So even though I hate flan, Encarnita taught me how to make it today. I can make it for other people, but I don't think I'll be eating any of it.
-Heat the metal mold
-Add 3 spoonfuls of sugar and 1 of water & heat until it caramelizes in the mold
-Heat 2 cups of milk in separate pan
-Put 3 eggs in a bowl & stir
-Can add a little bit of liquor to the milk or if you want to make coffee flavored you can put coffee in with the milk
-Put 6 spoonfuls of sugar in milk that is heating up
-Stir milk & sugar slowly always stirring in the same direction
-Let sugar & water boil for a little bit until it caramelizes & turns brown--the browner it is, the better
-Move caramelized sugar around mold so it covers & coats the whole mold
-Pour milk mixture into eggs little by little & mix, then pour it into the mold
-Put aluminum foil on top of mold & put lid on mold
-Put mold in double boiler (oja de presion--pan w/ holes & water in bottom of bigger pot)
-Cook on low for 1 hour over flame
-Let it cool to room temperature--put in fridge after
-Cut around edges later & flip onto plate
Arroz (Rice)
I love this rice that senora makes, so I asked her to teach me how to make it. I seriously could eat it every day!
-Cover the bottom of a big pan with virgin olive oil, then put cut up onion and green peppers in oil
-Heat in another pot water, cut up carrots, cut up cauliflower, bay leaves, saffron coloring (pot should be full of water)
-Add cut up garlic clove to green peppers & onion
-Put big plate of rice in with the oil, peppers, onion, & garlic, then stir
-Add one big spoonful of salt to the pot with the rice
-Add cup of peas to the pot with the carrots & water, etc. then carefully pour this pot into the big pot with the rice on high flame
-Add lemon juice from one lemon & a little bit of water (to rinse lemon juice container)
-Cook on low flame for 20 min
Berenjenas Fritas (Fried Eggplant) --can also cook apples or bananas this way
-Wash eggplant and cut into thin pieces
-Place pieces of eggplant in salt for 30 min (no more) to soak up the liquid
-In a dish, put 1 egg, some flour & milk and stir until it is creamy (but a still a little runny)
-Put eggplant in the mixture in the dish--cover both sides of each piece
-Put olive oil in bottom of pan & heat the oil until it is really hot
-Put eggplant pieces in the oil and fry them
Senora said something about putting a pepper in the oil so it doesn't turn black, but I'm not sure what she was talking about. Hopefully mom or someone already knows this trick.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Another weekend in Madrid
July 8-11, 2010
I had another awesome weekend in Madrid a couple weeks ago! This is what it was like...
Friday
Since every store in Madrid has 50-70% off on practically the entire store, we decided to do a little shopping in Sol to get a few things we have been needing. We picked up some souvenirs for friends, and finallyyyyy got churros con choolate! They were so good! I could have drank the chocolate straight--it was so creamy. We went to Plaza Mayor afterward to try to find some paintings of Madrid, but didn't have any luck so we bought some prints instead. Our last stop before we had to head back for dinner was La Almudena. On the way there, we found this cuteeee market called Mercado de San Miguel. You could see everything inside through the huge windows, and it all looked amazing! I heard the dried fruit stand there is awesome, so I'm hoping to go back and try it before we leave Madrid. We walked through a really pretty plaza called Plaza de la Villa. It has the statue A Don Alvaro de Bazan and is right next to the church Iglesia Catedral Castrense.
We got to La Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena, which is the cathedral right behind Palacio Real. It almost looks like two different churches when you are standing on different sides of it. Most of it is baby blue and white, but one side is brown and tan. Felipe, Prince of Asturias (heir to the Spanish throne) married Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (a reporter) in this church. We took a little peak inside the church, and headed back home for dinner.
Saturday
I spent the entire day with Encarnita on Saturday :) It was cute! We went to el cine (the cinema) to see a movie called El Concierto. Encarnita lovesssss classical music, and she was humming the songs during the movie. Before we went, she told me if I don't understand the movie completely, I could at least enjoy the music. I didn't think I would like the movie much at first because I didn't really understand the main character's obsession with directing orchestras until the plot developed more. By the end, though, I really liked it. I surprisingly could understand the whole movie without English or Spanish subtitles. It made me realize how much my Spanish really has improved since I've been here. At school, when we watched movies in Spanish class, I used to always need at least Spanish subtitles to understand anything. The voices were dubbed over too (I think it was a French movie originally), which made it a little more difficult because I couldn't read their lips while listening to them speak. If I didn't look at their lips and just listened to them, it was much easier. Encarnita told me I was the first student to go to the movies with her. That was hard to believe because she has had sooo many students over the years. She said other students would watch movies in English or with English subtitles after she watched the movie in the cinema and then they would talk about it afterward, but I was the first to actually go to the cinema with her.
After the movie, we walked home. We stopped in a few stores so Encarnita could look around on the way. It was nice to just spend some time with her--walking & talking. We stopped at a couple of plant stores and she told me how much she loved magnolias. When we got home, we only had about 20 minutes to cool off and rest before it was time to walk to church. We went to her church--La Basilica de la Merced. During mass, all of the old Spanish ladies were fanning themselves the whole time because it was so hot in there--it was adorable :) The church was huge, and it seems like they have service allll of the time(as soon as our service finished, another one started, so the church wasn't even 1/4 full. At the front of the church, there was a really modern looking sculpture of Jesus made out of metal. It was really neat--I've never seen anything like it in a church before. The prayers we said were exactly like the ones we say in Catholic churches in the U.S. (other than it being in a different language).
Encarnita LOVES the priest there. She is knitting him a scarf right now. During mass, she kept talking about how great of a speaker he was. She was so funny during mass too. when it was time to stand up, she was always the first to stand up. When it was time to sit down, she was always the first one in her seat. When we were saying a prayer, she would say it so loudly & say it a couple words ahead of everyone else there. She reminded me of a little kid proud of what she knew, kind of trying to show off how she knew everything by heart. It was so funny :) When they needed another person to help collect the offering, she was the first person to run up there. As soon as mass was over, she skipped over to the door to the back, and we went in the back room to talk to the priests. We talked to them for awhile--about the scarves she was knitting, the classes I am taking, sayings that are really unique to Spain, food, art, and all sorts of things. Afterward, we walked back home. ON the way, we ran into a bunch of people she knew. She was telling me about how she knows everyone in the world when we passed a couple guys & they said "Holaaaaa". We both said "Hola", then she said, "Wait, I don't know them. Anytime you get an 'Holaaaa' from someone you don't know like that, he is saying, 'I want to be with you.'" She's so funny~ We got home, had dinner, & stayed in for the night.
Sunday
Sunday was a busy, and exciting day. We walked to Museo de Sorolla first. This museum has the majority of Sorolla's paintings and drawings. It is so neat because the museum actually used to be Sorolla's house! There was a cute, little garden/patio in the front. Some of his paintings that we saw were The White Slave Trade, The Pink Robe, and Siesta. I love his stuff. Seeing all of his paintings made me want to paint something with water in it. So right now I'm painting one of Monet's landscapes with water in the background. I think it is going to be my favorite painting I've ever done. I want to do a painting sometime with kids in the water--kind of similar to some of Sorolla's paintings. Sorolla used one of the rooms in his house to hang all of his most recent paintings and those that were for sale. He used it as an exhibition room. This was the room that was dedicated to all of his beach scenes. The furniture in this room is the exact same furniture that Sorolla had in it. So cool! He painted the fruit and leaves that bordered his dining room too. The basement was full of his pottery--there was sooo much of it! It is such an awesome museum :) :) :)
Next, we went to the Reina Sofia (Queen Sophie--the current Spanish queen) art museum. The first thing we saw at the Reina Sofia were the cool, glass elevators on the outside. They were awesome! They had Reina Sofia written down the side of them. We went inside and went to the second floor--where the permanent collection starts. We saw a lot of Miro, Dali, and Picasso here. Some specific paintings we saw were Manuel Angeles Ortiz's Still-Life, Dali's El Enigma de Hitler, and Picasso's Crying Heads. The Reina Sofia also has La Guernica!!! We learned all about this painting in my Spanish classes at SLU, and I couldn't believe I was standing in front of it. Picasso painted it in response to the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian warplanes by request of the Spanish Nationalist forces in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. This painting shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts on innocent people. The shape and posture of the bodies express protest. The black, white, and gray colors give it a somber feel. Incredible...
