Just a Little Update

Classes have been continuing...my Spanish class is a little overwhelming but I'm trying to stick to it as much as possible and really learn as much as I can so when I'm out I can speak at least a little conversational spanish if not more. My sociology teacher is super funny and interesting, and although I've heard he's a tough grader I have a feeling that is going to be my favorite class so far. Astronomy is painful, but the trip to the Canary Islands is all that's getting me through. 

On Wednesday night, Karina came to my neighborhood and we found a spot to watch the sunset next to the Royal Palace. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, and although I took some pictures they do it no justice. The Spanish Sun here is something else...I don't know what it is, but I love it. Then we wandered around and naturally ended up at Chocolateria San Gines where we ate churros con chocolate because I have a serious problem. Then we made it to a restaurant called 100 Montaditos where they have little sandwiches that are all 1 euro and on mondays are 50c. It's amazing. We bought tinto de verano, or summer wine, which is Madrid's signature drink. It's red wine mixed with fanta limon and it tastes like heaven. Then last night I went back with Delaney and we drank some more of it and walked around in the dark at midnight. Although I was never a night owl before, being able to walk around at pretty much any time, day or night, and be surrounded by people is a really interesting and exciting cultural difference. 

Today, we were going to go to a cathedral outside of Madrid that was built by an 80+ year old monk out of all recycled materials and garbage, but the threat of rain and high winds changed our minds. Hopefully we'll make it there tomorrow! So now I've been doing absolutely nothing productive and trying to gain the motivation to do all of my homework so I can explore tomorrow and then rest up for the Super Bowl which is Sunday!!!! (Screams internally)

I have a quiz at 8:30 am in my Spanish class on Monday morning, and the Super Bowl doesn't start until around 1:30am here, so that should be interesting. I have to watch it, so I have no choice. I'm just hoping the outcome is good! GO PATS

Feeling Overwhelmed is the Worst

Well today marked the day that I have had one of each of my classes. I am so happy to be sitting in my bed, knowing I don't have to wake up tomorrow at any specific time (although the loud/obnoxious/irritating/etc/etc construction will most likely wake me up) and it's the best feeling. I hope this isn't an indication for how the whole semester is going to be. Hope for best, expect the worst or however that phrase goes.

**DISCLAIMER: This is probably going to sound bratty because I'm complaining about total first world problems, but I have to let it out somewhere and I feel like I have a right to be frustrated about what's happening here. So with that said, proceed at your own risk. **

Today also marked the day that I'm feeling a lot of things and I don't know how even figure them out in my own head, but I'm hoping writing them down will make things a little clearer. First off, Suffolk Boston is unorganized and just kind of not the best college in general, at least for me. It has its perks that made me choose it, don't get me wrong, but I definitely should've taken the college process more seriously. To be honest, I'm surprised I even made it to college with how little planning/everything else that I didn't do. I love Suffolk's location in Boston, and they have an amazing study abroad program. I'll most likely finish my 4 years there because I'm almost half way done and I've made great friends and I don't want to start all over. Plus I can always go to school somewhere else after my undergrad years, but anyways, I digress. Obviously I can't complain because here I am in Spain and I decided to come extremely last minute but was still accepted and I'm here and everything is fine. Now let me add that Suffolk Madrid has been crazy hectic from the start. We waited hours and hours the first day we were there because they hadn't planned things out. Then it was our metro passes...oh my lord.

The metro, as I've mentioned before, is amazing. They also have metro passes that are 30 euro a month for anyone under 22 years old, and with 30 euro you can ride the train/bus unlimited for a full 30 days. Perfect. During one of our orientation days, they gave us the forms to fill out, told us it would take 5 days, and in the meantime you can get 10 ride passes for 12.20 euro and that was the best option. With us going to Seville that weekend and only having to get back and forth from our apartments to school a few times it seemed wonderful. Then we get back to Madrid and they tell us that it will take 15 days for our passes. Not so wonderful. They told us this on Tuesday and our classes started on Wednesday, and on Tues/Thurs I have a 6 hour break between classes. This means that I would be taking the train a total of 4 times in one day alone, and with the 10 day passes I would be spending more money in about a week than I would in a whole month. The whole thing is just frustrating, and everyone else here was just as annoyed as me.

