you lovely people are there to motivate me to return; otherwise I'd probably end up finding some Argentinean to marry so I could stay.

As much as I love Buenos Aires, I'm still not a fan of men that could be my dad (or older) saying things right in my ear as they walk by me or greeting you in a mumble with the tone of the question so you don't understand and stop to say "what?" at which point the creepiness grows. I pretty much just ignore people on the street. I think that's what all the Argentinean women do, and why the men here seem to have the perception that they are stone-cold.

I've come to fit in more and more over time. People ask me for directions a lot on the street and I don't get harrassed by street vendors when I go downtown (they target tourists). I think I pass as a local until I open my mouth (inability to roll "R's" = obiviously not a native speaker). A lot of times, especially with guys, when they realize I'm from the U.S., they try to practice their (often very broken) English with me...That's kind of annoying. Maybe I'll start telling people I'm from Russia.

No class tomorrow! Hopefully I can get up and go to the MALBA (art museum) since it's free on Wednesdays. Woo-hoo!

Until next time...Besos! Chao!

Lauren-things I dont like about Madrid/Spain/miss

2009-05-19T02:15:00.001-07:00

1. room temperature drinks
2. small drinks, i want to gulp down a drink and then make the ahhh sound. Impossible when you pay 2 euros for 50 ml and dont have free refills
3. quick trips to walgreens/target/walmart
4. NO DRYERSSSS
5. food selection in grocery stores
6. mexican food
7. small everything
8. shaving cream (not depilatory cream)
9. bathrooms with toilet seats, working lights, toilet paper, locks, hot water, soap and towels, it´s a lot to ask I know
10. campus life doesn´t exist here
11. drinking inside/at home/not at a bar or outside

YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU SPAIN!

Ashley- I live in a freezer.

2009-05-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

Because I've been working on mid-term papers the past couple of weeks (my whole grade is based on two papers and a final exam in both classes), I don't have a whole lot of exciting news, so I guess I'll talk about the weather.

Just at the point that I thought it was never going to cool off, the weather turned on me, almost overnight. It's really not that cold outside; it feels more or less like that late fall crisp that makes your cheeks flush a little. It's a nice change of season. But, my apartment seems to insulate the cold. Seriously. We have a small heater, but it's not functioning. So, I'm sitting here in two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, two shirts, and a jacket. Time to call the landlord. Uy, and my bed is right next to the big glass sliding doors that lead to the balcony, just about the coldest part of the house. Because of this, I've made a little nest of sorts out of sheets, two quilts, and a massive sleeping bag that I get lost in. If I didn't have incentive to get out of bed before, I definitely don't now. It's like I'm hibernating. Also, showering isn't a very fun thing to do anymore; our hot water is iffy and never actually gets hot enough to steam. I haven't taken a single shower with the cold water knob on at all. Due to all of this, our diets have consisted mostly of soup (which is good because it's cheap and delicious), tea, and coffee.

Let's see, what else...In the midst of all the tests, we were able to discover a really good brewery in walking distance from our apartment (and I obviously believe in study breaks...). We also ran across an empanaderia nearby that has like 60 flavors of empanadas for somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.70 each. I still haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing. (Maybe good for my wallet but bad for my belly...?).

Well, my life has been rather boring lately, so I don't have much else to talk about unless anyone wants to discuss the development of capitalism and conformation of states in Latin America... I'll be sure to post again after getting back to the fun stuff.

Lauren-Futbol, Mexico, Valle

2009-05-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

hey guys!!

two sundays ago i went to my first professional futbol game here! Atletico de Madrid v. Sporting in Vicente Calderon stadium. El atleti won 3-1, but apparently the game before they lost 5-1 to a pretty bad team and the fans were pretty upset, telling the owner to get out and the players that they dont deserve to wear those jerseys. One thing that sucks is that they dont really have like replays or announcers or anything (at least not in this stadium) and another thing is they don't serve alcohol! lame! but that's probably because of the crazy fans, the ultras, that travel to all of the teams games and have cheers, flags, noisemakers, and are standing the whole game, pretty much like a college football game. Of course the ultras from the other team are there and a fight usually breaks out at some point. The whole 90 min thing is nice though. I'm used to three and a half hour baseball games and 4 hour football games, so it seemed to fly by and its not something your day has to revolve around. Walking to the stadium it was just like going to a baseball game: people selling snacks and game gear and people drinking at the surrounding bars. The game is pretty much what you expect. They fall down all the time and spend more time on their hair than I do!

Then that Thursday night was a festival in Toledo called el valle which consists in all the young people going to a campground that overlooks Toledo (soooo beautiful at night) setting up tents and drinking until the next day. That was so fun! All of Janos friends from school and from Toledo were there so we had a bunch of people. However I had to get up and leave at 630 the next morning to get to the airport and go to Mexico!

First of all the swine flu is really inconvenient and I hate it. Other than that the trip was amazing! My cousin Buddy (Vince III) got married to his girlfriend of 8 years on the beach and it was really small, 20 guests and 6 in the wedding party. I got a manicure and a pedicure and two massages and some sun! Im kind of tanner/redder. It was sooo nice to see my family. Jimmy and I shared a room and it was just like old times! We had a lot of good drunken memories! At the reception they had a mariachi band and a donkey and its caretaker that carried around beer. My cousin Ryan (the grooms brother) also gave an amazing best man speech! I was tearung up!

Right now Im in the process of having to wear a facemask when Im with Jano..sucks...but Sunday is tennis and Im not wearing one.

Cara- Swine Flu at University of Zaragoza!!

2009-05-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Cara- These are a Few of My Favorite Things... About Spain!

2009-05-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

1. Public Transportation
2. Ham
3. Cheap flights with Ryanair
4. Going to class Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday from 11-2
5. Living Downtown
6. Spanish little girls in dressed in cute sundresses instead of like Bratz dolls
7. Balconies with Geraniums
8. Coffee in the plaza beside the Seo
9. Catholic pageantry
10. Consistent weather patterns
11. Green Espadrilles
12. Fanta Naranja
13. The ice cream shop on Calle Alfonso
14. Deflation!
15. Markets instead of Grocery Stores

Ashley- Am I naive, or is everyone else just paranoid?

2009-04-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

It has recently come to my attention that I am much braver than I thought. Or maybe just stupider (two attributes that can oftentimes be used interchangeably, depending on one's perspective).

So, I live about twenty blocks away from my school and up to this point have been walking to and from the facultad every time I've had class. Not a big deal, right? Especially because I always see other women walking alone (even in this area) at night. Okay, so my classes don't end until 11pm, but that's really not comparable to 11pm in Norman, Oklahoma or Reno, Nevada. People are still out at restaurants eating dinner or meeting up for drinks. Well, I also did not think it was a big deal until I was talking to a couple girls in my history class. They were asking me about where I lived and realized that the subte is closed by the time class gets out, so they asked which colectivo (bus) I used to get home. I said, oh, I just walk. The expressions on their faces said enough that I didn't need to hear their next words, but they didn't know that and continued to bewilderingly ask "And you haven't gotten attacked or robbed?!" Well, that made me pretty uneasy. To solidify my decision to stop walking home, the subject came up the next day with Joyce, my roommate. She didn't realize I had been walking back and proceeded to give me the "mom lecture" about why it's so dangerous, blah, blah, blah. Even though I don't think it's as dangerous as these girls think, I can admit that it's probably not as safe as I had convinced myself.

At any rate, I now use the bus to come back home at night. It's as much for my personal safety as it is to appease all the moms of the world.

Ashley- Brazilians in Buenos Aires

2009-04-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

As you know by now, my roommate, Joyce, is from Brazil. I've decided it's time to outline a few of the reasons why living with a Brazilian has it's perks (and, yes, I realize this is a generalization based on my experience with one person):

1) I'll have a place to stay when I go to Carnaval, or for that matter, whenever I want to go see Brazil...

2) They learn Argentine Spanish in Brazil, which is very distinct. Her knowledge has helped me learn more of the slang that may have otherwise continued to confuse me...

3) Brazilian music is fun!

4) I'm learning how to dance La Samba.

5) They'll come up with endearing nicknames for you, like Yankee (although they pronounce it 'Shankee'). :)

6) When you go out with a Brazilian, everyone assumes that you are also from Brazil (preferred to being spotted as an American in South America).

7) Due to the language barrier, we are forced to speak Spanish in the apartment (all the time).

8) More open-mindedness.

9) Endless joking around...I think we are laughing with/at each other about 90% of the time.

10) We are both interested in learning about the culture here so we can go out and discover new things together; I'm afraid that an Argentinean would lack the desire to explore because it would not be so novel for them.

Okay, so aside from everything going well with my living situation, it seems like there are a TON of Brazilians here. In fact, last night we went to a party for another student at La UBA from Brazil...and Brazilians outnumbered Argentineans. We were excited to go out, but it ended up being little bit of a disappointment. Nobody talked to anyone except for the people they came with, which makes me wonder why they even bothered to leave the house. Also, a lot of the people spoke in Portuguese for most of the night, which made it more difficult for some of us (i.e. me and the handful of Argentineans present) to understand. Joyce and I left pretty early (3-ish) and she was even complaining that the people were annoying for speaking Portuguese in Argentina and that the conversation was dull anyway. I think the antisocial factor of this party was somewhat of an anomaly, but it has put us off from going to house parties here...the boliches (clubs) are definitely more suitable for meeting people (although the guys there seem to think that agreeing to dance also serves as acquiescence to making out...they just try to kiss you like two minutes after meeting you, without warning. Can't dancing just be dancing?). We need something somewhere between these extremes for the weekends. One good thing that came out of the party last night is that we learned that we live about 4 blocks away from "the best bar in Buenos Aires," so we might have to check that out. Maybe it will be a good alternative for us.

A brief digression on the attitude toward vegetarianism here: People think I'm crazy, or they sincerely don't understand the ideology of abstaining from carnivorous eating habits. I've heard responses along the lines of "you can't get married if you're vegetarian" (jokingly, I think) and "it's just a little bit of meat," and even the flat-out "WHY?!". It doesn't really bother me. I understand that it is just a cultural difference in attitude, but sometimes I get tired of defending myself (in a language that is not my native tongue, nonetheless) to people who aren't going to understand or who will always have a retort as to why I should eat meat here. It would be nice if they could think of it in terms of having more meat for themselves rather than trying to convince just to have some. A little tolerance, people!

Well, it's 5:00 here and I'm still in pajamas, so I should probably go do something more productive than praising Brazilians and ranting about intolerant meat-eaters.

Chao!

Ashley- It's like I'm on vacation!

2009-04-22T16:59:00.000-07:00

In case you are out of the loop, my friend, Deanna (from OU), has been studying in Quito, Ecuador this semester and was able to come visit me last week. It was such a nice change of pace to re-discover the city (even all it's tourist attractions). We crammed a whole lot into 4-1/2 days, but I think Deanna was able to get a pretty good feel for the city, and I had an excuse to go see/do some of the things that I had still been missing out on.

The first day that we actually went out and about we fit in the barrios San Nicolas, Montserrat, San Telmo, Boca, and Puerto Madero. Whew! San Nicolas and Montserrat are usually referred to as the centro, which is where I stayed when I was in the hostel. Most of the governmental buildings/offices are located here, as well as TONS of international people and galerias (malls). There are also a lot of beautiful cathedrals in the area, including La Iglesia San Ignacio, the oldest church in the city. We happened upon El Museo de La Ciudad (Museum of the City), which I thought might be interesting. It was free so we decided to take a gander--let's just say it's a good thing that it was free. Rather than learning about the history of the city and it's people, we saw random collections of toys, fans, doors, and advertisements from the 50's and 60's. Unless you have an obsession with any of these things, I do not recommend this museum to anybody traveling to BA. After that, we passed through La Manzana Franciscana and an antiquated pharmacy that has kept it's original decor before heading on to San Telmo. In San Telmo (el barrio viejo), we passed by a lot of small boutiques and a plethora of antique stores. If you're in the market for antiques, this is the place to come. I was bummed that Deanna wasn't here on a Sunday because there is a huge (and fairly well-known) open-air antique/crafts market in the main plaza in San Telmo on Sundays that can be quite an experience. However, she was able to see the National History Museum, which still wasn't totally impressive in it's exhibits, but was much more enjoyable than El Museo de la Ciudad. After that, we continued on to La Boca, home to many Italians, Boca Juniors' Stadium, El Caminito (where all the colorful corrugated buildings are), and lots of tourists. I definitely wouldn't want to spend every day there because the people practically taking your hand to get you to go into their store/restaurant can be exhausting, but it is a fun place to go see. We stopped for dinner where I discovered a delicious amber lager made in Patagonia (and later found in the supermarket...woo!). After that, we headed back to Puerto Madero and strolled around on the docks for a little while before stopping at Havanna for a coffee and an alfajor (at which point Deanna exclaimed that Argentina is delicious). Finally, we headed back to my apartment and rested our tired little feet. What a full day!