We saw some of Dali's work before he really developed his own style, like Girl at the Window. It's the most realistic painting I think I have seen of his. We saw Angeles Santos Torroella's A World and Robert Delaunay's Portrait of Tristan Tzara. There was a square in the middle of the museum with gorgeous trees and some interesting sculptures. There was this one room in the museum that was kind of strange. It was this room that looked like it could be someone's office. It had a wall full of beautiful wooden cabinets, two leather chairs in the middle, and right in front of the cabinets was a wooden, spiral staircase. At the top of the staircase there were only two paintings hanging on the white walls--one of Bugs Bunny and one of Mickey Mouse. It was interesting.
We went to the first floor of the museum where all of the modern art was. I love modern art, but it makes it really difficult for me because I always want to touch the artwork or play with it. There was a boat made out of clay thumbs, a painting of footsteps of how to do a dance, and so many other cool things! There was one that was hanging from the ceiling that had a bunch of random things on it and some pots and pans, and every once in awhile it would drop down or move up and make so much noise that everyone would jump--especially the people walking underneath it! We went to ground zero of the museum too, which was verryyyyy interesting. It had a model Chinese house in the middle of the room, some disturbing nude photos that looked like they could be the cover of a porno, lifeguard chairs spaced randomly around the room so you could climb up onto the chairs to look at the huge pieces of art, random books hanging from the ceiling with magnifying glasses/binoculars attached to them, a video playing at the top of the platform, and so many other random things! After we were done on this floor, we decided to go out onto the terrace. It was so nice up there, and there was a great view.
After the Reina Sofia, we decided to get some tapas at a nearby restaurant called Los Zuritos. We had potatoes in spicy sauce (that wasn't really spicy at all but still delicious), and a little kebab with bread. It was so good! We went back home after the Reina Sofia to get ready for final game of the world cup! Then we headed back to the Prado for round two. We finished seeing all of the masterpieces there, we headed out to join the crazy fans on their way to Plaza de Cibeles! I already wrote a blog about what happened the rest of the night and all of the craziness of the World Cup, so if you read that, you can see how my night ended! :)
A couple random things at the house....
So usually I love Encarnita's cooking, and I eat all of my food and even some of Preethi's, but lately, we've found ourselves having to sneak food to the trash can on the street. The bread she gives me for breakfast has been as hard as a rock these past couple weeks. At first, I just threw it in the garbage. Then she asked me how my breakfast was (which she never does) so I'm guessing she saw it. Then I tried breaking the bread into pieces and flushing it down the toilet, but some pieces were so hard that they wouldn't flush, so I had to look for a different option. Then I thought about the homeless people I pass by on the way to school & decided to wrap the bread in toilet paper or a napkin and give it to them. So that's what I've been doing practically every day. It's a little more difficult to do now, though, because she is on vacation from work so she is home all the time. She never used to be home when I ate breakfast. I have to wrap the bread in a napkin and shove it in my bra or in my shorts when she isn't looking to sneak back to my room until I leave for class haha! It's pretty funny. I felt bad about wasting the bread before, so now I'm glad that I can give it to someone who needs it. I still get out a knife and my jam and dip the knife in the jar to make it look like I used it. I didn't do it at first because I thought the bread was just going to be hard that one time, but now that it is every day, I have to make it look like I'm eating it.
One time for dinner, Preethi couldn't eat her peas & potatoes & bacon because she thought they tasted funny. There were a little overcooked, but I ate them anyway. I had to eat like the whole pot because Preethi wouldn't eat any though, so I couldn't eat my dessert. 1) Because I was too full and 2) Because it was flan! I hateeeee flan. It is so disgusting to me--something about the consistency just makes me want to vomit. Preethi loves it, though, and she ate her flan but not her dinner. So we had basically an entire dinner that we couldn't eat. We decided to eat slowly and wait until Encarnita was snoring to sneak it out to the trash can on the street. We looked pretty ridiculous wearing our PJ's and carrying our trays of food out on the street to empty into the trash can. I felt like I was 10 years old all over again.
Another time, Preethi and I got back late after Encarnita was in bed. She left us dinner in the fridge to heat up since we knew we would be back late. It was salad, tortilla espanola, and fruit with milk and cinnamon for dessert. All of it was really good, but we just weren't hungry. I don't know if it was the heat or what. It was in the 100's that day and we have no AC or fans here. I stuffed down the dinner anyway, but couldn't eat the dessert. Preethi didn't eat anything really, so we had so much food to get rid of. We decided to give it to the kittens down the street that I found when Encarnita and I went to church! We put the food that would rot in the sun in the trash can and gave the rest to the little kittens and their mom and dad. I hope she didn't walk by and see our dinner sitting on a Blanco bag (a bag from a store we like). She would have known it was us for sure!
Another thing I wanted to write down was something Encarnita told me the other day. I thought it was so cute. I don't remember how we got on the topic, but she was telling me that the person who will always love me the most is my mother. She said a mother loves her child no matter what. She said that first it is the mother, then it is the father, then the grandparents, and then sometimes the siblings, and that friends come and go, but family is there for you always.
We were talking about what Spanish soccer players we loved another time. Preethi likes Torres, and I love Villa and Casillas. We were talking about them and about how Casillas met his journalist girlfriend, and she told us that we need different careers. She said that the only people Preethi would meet would be cancer patients, and the only people I'd meet would be the fathers of the kids I saw. She said this is no good--we need different careers! Later on she asked me if I didn't know how to answer her or what. She said I should be telling her that I don't need a man to make me happy in life. She doesn't have kids of her own, which is why she has students live with her all of the time. She was with a man for about 10 years, but machismo is really big over here. Machismo is basically like sexism--guys think they are better than girls so they treat women like objects. She said the guy she was with was like that--not in his actions but in thought, so it didn't work out. She said it was a good thing that it didn't work out, though, because otherwise she never would have met me.
Random Europe things...
One thing that is extremely different here than it is in the States is the time waiters/waitresses give you at restaurants. People in Europe usually take their time when they eaet and will stay in restaurants after they finish eating for hours. They will sit and talk and have coffee. The waiters and waitresses won't rush you out or even bring you the check until you ask for it. It's nice, unless you are in a hurry--then you have to like chase them down to get the check. Spanish time is kind of like Honduran time too--it's custom to be late. Tipping is different here too. It doesn't really exist, actually. We didn't find this out until a couple weeks in after we had been tipping everywhere. We wondered why the taxi driver was so surprised when we told him to keep the change, and why another driver called us beautiful only after we tipped him. Most people who live here told us that the only time you tip is if you really like the service and food, you can leave a euro or two. The only place I went to where people tipped regularly was Lisbon.
Another thing that is different is the amount of personal space people give each other. It is normal to give a stranger a kiss on each cheek when you first meet them (besos). I's not really a kiss, more like rubbing your cheeks against theirs. People stand so close to each other when they talk too. It almost looks like they are trying to tell each other secrets, but it's just custom here. Just a couple things that are different here.
I had another awesome weekend in Madrid a couple weeks ago! This is what it was like...
Friday
Since every store in Madrid has 50-70% off on practically the entire store, we decided to do a little shopping in Sol to get a few things we have been needing. We picked up some souvenirs for friends, and finallyyyyy got churros con choolate! They were so good! I could have drank the chocolate straight--it was so creamy. We went to Plaza Mayor afterward to try to find some paintings of Madrid, but didn't have any luck so we bought some prints instead. Our last stop before we had to head back for dinner was La Almudena. On the way there, we found this cuteeee market called Mercado de San Miguel. You could see everything inside through the huge windows, and it all looked amazing! I heard the dried fruit stand there is awesome, so I'm hoping to go back and try it before we leave Madrid. We walked through a really pretty plaza called Plaza de la Villa. It has the statue A Don Alvaro de Bazan and is right next to the church Iglesia Catedral Castrense.
We got to La Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena, which is the cathedral right behind Palacio Real. It almost looks like two different churches when you are standing on different sides of it. Most of it is baby blue and white, but one side is brown and tan. Felipe, Prince of Asturias (heir to the Spanish throne) married Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano (a reporter) in this church. We took a little peak inside the church, and headed back home for dinner.