Then, we got handed a schedule for the whole semester. It was nice to have everything mapped out for us and whatnot. But with this came more issues. In our tuition, we have included one cultural trip. Lisbon, Portugal was the most appealing and the trip that I, along with some of my friends here had signed up for. I'm also in an astronomy class that has a trip to the Canary Islands. Both are amazing, amazing opportunities, and of course are scheduled at the same time. Because I wouldn't be able to go to Lisbon anymore, I bought a ticket for late May to go to Porto, Portugal, so I would be able to at least visit the country before I depart back to America. This ticket doesn't allow for name changes meaning I couldn't sell the ticket, and is also non-refundable. I wasn't worried about it because I didn't think anything would interfere. Today, when I get to my astronomy class, we find out that the dates on the schedule were completely wrong. This was good and bad. It was good because I would be able to go to both Lisbon (Which is "free" because included in my tuition), which multiple people have said is the most amazing city, and the Canary Islands. The bad part was I just bought a ticket to go to a different part of Portugal because I thought I wasn't going to be able to go. Also, Delaney and I were planning on going to Amsterdam on March 22-24 because this is one of the free weekends that we both had that was also during the tulip festivals which would be amazing, yet this now interferes with the actual, correct date of the Canary Islands trip. As with the metro pass, I am not the only one dealing with conflicts because of the school's mix ups. One of my friends switched her cultural trip from Lisbon to Rome, along with her best friend so they could go together, and now she won't be able to go to Rome because of the Islands date. Everything is just a mess with this.

As I disclaimed above, I know that it's pretty ridiculous to write a post this long full of complaints. So many people would kill to have this opportunity. I am trying to go with the flow and not worry about the second trip to Portugal I bought a ticket for and instead accept the fact that I will have one last opportunity to travel to a beautiful place I have never been and may never be again. Thinking about how the money I spent on the ticket could've gone to a different country I haven't yet visited is just incentive to come home and work my butt off so I can pay back my parents and still visit somewhere else. Being in Europe for one very short semester and having severe, severe wanderlust your whole life and finally being in a place that makes it easy to travel is way more stressful than I ever thought it would be. I feel like I don't have any time to go to the places I want to see, and having to schedule things in advance to assure you get a good deal is hectic. My brain is in a very frantic state right now. Everyday stress and anxiety just adds to this state of mind. I think after these 4 months I will forever have dark circles under my eyes, but hopefully for good reasons. They haven't gone away yet. So now, I leave you as I finish drinking my legal wine, eat dinner at 11:15 pm which is totally normal here, and learn to appreciate the bumps in this beautiful road.

Just your average Tuesday

Nothing too interesting happened today...

I watched my friends spend $300 on planes tickets to Amsterdam because they're going in 2 weeks which hurt my wallet just thinking about even though I'm waiting for later on in the semester

I met a kid from Colorado who studied at Middlebury and was here for the semester who was struggling just as much as I was. Thankfully Delaney was there to help the both of us with our needs. No one told the poor kid that peanut butter here was either 1. impossible to find or 2. super expensive.

I found out that it's super hard to find fresh milk here, almost all of it is boxed and unrefrigerated, which just freaks me out.

Also found out that my debit card doesn't have a chip in it, and some places it won't work because of that. I had no cash on me so Delaney used her card to pay for and I had to find an ATM to give her cash. If she wasn't there I would've been so screwed. But the cashier was cute, so it was all worth the embarrassment of another tourist moment.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes, so we should see how having to be at class at 8:30am with a minimum 30 minute commute will go. Wish me luck!