Puente de la Mujer in Puerto Madero

The next day we went through Retiro and Recoleta, which are a little bit more upscale. In Plaza San Martin in Retiro there was a big exhibit by the UN called Buddy Bears. Essentially, there was a (ceramic?) bear decorated by an artist from each nation recognized by the UN. We also went to the Klemm Foundation, which was a museum that housed a lot of contemporary art (even some Warhols!). It was interesting, but the further into the museum we got, the stranger the flavor of art. After that, we headed to Recoleta and spent some time in El Cementario. It was kind of neat that there was a memorial to Alfonsin, since I was hear when his death was in the news. We also strolled through Buenos Aires Design, a mall devoted to home decor, and joked that now I know where to go to decorate my house when I decide to move here for good (just joking, Mom and Dad...kind of). After that, we went to El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which was awesome. There was a lot of European and Latin American art from the Fifteenth Century on. I was (happily) surprised at the amount of works by Rodin and Degas, although I would have liked to see more Van Gogh. The best part about this museum is that it was F-R-E-E. Love it. We left just in time to make it to the Flor Generico as it was closing up, a huge metallic sculpture of a flower erected in a big green park that opens in the morning and closes at sunset. It was done by an Argentine artist and is supposed to represent all flowers. Ahhh, so pretty. By that point we were both pretty hungry and there was a Hard Rock right around the corner...I was a little embarassed to tell the waiter that we were American when he asked (Americans eating American food...gah). He didn't seem to mind though. He even pulled up a chair to sit and talk with us for a while when he didn't have any other customers. South American men...

El Flor Generico

The next day we finally made it to Palermo, a huge, park-filled barrio that is one of the prettiest parts of the city. We spent a lot of time just walking around and enjoying the nice weather. We did make it to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires), which houses Latin American art, most of which is more contemporary. There was even a Frida Kahlo (one of my faves). Later I found out that the MALBA is free on Wednesdays, and because there is so much to see there, I may have to head back there one of these days. And lucky me, I don't have class on Wednesday. After spending a couple hours in the museum, we walked around Palermo more before heading back towards (and beyond) Puerto Madero to go to La Reserva Ecologica. I love going there because you can get to the shoreline of the Rio de la Plata, which is pretty even if the water isn't very clear. That night, we met up with my roommate and walked around El Centro more to do some shopping from the street vendors (I just can't seem to convince myself that I have enough scarves...).

Shoreline of Rio de la Plata

View of Puerto Madero from La Reserva at sunset.

Sitting on the colectivo after a few very tiring days.

Sadly, Deanna had to leave the next day, but I had so much fun while she was here! Since then, I've been sleeping a lot (ahh) and avoiding studying. Hmmm, maybe I should change that...or not.

Cara- the Return to Cadiz!

2009-04-21T07:53:00.001-07:00

For about a half a week, from the 8th to the 13th I was alone without a euro to my name in Zaragoza. I expected life without roommates to be a drag but it was actually really nice to hang out on my own, and since I live downtown and it was Easter, there was always fun stuff to go see and places to hang out. And I could walk around in my underwear, sleep whenever, and eat all the time. Eventually, this got kinda boring though and I felt pretty lame since everyone I knew was out having awesome adventures, so I decided to go visit the Rodriguezes in San Fernando, a smaller town outside of Cadiz, on the atlantic side of Andalucia in Southern Spain.

I NEED one of these dresses!

Andalucia is famous for their white washed villages, flamenco dancers, ferias, and beaches. It's also full of retired Germans. It's the Florida of Europe. I went in to Cadiz on the train on Thursday to wander around. I walked around for about 5 hours just looking around. It's a really beautiful city, I wish I had brought my swimsuit but I probably would have gotten painfully burnt... so maybe its better that I didn't.

The accent in Andalucia is almost inpenetrable sometime, but I got used to it after the first few days, I just wish I could have stayed longer. I rarely get the chance to talk to real Spaniards
To get back to Zaragoza, I took the night train. It had beds and a restaurant car and everything, I felt like I was in an Agatha Christie novel or something. Very Romantic.
So now I'm back in school, it's the same old same old. But the weather's finally getting pretty in Zaragoza. Maelle is still traveling so I pretty much live on her balcony, it's so nice! Also, I got my debit card in the mail, so I should go get my camera back soon! More pictures!

Lauren- Ice Cream and Surprises!!!

2009-04-18T04:07:00.000-07:00

I just realized hhow sad my life is. The main point of this post is to tell you about how we created our own dessert at Vips and it was amazinggg!!!!!!!!

ALSO!! I just did something reallyy reallly exciting today, but I can't tell you yet because Jano doesn't know about it! shhh..

ALSO! I thought it might be fun if you guys wanted to figure out abbreviations! That's always fun right~

pte.
Co.
Ftd.
Hnos.
Ctra.
Bo.
C/
Gta.

puente
camino
facultad
hermanos
carretera
barrio
calle
glorieta

Ashley- Apartment pics

2009-04-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

Living Room

Our awesome blue-tiled kitchen

All the tile and ceramic in the bathroom is lavender...

For now, the spare bedroom...hopefully we can find another roommate soon.

My room!

Yeah, we've got a balcony. Here are some pics taken from it:

I was trying to remember whether this was taken at sunrise or sunset, which was silly because a) it's facing the west
b) I'm never awake at sunrise unless it is from the night before.

I knew I had forgotten a lot of stuff the other day...

Ashley- Health, hippies, and heartbreak

2009-04-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

Some random things:

I had my first experience with health care in Argentina today. Of course right after I received an e-mail warning about the spread of Dengue Fever in the area, I started to get sick. I've been waking up in the middle of the night with a really bad fever and have had inflammation in my throat/neck that has prevented me from turning my head without turning my torso accompanied but the sorest of sore throats... Well, I went to the hospital today and was amazed at the ease of use and efficiency of health care here. For starters, it only cost around US$30 for treatment with absolutely no insurance coverage. Furthermore, I registered, paid, sat in the waiting room, saw the doctor, and walked out of the hospital, prescriptions in hand within 35 minutes! (I thought it was a little strange that even the doctor gives the customary cheek kiss to germ-ridden patients). Then at the pharmacy, they didn't need any of my personal information; upon presenting the scripts, the pharmacist just pulled the corresponding medicine off the shelf and I was on my way. Anyway, it turned out to be a nasty little bacterial infection, but at least that means antibiotics will get rid of it.

On a happier note, Deanna got to Buenos Aires this morning! It's great fun having someone to show around the city. We didn't get around too much today, but we spent a little time in el centro and then she came to my classes with me this evening. I get the feeling that my university is very different from the school she's attending in Quito. She commented on how political it is; the sea of colored butcher paper with propaganda for various political parties and student affiliates is pretty unique. She also reminded me that it's pretty unusual for kids to come into classrooms trying to sell things for small change...during class. She also noted that a lot of people dress like hippies here. It should be a fun week of roaming around the city and hopefully discovering more of its nooks and crannies.

I realized that I lied to a certain extent when I said that I haven't eaten any meat here. One day a couple weeks ago I was eating at one of many parillas (grills) in the city with my roommate. As I was thouroughly enjoying my baked (or grilled?) potato, I came across something of a chewy nature...too chewy for a potato. Not only had I somehow gotten a good-sized chunk of meat in my food, but it was an organ of some sort. GROSS. Even if I was a whole-hearted carnivore, I'd skip out on the unappetizing, too-tough-to-masticate innards of any animal. If that little passing wasn't enough to assure me that I can live without trying Argentina's world-renowned carne, I had another encounter to turn me off for good. I was walking home from the subte station one day and the delivery truck to the nearest carneceria (butchery) had just pulled up to the street. When I happened to be passing by, two men walked out of the truck carrying a long rack strung with cows split in half lengthwise. All of the features of a cow were identifiable (musculature, ribs, face, etc.). Nausea and sadness followed. Pobrecitas vacas.

I think that's a good image to leave you with. That's all for now, folks.

Ashley- Because I haven't had internet for two weeks...

2009-04-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

Prepare yourselves for rambling, because I realize I haven't posted in a long time and a lot has happened since then! Apparently, the internet cafes here won't load www.adiosnoman.blogspot.com.

Most importantly, I finally moved into my apartment! In the past couple weeks I've gone from a hostel, to Jeff's apartment (the other student from OU), and finally to my own apartment! I live with another (female) student from Brazil named Joyce and we are getting along grandly. We were supposed to live with another girl (from Peru) as well, but she bailed on us at the last minute, so we're in the process of finding another roommate. We finally got internet yesterday, but Windows Vista is prickly and refuses to recognize the modem, so I've got to use Joyce's computer for now. I am under the impression that I just need to download some stuff (vague, I know) from Windows and upload it onto my computer, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Last night we had some people over for dinner, which was fun, but we lacked sufficient seating and dishes. However, everyone ended up full and happy, so it must have been a successful soiree! Although we are so excited to be in our apartment, it hasn't kept us from going out! We've been to several different discos in the city, which has translated into staying out until the sun is up and then sleeping all day on the weekends.

I still haven't gotten quite into the swing of things with classes because about half of mine have fallen on various holidays up to this point. I've had a TON of reading to do (and all in Spanish, of course), which has taken up more time than I would like, but it continues to become easier and easier to comprehend and read more quickly. My literature class is all about Las Vanguardias (the avante-garde movement in Latin America in the 1920's and 1930's more or less) and is pretty interesting, but it seems that history is the major of choice for all the guapos (which provides motivation to go to that class...).

Today we left the city to spend Pascuas (Easter) at Joyce's friend's mom's house in Caseros, a town about 20 kilometers outside the capital. It was nice to spend a day with friendly and intelligent women. I learned more about why there are such strong anti-government sentiments here (basically, they use power/money to force alliances). The subject came up because former President Alfonsin recently died. During his life he had less than a 20% approval rating, but has been elevated to saint-like status since his death. It's pretty interesting how people find it so much harder to talk about a person's faults after his/her death. On a tangent of this conversation, I learned more about Argentina's history. According to these women, peronism in it's true form died with Peron. Apparently he was the only one capable of running a "bipartisan" government (there are left- and right-wing peronist sectors which has resulted in a deep political divide here). Another really interesting note: these women are in their 40's or 50's and therefore were alive during the "Guerra Sucia" when pretty much anybody who did not show support for the government "disappeared," or rather was murdered by a very militant government. They actually knew some desaparecidos...I can't imagine living in such a restrictive society. It also seems like Menem was a pretty interesting president; he was able to keep the peso to dollar ration at about 1:1 and has been the only person able to do it thus far.

Besides chatting it up about the nation's leaders, past and present, we ate...a lot. They were all so worried when they found out I am vegetarian, but I don't know why. There were more different varieties of vegetable dishes and salads than I've seen in one place in a long time (how glorious)! And for any of you who might be curious, I still have not eaten meat here (I guess you really don't have to down here!). Speaking of cuisine, I feel like I've finally tried enough of the local specialties to write about them. Of course there are empanadas, a savory pastry with one of many different fillings. Most of them incorporate meat (especially ham) but there some veg-friendly options as well. My favorite so far has been humitas (a filling made of corn and some type of cream). There is also a lot of freakin' good (and CHEAP) Italian food here! Although it's hard to find a bad meal here, there is quite a lack of spicy food (of any kind). C'est la vie. On the dessert front, dulce de leche is a staple. It is incorporated into many desserts, and sometimes even eaten alone. One of the more common things to find it in is the alfajor, which is best described by two layers of something that lies between the texture of a cookie and cake, filled with dulce de leche and covered in either chocolate or meringue (So yummy!).

Perhaps more distinct than the food here are the drinks. Sparkling mineral water replaces tap water, which is nice except means always paying for your drink in a restaurant. Also, there is a drink called Terma, which is hard to explain, but here's a shot at it: a very strongly-flavored and slightly bitter non-alcoholic drink that is infused with a variety of herbs and drunk with sparkling water. Of course maté is every where, and I've become quite addicted. It's most similar to a bitter, loose-leaf tea (but it doesn't contain caffeine-it has a different chemical with similar effects but is more mild) that is drunk out of a small gourd-like cup through a metal "straw" that has several small holes in it. Argentinians are very picky about the temperature of water that is added to maté; it should be just on the verge of boiling, but not quite that hot. If it's too cold it doesn't taste right and if it's too hot it ruins the yerba maté. Another distinct drinking habit here is the (copious) consumption of fernet, an aromatic spirit that has a VERY strong and bitter flavor. It's most often mixed with Coke (and even then the drink isn't really sweet at all). I thought it was a bit too strong at first, but have since become quite the aficionada.

On a slightly less thrilling note, there have been some cases of Dengue Fever (a virus spread by mosquitoes with no vaccine) in the area outside of the city. It can take a mild form or result in deadly hemorrhages...woo-hoo. Bug repellent may not have the most feminine scent, but I think it will be a good friend for a while.