Saturday
I spent the entire day with Encarnita on Saturday :) It was cute! We went to el cine (the cinema) to see a movie called El Concierto. Encarnita lovesssss classical music, and she was humming the songs during the movie. Before we went, she told me if I don't understand the movie completely, I could at least enjoy the music. I didn't think I would like the movie much at first because I didn't really understand the main character's obsession with directing orchestras until the plot developed more. By the end, though, I really liked it. I surprisingly could understand the whole movie without English or Spanish subtitles. It made me realize how much my Spanish really has improved since I've been here. At school, when we watched movies in Spanish class, I used to always need at least Spanish subtitles to understand anything. The voices were dubbed over too (I think it was a French movie originally), which made it a little more difficult because I couldn't read their lips while listening to them speak. If I didn't look at their lips and just listened to them, it was much easier. Encarnita told me I was the first student to go to the movies with her. That was hard to believe because she has had sooo many students over the years. She said other students would watch movies in English or with English subtitles after she watched the movie in the cinema and then they would talk about it afterward, but I was the first to actually go to the cinema with her.
After the movie, we walked home. We stopped in a few stores so Encarnita could look around on the way. It was nice to just spend some time with her--walking & talking. We stopped at a couple of plant stores and she told me how much she loved magnolias. When we got home, we only had about 20 minutes to cool off and rest before it was time to walk to church. We went to her church--La Basilica de la Merced. During mass, all of the old Spanish ladies were fanning themselves the whole time because it was so hot in there--it was adorable :) The church was huge, and it seems like they have service allll of the time(as soon as our service finished, another one started, so the church wasn't even 1/4 full. At the front of the church, there was a really modern looking sculpture of Jesus made out of metal. It was really neat--I've never seen anything like it in a church before. The prayers we said were exactly like the ones we say in Catholic churches in the U.S. (other than it being in a different language).
Encarnita LOVES the priest there. She is knitting him a scarf right now. During mass, she kept talking about how great of a speaker he was. She was so funny during mass too. when it was time to stand up, she was always the first to stand up. When it was time to sit down, she was always the first one in her seat. When we were saying a prayer, she would say it so loudly & say it a couple words ahead of everyone else there. She reminded me of a little kid proud of what she knew, kind of trying to show off how she knew everything by heart. It was so funny :) When they needed another person to help collect the offering, she was the first person to run up there. As soon as mass was over, she skipped over to the door to the back, and we went in the back room to talk to the priests. We talked to them for awhile--about the scarves she was knitting, the classes I am taking, sayings that are really unique to Spain, food, art, and all sorts of things. Afterward, we walked back home. ON the way, we ran into a bunch of people she knew. She was telling me about how she knows everyone in the world when we passed a couple guys & they said "Holaaaaa". We both said "Hola", then she said, "Wait, I don't know them. Anytime you get an 'Holaaaa' from someone you don't know like that, he is saying, 'I want to be with you.'" She's so funny~ We got home, had dinner, & stayed in for the night.
Sunday
Sunday was a busy, and exciting day. We walked to Museo de Sorolla first. This museum has the majority of Sorolla's paintings and drawings. It is so neat because the museum actually used to be Sorolla's house! There was a cute, little garden/patio in the front. Some of his paintings that we saw were The White Slave Trade, The Pink Robe, and Siesta. I love his stuff. Seeing all of his paintings made me want to paint something with water in it. So right now I'm painting one of Monet's landscapes with water in the background. I think it is going to be my favorite painting I've ever done. I want to do a painting sometime with kids in the water--kind of similar to some of Sorolla's paintings. Sorolla used one of the rooms in his house to hang all of his most recent paintings and those that were for sale. He used it as an exhibition room. This was the room that was dedicated to all of his beach scenes. The furniture in this room is the exact same furniture that Sorolla had in it. So cool! He painted the fruit and leaves that bordered his dining room too. The basement was full of his pottery--there was sooo much of it! It is such an awesome museum :) :) :)
Next, we went to the Reina Sofia (Queen Sophie--the current Spanish queen) art museum. The first thing we saw at the Reina Sofia were the cool, glass elevators on the outside. They were awesome! They had Reina Sofia written down the side of them. We went inside and went to the second floor--where the permanent collection starts. We saw a lot of Miro, Dali, and Picasso here. Some specific paintings we saw were Manuel Angeles Ortiz's Still-Life, Dali's El Enigma de Hitler, and Picasso's Crying Heads. The Reina Sofia also has La Guernica!!! We learned all about this painting in my Spanish classes at SLU, and I couldn't believe I was standing in front of it. Picasso painted it in response to the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian warplanes by request of the Spanish Nationalist forces in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. This painting shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts on innocent people. The shape and posture of the bodies express protest. The black, white, and gray colors give it a somber feel. Incredible...
We saw some of Dali's work before he really developed his own style, like Girl at the Window. It's the most realistic painting I think I have seen of his. We saw Angeles Santos Torroella's A World and Robert Delaunay's Portrait of Tristan Tzara. There was a square in the middle of the museum with gorgeous trees and some interesting sculptures. There was this one room in the museum that was kind of strange. It was this room that looked like it could be someone's office. It had a wall full of beautiful wooden cabinets, two leather chairs in the middle, and right in front of the cabinets was a wooden, spiral staircase. At the top of the staircase there were only two paintings hanging on the white walls--one of Bugs Bunny and one of Mickey Mouse. It was interesting.
We went to the first floor of the museum where all of the modern art was. I love modern art, but it makes it really difficult for me because I always want to touch the artwork or play with it. There was a boat made out of clay thumbs, a painting of footsteps of how to do a dance, and so many other cool things! There was one that was hanging from the ceiling that had a bunch of random things on it and some pots and pans, and every once in awhile it would drop down or move up and make so much noise that everyone would jump--especially the people walking underneath it! We went to ground zero of the museum too, which was verryyyyy interesting. It had a model Chinese house in the middle of the room, some disturbing nude photos that looked like they could be the cover of a porno, lifeguard chairs spaced randomly around the room so you could climb up onto the chairs to look at the huge pieces of art, random books hanging from the ceiling with magnifying glasses/binoculars attached to them, a video playing at the top of the platform, and so many other random things! After we were done on this floor, we decided to go out onto the terrace. It was so nice up there, and there was a great view.
After the Reina Sofia, we decided to get some tapas at a nearby restaurant called Los Zuritos. We had potatoes in spicy sauce (that wasn't really spicy at all but still delicious), and a little kebab with bread. It was so good! We went back home after the Reina Sofia to get ready for final game of the world cup! Then we headed back to the Prado for round two. We finished seeing all of the masterpieces there, we headed out to join the crazy fans on their way to Plaza de Cibeles! I already wrote a blog about what happened the rest of the night and all of the craziness of the World Cup, so if you read that, you can see how my night ended! :)
A couple random things at the house....
So usually I love Encarnita's cooking, and I eat all of my food and even some of Preethi's, but lately, we've found ourselves having to sneak food to the trash can on the street. The bread she gives me for breakfast has been as hard as a rock these past couple weeks. At first, I just threw it in the garbage. Then she asked me how my breakfast was (which she never does) so I'm guessing she saw it. Then I tried breaking the bread into pieces and flushing it down the toilet, but some pieces were so hard that they wouldn't flush, so I had to look for a different option. Then I thought about the homeless people I pass by on the way to school & decided to wrap the bread in toilet paper or a napkin and give it to them. So that's what I've been doing practically every day. It's a little more difficult to do now, though, because she is on vacation from work so she is home all the time. She never used to be home when I ate breakfast. I have to wrap the bread in a napkin and shove it in my bra or in my shorts when she isn't looking to sneak back to my room until I leave for class haha! It's pretty funny. I felt bad about wasting the bread before, so now I'm glad that I can give it to someone who needs it. I still get out a knife and my jam and dip the knife in the jar to make it look like I used it. I didn't do it at first because I thought the bread was just going to be hard that one time, but now that it is every day, I have to make it look like I'm eating it.
One time for dinner, Preethi couldn't eat her peas & potatoes & bacon because she thought they tasted funny. There were a little overcooked, but I ate them anyway. I had to eat like the whole pot because Preethi wouldn't eat any though, so I couldn't eat my dessert. 1) Because I was too full and 2) Because it was flan! I hateeeee flan. It is so disgusting to me--something about the consistency just makes me want to vomit. Preethi loves it, though, and she ate her flan but not her dinner. So we had basically an entire dinner that we couldn't eat. We decided to eat slowly and wait until Encarnita was snoring to sneak it out to the trash can on the street. We looked pretty ridiculous wearing our PJ's and carrying our trays of food out on the street to empty into the trash can. I felt like I was 10 years old all over again.