A Weekend in Beautiful Sevilla

I'm finally back to my apartment with wifi that actually works consistently, so here's an update about this weekend in Spain...

This weekend was our welcome trip to Sevilla, or Seville, a city in the southern part of the country, also referred to as Andalucia. It's about 2.5 hours away from Madrid by train, and one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen. Not only does it look beautiful, but it smells beautiful, too. Everywhere you look there are orange trees. They are a type of hybrid, bitter oranges that are made specifically to make Sevilla smell pleasant and not to be eaten. Naturally we picked one and ate it, regretting it almost instantly because of how sour it was. It wasn't until later that night that we found out that they weren't there for us to enjoy. But anyways, I'll get back on track.

After we checked in to our hotel on Friday, we started the day with a walking tour of Seville. Our guide took us down a bunch of back roads, each one as quaint, colorful, and pleasant as the next. We made our way through gardens, past countless little shops, and eventually to La Plaza de España. Before we made it to the plaza, though, Karina thought she was pick-pocketed and her wallet was stolen, so while she took a cab back to the hotel to see if it was in her room, we anxiously made our way to the Plaza, sadly without her. It wasn't scary for just her, but for all of us, since the threat of being pick-pocketed is perpetual. There isn't a minute that goes by when you're not constantly thinking about all of your possessions and their exact locations. Better safe than sorry, as they say. Thankfully it was in her hotel room, and we made it to the Plaza. I am not exaggerating when I say that this place is the most amazing place that I will probably see during my time in Spain. It. Is. Beautiful. The building itself is huge and magnificent, but the bridges, fountains, and vast amounts of blue and white tiles are what got me. There are also row boats that go in a little river around the front of the plaza, and it just makes it feel so special. We happened to be there at sunset, and everything was perfect. I don't even think I can write about it because words won't ever do it justice. We were also supposed to visit the nearby cathedral, but very unfortunately, the first group that was there before us happened to explore it at the same time that a woman decided to jump off of it. Dinner back at the hotel had a very weird vibe, because half of the students were trying to process such an awful thing. No one saw it happen, but the sound of it is equally as terrifying.

On Saturday, we woke up super early (which isn't helping the jet lag situation at all) to take a 2 hour bus ride to then take a 3.5 hour boat ride. The boat ride was up the Guadalquivir River, up to the Doñana National Park. There were countless egrets which was pretty cool to see, along with flamingos. I never thought that I would see flamingos while in Spain, but hey, the world is a weird place. The marshes along the side of the river reminded me of home, which was a weird mix of both comforting and sad. On the other side of the river, we saw cows and after a short hike to an observatory, wild boar. Once we made it back to land, we had a nice lunch at a local hotel. Well, everyone else did since it was essentially all seafood dishes and despite being from Cape Cod I strongly dislike seafood. Once it was over, we made our way to a local winery. This part of Spain is famously known for their Sherry wines, and we toured the Barbadillo winery, where we learned all about the process of how they age their wine (18-19 years!) and then got to taste some of them. First off, I felt pretty guilty about drinking wine that was the same age as I am, knowing that it took that long to make something makes it feel wrong for it to be gone in a matter of minutes. Second, there's a reason why Sherry wine is mostly used for cooking, because as a person that generally enjoys wine I hated it. Thankfully they had some more enjoyable red and white wine, so almost everyone bought a bottle at the gift shop and cleaned the place out.

Sunday involved lots of sleeping, and then skipping out on the school planned activities that ended up being cancelled anyways because of the rain. Unlike Madrid, which is still fairly busy during the siesta hours, Seville was a ghost town. Karina, Taylor, and I took the time to explore the empty streets and wander around aimlessly for a while, and it was so nice. Later that night we had a huge group dinner out at a nice restaurant, followed by a short flamenco show. Holy crap what a good workout that must be. I also spent most of the night sad I was missing the Pats game but thankful to have a great mother and friends to give me updates. Today, Monday, I woke up to news that the Pats crushed the Colts and were going to the Super Bowl. Oh, and we spent the morning exploring the Royal Palace of Seville, where they filmed parts of the upcoming season of Game of Thrones (which is so exciting!) and then the cathedral that we missed the first day there. Of course, as is everything in Spain, these were breathtaking. This is obviously super simplified, but I am too exhausted to write about everything that happened. Maybe if they didn't make us wake up early every night and allowed us to conquer our never-ending jet lag I could write more, but for now I'm just anxiously awaiting whatever adventure comes next.