Speaking of good friends, on Tuesday Deanna is coming here from Ecuador (technically from Peru, but she is studying in Quito)! I'm excited to have a reason to do more sight-seeing in the city and surrounding area! I think I've fallen into the "I'm living here" mode and haven't been doing as much exploring as I should be doing. This should provide a good fix for that.

I know that I have forgotten to include some things, but I can't think of anything else too newsworthy at the moment. Until next time!

Lauren-Semana Santa

2009-04-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

half of april has gone whizzing by!

the Friday before semana santa we didnt have class and that day we went to eat lunch at Jano's other grandma's house so that we could get the key to the house in Asturias and so that I could meet her. She's the typical grandma who says that you don't eat enough and gives you old gossip magazines to read.

Then we went to the teleferico which I'm not sure what it's called in English, like a sky tram or whatever, to see the city from above. That was cool!! Then after that we went to the Prado and we ended up getting in free on accident because from 6-8 its free! Then my contacts started being quite bothersome so we decided not to go out to dinner. :( That night we ordered pizza at home.

Then Saturday we went to Toledo and went out with his friends on Saturday night. I have introduced Cannonball and Tourettes so far and they have really taken to both of them, except they are a lot more dramatic with tourettes, taking like 5 seconds before they flip over the card.

Sunday we watched Mia Sara a Spanish movie that was kind of weird but really cute!

Monday we went to Madrid to go shopping for dresses for the wedding with Jano's cousin Paula. I ended up buying two dresses in Zara, but I'm having second thoughts about one of them and I saw one by Penelope and Monica Cruz in a store (I don't know anything about their clothes or if they're any good or not) but I liked that dress so maybe I'll buy that one instead. Who knows!?

Then Tuesday we drove to Asturias. The typical trip that should last 5 hours that lasts 7, and we were supposed to leave at 11 and we left at 1230. me and Jano were in our own car so that was fun except that his ipod cord thing is broken and we were driving through the mountains so half the time we had nothing, opera, or conservative talk shows. Asturias is so pretty though! There are snowy mountains with green pastures and valleys, and little towns where people have cows and chickens and goats that stand on like 70 degree slopes! WOW!

Then we got to the house, which has the beach right at the end of the street on the Mar Cantabrico. The whole town is really into fishing. The house, however, is meant to be used in summer and therefore does not have any heat. so we froze our little buns off until we found a little heater that we rotated from room to room. We stayed in Jano's grandma's house with Alba, Jano's sister and 4 of her friends. Tuesday we just got there and stayed up drinking and playing cards.

Wednesday we went out with Jano's parents who were staying with Jano's dad's cousin, Juan and his family. We went to a lookout to see the ocean and we took pictures! i'll show you later! then we went to a beach (the water is really cold) and then we went to a little town which is really pretty with little colored houses and fish markets in the streets and we had sidra (apple cider with alcohol in it). They have to pour it from like 2 feet above the glass the that it mixes whatever is in it when it hits the glass! I really liked it!

This week I had
clam
oysters
something else that comes in the typical seashell that comes on the beach
crab
sting ray
large shrimp
percebes (i dont know what these are in english)
2 other kinds of fish
chipirones (i dont know what this is in english either, but its like calamari)
calamari
I don't know what else!

After lunch we tried to see the Eucalypton (a really big eucalyptus tree), but we couldn't get to it because the road was blocked off due to construction. That night we went to eat dinner at Jano's dad's cousin's house. They made fish and pizza! The mom is an English teacher!

Thursday we stayed in. Jano made wonderful pasta for lunch. We watched the first half of Viva Cuba, took a nap and then studied the rest of the afternoon until dinner. We went out to dinner and ordered croquetas, chorizo a la sidra, patatas with 3 sauces (patatas cabrales is a specialty of Asturias) and calamari. Then we took a very short walk to the ocean and went home. We drank and played cards a little bit with alba and her friends but they were all tired and went to bed early (losers).

Friday we went to Juan and Alicias for lunch. Paella with a bunch of fishes and stuff. Then Jano watched Gladiator and I took a napped (we both soaked up the heat of their house before going back to our icebox) When we got home we finished Viva Cuba and then had salad for dinner. That night we drank and played cards again.

This morning we got up at 930 to pack everything up and were on the road by 1030. Jano and I stopped in Valladolid on the way home to eat lunch with a friend he has who lives there, Mario. We at pizza with him and then were off to Madrid, arriving around 530. We took a short nap at his tia sole's house then, today is her birthday, so at 8 she had the fam and friends over. We stayed to celebrate for like an hour, mostly setting out plates of food for her, then Jano went to Toledo, and I came to emi's house because I really need to hit the books tomorrow! and wash my clothes!

Cara- I got up at 4:30 today

2009-04-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

After going to bed at a reasonable hour, around 10, (which is unspeakably early for Spaniards) I was awoken by drums in the street. It's holy week in Spain, so everyday there are at least 5 processions around the city. Since I live downtown there's usually several in my neighborhood, so I've seen about 3 or so a day. Normally they run from about 10-1 ish, which is immediately after dinner in Spain. Usually there's a large float with a figure of Jesus in some stage of holy week (carrying the cross, receiving the crown of thorns etc) or the virgin Mary in some ridiculously inaccurate renaissance costume. The float is carried and surrounded by a large group of people wearing KKK-esque hats who all belong to the same Catholic brotherhood, the brotherhoods being up to 700 years old.
Some of them are playing drums and trumpets. That's nice during the day because it makes them easy to locate, but at 4:30 am? So I got out of bed to see what was this clatter, and this procession was a little different from the others. To start, they weren't wearing hats or covering their faces at all. Also, I was one of about 5 spectators. Normally the streets around the processions are packed with families watching, even after one. I followed for about an hour, which was a good idea because I got to see some plazas and streets around my neighborhood I didn't even realize existed. Obviously, now my plans for the days events are somewhat altered since I'm still awake at 6 am. I was thinking I'd shower, wait for my hair to dry, then go get a coffee, walk to the police station to see if anyone's turned in my card (yeah, I lost it), maybe go to a mass, buy some fish for dinner tonight (it is good friday ya know), go to the bus station and buy some tickets for Cadiz on monday, and then lunch and siesta! Should be a full day.

Cara- French People

2009-04-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

As you know, I live with 3 french girls and know about 100 others. I swear there must be at least 400 french exchange students in Zaragoza. Therefore, I am qualified to write this DSM-style diagnostic check-list of signs someone is indeed French.

1. They smoke a lot. I don't think I know any french people who don't smoke, even the ones in medical school. Maybe they haven't heard. If you're not sure if someone is French or Belgian, look at their right index finger. If they are French, it will be yellow from nicotine.
2. They are all petite, brunette, and have glowy, perfect skin.
3. They sound really funny when they speak English. The consonants are generally over-articulated and the "th" sound is more like a "z".
4. They cook with lots and lots of butter.
5. All their clothes are in neutral colors. Grey, blue, brown, khaki with the occasional deep teal to keep things interesting.
6. They drink lots of wine.
7. They like this lady a lot.

I'd say exhibiting 5 of these symptoms is sufficient to conclude that someone is indeed French. Happy Diagnosing!

gaining weight like it's coming in style

2009-03-28T05:08:00.001-07:00

hey guys! everything here is going good! jano´s dad was in the hospital this week having tests done, but so far everything has come out fine, but he might have to go back on monday to get some results and do some more tests.

Thursday we went to this really cool restaurant with jano's dad and his uncle called vivir el vino. Everything was so good! His uncle speaks perfect english and has a daughter that works in New York City and a son that goes to Boston University. the wine was really good and then for appetizers we had a salad and croquetas which were really good. Then I had chipirones which is kind of like calamari but different and that was amazing. It was with this sauce that was scumptious.

Then last night we started watching sex and the city(we watched most of the first season) and we ordered pizza hut for dinner. It was quite the debate between telepizza and pizza hut (I won).

Next weekend our spring break starts so i don't have class on Friday! yay! We are also thinking about going to see the Mutua Madrid tennis tournament in May (hopefully seeing rafa play!)

Other than that, not much is new here. I'm getting ready to make chicken noodle soup for lunch..i've never made it from scratch so we'll see how it turns out. and his aunt still hasn't told me if she's eating here..(soledad the really annoying one that he lives with)

Ashley- School days!

2009-03-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Classes have finally begun! Monday was my first day, and everything went well. My Introduction to Human Rights class is really interesting and consists of about 10% international students, which can be a good thing, but about half of those are Americans...I don't want to be around Americans while I'm here! Then I had a Latin American Literature class, in which we did nothing other than sign up for the times we want to take the smaller "practical application" class that coincides with the general seminar. After that I went to my art class about the change in the architecture and art in Buenos Aires during Marcelo T. de Alvear's presidency (1920's), but the professor never showed up and we all left after thirty minutes...great.

As exciting as the first day of classes is the first holiday, which was Tuesday! It was the 'Feriado del 24 de marzo,' an official holiday which, I believe, commenced in order to appease the middle class (especially the left-leaning party members) after La Guerra Sucia (the Dirty War; It pertains to the large population that "disappeared" in the late 1970's. Look up Isabel Peron's presidency for more information). Of course there were tons of protests/marches, many organized by students at my university (don't worry Mom and Dad, I didn't participate). Also, there is a huge strike in one of the nearby provinces on sending meat into the city, which includes a blockade on one of the country's major highways. I believe it is supposed to end tomorrow, but who knows. Anyway, it was an interesting day to walk through the city. I passed through Recoleta, which is a really nice barrio and stumbled upon the cemetery (which is more like a small village; the coffins are housed in small edifices), where I saw Evita's grave, covered in flowers. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to see inside of it. It was kind of strange to think that a bunch of buildings that basically house boxes full of goop (deteriorated bodies) has become such a huge tourist attraction. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera, but I'm sure I'll go back again!

Wednesday I only had one class (art) and it didn't start until 9pm...The teacher did show up this time, but I think I might drop the class. It seems pretty technical and right now I'm enrolled in 20 hours and only need 12. It would be nice to have a day off in the middle of the week and to not be in class until 11.

Today I had my literature class again. I understood most of the lecture, and I made a friend in the class the other day who I can ask for repetition if need be...It seems like it's going to be a really good class. My teacher mentioned a couple of poems/articles that I've already read in Spanish classes previously, so I know I can't be totally out of the loop!

On another note, I'm still in the hostel, but my apartment will be ready by Wednesday at the very latest! YES! It's nice to meet people from all around the world (so far I've roomed with lots of Brazilians, Australians, Norwegians, Koreans, and Americans), but I'm ready to have my own space...where I don't have to pull my huge suitcase out of a locker that starts at my neckline everytime I need to change my clothes. I guess I'll at least come out of it with buff arms :). Also, the apartment is WAY closer to my school. It's probably about a twenty minute walk as compared to an hour and twenty minute walk. One nice thing about the city's lateness in schedule is that it's quite safe to walk around at night. I actually feel just as safe (or safer) walking on well-lit and occupied streets at night as I do taking the bus or subway. And right now the weather is great, apart from some serious humidity.

I think that's about all for now, folks, but expect some pictures of the apartment as soon as I move in...Thanks for tuning in!

Cara- Las Fallas in Valencia and La Lauren in ZGZ!

2009-03-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

You think that's a big Paella? Look at this one!!

Last week was the Festival of Las Fallas in Valencia. Valencia is known for their beaches and oranges, and is a relatively large city of one million people but swells to at least twice that size during the festival. I heard it was a must-see so I got a ride with my friend Carole who was driving down there too on Wednesday morning. Due to the large volume of visitors, all the hostels and hotels are totally booked during the week, so I stayed with Michael and his Valenican friend Alberto. Alberto and his mother Teresa were incredibly hospitable! They made us lunch everyday and Alberto took us around the city on Thursday and Friday and took lots of pictures for me since my camera was broken. Above is a picture of me with Thursday's lunch, a typical Valencian dish called Fideuà. It's a lot like Paella, but uses noodles instead of rice. It was sooo good and I ate tons of it.
On Wednesday Carole parked her car on the beach and then I spent about 3 hours trying to get across Valencia to Alberto's neighborhood. The normal bus routes were all abreviated since most of downtown was impassable due to the celebrations so we had to take the metro which was running on special festival schedules. Teresa made us macarroni and then Alberto, his friends Lina and Damiano and Michael and I went out to see Las Fallas.
I'm not exactly sure what the word Fallas means but it refers to these huge wooden statues/scenes that are as tall as four story buildings and spread throughout the city. Everyone in a neighborhood puts in about 150 Euros to have the Falla built and their themes range from political to whimsical. I think there are about one thousand in all but the downtown ones are more important or something. I really like this bullfighting one:Walking around the city was a little dangerous. Another tradition of las Fallas practiced among the tween set is setting off firecrackers and various little fireworks in the middle of crowded downtown areas. I almost peed myself a few times out of surise. We went to see the main cathedral in Valencia, and a little further behind that was this giant statue of Mary made up of flowers that are brought by a parade of women, men, and little kids in traditional Valencian costume.
These dresses looked seriously uncomfortable and it was HOT out! I can't even imagine, it's especially hard for the little bity girls I'm sure. These little girls were so adorable but I think they were a little weirded out that I wanted a picture with them.
After walking around for a good long while, we headed to Alberto's friend Stephania's house for dinner, and then headed out to see "el castillo." Basically, we went to a crowded parking lot and watched a really big fireworks show. It was pretty good but didn't have much on the DCC. Afterwards we hung out by the "river" which is actually all dried up and now it's just a really nice park area with cool bridges crossing it. We walked back to Alberto's later because the metro was crazy crowded. On the way we passed a bunch of verbenas, which as far as I can tell are like block parties with dancing. Even though it was about 3 am at this point, the streets were full of people, and not just teenages or tourists. There were old people and toddlers too.
On Thursday morning we went out in Alberto's neighborhood to see a mazqueta (spelling?) which was like a smaller fireworks show but mostly instead of the flashy shiny kind it was just really really loud pyrotechnics. Like, so loud the ground shook like I was in Reno or something (disclaimer: never been to Reno, just heard about it).

don't get too close!