Another time, Preethi and I got back late after Encarnita was in bed. She left us dinner in the fridge to heat up since we knew we would be back late. It was salad, tortilla espanola, and fruit with milk and cinnamon for dessert. All of it was really good, but we just weren't hungry. I don't know if it was the heat or what. It was in the 100's that day and we have no AC or fans here. I stuffed down the dinner anyway, but couldn't eat the dessert. Preethi didn't eat anything really, so we had so much food to get rid of. We decided to give it to the kittens down the street that I found when Encarnita and I went to church! We put the food that would rot in the sun in the trash can and gave the rest to the little kittens and their mom and dad. I hope she didn't walk by and see our dinner sitting on a Blanco bag (a bag from a store we like). She would have known it was us for sure!
Another thing I wanted to write down was something Encarnita told me the other day. I thought it was so cute. I don't remember how we got on the topic, but she was telling me that the person who will always love me the most is my mother. She said a mother loves her child no matter what. She said that first it is the mother, then it is the father, then the grandparents, and then sometimes the siblings, and that friends come and go, but family is there for you always.
We were talking about what Spanish soccer players we loved another time. Preethi likes Torres, and I love Villa and Casillas. We were talking about them and about how Casillas met his journalist girlfriend, and she told us that we need different careers. She said that the only people Preethi would meet would be cancer patients, and the only people I'd meet would be the fathers of the kids I saw. She said this is no good--we need different careers! Later on she asked me if I didn't know how to answer her or what. She said I should be telling her that I don't need a man to make me happy in life. She doesn't have kids of her own, which is why she has students live with her all of the time. She was with a man for about 10 years, but machismo is really big over here. Machismo is basically like sexism--guys think they are better than girls so they treat women like objects. She said the guy she was with was like that--not in his actions but in thought, so it didn't work out. She said it was a good thing that it didn't work out, though, because otherwise she never would have met me.
Random Europe things...
One thing that is extremely different here than it is in the States is the time waiters/waitresses give you at restaurants. People in Europe usually take their time when they eaet and will stay in restaurants after they finish eating for hours. They will sit and talk and have coffee. The waiters and waitresses won't rush you out or even bring you the check until you ask for it. It's nice, unless you are in a hurry--then you have to like chase them down to get the check. Spanish time is kind of like Honduran time too--it's custom to be late. Tipping is different here too. It doesn't really exist, actually. We didn't find this out until a couple weeks in after we had been tipping everywhere. We wondered why the taxi driver was so surprised when we told him to keep the change, and why another driver called us beautiful only after we tipped him. Most people who live here told us that the only time you tip is if you really like the service and food, you can leave a euro or two. The only place I went to where people tipped regularly was Lisbon.
Another thing that is different is the amount of personal space people give each other. It is normal to give a stranger a kiss on each cheek when you first meet them (besos). I's not really a kiss, more like rubbing your cheeks against theirs. People stand so close to each other when they talk too. It almost looks like they are trying to tell each other secrets, but it's just custom here. Just a couple things that are different here.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Brussels
June 26 & 27, 2010
We arrived at the Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid station Saturday morning. Belgium has 3 official languages: Dutch, French, and German. Since we were in the south, they spoke mostly French. Most people could speak a little English too, so we got around fine. We followed the directions that the hostel gave us and found Hotel Van Belle. We had a not so pleasant surprise once we got there, though. Preethi had booked the hostel for the wrong night (the 25th instead of the 26th), so her card was charged for the 25th, and the guy working said there was no way to transfer the payment. He said he had an opening, but we would have to pay for that night too. We spent a good two or three hours in the lobby and on the computer in the backroom trying to figure out what we were going to. When we told him we were going to sleep in the airport, he said that he could transfer the payment to a single room if we wanted. Of course we took that offer! We had to share a twin bed for the night, but as long as we had a place to sleep and shower, I was happy.
The hotel problem made us have a late start, but we still saw a lot for the first day. The first thing we did was walk in town to the city center to get some lunch. We ended up eating at this doner kebab place. I had this pot pie kind of thing, a taco that wasn't really a taco but was still good, and vlaamse frites. While we were downtown, we ran into this parade that I'm guessing was for Luxembourg since Manneken-Pis was wearing the traditional costume of Luxembourg that day. There were people wearing these massive costumes (that are really hard to describe)and were dancing and twirling in circles. There were other people dressed up too, and a funny old guy kept coming up to random people to dance with them :)
After lunch, we went to Grand Place (Grote Markt), which is where the parade ended. Some people consider Grand Place to be the most beautiful square in the world. It is surrounded by Flemish Renaissance-baroque guild houses from the 17th century, the neo-Gothic King's House, and the 15th-century Gothic Town Hall. The 300-ft tower of the Town Hall bears a spire, on which perches the archangel Michael--patron saint of the city. The Museum of the City of Brussels is also in the square and has some of Manneken Pis's 570 colorful costumes on display. I was kind of bummed that we didn't get to see the flower carpet, but it is only there for one weekend out of the entire year so I guess I can't be too disappointed. I saw pictures of it though, and it looks incredible! The first flower carpet was created in 1971 by E. Stautemens. The carpet is usually about 77 x 24 m--huge!! We spent some time looking around the square, admiring the buildings, and looking at paintings. We ended up buying some artwork there when we came back to the square later on.
Right outside of the square and under the arches of the Maison de l'Etoile is the gold statue of Everard 't Serclaes, a hero of 14th century Brussels. Touching the arm of the statue is said to bring good luck so people were like stroking her arm up and down foreverrr (haha!). Definitely had to wash my hands after that.
Our next stop was Manneken-Pis (Little Boy Peeing). We saw tons of cute shops on the way there though. We drooled as we passed the Belgian waffle shops and went into the Belgian chocolate shops to try some samples! We passed a lot of cute lace shops on the way too. Manneken-Pis is a statue/fountain of a little boy peeing. He is the "oldest citizen of Brussels", dating back to 1619. They dress him up in one of his 570 costumes on holidays (& it seems like there's a holiday every day in Brussels!).
We decided to find Jeanneke Pis (Little Girl Peeing) afterward. She's not as well known and is set within a wall, hidden behind bars. She was in the back of a little alley called Impasse de la Fidelite (Fidelity Alley) that was hard to find! I think her pig tails make her look like an elf, and for some reason she reminded me of characters from Peter Pan. We took a wrong turn before we found her, walked through a little outdoor mall, and bought souvenirs. Jeanneke is right next to Delirium cafe (Pink Elephant Bar), which was super convenient! Delirium Cafe is a bar that offers 2004 different beers from all over the world! They even hold the Guinness world record for most beers available. You should see their menu of beers--it's the size of an encyclopedia or a dictionary or something! It is a really cute place! Beer bottles line the wall along the spiral-like staircase on the way to the basement. They have a bunch of old signs hanging up tool I loved their huge barrels down in the basement that they used as tables, and the pink elephants and giant beer caps all over the ceiling! I got a Floris Framboise (strawberry beer) that was delicious! Preethi and I went up to the bar to the order, and when we came back to our big barrel table, there were 6 guys sitting there. The place was packed and there wasn't anywhere else to sit, so we decided to share the barrel. They were actually having a bachelor party for one of the guys getting married. The groom had us sign his white tee with signatures all over it. Of the six guys, 4 of them got strawberry beer which I thought was pretty funny. One of the two guys who didn't get a strawberry beer let me try his Delirium Tremens (the other beer I was thinking about getting). It was pretty good, but I'm glad I got my strawberry beer :) Yummyyy Belgian beer! They shared some of their Paprika Lay's with us, then we headed out to do some more sightseeing.
On our way to the Royal Palace, we saw a gorgeous library and art museum. We also saw the sculpture made by Alxander Calder for the US pavilion of the 1958 Brussels expo. The black, rotating sculpture sits in a fountain overlooking Mont des Arts. The view of the garden is absolutely amazing! After enjoying the view for awhile, we went to the Royal Palace--the official palace of the King of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capital. It isn't used as a royal residence, though. The king and his family live in the Royal Castle of Laeken.
We went to Park van Brussel next, which is right behind the Royal Palace. It was nice, quiet park with lots of secluded places, statues, and fountains. I loved it :) We went to St. Michael's Cathedral afterward--aka the fake Notre Dame. I swear Brussels is trying to Paris. They had a fake Notre Dame, a fake Arc de Triomphe, they speak French, and they had little carts for escargot near the square. I don't get it. They had these funny looking benches face the cathedral that we laid on for awhile.