The First Two Days

DAY 1: My first day in Madrid was nothing short of exhausting. After being awake for well over 24 hours before even making it to my apartment, sitting around and waiting for hours at a time is much more taxing than one would think. Three planes and two bus rides later, though, my 7 roommates and I made it to our apartment, which is right off of the Opera metro stop, and a short walk from places like the Opera House, Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and the Royal Palace, which happens to be my back yard. Our apartment is big - much bigger than what I had imagined - which is good because I was constantly worried about how 8 girls were going to fit in an apartment in the middle of the city. We have a nice living room, decently spaced kitchen, and two full bathrooms.

Although this is the longest I've ever gone in my life without sleep, I was determined to beat jet lag and refrained from napping or falling asleep for good. We decided to go out and explore our neighborhood and surrounding area, and after over an hour of walking, getting lost, and not being able to find a store with shampoo that was under 8 euro, we finally managed to find a tiny supermarket and a restaurant to eat at...eating food was also something that hadn't happened in hours as well. The language barrier was difficult to deal with, especially in restaurants even though most waiters speak English. Spaniards speak SO quickly at first it's hard to believe they're even saying anything recognizable at all. That plus jet lag makes for frustration and immediate homesickness, it's all very overwhelming, especially for someone who is a huge homebody.

DAY 2: After what felt like the best night's sleep of my life, I had to pry myself out of bed for a few hours of orientation. My school is about 8 metro stops away, and the Metro is life changing. Although line 6, or the silver line, is about 5 escalator rides deep into the earth, the trains and stations themselves are unbelievably clean, fast, and organized. Basically the exact opposite of the T in Boston. It's going to be hard to switch back to the elusive T once I come home...it's almost cruel how nice the Metro is. Afterwards, two of my friends from Boston came back to my apartment to explore the area again, this time in a better mindset than yesterday after getting some sleep. Everywhere you turn here, there is a street or a building that you can't help but stare at. The architecture of every building here is so unique and beautiful, something you don't get to see very often in the US. The Royal Palace, which is the largest in Europe, is so wonderful in the literal sense of the word. It's more an experience than anything else. The three of us sat down at an outdoor restaurant type place, and I had my first legal beer. We sat and chatted and admired all of the beauty that is everything around us, and decided that while pictures are nice, even the best picture really can't capture what it's like seeing these places in person. We also spent half the time arguing over who would ask our waiter if they had wifi or not. It's hard to go from having data and being addicted to your phone and social media to only having it a few hours a day. Turns out he also spoke English and most likely heard Karina yelling at as to ask him so we would practice our Spanish. So there's that.

Later on in the evening, after an interesting meeting with our landlords who are an adorable older couple who speak barely any English at all, I met Delaney and she brought me to a famous Chocolateria where I had first churros con chocolate ever and the world will never be the same. Those things are dangerously delicious. She also showed me Plaza Mayor, another one of her favorite little plazas, and La Latina. La Latina is the oldest or one of the oldest (I'm not sure which) neighborhoods in Madrid, and it's also home to the world's oldest restaurant. I don't know how they know that for sure, but it's in the Guinness Book of World Records, so if that counts for anything. We also walked around a very pretty, very popular market place. It was nice having someone there from home who is also familiar with Madrid. She's full of helpful tips and is my insight to spanish slang, thanks to the little kiddies that she teaches. Once I got home I found out that I couldn't fit under the shower head in our shower, so I decided to sleep before things got any worse.