Afterwards, we walked around his barrio to see more Fallas and of course, the giant Paella for one thousand people! Then we went back home and ate fideua followed by a brief siesta. At 4 or 5 we went back into the city to see the inside of the cathedral, the tower/gate/wall, and say goodbye to the Fallas.

me at the cathedral
me on top of the wall

Valencia is so pretty! Anyways, as we started to head home we ran into a parade of people dressed up as Moors and Christians to celebrate the city's heritage. I thought the costumes were so elaborate but Teresa told me there's a similar parade in Castellon, but much much more impressive.

I kind of though the moors looked more like Aztecs

These sandwiches were so good and only 3 Euros or so. What a steal!
(From left: Me, Michael, Alberto, Lina, Damiano)

After dinner we went back into the city at about midnight to see another smaller castillo and the burning of the most important Falla outside city hall. That's correct, on the final night they burn the Fallas, all of them. There are firefighters present at all of them, spraying down the ashes and making sure sparks don't land in trees, and all the buildings surrounding a Falla are covered with fireproof fabric to keep them from being damaged. However, it still seems like a very risky venture to me, especially when coupled with the castillos, mazquetas and rogue firecrackers.

All the streets have these pretty christmas light garlands.

El Castillo

La Falla QuemandoSome firefighter and the remains of a smaller Falla

I think Valencia makes us look like total prudes about fireworks. I would really like to go back to Valencia in the summer to more fully enjoy the beach, but I'm so glad I got to go to Las Fallas, and that I got to meet Alberto and his family, especially Pancho, their little dog.

On Friday I took the bus back to Zaragoza, and when I got there, LAUREN MILLER and JANO were there!! Don't you wish you were in Spain Ashley? We went out to eat at this cheap calamares bar and got clamares and mussels and patata bravas which I love. Mac from Idaho came over, and then Lauren, Jano, Mac and I went out to La Cucaracha and El Tubo. Later Jano and I split a Kebab and we all straggled home shortly thereafter. On Saturday we slept in and then went to the basilica and aquarium, supposedly the largest fluvial aquarium in Europe. To be honest, I was not impressed. Europe must have low standards when it comes to aquariums. It was hard to find and not easily accessible by bus and it cost 10 Euros for only freshwater fish. They did have two crocodiles and two caimans but no sharks or manatees. Afterwards we ate chinese food which was really good. I don't know why but I just love cheap chinese food. And it's pretty healthy right? Saturday night was Sebastiens birthday party at his flat. He lives with ten (!) other people in a fourth floor flat by the university. They have two kitchens, a big common area, and a maid and it really doesn't seem all that crowded. After his party Lauren and Jano went home and the rest of us went to Boulevard, a club nearby. I like Boulevard but walking home 30 minutes is kind of unpleasant, unless I stay till 5 when the busses start.
My friend's always have guests staying over so it was nice to finally have my own friends to show around. Unfortunately my camera is still in the shop so I don't have any pictures, but I'm sure you can imagine. It was great, and I can't wait to go to Madrid again, I miss you Lauren!

Ashley- Mullets

2009-03-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

The past few days I've spent more time with my future roommates. I say future because my apartment is not ready. Two weeks in a hostel is enough; hopefully, I can make it through another. Anywho, this weekend we went out a few times in Palermo, and encountered a lot of the city's younger population. It was a lot of fun to dance until dawn and meet more people, but in the process I saw a lot of mullets. Buenos Aires has got to have the highest mullet density in men ages 18-25 that I've ever seen. I don't understand the fad. Most of the guys don't even wear a full-blown mullet, but just leave a few straggling tresses or even a lone dreadlock swinging from their nape. Here's my main problem with the 'do (besides the fact that is automatically deducts at least two points from the attraction scale from 1-10): It's not as if the person doesn't have the means or is too lazy to get a haircut, they just choose to have it styled this way. My main purpose in writing this is to deter any guys (or girls) who might be considering a venture into mullet-land. You don't want to go there.

Ashley-The zoo, Palermo, and other happenings

2009-03-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Since I still don't have class, I've spent the past few days getting to know the city a little better. On Saturday I went to the Zoo with three other girls from the hostel, and it was interesting. I have mixed feelings about zoos in general; if you know me you could probably guess that. They can be a great learning tool for people and a chance for them to realize that animals are living creatures (and hopefully to have greater respect for them). However, I generally find that they don't provide enough space, companionship, or stimulation for the animals. That's definitely true about this zoo. In many cases, normally social animals were left solitary in there confined areas. But it was interesting to see that some small animals (i.e. roosters, cats, and some animal that seems related to a guinea pig but much larger) were walking about the zoo freely, on the same pavement that spectators used. My final conclusion on the zoo is that it was worth seeing but I don't like it.

On Sunday, Jeff (the other student from OU) invited me to go with him and a few other people to Palermo for the afternoon. Palermo is the greenest, most park-filled barrio in Buenos Aires. It's also home to some of the wealthiest porteños. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to kick the soccer ball around a little bit. I almost forgot that I was in a big city (and probably would have been able to save for the nearby traffic-lined streets). Actually, as much as I love being here, sometimes I feel a little locked in and just want to be in the middle of a big field (who knew I could miss Oklahoma's terrain?). Anyway, we stumbled upon an awesome music and design festival. There was a lot of innovative sculptures made from recycled materials, some interesting paintings, and great live musical performance. There was an amazing jazz-funk fusion band and another band that played world music, mostly of the South American variety with a very West African-feeling percussion behind it. I also found the Argentine version of Tom's shoes; they look just like Tom's, but there are a lot more designs and they come out to about $15/pair. I'll have to look into getting a pair...or two...

On Monday, I spent the entire afternoon walking around and getting to know the barrio Montserrat. It's part of el centro, and my hostel is right by the border to this district. It houses most of the governmental buildings in the city, as well as a lot of other interesting historical sites, including La Libreria de Avila, the oldest bookstore in the city. I had to buy something, and thought that a book of poetry by Borges couldn't be more fitting. Later when I was having coffee at Cafe Tortoni, known for attracting celebrities of the literary and artistic sort, I was attempting to read a rather difficult poem with no Spanish-English dictionary at my disposal. A noise caught my attention, which ended up being nothing, but I turned around to find a large sculpture of Borges' head looming over me, seeming to mock me. All I could do was laugh and enjoy my coffee.

Yesterday, I walked around a barrio that's further out from the centro called Belgrano with one of the women that has been in my room in the hostel. She moved here from southern Brazil looking for an apartment. (A side note: it seems that the people from the southern part of Brazil would like to secede due to a lack of work and production in the northern part). The neighborhood was cute, slightly reminiscent of a small Northern Californian town. There were a lot of shops, some chains, some independent. I was intrigued to find several natural food stores (some exclusively vegetarian!). I might be returning for grocery shopping later...

Today I felt like I finally needed to get in some good cardio exercise. There is a bit of a problem though. There is only one part of the city that I know of that is conducive to running; Palermo, which is not so close to my hostel. So, I felt funny taking the subte to get to a place to run, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right. After several days spent in the sun, I just relaxed and read most of the afternoon. I'm reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. The interesting, and somewhat ironic, thing about reading this now is that Rand stresses her ideology of individualism through architecture in this book, arguing that there is no reason to copy styles of the past. Yet, I find myself in a city overflowing with dated buildings that took the shape of even more dated styles. Sometimes I find myself pondering the use of the city's decadence rather than enjoying it's artistic quality. Thanks for that, Ayn Rand.

And, as always, some more pictures:

One of the sculptures at the Music and Design Festival,

Another sculpture. This one was extremely detailed.

A statue of Athena atop the building that used to be home to La Prensa, the national newspaper. Now, the building is full of offices and is owned by the government.

El Cabildo. This building was built in the sixteenth century and was used for governmental purposes during colonialism. One of its functions was to serve as a jail.

Statue of Don Quixote found on one of the pedestrian islands on 9 de julio. The white structure is supposed to represent La Mancha (his fictional home).

La Libreria de Avila; oldest book store in the city-not just that's still standing. The first book sold in the city was sold at this bookstore (although it was in a different location then).

Iglesia de San Ignacio, the oldest church in Buenos Aires. The inside was gorgeous.

Casting of Rodin's The Thinker, located in the Plaza del Congreso. It's the only casting in South America-and its base is covered in graffiti. Gah.

Lauren - spring is here!

2009-03-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

I think the last time I wrote was when my dad was here, so I have almost a whole week to talk about!

Monday I didn´t go to class because I was super pooped from the weekend with my dad, then I went to jano´s school at like 2 to eat lunch with him. We bought sandwiches in his cafeteria and then sat on the grass with his friends and ate them. We were there until about 6 with his friends then we went to his aunt Sole´s house.

blah blah blah

Tuesday I went to class and then we went to the movies that night to see The Code with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas which was terrible and I do not reccomend it to anyone. Then Wednesday I didn´t have class but I went to my school to buy a book I had to read and then I went to Jano´s school again because we were going to go to one of his friends soccer games that ended up being cancelled, so we came home and we´ve started watching its always sunny in philadelphia online which is awesome! Then Thursday Jano came to my school to have lunch, we did the same thing with the sandwiches and the grass. It has been like perfect weather here lately! Sometime this week we also went to play bball with his sister and I beat Jano at a game of 21! he beat me the next one though, but its okay! hahaha

Then Friday we went to do botellon with some of my american friends from school and that was really fun because Jano always makes things interesting and I never stopped laughing. It´s also fun to see what other foreigners take on school and Spain is and the like.

Then Saturday we celebrated his cousin Paula´s birthday at their house. There was a barbecue (yummy) and we played scattergories after. I made Jano´s parents chocolate covered fruit on little cake things to say thank you for having my dad and my birthday presents and all that.

I spent the night at Jano´s on Saturday night and Sunday we wanted to play basketball again, but all the courts were full so we decided to go play fusbol at this bar, but the bar is closed on Sundays so we were going to buy ice cream and sit outside and eat it, but the store was out of ice cream so we went home and watched Million Dollar Baby which was good, but not as good as I expected it to be.

Overall, everything is going great! I´ve started talking a lot more to people in class and around campus and I´m really getting to know Jano´s family and feeling comfortable around them. I think I´m going to go shopping with Paula soon to look for a dress for the wedding and since I´ve already seen the Curious Case of Benjamin Button and so has Paula´s boyfriend Paula and Jano are going to go see it and me and Miguel are going to go see something else sometime.

Right now it´s Monday and I´m in class. I only have two days of class this week because Thursday is father´s day. hehe. Then Friday Jano and I are going to Zaragoza to visit Cara!!

Ashley- Locals, the "vos," and other nuances

2009-03-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello! I've seen so much since the last time I posted that I'm not quite sure where to begin. So far I've been able to learn that the locals have their own pace and style of doing things. For example, the drivers are absolutely crazy. I've taken taxis a few times when I'm out late, but I may be better off walking. Nobody regards any traffic laws and they all drive within inches of one another. I don't know how I haven't yet seen an accident, but I suppose everyone here is accustomed to this daredevil-ish driving. Another cultural difference is that everyone goes out late and stays out (and on their feet) until the next morning. I know that's not too unusual for college students, but when we do that in the states we stay in bed until one or two in the afternoon. Not here. They get up and go to work or go to class after only a couple hours of sleep. I think I'll have to learn from Lauren and embrace the nap. So far, going out has been fun for the most part, but I still prefer house parties. I went to a club with some Brazilian girls from my hostel on Monday night where the drinks were expensive, the music was American and dated, and all the people were foreigners. Even though that wasn't great, I went out again on Wednesday with Aaron's friend Luis (Aaron is my sister's boyfriend who lived here for a month and a half) and it was great. We went to a huge club that used to be a church and danced for nearly five hours without rest. Last night I went to a party for exchange students at some guy's apartment in Recoleta and had a great time and met a lot of cool people. But, back to the locals. Besides being bad drivers and very able partiers, they seem stylish, a little proud, but very straightforward and helpful if you need it. To address Jimmy's question about the "dudes" here: they're pretty upfront about what they think...when you walk down a street it's pretty common to hear things like "hola linda, dios mio, que hermosa" followed by kissing noises or whistling. From what I can gather, this is pretty standard for South American men (and Italians for that matter, a large part of the local population). But, if you just ignore them or make it clear that you're not interseted they don't pursue you.