It was dinnertime by then, so we stopped at this Thai restaurant that we hoped would be the Wok to Walk of Brussels. It was good! Preethi and I split a sampler plate and some noodles, and I had a Jupiler beer. We went to Grand Place again on our way back to the hotel to buy some artwork, then we called it a night. I passed out as soon as we got to our room, and Preethi worked on her speech until late that night so we really only had to share the twin sized bed for a few hours. I was sound asleep so I didn't even notice.
We woke up early Sunday morning to enjoy the day before we had to catch the bus back to the airport. We were hesitant to eat the breakfast at the hotel in the morning since the guy already gave us the room pretty much for free, but he saw us in the lobby and told us not to miss out on breakfast. We headed to the dining area and enjoyed the all you can eat breakfast, coffee, and tea. It was great! One of the better breakfasts that we've had at a hostel. We filled up our water bottles, and left for Atomium!
Atomium is the symbol of Brussels--just as the Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris. It is a cluster of giant metal-clad spheres that was built for the 1958 World's Fair. It is enormous! Very unique too--I haven't seen anything like it before. They were setting up for a festival/party when we were there, but unfortunately we didn't have time to stick around for it. We took the metro to go see the Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. By the way, the metro in Brussels is an even bigger joke than the one in Paris. You can only pay in coins or with a credit card--no matter how much whatever you're buying costs. After spending 20 minutes finding a place to exchange money for coins, we bought our all day passes, walked down to the platform, and realized that we didn't need to buy one at all. Some people were scanning their passes on this little machine at the bottom of a pole, but most people were just getting on and off without tickets. There was nothing regulating who comes in or leaves. I don't know if it is just accepted that nobody buys tickets there or if they have people come around randomly to check if you have a ticket or what.
Anyway, we stopped at the EU headquarters on the way to Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. It was kind of anticlimatic--the building wasn't anything special. There's a really cute park in front of the arch though. There were a lot of people laying out and reading books there. The cinquantenaire arch was built to mark the 50th anniversary of Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. There was a green energy festival thing going on in front of the arch. They had this huge solar panel laying out that I think was powering everything there.
Our last stop was a final trip to Grand Place to buy chocolate and Belgian waffles. I got some chocolates that didn't have any traces of gluten in them for my family (gave it to them in Lisbon), and Preethi and I each got a gigantic waffle with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup! We should have just split one. It was too much for one person! It was delicious!! They gave us these little bitty forks to eat them with, so we had chocolate and cream ALLL over! We were eating them on this step in front of a church across from Manneken-Pis, and this creepy 40 year old guy kind of started ruining the experience. He walked next to us, smiling and staring. It was weird. Preethi asked if he needed to get into the church, and he just shook his head and kept smiling. When he didn't leave, she asked him if he needed anything, and he shook his head and thankfully left. Manneken-Pis was wearing a maroon costume that day. Sorry I got to cut this one a little short--I'm late for class!
We arrived at the Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid station Saturday morning. Belgium has 3 official languages: Dutch, French, and German. Since we were in the south, they spoke mostly French. Most people could speak a little English too, so we got around fine. We followed the directions that the hostel gave us and found Hotel Van Belle. We had a not so pleasant surprise once we got there, though. Preethi had booked the hostel for the wrong night (the 25th instead of the 26th), so her card was charged for the 25th, and the guy working said there was no way to transfer the payment. He said he had an opening, but we would have to pay for that night too. We spent a good two or three hours in the lobby and on the computer in the backroom trying to figure out what we were going to. When we told him we were going to sleep in the airport, he said that he could transfer the payment to a single room if we wanted. Of course we took that offer! We had to share a twin bed for the night, but as long as we had a place to sleep and shower, I was happy.
The hotel problem made us have a late start, but we still saw a lot for the first day. The first thing we did was walk in town to the city center to get some lunch. We ended up eating at this doner kebab place. I had this pot pie kind of thing, a taco that wasn't really a taco but was still good, and vlaamse frites. While we were downtown, we ran into this parade that I'm guessing was for Luxembourg since Manneken-Pis was wearing the traditional costume of Luxembourg that day. There were people wearing these massive costumes (that are really hard to describe)and were dancing and twirling in circles. There were other people dressed up too, and a funny old guy kept coming up to random people to dance with them :)
After lunch, we went to Grand Place (Grote Markt), which is where the parade ended. Some people consider Grand Place to be the most beautiful square in the world. It is surrounded by Flemish Renaissance-baroque guild houses from the 17th century, the neo-Gothic King's House, and the 15th-century Gothic Town Hall. The 300-ft tower of the Town Hall bears a spire, on which perches the archangel Michael--patron saint of the city. The Museum of the City of Brussels is also in the square and has some of Manneken Pis's 570 colorful costumes on display. I was kind of bummed that we didn't get to see the flower carpet, but it is only there for one weekend out of the entire year so I guess I can't be too disappointed. I saw pictures of it though, and it looks incredible! The first flower carpet was created in 1971 by E. Stautemens. The carpet is usually about 77 x 24 m--huge!! We spent some time looking around the square, admiring the buildings, and looking at paintings. We ended up buying some artwork there when we came back to the square later on.
Right outside of the square and under the arches of the Maison de l'Etoile is the gold statue of Everard 't Serclaes, a hero of 14th century Brussels. Touching the arm of the statue is said to bring good luck so people were like stroking her arm up and down foreverrr (haha!). Definitely had to wash my hands after that.
Our next stop was Manneken-Pis (Little Boy Peeing). We saw tons of cute shops on the way there though. We drooled as we passed the Belgian waffle shops and went into the Belgian chocolate shops to try some samples! We passed a lot of cute lace shops on the way too. Manneken-Pis is a statue/fountain of a little boy peeing. He is the "oldest citizen of Brussels", dating back to 1619. They dress him up in one of his 570 costumes on holidays (& it seems like there's a holiday every day in Brussels!).
We decided to find Jeanneke Pis (Little Girl Peeing) afterward. She's not as well known and is set within a wall, hidden behind bars. She was in the back of a little alley called Impasse de la Fidelite (Fidelity Alley) that was hard to find! I think her pig tails make her look like an elf, and for some reason she reminded me of characters from Peter Pan. We took a wrong turn before we found her, walked through a little outdoor mall, and bought souvenirs. Jeanneke is right next to Delirium cafe (Pink Elephant Bar), which was super convenient! Delirium Cafe is a bar that offers 2004 different beers from all over the world! They even hold the Guinness world record for most beers available. You should see their menu of beers--it's the size of an encyclopedia or a dictionary or something! It is a really cute place! Beer bottles line the wall along the spiral-like staircase on the way to the basement. They have a bunch of old signs hanging up tool I loved their huge barrels down in the basement that they used as tables, and the pink elephants and giant beer caps all over the ceiling! I got a Floris Framboise (strawberry beer) that was delicious! Preethi and I went up to the bar to the order, and when we came back to our big barrel table, there were 6 guys sitting there. The place was packed and there wasn't anywhere else to sit, so we decided to share the barrel. They were actually having a bachelor party for one of the guys getting married. The groom had us sign his white tee with signatures all over it. Of the six guys, 4 of them got strawberry beer which I thought was pretty funny. One of the two guys who didn't get a strawberry beer let me try his Delirium Tremens (the other beer I was thinking about getting). It was pretty good, but I'm glad I got my strawberry beer :) Yummyyy Belgian beer! They shared some of their Paprika Lay's with us, then we headed out to do some more sightseeing.
On our way to the Royal Palace, we saw a gorgeous library and art museum. We also saw the sculpture made by Alxander Calder for the US pavilion of the 1958 Brussels expo. The black, rotating sculpture sits in a fountain overlooking Mont des Arts. The view of the garden is absolutely amazing! After enjoying the view for awhile, we went to the Royal Palace--the official palace of the King of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capital. It isn't used as a royal residence, though. The king and his family live in the Royal Castle of Laeken.
We went to Park van Brussel next, which is right behind the Royal Palace. It was nice, quiet park with lots of secluded places, statues, and fountains. I loved it :) We went to St. Michael's Cathedral afterward--aka the fake Notre Dame. I swear Brussels is trying to Paris. They had a fake Notre Dame, a fake Arc de Triomphe, they speak French, and they had little carts for escargot near the square. I don't get it. They had these funny looking benches face the cathedral that we laid on for awhile.