Another way that the people here are unique is the Spanish. It's SOOOO different here. They use the "vos" form instead of the "tu" (you), which is more informal. It's really easy though; with the exception of the verb ser (which becomes sos) you just add "as" or "es" to the stem of the infinitive with no stem changes or anything of the sort. I think this conjugation is growing on me. Also, instead of the "ya" sound that we all learn to use when we read "ll" in Spanish, they pronounce a sound somewhere between "sh" as in shoe and a very soft "j," as is used in French. Also, there is a lot of flux in the intonation of the accent, which I think may be a result of the the Italian influence. It can be hard to understand people, but I'm getting used to it. Hopefully I can understand Lauren and Cara when we get back to Norman!

Besides going out and trying to figure out the Spanish, I've walked around the city a lot. I made friends with some girls from Brazil and Holland and we've been going to see the city. The other day we walked around San Telmo (the old barrio) which has preserved a charming antiquity with it's cobblestoned streets and small boutiques. From San Telmo we went to Boca, which is well known for it's brightly colored corrugated buildings. The Boca Juniors Stadium is located here among a plethora of shops selling overpriced t-shirts and other memorabilia. Boca isn't too bad, but I wouldn't want to live there and I probably wouldn't be found walking around the area at night.

I also had a chance encounter with another exchange student at my school who was looking for another roommate to go check out apartments with. I went with her (Joyce, from Brazil) and her Peruvian friend, Miriam, yesterday and we found a fairly spacious, functional, CHEAP apartment in Caballito. It's only about ten blocks from the school so it will be easy to walk and the owner of the apartment seems really nice and really helpful. It won't be ready to move into for another two weeks, but it's such a great deal that I don't think any of us care.

I don't start classes until March 23, but I've enrolled. We have to enroll in four classes so that if one or two of them are just too difficult we can drop them without worrying. At this point, I'll be taking History of the Americas III, Latinamerican Literature II, Introduction to Human Rights, and an art class about the city during the presidency of Alvear. It should be pretty interesting.

For now, I have a few more pictures! I miss you all!

La Casa Rosada en La Plaza de Mayo. This is the presidential building. Many speeches have been made from the balcony and many protests have occurred here. Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo is a group of women that started a silent protest during the presidency of Isabel Peron (Juan Peron's third wife and vice-president during his term in the 70's who took over as president when Juan died). During her time in office there was very little tolerance and a very active military. Many people (mostly those in opposition parties) disappeared and became known as los desaparecidos. Las Madres started in protest against this atrocity. Also, an interesting note on Juan Peron: his first two wives died fairly young of cervical cancer; it appears Juan had a nasty strain of HPV.

Tango dancers en El Caminito in Boca, a very tourist-packed area of the city.

Some brightly colored buildings in el Caminito.

A few of us having dinner in the hostel.

LAUREN-PICTURES!

2009-03-12T05:13:00.001-07:00

Me, Bruce, Jano and Jano´s parents in Toledo overlooking the Rio Tajo

Me and Bruce at the Gran Via

me and Jano at the Gran Via

me, Bruce and Jano´s family at a parking garage in Toledo on our way to dinner!

me and Bruce at Retiro Park

me and Bruce in La Puerta del Sol, the exact center of Spain. The cows are part of the art exhibit thing I talked about in the last blog

Cara- San Sebastiàn

2009-03-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

I went to San Sebastian two weekends ago!

It didn't really look like this though. There were only about half as many people on the beach and no one swimming because it was kind of cold. To get there, we went by car. My friend Carole drove and it took about 3 hours but I'm not really sure cause I was sleeping or trying to the whole way.
San Sebastian is on the northern coast of Spain in "Pais Vasco" or Basque Country. If you ask someone there if they're Spanish they'll say no. They're Basque. They also have basque names for all the towns in the region, like Donostia instead of San Sebastian, and for all the foods that are essentially the same. 4 of us, Michael, Claire, Carole and I stayed in a little pink hostel a ways from downtown. Andrej, however, to save money and time, slept on the beach. Here's where we found him in the a.m.
He looked very peaceful.
The first day we mostly spent walking up and down the beach and climbing to the top of this hill that had a statue of Jesus on top (who do the think they are, rio?)
The view from the top was nice but it was cloudy so the pictures aren't really all that swell. That night we went for pinxtos, basque for tapas, and explored downtown a little more, but we had to be back at the hostel by 4 before they shut the doors.
The next day we walked to the west end of the beach where they had these big rocks and metal sculptures
It was a Sunday so there were a ton of families and couples visiting. They were really neat and you could climb down the side of the cliff there and hang around on the rocks.
We also went up another mountain in the funicular, which is like a diagonally climbing train. It took us up to a really pretty building with a spectacular view of the western side of the coast where there were cliffs and a lighthouse. With the cloudy sky it was all very Masterpiece Theatre.
As I mentioned earlier, I was very very sick for this whole trip so I didn't get as much enjoyment out of it as I would've liked. I also hate being the needy one in a group. Unfortunately, I didn't feel any better the next week and am just now starting to get back to my old self. But it was beautiful, and relatively inexpensive. Once we split the gas it was 15 Euros each, and then the hotel was 17 Euros, and food wasn't unbelievably expensive, I'd say I spent about 20 Euros on that, maybe less. so about 50 Euros in all is rather tolerable I'd say!

Cara- Bronchitis

2009-03-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hi ya'll! I know I haven't posted in two weeks and you guys are probably wondering if I've died, and the answer is I'm not dead but I'm almost there.
About two weeks ago I had a soar throat and a fever that I brushed off as a cold and continued living the erasmus life. Then on the day we left for San Sebastien in northern Spain, I woke up and felt like someone had punched me in the tonsils. I was also coughing so much I couldn't sleep, especially because my cough was about 10 times worse when I was lying down. This all sounds bad for me but was probably worse for my roommates who got to be woken up every 15 seconds by my tireless hacking. I also started having chills, night sweats, headaches, muscle pains, and a lot of pain in my back when I breathed deeply.
While I was in Toledo (there was a lot of traveling going on I have yet to write about!) I think I woke up pretty much all of Jano's family with my night coughing, so they took pity on me and took me to a pharmacy to get some more cough drops and codeine for sleep, and when I got back to Zaragoza I was so tired of all the coughing and no sleeping I resolved to find a clinic.
Going to the doctor here was something I expected to be quite difficult but was actually pretty easy. I emailed Karen that I was sick and went to the International Students office here where they gave me a list of private clinics. Most doctors, hospitals, and clinics here are public, which means anyone with nationalized european healthcare can go there for free. I could go there, but I would have to pay, and wait for a really long time because their public patients come first, and if they have any openings where they can't fit anyone else, they'll take a patient without public insurance.
I ended up going to Policlinica Zaragoza. It was the closest one to my flat that had general medicine, and not just specialists. All I had to do was give them my name, no ID number or address or general info, and they got me an appointment within the hour. And then they didn't weigh me or take my blood pressure or any of that vital statistics stuff. The doctor just asked me what was up and then listened to me breathe for a while. Then he wrote out a prescription and sent me on my way. Anyways, it turns out I have bronchitis (bron-key-tees, if you will) and need to rest for a while. However, I already have plans for Paris this weekend. So we'll see...

Ashley- Buenos Aires: Getting there and first impressions

2009-03-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I've spent a long time waiting and listening to plenty of friends who have been abroad for months now, but I'm finally in Buenos Aires. It was totally worth the wait. I got pretty nervous about everything right before leaving, but so far everything has gone smoothly. The trip down here couldn't have been easier, partially because I practically didn't sleep the night before and was able to grab some z's on the plane. My connection to Buenos Aires was in Atlanta, and for those of you who are unaware, it's a pretty large airport. So, I had to take a train between terminals (of course where I arrived was the furthest terminal from where my next flight would depart) and was barely able to catch one before the doors closed. Out of breath and a little disoriented, I found an open handle on the tram and looked up to find Tim Gunn (fashion guru) standing two feet away! That was the peak of excitement of my trip, which is a-okay with me. Anywho, I sat next to a really nice woman on the plane who just bought me an in-flight bottle of wine before I realized what she was doing. I graciously accepted and soon drifted off to slumber only to wake up to an incredibly vibrant sunrise as we descended into the province of Buenos Aires.

As we drove in from the international airport (about thirty minutes outside of the actual city) I saw some horses just hanging out and enjoying the shade right off the freeway; I was definitely in South America then. I got to my hostel around noon yesterday and so far, so good. It seems pretty safe and clean and it's on Calle Florida, which is a pedestrian-only street. There are lots of vendors and musicians that stay on Florida all day trying to make a few extra pesos. In fact, the signs of poverty are practically inescapable here. So far I've seen women breastfeeding in the street, children running out into major intersections to juggle in front of the stopped cars, and a plethora of stray dogs. In fact, you really have to watch where you step because no one really cleans up the canine feces. As sad as it is, it's really interesting to see the contrast between the remnants of a mega-rich city amidst all this. Around the city's centennial (1920) it was flourishing, and within the next decade or so it ascended to one of the top three cities in the world. This is evidenced by the extreme decadence of a lot of the older buildings. Although the economy is not horrible, it has been through tough times and despite a recent period of relative stability is waning again. A couple weeks ago I checked the exchange rate and it was about 3.19 pesos to the dollar; when I arrived at the airport I got about 3.65 pesos to each dollar. However, as much as I'm talking up the poverty, there is a definite presence of a middle and upper class.

Today I slept until noon (no clocks in the hostel) and walked over to a cafe called Havanna, which is a pretty big chain (thanks for the recommendation, Fabio). The coffee here is excellent, and they always serve it with a tiny cup of sparkling water. Actually, sparkling water is really common here; you have to specify if you wan't agua sin gas (the regular stuff). After that, I walked up to my school, which is pretty far away (maybe an hour to an hour and a half walking), but I thought it would be good to see more of the city. I'm staying en el centro (downtown) but the school is in one of the outer barrios (districts) called Caballito. I walked up Rivadavia, one of the city's main arteries and I think I already have tan lines on my arms and feet because it was so sunny and hot today. When I got to the school it took my a few tries and help from a nice guy in the language department (everyone seems to be helpful thus far) to find the office for exchange students. I hadn't heard or received ANY information from the university, but after talking to Mercedes, my advisor, all of my worries were ameliorated. Actually, her first sentence when I introduced myself was, "I haven't received anything from your advisor at OU." I thought, great, I'm not going to be able to enroll. Before I could panic, she answered all the questions that I've been asking in futility for months now. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to take interesting classes and find a good place to live soon. Needless to say, the walk back to my school was much more relaxed. On the way back, I saw my first march! There were hundreds of people walking down one of the streets downtown marching for workers rights, with an emphasis on the rights of working women. Yesterday was the official dia de la mujer (day of the woman), but it was Sunday, and in a culture that embraces some aspects of a very Catholic tradition, most of the hubbub surrounding it was saved for today. It's good to see that some of the old machismo has dwindled, although it's still present in the objectification of women. It seems like people are pretty open about their criticism of the government here, whether it's expressed through a peaceful march, posters, or graffiti (which covers the lower levels of even the most beautiful pieces of art nouveau architecture).

And lastly, a few pictures for you. I haven't taken too many yet; although the city is safe, I don't feel too comfortable pulling out my camera until I am better acquanted with it.This is El Obelisco, taken from the middle of 9 du julio, the widest street in the world. I only got halfway across before the lights changed again, and the opportunity to take this.

This is El Congreso Nacional, a prime example of the very detailed architecture of old.

This is the front end of the march. It stretched back a few blocks.

Lauren- birthday

2009-03-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday I went to see a stand-up comic at a bar with jano and it was so cool! He like acted out some action movies kind of and i yelled out jurassic park and he said he would do it, but he didn´t...jerk. We were in like a reserved area so we got to sit down and everyone else had to stand plus we got one free drink with our tickets. Then some pregnant ladies needed a place to sit down and the manager asked us if we cared if they sat in the reserved area with us and we said no and he gave us another free drink each!

Then Friday I went to the airport to pick up my dad and we went to a chinese restaurant for lunch then went bar hopping in madrid so my dad could try some tapas and we could have some beer. We walked around the Puerta del Sol which is the exact center of Madrid. There we took some pictures with the cows that are part of some exhibition thing they are doing where artists or famous people paint or decorate cows and they put them around the city. They were pretty much everywhere we went. We also went to the Gran Via, which is like the main street of madrid. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant and bought some beer at a grocery store. Then we went to Emi´s house, played cards and drank until my dad went to bed. Jano and I stayed up until midnight and he gave me earrings and candy for my birthday. :)

Then the next morning we left the house at like 11 to start sightseeing. We went to see my campus, then to retiro park where we sat by the lake, watched the paddleboats, had a drink and listened to the musicians. Then we started walking some more to Atocha, the train station, and past all the museums, la Reina Sofia, the Prado, the Thyssen. We ended up in Cibeles plaza where we got on the metro to go to the Plaza Mayor. Jano met us there and we had lunch in the middle of the plaza. After that me and my dad took a nap and Jano supposedly had to go study, but really he went and picked up Cara!! then they both came over and we left to go to Toledo. Right when we got there his family gave me presents (2 shirts and a necklace) and they sang me happy birthday in English and I blew out the candles. That night we went to a nice dinner in the old part of Toledo and walked around a little to see the city at night. After my dad went to bed we left to go to botellon. Cara and I got pretty drunk and she got to experience peeing in the bushes and drinking outside all night.

Sunday my dad woke me up at like 730 because he´s on crack, and, since no one else woke up until like 11, we went with jano´s dad to eat churros, buy bread and the newspaper and do a little driving tour. When everyone else woke up we all walked around Toledo. Seeing it through my dad´s eyes made me remember how absolutely beautiful a city it is. Jano´s mom made us paella for lunch which was yummy! After all that, we played some ping pong and fusbol. Jano dominated everyone at both. Then we all needed to take a siesta until we came back to madrid where we dropped cara off at the train station to go back to Zaragoza. Then we checked my dad in at the hotel and went to dinner at VIPS.

I´m trying to think of something to do to thank jano´s family and Emi for letting my dad stay with them and making my birthday so wonderful. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

OH! I also got two cards, one from Lauren Petrik and one from rachel that I haven´t seen yet because jano´s dad has to go to the post office to pick it up sometime this week! love you all and I miss you!

Lauren--It´s Magic!

2009-03-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!
last night Jano and I went to see a magician, Jorge Blass, as part of the celebration of my birthday! It was so cool; he even had his own rap song when he came out...He pulled a bunch of people from the audience to go on stage but unfortunately not us :(. It was also really cool because it was at like a bar and I´ve never done something like that where I´ve been able to drink while I was out and about! Cocktails were 9 euros though...I got kind of drunk..

other news! Rafa is sponsoring a new line of sports clothes or something for Corte Ingles called V is for Victory so there are ads of him everywhere right now!! Also, the Davis Cup is this weekend Spain vs. Serbia

Also, thursday we are going to see a comedian!! wooooo birthdays. Then Friday I´m not going to class so I can pick Bruce up from the airport. here´s the temporary plan if anyone cares:

Friday his flight gets in at 10:10 then were going to walk around Aravaca and either go somewhere for lunch or buy something for us to cook at Emi´s house. Then when Jano gets out of class he´ll come over and we´ll go to the Gran Via which is like where all the good shopping is and then to Foster´s of Hollywood which is supposed to be American food for dinner.

Then Saturday we´ll go to my campus..ill write the rest later i have to go to class!

LAUREN The Deafinator

2009-02-27T13:52:00.000-08:00

hey! sorry I haven´t written in awhile I´ve just been so busy doing cool things all the time. Last Saturday was Carnaval and that was really fun. We went to this place in Toledo to do botellon and there was seriously like a million people there with all kinds of costumes including Duffman, Bender and Zoiberg, Sevillanas, giant hands, anime characters, ninjas, little red riding hood, african tribal women, pirates with a boat, minnies and mickeys, gypsies, vikings, football players, penises, etc. etc. I also met a nice girl who showed me where all the girls go to pee out there.

Then Sunday we ate paella yummy! and started to watch big fish and then I fell asleep. We got back in Madrid around 9 and then i skyped with my mom which was nice. My dad has decided to take the job in Atlanta and will be starting there April 6th I think my mom said, but he is still coming here next weekend to visit. (It´s my birthday I hope your presents are already in the mail). She also told me that for my birthday they were thinking about paying for me to go to my cousin´s wedding in Mexico on May 5th (cinco de mayo) if they can find an affordable flight.

Then Monday i went to class and discovered I had to read an entire 400 page book by the following Monday so I bought that along with 12 other books for my classes that I have to read at some point throughout the semester. I really like going to school everyday it´s a relaxing routine and there´s no pressure, you just sit and listen and some of the stuff I´m learning is really interesting. Sometimes I do get down though because I´m too shy with people here and I really need to start talking to people in my classes more, but it´s definitely a challenge to overcome. Then Monday Jano has his night class at 6 but I went to his campus when i got out of class and we ate at a chinese restaurant together (pretty similar, they have sweet and sour pork everywhere instead of sweet and sour chicken and almond chicken instead of cashew chicken and there spring rolls are like the size of a hot pocket) and i went home and took a fat siesta. Then he came over to emi´s for dinner and we had quesadillas again and just whatever else was lying around. Then Tuesday pretty much the same. I went to class in the morning got out at 1 and then I went to Jano´s house and he studied and I read about 100 pages of my book. Then we ate panini, croquetas and green beans. That day Jano´s parents also decided that I couldn´t spend the night there any more during the week because he needed to study (PS hes gotten 3 of 4 grades back and has passed all three so far!)

Then Wednesday I dont have class so I got up and showered and wanted to eat lunch but there was literally nothing in the house to eat and as much as I tried to open the stupid jar of salsa I couldnt do it and I sat on the kitchen floor and cried. Then Jano came over when he got home from class and made everything better. We studied for a little bit, I made a cake, we went to the grocery store and then we ordered chinese food for dinner and went to see Milk in original version with subtitles. (I liked it but I think Jano and his aunt fell asleep at a few parts)

Thursday I had my deaf teacher first thing in the morning and that was good. We talked about history of spain during the 18th century. then in my second class we had to bring some traditional song in our first language...which one should I bring?! Then for lunch I had soup and salad (Lobster Bisque yum yum). Then I walked to Jano´s house and I took a nap then we went to see the hotel where my dad is going to stay when he comes and we booked his room. (this time we didnt get lost).

Then today was a good day. I bought myself a cappuccino before my first class with deafy mcdeafdeaf which was rediculously boring, then in my second class we just like sang lullabies, tongue twisters, jump rope songs, etc. My one that i presented and translated and stuff was Take Me out to the Ballgame. Then after class I met with Mr. Deaferson to decide what I was going to do my semester paper about. Im doing it about Las Cartas Marruecas, so I should probably buy that soon. Then I ate lunch with Jano and his aunt (soup that was kind of like chicken noodle, some kind of breaded meat and a fried egg). Then I tried to read more and fell asleep after like 15 pages. Then we went to Emis house to make Jano´s sister a cake for her birthday and I read the other 85 pages that I had planned to read today. Then we ate salad for dinner and crepes for dessert (almost a whole week with no crepes). Now we´re going to watch P.S. I love you. Tomorrow to Toledo for Alba´s birthday!

(Next week magic shows comedy clubs and Bruce!)

Cara- Broken Camera

2009-02-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

So last monday at Michael's birthday party my camera got dropped and now it is quite broken! I've seen a digital camera shop on my way to school so I'll probably drop by and try to get it fixed today or tomorrow. In the mean time I have a disposable Kodak camera that I brought just in case and my polaroid.
I was planning on this post being about Jamòn, but all my pictures are stuck on the camera and can't get out. So, instead, I'll just update you about my class situation. So far, I've been to class like every other day. To be fair, my throat really really hurt today so I stayed home and ate soup. I'm also out of credit on my bus card so that was just more motivation to stay home.
Yesterday, however, I went to all my classes, then took a long nap and read a little, and then our land lord brought us a new fridge! Finally! The old one had been broken for about 2 weeks so I mainly ate Donner Kebabs and plain pasta during that catastrophe. I am going to get so fat unless I find the gym soon.
So far my classes are Spanish History: Franco-Present, Colonial Hispanic Literature, and Current Art. I've emailed my OU advisor for word on if these classes will transfer credits but no word back, so I may send another today. My alternative options I've found are Spanish Grammar I and Theory of Art. Also, I might be able to take Italian I.
This weekend I'm driving to San Sebastien with 3 French kids and my American roommate. San Sebastien is a coastal town in basque country and to get there we'll be driving through the edge of France. It will be my first time in France! However it will only last about 15 minutes and I probably won't get out of the car. I also probably won't have any pictures to show you unless this camera gets fixed ASAP.
Well, here's a little preview to my upcoming post about grocery shopping in Spain:
That's right, the little basket has wheels on the bottom and long handles so you can push it along like one of those toy lawnmowers!

settling into a routine

2009-02-21T04:25:00.000-08:00

hey!

Wednesday night Jano and i went to VIPS. It looks pretty much just like a normal chain restaurant but the food was really good. We had chips and queso for an appetizer then shared a salad and sandwich. yummy.

Then Thursday I had my first day of my other 2 classes. The first one Literatura Espanola from the 18th and 19th centuy was okay. The teacher is like kind of deaf so his voice is really weird and hes kind of hard to understand, but there's a girl from Indiana University there so i talked to her a little bit and the professor said that Erasmus students get an easier exam. haha

Then my second class, the teacher is just insane. It's spanish as a foreign language, but its not teaching you spanish, it's teaching you how to teach spanish as a foreign language and this poor australian girl got picked on so bad by the teacher because she didn't speak Spanish that well.

Then I went to Jano's house and he made spaghetti carbonara for lunch and then we went to a bar to celebrate feria de abril. I dont know why its called that since it happens in february, but supposedly its like this sevillian festival where the bars are open all day and they play flamenco and give the girls roses to put in their hair and everyone gets drunk right after class, so we did that with some of Jano's friends which was really fun. Then we came home and went to Jano's aunt Gloria's house because it was his cousin Paula's 23rd birthday. They ordered pizza hut for everyone and we partied! That night I spent the night at janos.

Then yesterday I had the same two classes. The first one we basically talked about Spanish history during the 18th century the whole class, so it was kind of boring but I feel more like I'm in a routine now with going to class and actually covering material. Then in my second class we made groups that we are going to have for the rest of the semester and I'm with three spanish girls: Elena, Maria and Maria and a czech girl named Natasha and they are so nice! They make me feel a lot better in that class. Then that teacher was going on about how just because you know a language doesn't mean you can teach it and telling us that we had to fight against the intruders who think they can teach a language without studying how to teach it. Power to the teachers!

Then we ate calamari at Jano's for lunch and I took a nap and Jano did homework. Then at like 630 I woke up and we tried to go see the hotel where my dad is going to stay when he comes for my birthday but eventually we just gave up and we went to the mall. We wanted to buy a board game but they didn't have any good ones. We put more minutes on my cell phone, bought candy bars and then went to dinner at Gino's an Italian restaurant in Principe Pio and apparently we saw some famous Spanish rapper at the mall, but I had no idea who it was. Jano kept pointing at this guy who like had paralysis or something where he walked weird and saying look look and I was like Jano stop! and he was like no thats Elangi hes a famous rapper and he just made a movie. I was like wow. Not what I was expecting you to say. Then we went to Starbucks after and back to Emi's house where we just hung out for awhile. Then I slept over there.

This morning I walked home because it was so nice outside, even though I got a little bit lost. Then I took a shower at breakfast and went to go shopping with Emi. Apparently everyone does there grocery shopping on Saturday mornings because there was like 10 million people in every store we went in. First we went to the post office, then the fruteria, and then the pescaderia (fish market). This was my first time in a fish market and I have to admit it kind of grosses me out seeing them cut up fish and then thinking about eating it.. Oh by the way all of these stores are in walking distance and Emi knows everyone who works in all the stores. We just got back and after we eat lunch I'm going to Toledo with Jano to celebrate Carnaval. Here it's a really big deal and everyone dresses up in costume like Halloween in the US. We are going as Cuban soldiers (I dont think from our costumes youll be able to differentiate between cuban and any other soldier but whatever) Really all I have to wear is camo pants that Janos sister is letting me borrow and then on top Ill just put the warmest thing I possibly can on.

Emi is so funny sometimes. She always tells me that I have to wear a coat when I go outside and that I need to eat more fruit!

School and Such

2009-02-18T03:41:00.001-08:00

I think the last time i posted was Sunday before lunch...We had barbecue like I said, pancetta (big bacon/really good), chorizo (also really good), chicken (I looked retarted because I didn't know how to cut chicken off of a bone), morcilla (like a black sausage that wasnt really good but you can put anything with a piece of bread and your mouth and it will taste good). Then we had salad and straweberries for dessert!

After that Jano and I watched some documentary called Capturing the Friedmans about some pedophiles in New York in the 80's. It was really reallly weird. You could tell these people were really messed up. And I don't know if I already put this, but we watched our home videos from our trip to Mexico too. Then Jano argued with his mom for awhile about I don't know what and we left at like 730 to come back to Madrid. He came to Emi's house and we had leftover pasta for dinner and then I slept there on Sunday night.