It was dinnertime by then, so we stopped at this Thai restaurant that we hoped would be the Wok to Walk of Brussels. It was good! Preethi and I split a sampler plate and some noodles, and I had a Jupiler beer. We went to Grand Place again on our way back to the hotel to buy some artwork, then we called it a night. I passed out as soon as we got to our room, and Preethi worked on her speech until late that night so we really only had to share the twin sized bed for a few hours. I was sound asleep so I didn't even notice.
We woke up early Sunday morning to enjoy the day before we had to catch the bus back to the airport. We were hesitant to eat the breakfast at the hotel in the morning since the guy already gave us the room pretty much for free, but he saw us in the lobby and told us not to miss out on breakfast. We headed to the dining area and enjoyed the all you can eat breakfast, coffee, and tea. It was great! One of the better breakfasts that we've had at a hostel. We filled up our water bottles, and left for Atomium!
Atomium is the symbol of Brussels--just as the Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris. It is a cluster of giant metal-clad spheres that was built for the 1958 World's Fair. It is enormous! Very unique too--I haven't seen anything like it before. They were setting up for a festival/party when we were there, but unfortunately we didn't have time to stick around for it. We took the metro to go see the Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. By the way, the metro in Brussels is an even bigger joke than the one in Paris. You can only pay in coins or with a credit card--no matter how much whatever you're buying costs. After spending 20 minutes finding a place to exchange money for coins, we bought our all day passes, walked down to the platform, and realized that we didn't need to buy one at all. Some people were scanning their passes on this little machine at the bottom of a pole, but most people were just getting on and off without tickets. There was nothing regulating who comes in or leaves. I don't know if it is just accepted that nobody buys tickets there or if they have people come around randomly to check if you have a ticket or what.
Anyway, we stopped at the EU headquarters on the way to Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. It was kind of anticlimatic--the building wasn't anything special. There's a really cute park in front of the arch though. There were a lot of people laying out and reading books there. The cinquantenaire arch was built to mark the 50th anniversary of Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. There was a green energy festival thing going on in front of the arch. They had this huge solar panel laying out that I think was powering everything there.
Our last stop was a final trip to Grand Place to buy chocolate and Belgian waffles. I got some chocolates that didn't have any traces of gluten in them for my family (gave it to them in Lisbon), and Preethi and I each got a gigantic waffle with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup! We should have just split one. It was too much for one person! It was delicious!! They gave us these little bitty forks to eat them with, so we had chocolate and cream ALLL over! We were eating them on this step in front of a church across from Manneken-Pis, and this creepy 40 year old guy kind of started ruining the experience. He walked next to us, smiling and staring. It was weird. Preethi asked if he needed to get into the church, and he just shook his head and kept smiling. When he didn't leave, she asked him if he needed anything, and he shook his head and thankfully left. Manneken-Pis was wearing a maroon costume that day. Sorry I got to cut this one a little short--I'm late for class!
Monday, July 12, 2010
2010 FIFA WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS: SPAIN!!
July 11, 2010
I don't even know where to begin!! It keeps getting crazier every single time I think that crazier isn't possible! I don’t think words can even describe the complete madness that is going on in Spain right now, but I’ll try….
We went to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for every other game except the finals. The stadium is always packed and always crazy, but we wanted to see what other places were like. For the finals, we went to Plaza de Cibeles, then to a bar near Sol, then to Sol. Cibeles and Sol were just as packed as the stadium has been, and all three places were equally crazy. We saw a girl at Plaza de Cibeles walking around topless with her boobs painted like soccer balls and guys kept coming up to her to take a picture with her--haha! Everyone is going nuts no matter where you are at—so you could really watch the game from anywhere. Even in your house, you can hear the entire neighborhood cheering and honking. You can even hear them gasping at exciting parts of the game! I thought being at the bar was perfect, though. I could see the entire big screen TV without people’s heads or arms blocking my view, it was air conditioned so I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out, and I had nice pint of cold beer in my hands with the bar just two feet behind me. It was awesome! We have made so many friends with people at the bars. Everyone is so friendly so we just talk with everybody around us. Someone dropped a beer bottle at the bar & it cut my toe open, but I was too involved in the game to notice/care.
I bet Spain was shaking when Iniesta scored the goal or when the game was over! Iniesta scored with only a couple minutes left of overtime! Everyone was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs, hugging and kissing each other on the cheeks. I got the chills when he scored. Actually, I have gotten the chills a lot in the past few weeks watching Spain play. It is so exciting!
After the game was over, we ran to Sol where red and yellow flooded the entire plaza! People were going insane! They were in the fountain, splashing water on everyone around. So many people were in it that it didn’t even look like a fountain anymore. People were climbing up on the horse statue (which is actually REALLY tall and would be scary to be up on). They were just hoisting each other up & everyone helped everyone else--didn't matter if you were a boy or a girl, if you wanted to go up or down, everyone helped each other and didn't complain. There were some guys playing African music so everyone started dancing to that, along with their constant cheering :) The big police vans came to Sol, but they didn’t care what people were doing. I think they were just there in case something reallyyy bad were to happen. Cars were trying to drive through, but people surrounded the cars cheering and shaking their cars. The drivers just laughed and kept cheering. There was a white car spray painted like the Spanish flag too—it was awesome! People were climbing on light posts, on top of the huge glass metro station, just everywhere!
The metro was the most packed metro I have ever seen or taken! People were packed on the platform like sardines and flooding into the hallways. Everyone kept cheering the whole time we were waiting for the metro (which was like an hour! I have no idea why it took so long). There were 3 Holland fans on the other side of the metro, and the Spanish fans didn’t even boo them or anything. I figured someone drunk would pick a fight with them or something, but they just pointed at them when they first saw them, kind of gave them this “sorryyyy” look, and then started cheering for Spain. The Holland fans put their arms in acknowledgement then started cheering for Spain too. It was so funny!
There is literally a party everywhere we go--every plaza, every street, every metro stop, seriously everywhere! The street we live by, Bravo Murillo, was packed and going crazy when we were heading home!
Walking to class the next day, there was a smile on EVERYONE'S face! By the way,
nobodyyyy went to class the next day. It was just me and my professor. I was actually pretty glad because I paint so slowly that I’m behind so I got to catch up a little bit.
There was also a huge parade & celebration the day after the game! The entire Spanish soccer team came to Madrid and circled the capital!! So much for running with the bulls in Pamplona--try running through the streets of Madrid with hundreds of thousands of crazy Spanish fans, chasing after the national team! Spain's entire soccer team was literally ten feet away from my face!!! And I made eye contact with Jesus Navas!! I was too busy drooling and enjoying the moment to take pictures when they were closest to us, so I hope my memory will last me a long time! I had my camera up in the air and was snapping pictures without looking. Even my friends who tried to take good pictures didn’t really get any good ones so I’m glad I got a good look at each of them and absorbed what I could from the moment.
After they passed by us, we chased their bus with thousands and thousands of other fans! We were running right next to their bus when I lost my shoe (I forgot to change shoes before I left the house!). I knew if I bent down to get it, I would have gotten taken out, so I left it behind. I thought I was going to get trampled even without bending over—it was absolute madness! The streets are so trashed by the end of the night, I don't know how they clean up so well by the next day. It’s a week-long party in Spain!!! They might as well just wait to clean up until the end of the week. The news said that workers collected 52 tons of trash after the parade--crazy!! The parade ended at el Puente del Rey (King’s Bridge), the team got on stage, and they set off fireworks! There were sooo many people, and we were so far away, so we climbed onto this trash can on wheels, up onto a tent, and onto the top of this little building to see the stage. The news reporters were up in this little stand right in front of us. We all have some battle wounds from getting up there though. Katrina fell into the middle of the tent when she was trying to get up and there were people running around her—she was so scared! We felt sooo bad, but she made it up fine after they stopped running.
After the fireworks, we went to a bar where we tried pig's ear. It was pretty chewy—I’m not a big fan. We made more friends, and the drunk ones were so funny! One of them told me I was from Holland after I told him I was from the United States. Then he made a sad face at me and started cheering for Spain. After about five minutes of telling him I wasn't from Holland, I was from the United States, he started cracking up and said "ohhhh los estados unidos!". I taught his drunk friend the difference between the United States and the Empire State building--he kept wanting to say empire states haha!