Then Monday morning! class! I got up at 7 and was at the bus stop by 730. (my class starts at 830-Literatura Hispanoamericana II). Then I took the 160 bus to Moncola got on the G bus and went to Ciudad Universitaria (like University City). I found the classroom and everything at like 815. There was one other boy there at that time. The doors werent even unlocked to the classrooms until like 825. Then I went in and sat there until like 845 when the teacher showed up. People continued straggling in throughout the class. She basically just gave us the syllabus and talked about it a little. Im with Cara on being kind of confused about where to buy the readings and stuff like that but I talked to the teacher after and she said I didn't need to buy anything for a little while, that at the beginning it would just be copies. Then she asked who had never taken Literatura Hispanoamericana I. One other foreign girl raised my hand but I was too nervous so I didn't. Then she gave us a quick review (like 15 min) of that class talking about humanism and how logic and reason were valued in the 18th century, but in our class were going to stuy romanticism. I could follow her pretty well but her accent was definitely not spanish. She doesn't say any of the s's in any word. EX. Mas o menos is ma o meno. literally. She also told us we were going to have to do a presentation about one of the authors later in the semester, either in partners or alone, and I dont really see anyone wanting to be partners with me plus everyone already knows everybody so woooo. that should be super fun

So I got out of that class at like 930. and my next one Literatura Hispanoamericana III didnt start until 1130. I browsed through the bookstore a little bit and was really impressed! They had all kinds of books that I had read or would want to read and though I didn't see any of my required texts I wasn't realy looking since she said I didn't need to worry about it yet. Then I went to the cafeteria and bought a croissant napoleteana, like a chocolate pastry thing. yumm and orange juice. Then right outside the cafeteria, like inside the building right in a main area there is a smoking section (weird i know). Then I just read my book (Uncle Tom's Cabin) until like 1105. Then I found the classroom for my next class and saw a girl with a Vera Bradley bag and figured she was american. Turns out shes from Oklahoma State and she has that class with me. She was pretty nice. Then we went in that class but our professor wasnt there, a sub came and gave us the syllabi and then proceeded to talk for an hour about each of the author's listed. I seriously wanted to stab her.

Then I took the bus home at like 1 and made lunch for me and jano, mashed potatoes vegetables and shrimp, then later grapes. He has a night class on Monday's at 6 so he left after that. Then he called me during a break in his 3 hour class and said that they had put up his grades and that he had passed physics!

That night I slept at Emi's and tuesday morning I got up at 645 so I could go to starbucks before class. When the guy asked me for my name, I decided I would try and I just said Lauren how I pronounce it in English and he said okay Lauren, very well! but he spelled it Lauron. then in my first class we jumped right into material. She broke down the 19th century into periods of literary movements as well as phases of revolutions in hispanoamerica. She also talked about the state of South America at that time and how it would affect the literature we studied. and I answered a question! She said what does the date 1776 signify. I was all over that shit...Oh also I noticed the Spanish students take notes like in paragraphs, they just write down almost every single word she says in their notebook. It's really weird. I hope there tests arent like insanely specific. She assigned us our first homework, to read La Carta de Jamaica by Simon Bolivar.

Then we got out at 10 and I went to the library to get a library card. That took 10 years because the girl in front of me was from Romania and didn't know her address or phone number or anything. but now I have a library card!! ohhh back up! before I got to te library, I wasnt exactly sure where it was, so I was looking at like the directory in the main entrance to the building and this Spanish girl asks me what Im looking for and I show her my paper and she tells me that she can't read and I said the library for the college of filologia and she said, oh its right down that hall. Do you want me to tell you where the other libraries are? and I was like no. and she asked me where I was from and i told her the United States and she said wow there are so many Erasmus students here (exchange students) and i was like yea Im gonna go..and she was like do you want some of my sandwich? and I just said no thanks. It was a really awkward conversation. Then I went to the cafeteria again and got my napoleteana. and bought a hiliter at the bookstore. I read a little bit more then went to my next class. The teacher wasn't there again so we left pretty much right after class started.

I went home and bought some milk and strawberries at the grocery store and then Jano came and picked me up to go eat lunch at his house. We had salad, fries and menestra or something like that which is like meat with vegetables, It was pretty good. Then I took a nap while he did some homework and at 630 we went out. First we went to buy me a cell phone. I have like the original Nokia phone for 20 euros. Then we bought a chocolate thing in a bakery. Then I went to a Barclay's ATM to get money out. Then we went to Corte Ingles because we needed to buy chicken for the curry I was going to make for dinner. Then we went to the corte inges electronics which is like across the street to buy a microphone so I can skype with my mom on Sundays.

After that we came home and I made green curry and rice for dinner. We also had chips salsa and queso...haha. At the beginning we had a setback though because when I tried to open the rice the bag burst and I spilled rice all over the kitchen..But thankfully we had more rice and everything turned out just wonderful...It reminded me of getting thai food with you guys in Norman..then I had to hang up the clothes that were in the washer in random places around the house (They dont have dryers and its really cold outside at night). Then I started the dishwasher and went to bad. Jano spent the night here because Emi stayed at her sisters house because it was her brother-in-law's birthday yesterday.

Then today is Wednesday and I don't have any classes on Wednesday so I woke up at like 1030 and had some cereal took a shower and thats pretty much it. I think tonight Jano and i are going to go to dinner at VIP's which is a restaurant he really likes to celebrate our Valentine's Day since we were in Toledo with his parents on Saturday.

My First Day of Escuela

2009-02-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

Hi all, I haven't written in a while so I just wanted to say Hi!

Today was my first day of school, and so far it's been a little confusing and a bit bewildering. My first class of the day was Current Spanish History, Franco to Present. It looks like it's going to be very hard and there are a lot of readings, none of which I really know how to obtain, like if I'm supposed to find them myself or if the professor provides copies. The professor seems acommodating, but this is a fifth year course, and obviously my background knowledge of Spanish Government and Politics comes from Pan's Labyrinth. I don't even know if they have a legislature.
The next class I went to was Hispanoamerican Colonial Literature. Luckily I've already read two of the texts, Naufragios by Cabeza de Vaca and Poems by Sor Juana in High School, but I think this class will also be hard to keep up with, and this professor was much more difficult to understand.
After going to my first two classes I decided that taking ANOTHER Spanish Literature course would be too much! So, I just went back to the Apartment and looked online for easier classes that would fit my schedule. I'm thinking Theory of Art, Current Art, or Spanish Grammar I.

Ways My Classes are Different from Classes at OU:
1. The buildings are not well cared for at all! They're dirty, the tiles are all broken up, and everything is old.
2. Instead of assignments, attendance, quizzes, and tests all being averaged for your final grade, the whole grade comes from one exam.
3. Instead of having classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, the classes are Monday, Teusday, Wednesday and Thursday, Friday. Needless to say, I will be arranging my classes so that they will only be Monday, Teusday, Wednsday.
4. Attendance is pretty much never monitored
5. Registering and Enrolling is pretty darn confusing.

Upcoming Column Ideas:
1. All about Jamòn
2. Spaniards are Tacky
3. French People
4. My Shopping Routine
5. Need to Know Phrases

Weekends are for the Warriors

2009-02-15T04:24:00.000-08:00

hello all.
So Friday I went to the complutense to an informational meeting for Erasmus students. I got a student ID and everything...I´m pretty legit..I also decided what classes Im going to take.

Literatura Española de los siglos XIII y XIX
Literatura Hispanoamericana II
Literatura Hispanoamericana III and
El Español como lengua extranjera (Spanish as a Foreign Language)

Each class is 4 hours a week Monday and Tuesday I have clase from (8:30 to 10, then 11:30 to 1) Wednesday I don´t have class and Thursday and Friday from 10 to 1

Then after my meeting I went to Jano´s university to meet him after his last exam. He thinks he did really well on that one, so that was good news and I got to meet most of his friends from class there. Then we bought a chocolate pastry thing, went to buy alocohol and then went to Emi´s house to make dinner. We had a frozen pizza and then we took a nap before we went out. We were supposed to meet at 11pm at Moncloa but Jano was feeling super cool so we got there at 1030 and waited. When everyone got there we walked to a park where we had botellon (drinking outside) We had brugal with fanta limon. The botellon was fun because there was a lot of people there that I knew, but jesus christ I really dont understand it. It is like freezing outside literally and they CHOOSE to be outside for like 5 hours. It´s like that freezing cold when you walk to class but you NEVER go inside. You just keep freezing. But other than that...I talked to Oscar for like half an hour (him trying to speak english) and pretty much all I got out of the conversation was
1. Everyone beats Juan at Ping Pong
2. If you have any problems I will hit someone for you and
3. Say good things about me to Cara

After that at like 3 we were going to go to a discoteca (like a club) but people couldnt decide on where they wanted to go and it costs 10 euros just to get in and then like 7 or 8 every drink, so we decided to take the night bus home which supposedly comes at 3 but at 330 it still hadnt come so we took a taxi home. I spent the night at Jano´s house and then the next morning we ate breakfast and went to Emi´s house so I could shower and clean up before we went to Toledo. Jano made pasta with red sauce and then smoked salmon as an appetizer and emi made some thing that is supposed to taste like some fish that is illegal to eat. It was all really goood. Then after lunch we watched master and commander for a little bit while I tried to sleep but Jano didn´t let me.

Then we went to pick up Jano´s sister Alba and her friend at his tia Sole´s house and went to Toledo. It was less than an hour drive. When we got here we went around to papeleria´s looking for notebooks for me for class on monday and lead for jano´s drawing class, but they were all closed and at the last one we went to, he like scraped this lady´s car who just happened to be standing right there, so that sucks but oh well. Then we came home and his parents made like a stir fry thing with chicken shrimp and vegetables and jamon iberico (iberian ham) on the side. The ham was really good. Then we went to botellon again on Saturday night and I froze my ass off again.

Then this morning we woke up at 11 had breakfast and went to buy the notebooks and all that stuff. For lunch were going to have barbecue chicken, pancetta and chorizo. well that´s about it!

Good Eats

2009-02-13T04:16:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

Living in my new flat has been great so far but I feel bad for my roommate because I was apparently snoring last night. Anyways, on Wednesday morning, Claire, Claire, and Maelle made us a really great breakfast with American pancakes and toast and scrambled eggs with bacon and onions. I didn't take any pictures but it was tres mignon.

That night, because I'd been talking about Mexican food so much, I made tortilla soup with queso and guacamole. I wanted to make enchiladas but they don't sell corn tortillas in Spain, only super nasty flour tortillas from Old El Paso, the worst mexican grocery brand ever. They also sell guacamole here that comes in a jar and looks like thin green gruel. Gross.

At first, I was scared I wouldn't be able to find tortilla chips, but never fear. Doritos makes naked corn chips! Called Dippas

They were really good actually but pretty salty. They tasted a lot like Tostitos.

This is my mexican feast. I thought it turned out pretty good.

Not to be outdone, Michael made hamburgers for us on Thursday night. We had potato chips too and Maelle thought she was supposed to put them on the hamburger. I think that would actually taste pretty good but it's not really traditional.

Andrej is planning some special meal for tonight but he's being really secretive about it so we'll see. I hope it's slovenian food.
We have two guests staying in the apartment this weekend. One is Maelle's friend Dauphine who's studying in Berlin and Claire's friend Fabien who's erasmus in Granada. I think by the end of this semester I am going to be able to understand and at least speak a little french. I am surrounded by french people. I will try to pepper in some french phrases so you guys can get some french learnin too. Here's me reading French Elle. I'd like everyone to notice that the girl on the cover is wearing black high-pants and has fat arms. Basically, it's me.Well, maybe not. But anyways, I heard postcards arrived in America and I hope everyone is ready for Round Two! I gotta find some new postcard stores though, the other one didn't have a super seleccion, as some of you may have noticed.
Ciao!

cooking

2009-02-10T06:14:00.001-08:00

yesterday i got up at like 11 and then i went to corte ingles again because jano wanted me to cook dinner so I had to buy things that I know how to cook..jeje He had his topografia exam that morning. He called me at like 130 when he got out of the exam and he picked me up at the bus stop which is like down the street from the corte ingles, but i never realized how much having a car helps when you want to go grocery shopping. I was like walking through downtown Madrid carrying 5 shopping bags and looking like a fool.

Then we went to Emi's house. She was at work so we made quesadillas (Jano had never had a quesadilla) and chips salsa and queso. The tortilla chips they sold at corte ingles are nowhere near as good as the ones we have, but it was fine. Then we watched Simpsons, Family Guy and Se lo que hicisteis. Then he went home to study for his next test on wednesday (math) and i took a nap. I woke up at like 7 and he called. Emi had apparently tried to call while I was sleepig and since I didnt answer she called Jano and said that she was going to sleep at Vane and Luis's house (Vane is Jano's cousin) because she recently hurt her knee in a skiing accident and has to have surgery, so she went over there to help Vane and help with Lucia, so it was just me and jano for dinner. He got here at like 9 and I made pasta pesto with shrimp, snap peas, mushrooms and red and green pepper. He had never had pesto sauce before either. I think he almost asked me to marry him right then (just kidding dont worry ;)) I also cut up grapes but he mostly just ignored those. Then for dessert he made crepes ( he got a hot plate thing to make crepes for christmas and I think we've had them everyday since I've been here). Then we watched Madagascar 2 on my computer because he had downloaded it.