I love the drunk people everywhereeee cheering and singing!! And I love when they pretend that they are a matador and their friend or the car driving by is the bull, so they wave the flag in front of them and the car will drive at it or their drunk friends will put their fingers on the side of their heads and pretend to be the bull and charge after it! It usually ends with them falling down after they charge after it—it’s hilarious!! People surround cars on the streets cheering, and nobody gets pissed off. They just honk and wave their flags and cheer back. Everyone is so happy!!!
Here’s the team line-up for the 2010 World Cup Champs!
1 Iker Casillas
2 Raul Albiol
3 Gerard Pique
4 Carlos Marchena
5 Carles Puyol
6 Andres Iniesta
7 David Villa
8 XAVI
9 Fernando Torres
10 Cesc Fabregas
11 Joan Capdevila
12 Victor Valdes
13 Juan Manuel Mata
14 Xabi Alonso
15 Sergio Ramos
16 Sergio Busquets
17 Alvaro Arbeloa
18 Pedro
19 Fernando Llorente
20 Javier Martinez
21 David Silva
22 Jesus Navas
23 Pepe Reina
I’m in love with about half of them--actually all of them :) but especially Villa & Casillas!! I don't think Spain has stopped cheering for days. Preethi’s teacher was telling her about how the Spanish flag wasn’t really a symbol of unity like the American flag is to us in the U.S. before winning the world cup, but winning has brought so much unity to Spain that they waving the flag everywhere. Some people think that it is kind of like an anesthetic from all of Spain’s economic problems. The big question now is whether or not it is temporary or if Spain will unite under one flag. Either way, everyone is so happy right now, and I’m having the time of my life!
I don't even know where to begin!! It keeps getting crazier every single time I think that crazier isn't possible! I don’t think words can even describe the complete madness that is going on in Spain right now, but I’ll try….
We went to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for every other game except the finals. The stadium is always packed and always crazy, but we wanted to see what other places were like. For the finals, we went to Plaza de Cibeles, then to a bar near Sol, then to Sol. Cibeles and Sol were just as packed as the stadium has been, and all three places were equally crazy. We saw a girl at Plaza de Cibeles walking around topless with her boobs painted like soccer balls and guys kept coming up to her to take a picture with her--haha! Everyone is going nuts no matter where you are at—so you could really watch the game from anywhere. Even in your house, you can hear the entire neighborhood cheering and honking. You can even hear them gasping at exciting parts of the game! I thought being at the bar was perfect, though. I could see the entire big screen TV without people’s heads or arms blocking my view, it was air conditioned so I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out, and I had nice pint of cold beer in my hands with the bar just two feet behind me. It was awesome! We have made so many friends with people at the bars. Everyone is so friendly so we just talk with everybody around us. Someone dropped a beer bottle at the bar & it cut my toe open, but I was too involved in the game to notice/care.
I bet Spain was shaking when Iniesta scored the goal or when the game was over! Iniesta scored with only a couple minutes left of overtime! Everyone was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs, hugging and kissing each other on the cheeks. I got the chills when he scored. Actually, I have gotten the chills a lot in the past few weeks watching Spain play. It is so exciting!
After the game was over, we ran to Sol where red and yellow flooded the entire plaza! People were going insane! They were in the fountain, splashing water on everyone around. So many people were in it that it didn’t even look like a fountain anymore. People were climbing up on the horse statue (which is actually REALLY tall and would be scary to be up on). They were just hoisting each other up & everyone helped everyone else--didn't matter if you were a boy or a girl, if you wanted to go up or down, everyone helped each other and didn't complain. There were some guys playing African music so everyone started dancing to that, along with their constant cheering :) The big police vans came to Sol, but they didn’t care what people were doing. I think they were just there in case something reallyyy bad were to happen. Cars were trying to drive through, but people surrounded the cars cheering and shaking their cars. The drivers just laughed and kept cheering. There was a white car spray painted like the Spanish flag too—it was awesome! People were climbing on light posts, on top of the huge glass metro station, just everywhere!
The metro was the most packed metro I have ever seen or taken! People were packed on the platform like sardines and flooding into the hallways. Everyone kept cheering the whole time we were waiting for the metro (which was like an hour! I have no idea why it took so long). There were 3 Holland fans on the other side of the metro, and the Spanish fans didn’t even boo them or anything. I figured someone drunk would pick a fight with them or something, but they just pointed at them when they first saw them, kind of gave them this “sorryyyy” look, and then started cheering for Spain. The Holland fans put their arms in acknowledgement then started cheering for Spain too. It was so funny!
There is literally a party everywhere we go--every plaza, every street, every metro stop, seriously everywhere! The street we live by, Bravo Murillo, was packed and going crazy when we were heading home!
Walking to class the next day, there was a smile on EVERYONE'S face! By the way,
nobodyyyy went to class the next day. It was just me and my professor. I was actually pretty glad because I paint so slowly that I’m behind so I got to catch up a little bit.
There was also a huge parade & celebration the day after the game! The entire Spanish soccer team came to Madrid and circled the capital!! So much for running with the bulls in Pamplona--try running through the streets of Madrid with hundreds of thousands of crazy Spanish fans, chasing after the national team! Spain's entire soccer team was literally ten feet away from my face!!! And I made eye contact with Jesus Navas!! I was too busy drooling and enjoying the moment to take pictures when they were closest to us, so I hope my memory will last me a long time! I had my camera up in the air and was snapping pictures without looking. Even my friends who tried to take good pictures didn’t really get any good ones so I’m glad I got a good look at each of them and absorbed what I could from the moment.
After they passed by us, we chased their bus with thousands and thousands of other fans! We were running right next to their bus when I lost my shoe (I forgot to change shoes before I left the house!). I knew if I bent down to get it, I would have gotten taken out, so I left it behind. I thought I was going to get trampled even without bending over—it was absolute madness! The streets are so trashed by the end of the night, I don't know how they clean up so well by the next day. It’s a week-long party in Spain!!! They might as well just wait to clean up until the end of the week. The news said that workers collected 52 tons of trash after the parade--crazy!! The parade ended at el Puente del Rey (King’s Bridge), the team got on stage, and they set off fireworks! There were sooo many people, and we were so far away, so we climbed onto this trash can on wheels, up onto a tent, and onto the top of this little building to see the stage. The news reporters were up in this little stand right in front of us. We all have some battle wounds from getting up there though. Katrina fell into the middle of the tent when she was trying to get up and there were people running around her—she was so scared! We felt sooo bad, but she made it up fine after they stopped running.
After the fireworks, we went to a bar where we tried pig's ear. It was pretty chewy—I’m not a big fan. We made more friends, and the drunk ones were so funny! One of them told me I was from Holland after I told him I was from the United States. Then he made a sad face at me and started cheering for Spain. After about five minutes of telling him I wasn't from Holland, I was from the United States, he started cracking up and said "ohhhh los estados unidos!". I taught his drunk friend the difference between the United States and the Empire State building--he kept wanting to say empire states haha!
I love the drunk people everywhereeee cheering and singing!! And I love when they pretend that they are a matador and their friend or the car driving by is the bull, so they wave the flag in front of them and the car will drive at it or their drunk friends will put their fingers on the side of their heads and pretend to be the bull and charge after it! It usually ends with them falling down after they charge after it—it’s hilarious!! People surround cars on the streets cheering, and nobody gets pissed off. They just honk and wave their flags and cheer back. Everyone is so happy!!!
Here’s the team line-up for the 2010 World Cup Champs!