Then we went to sleep and he woke up early this morning because he had to go home to study and I continued sleeping until around 1. Then i woke up, took a shower and did a little cleaning around the house. I want to go walk around Aravaca a little bit, but since its lunch time everything will be closed until around 5pm. I charged my camera so I will be taking pictures soon I promise! Then for lunch I had estrellitas (cereal) and chips and salsa. Later I'm going to go to Jano's for dinner and spend the night there then go to the complutense tomorrow to see whats up. (My university is right by the president's house, so that's pretty cool)

family time

2009-02-08T12:04:00.000-08:00

hey chico/as
lets think...i've had A LOT of family time..thursday night i slept at janos, then friday night we went to his tia emi's house which is wear im staying so i could meet her and jano, emi, sole and
I all ate dinner together (pizza hut)..jejeje..after that I unpacked all my bags, plenty of room in the closet thankfully! ;) and Emi is so nice she always makes me feel like I can ask for anything I need and we decided to each put money in this jar every once in awhile to buy food. She seems really fun, when I woke up Saturday morning she had "girls just wanna have fun" on and she really has the attitude of like having sleepovers all the time, two girls living together, i dont know shes fun. On Friday I went to Moncola and Calle Princesa to get an abono which is your ticket for the metro and buses for one month and I had to have a picture so I went to like one of those little photo booths in a metro station jejej. Then I went to Corte Ingles (the gigantic department store that literally sells everything) On the planta baja I bought shampoo, deoderant, hairspray, pretty much everything. Then I went to the bottom floor which is a supermarket and bought some things for myself that I didn't think emi would have or want to buy, powerade, dan'up, seedless grapes, etc..

Then Saturday I went aroud to little shops with Emi so she could show me Aravaca (the part of Madrid she lives in). We went to the fruteria (fruit store), and a chino (chinese people all own little convenience stores in Spain that sell random shit) where we bought wrapping paper because Saturday was Jano's tio Raul's birthday. So after all the shopping, we got on the bus, so I could see which one I had to take to go to jano's house, and we went to eat lunch at tia gloria and tio raul's. I got there with Emi like 2 hours before Jano so that was kind of awkward, but his family is all really nice. he has four girl cousins, 3 of which have boyfriends, and one of them has like a one-year-old baby Lucia who is soooooooooooooooo cute, seriously, she has the biggest cutest eyes ever. He opened presents and we sang happy birthday, i wasn't quite ready for that because in Spanish class we sang a different version..they sang...

cumpleanos feliz
cumpeanos feliz
deseamos todos
cumpleanos feliz

It's cool and weird being with that many people at one time because whenver someone asks me a questions everyone gets quiet to hear my answer and everyonen always asks me if I like EVERYTHING..im like yes yes we have pickles in the United States...

then I went to janos house were I slept the siesta and he studied.. then we woke up had a sandwich and went to the coolest movie theater ever the kinepolis, I don't know how to explain it, but instead of just having like concessions, they had like a candy store! (I was like a kid in a candy store) I was smiling so much..but there were soooo many people there so we couldn't see 7 pounds, so instead we saw Frost vs. nixon. then I spent the night with him at sole's.

I woke up this morning at like 1230 and sole made me eat breakfast. She said, I'm not surprised you sleep so much you have to eat so youre not weak.. so i had some toast, then we watched Simpsons and made french fries(from real potatoes ;)) fish and salad for lunch, Jano had to go to the corner store to buy tomatoes and he bought me kit kat bites, so I had that for dessert, then we just hung out until Emi came and picked me up on her way back from Gloria's house and we came home. At first, we could not get internet to work here, but she called telefonica and we got it all figured out! right now were both in the living room on our computers and we're getting ready to watch Failure to Launch, jejeje..hasta luego un beso!

THINGS DIFFERENT IN SPANISH HOMES
showers all have the adjustable shower had and many have like jets
closets are like armoires set in the wall with drawers and shelves and that, or they dont have closets.
lightswitches :up is off, down is off
toilet flushers are on the top!
diswashers are like 1 ft by 1 ft.
no dryers

The Spanish Apartment

2009-02-08T07:39:00.000-08:00

Today I moved into my new home, a small flat with 3 french girls from Tours (Claire, Claire and Maelle) and a boy from Slovenia (aren't they precious?). We're still looking for one more male roommate. My address is Calle San Lorenzo 7, primer derecha 50001 Zaragoza, Spain. Google that shiz. I expect lots of postcards from Norman. This flat was the first that I looked at and I originally dismissed it as being too far from campus and too crowded because I would be sharing a room with Claire, one of the french girls. Instead of being in the University area it's in the middle of downtown, about a 40 minute walk from the main Campus which means I'd have to take the bus everyday. However, my roommates are the nicest people I've met so far and it's cheap! I'm only paying 150 Euros a month, plus expenses, about 30 Euros.

Even though its very far from campus, it's located in the casco viejo, the old part of the city where most of the nightlife is. As Andre explained, it's much safer to walk or take a bus to class in the daylight than it is to walk long distances in the dark late at night in a strange city or take one of the unreliable night buses. And as I've learned from Deanna's latest post, walking aroung in the dark in a strange place is a bad bad idea. (Chin up Deanna, that really sucks.)
And the neighborhood is gorgeous! I live a block from the ruins of a roman theatre, two blocks from the posh shopping district, a few steps away from another old market, and down the block from a Doner Kebab. Here are a couple pictures of my new territory:

There are two of my roomies, the Claires. Claire on the left is who I'm sharing my room with. She lived in Connecticut for two years so her English is really good. Aren't they so French? (Check out their cute christmas tree)

This is the local Pharmacy, I am in love with the tiling!

This is the old Roman theater. How cool?? I haven't been inside yet because it's closed on Sundays but wow, I can't believe this is my next door neighbor. That thing above it is like a giant glass ceiling to protect it from rain.

The number of Catholic churches here is ridiculous. And they're all like a zillion years old. Consolidate you guys.

This is my puerta bonita! Today I could not figure out how to get the door open with the little key but its all under control now.

I don't need the buzzer anymore! Except when I can't figure out how to use my key and have to have the landlord come help me out.

So I had my first bought of homesickness or something today. It wasn't for anything in particular, I just felt like panic-y-crying all of a sudden after Michael dropped of my luggage at the new flat and left. It's probably just latent stuff I didn't have time to think about while I was busy at the hostel running around the city trying to find a place to live. I think part of it was doubt about whether I made the right choice for my flat but I love it and my roommates are so fun. Being settled again is paradise. So anyways, I got out, went shopping for new linens and had a nice phone chat and felt better. I ate lunch with my roommates who are pretty scarce right now since it's their exam time and that renewed my confidence in my choice. Also, there's a plastic flowers only florist across the street. How could this not be the right choice?

Spaniards are a little tacky. I think they take kitsch too seriously, which is saying something coming from me.

Also, I found out I could withdrawl from my Bank of America account for no interest or charge from Barclays bank, conveniently located in the nearby plaza Espana. Anyways, stay tuned on the b-log for our search for a new roomie! And maybe I'll talk about classes or the University. Or something.

Check the mail...

2009-02-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

Postcards are on the way!

first day

2009-02-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

yo yo yo..
mmmm i made it. wellll yesterday I went St. Louis to Chicago and then in Chicago Michael found me and I was with him the rest of the trip so that was nice. Our flight to London was fine, I was sitting next to two girls my age who were going to study in Winchester, England. Stupid Michael had two empty seats next to him. I really couldn´t sleep much on the plane, only about two hours. Then we got to London and we didn´t really know how to get to our connecting flight and we had to take a bus to another terminal so we were like running around and that was kind of stressful and when we got there, they asked us for our baggage tickets and everything to make sure to get them...well the flight from London to Madrid was about 2 hours and was almost completely empty. It was on Iberia and that was the first time in a looong time i was faced with the reality of actually having to speak Spanish. Well we got to Madrid and neither Michael´s nor my bags had arrived. They were supposedly still in London and would be back around 7 pm this evening, Since Michael didn´t have an address to have his bag sent to, he just chilled at the airport for like ´3.5 hours but he did get to meet jano :) who came with his dad to pick me up. After that, Jano´s dad drove us back to his tia sole´s house and it was so nice a drive. I realized that I´m here again. I recognize things and it makes me feel at home and happy. Well we got home and I started to just feel like shit, and Jano tried to give me soup but I didnt really like it, so he made me a crepe with nocilla which is like nutella, he put a little too much in and i got it all over my face, hands, arms etc. then i took a little naparoo and i realllllly wanted to sleep more but if I do I wont be able to sleep tonight. Next week Jano has exams on monday, wednesday, and friday so his study time will give me time to get out to explore, go talk to people at the complutense and buy all my shampoo and shiz! cara I hope you find a fabulous place and once you get a Spanish cell phone put your number on here and I will too! I can´t wait to see youuuuuuu!

First Days in Zaragoza

2009-02-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

Hola!!
I finally got to Zaragoza at noon yesterday after two flights, two taxi trips, one train ride and about 18 hours of travel. I barely slept on the flight from Miami to Madrid, and so I was extremely tired. All I did yesterday was talk to my exchange advisor and walk around campus and the city for a few hours. Then I slept till 7 am.
While I felt really lame, going to bed early and rising early too, it was probably a good plan because it meant I got to see the city before 10 am, which will probably be a rare occurrence this semester. I went to the bakery to get some bread and then to the market for jamon and cheese. I also picked up a little produce and my favorite drink ever Fanta Naranja. The mercado is SO beautiful and the vendors were all very nice. My taxi driver explained the architecture to me last night but I was too tired to pay much attention.
Another interesting factoid from my taxista, Zaragoza was originally founded by Ceasar Augusta, check out the lovely statue, and the city was named after him. Once the city was in Arab control, the name changed to Saragusta, the Arab bastardization of the original name. When the city came into control of the Catholics, the Arab name was heard by Christian ears as Zaragoza, and that name still stands.
After I wandered around a little more, bought a new phone, and ate my lunch from the market, I decided to hit the streets again. I went to the Basilica de Pilar, built on the site where the virgin Mary is said to have appeared miraculously on top of a pillar. It was huge and the outside was surrounded by various modern sculptures. My favorite was the big globe. Inside, there were a number of Goya paintings and a place where you can kiss the pillar. I also went to a more modern supermarket that had cool wheeling baskets and a counter of ham legs. In case you didn't know, Spaniards love cured ham. It's in pizza, eggs, sanwiches, even McDonalds sells these ham sandwiches and I got a lasagna once with strips of this ham instead of beef or vegetables.
Besides groceries and a phone, I also bought a bus card and went to the Corte Ingles, which is like the biggest department store ever just to browse. I probably walked for about 5 or 6 hourse today and never needed the bus. Yesterday I only walked about 2 or 3 and took taxis and buses when I got lost. I'm pretty well oriented now, and I've looked at 2 apartments so far. I'm scheduled to see one more tomorrow and have emailed about 6 people who put out ads on the city website. I'm really anxious to find a place. Everyone in the hostel is middle aged and Spanish. Also, one lady in my room smells like she hasn't bathed in a few days. But I guess it's part of the experience. Hopefully I'll also meet with my academic advisor and get the ball rolling on classes. I found out yesterday that they don't start for two weeks! Oh well, more time to explore. I'm thinking about maybe heading to Rome on a Ryanair flight for a few days but all that depends on how fast I settle on a place.
Stay tuned for (hopefully soon) pictures of my new room!

Pre-Departure: Ft. Davis, TX

2008-12-31T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! Only 33 days until I leave for Zaragoza, Spain. I miss all my Norman friends but Christmas in Dallas was great.

My family and I just got back from Ft. Davis (near Marfa) in far west Texas. We saw the stars at the McDonalds Observatory and about a zillion cactuses everywhere else. Seriously. It was out of control. We also drove through the lovely community (not big enough to be a town) of Saragosa, Texas, site of the 3rd deadliest tornado in Texas history. I wanted to get a picture so I could compare it to the original Zaragoza later but my dad wouldn't stop. He didn't want to miss the killer bird watching in Balmorhea Springs...

The best part of our trip by far was driving 70 miles through the Chihuahua desert to see Prada Marfa, an art installation of a fake Prada storefront over 30 miles from the nearest gas station. Here's me and Lydia checking out the merch.

West Texas is kind of a weird place. We passed through a lot of dying towns, and then all of a sudden there's Marfa, a thriving hipster/arts community. The weirdest part was this blimp we saw. We saw it once on a hike in Ft. Davis National Park, over the southern horizon. Apparently it's tethered in place out between Marfa and Valentine as a National Security measure. It looks for planes coming in over the southern border. When we passed it on the way to Prada it was landed on the ground so we got an up close look.