1 Iker Casillas
2 Raul Albiol
3 Gerard Pique
4 Carlos Marchena
5 Carles Puyol
6 Andres Iniesta
7 David Villa
8 XAVI
9 Fernando Torres
10 Cesc Fabregas
11 Joan Capdevila
12 Victor Valdes
13 Juan Manuel Mata
14 Xabi Alonso
15 Sergio Ramos
16 Sergio Busquets
17 Alvaro Arbeloa
18 Pedro
19 Fernando Llorente
20 Javier Martinez
21 David Silva
22 Jesus Navas
23 Pepe Reina
I’m in love with about half of them--actually all of them :) but especially Villa & Casillas!! I don't think Spain has stopped cheering for days. Preethi’s teacher was telling her about how the Spanish flag wasn’t really a symbol of unity like the American flag is to us in the U.S. before winning the world cup, but winning has brought so much unity to Spain that they waving the flag everywhere. Some people think that it is kind of like an anesthetic from all of Spain’s economic problems. The big question now is whether or not it is temporary or if Spain will unite under one flag. Either way, everyone is so happy right now, and I’m having the time of my life!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Amsterdam
June 25, 2010
We took the metro the airport & stayed the night there again. Soo exhausting! Preethi and I ran through side streets in the ran to get to Nuevos Ministerios on time. we got a few hours of sleep in the airport and a couple on the flight. We got to Amsterdam with the sun shining ( of course :] ), got ready in the airport bathroom, admired how nice the Amsterdam airport was (it had huge paitnings on the walls, lounges as big as a terminal with red couches filling the room, and modern decorations everywhere--even in the bathroom!), & we were on our way. We picked up lunch at the supermarket in the airport and ate it on our bus ride to the city. Finding our hostel was probably our most difficult task to accomplish in Amsterdam. The directions the hostel gave us were FAR from correct and no map we found had the street (Bloemstraat) we were looking for on it. If that wasn't enough to confuse us, in Amsterdam, each side of the same street has a different name! I don't understand the point of that, unless they were trying to get people lost. In that case, Amsterdam succeeded. We ended up calling our hostel so that they could give us directions from where we were at. We finallyyy found Shelter Jordan--the Christian hostel we were staying at--and checked in. Other than their inviting us to bible study at 8 p.m. and it being very quiet, Shelter Jordan was no different than any other hostel we have stayed at. Actually, it was probably better. It was quiet, clean, & the people were so friendly. We put our bags in luggage storage and left to explore.
I fell in love with Amsterdam as soon as we started walking around. All of the canals are simply gorgeous--every corner we turned, we found another canal that was prettier than all of the other ones we had seen. I think it would be awesome to live in one of the house boats on a canal! They are adorable. Oh & I loved how EVERYONE rode their old-fashioned bikes through the streets, dinging their bells to let people know they were coming. It gives so much character to the city. Their bikers can get pretty intense though. Their bike paths are absolutely not allowed for people to walk on--you'll get run over if you are on it! They are like cars in Amsterdam--they even have smaller stop lights for bikes :)
Our first sight to see was the Anne Frank House. Actually, we saw Zuiderkerk (Southern Church) first. It is a 17th century Protestant church that played an important part in Rembrandt's life and was the subject of one of Monet's paintings. We could see that from the road of our hostel. We went to the Anne Frank House, saw how long the line was, and decided to come back later. It fit into our schedule better that way anyway. We took a few pictures of it, then decided we wanted a picture of the two of us in front of one of the house boats. We asked a cute, old guy walking by if he could take it for us. He told us that he didn't think he could, and that he has tried so many times but can never get it right. We weren't really sure what he was talking about until he started trying to take the picture. It was hilarious! He held the camera up to his face, then realized there was a screen instead of a hole for his eye and he looked so shocked! Then he started moving the camera back and forth toward us then toward him, toward us then toward him, with the most focused/confused face :) He was adorable! He ended up taking a good picture, but we were cracking up in it!
We went to the Tulip Museum afterward (Amsterdam is known for tulips). We just walked around the first floor. If you pay to go to the basement, you can learn about how to grow tulips. They had a lot of cool stuff inside, especially the pictures of the fields of tulips! We started walking through the city, and I don't know if I have said this before, but I love walking through the cities we visit. I feel like I get to know the city so much better when we walk because we run into so many different things and we can get a sense of direction of the city so that by the time we leave, we can go places without a map. We walked by a few "coffee shops" and could smell the weed from outside of them. Some of the popular ones there were Bulldog Cafe and Feels Good Cafe. We found shop with a wall FULL of wooden shoes, which is another thing that Amsterdam is famous for. We tried on a pair, and I don't know how anybody could actually wear those things! They are so big and uncomfortable. I'd fall down as soon as I started walking.
We went to see the National Monument in Dam Square, which also has Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in it. Their National Monument is so unique--I love the birds sculpted like they are flying into the back of it. We headed to the Red Light District next. Getting there was so awkward. Of course it isn't on the map, so we had to ask some girl working at an ice cream shop where it was. It consists of many streets and canals, but prostitution is limited to a few streets. It was mind-blowing to see the girls in the windows or standing on the streets. I can't even imagine what that kind of lifestyle is like. With the signs for live porn, the girls, and the sex shops, it was hard to believe we were in the same cute, little city with their bikes and canals.
After the RLD, we stopped at the park in front of the Iamsterdam sign, took a picture of me insdie the giant d, then headed to the Van Gogh Museum! The museum was incredible! I didn't want to leave. We kept trying to pick out our favorite, but it was impossible. Although, we both really loved Almond Blossom. The museum has the world's largest collection of van Gogh's work. It has over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and 700 letters. Some of the paintings include The Potato Eaters, Wheatfields under Thunderclouds, and Sunflowers. I know you are probably thinking "I thought you saw the Sunflowers in London", and I did! Van Gogh wanted to capture the blooming August sunflowers in a series of 12 paintings. He finished four sunflower still lifes, but thought only 2 were good enough to hang in Gauguin's bedroom. He later painted three copies of them, one of which is in Amsterdam.
We headed to the Heineken Brewery after the Van Gogh Museum. We looked around the outside, took some pictures, and decided to eat dinner. We ate at a Chinese place called Wok to Walk--delicious! I got noodles with chicken, which I finished in about 5 minutes. We walked by a Vlaamse Frites stand--French fries in mayonnaise--but were too full to get any then (we did get some in Brussels though!).
After dinner, we went back to the Anne Frank House. It was a chilling experience--to think about her story and how we were walking in her footsteps. We went through the secret entrance behind the bookcase, saw her and her family's rooms, and almost every other corner in the house. The hiding place is a labyrinth of hallways, stairs, and little rooms. The steep staircases had such small stairs that I had to walk sidways just to get up them. I remember specifically the one that ran from the ground floor, to the first, and straight up to the second. The eight people hiding in the secret annex depended entirely on the five helpers. Anne Frank often played the clown because she was too scared to show her serious side ("I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart"--Anne Franke). Her diary reveals that side of her, however. She was so intelligent for only 13 years old--I couldn't believe that some of the quotes we read came from such a young girl. ("And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world"). It is amazing how positive she was throughout it all ("Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart"; "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world"; "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains"). Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the leader: when any decision needed to be made, all eyes were on him. Anne's mother Edith was often gloomy in the secret annex, but found comfort in her faith. Margot was Anne's sister who was calm and serious. She also kept a diary, but it was never found. The Franks were in hiding with Fritz Pfeffer as well as another familiy: father Hermann, mother Auguste, and son Peter van Pels. Anne Frank wrote her world-famous diary while in hiding in occupied Holland. After two years, however, the people hiding in the secret annex were betrayed and arrested. Otto Frank was the only one to make it back.
The Anne Frank House was the last thing on our list. It was still pretty early, so we went back to the hostel so that Preethi could get her computer and went to a cafe so she could work on her speech. Everyone inside was so friendly, and the waitress was so helpful. We decided to walk to the train station to make sure we knew exactly where we were going the next morning since we had to catch an early train to Brussels. After that, we pretty much called it a day.
I thought it was kind of funny how Amsterdam is so small that you can only get certain things in certain areas. Like if you wanted to buy a shot glass, you could only get them on a side street near Dam Square. If you wanted Vlaamse Frites, there was only one part of town where you could get them. Another thing about Amsterdam is that I love hearing people speak Dutch (most people there can speak English too so we got around fine). It sounds kind of goofy, and I just love it because most of the people we encountered were so happy and friendly. I love listening to other languages in general. I'm always amazed at how so many different languages have developed over time. That is why I love being in airports in Europe. I hear countless different languages there--English, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, African, Russian--it seems like I hear them all! In the States, I really only hear English--maybe Spanish if I'm lucky. Just another thing I've noticed. Anyway, I (of course) LOVED Amsterdam overall! It is definitely one of my favorites.
We took the metro the airport & stayed the night there again. Soo exhausting! Preethi and I ran through side streets in the ran to get to Nuevos Ministerios on time. we got a few hours of sleep in the airport and a couple on the flight. We got to Amsterdam with the sun shining ( of course :] ), got ready in the airport bathroom, admired how nice the Amsterdam airport was (it had huge paitnings on the walls, lounges as big as a terminal with red couches filling the room, and modern decorations everywhere--even in the bathroom!), & we were on our way. We picked up lunch at the supermarket in the airport and ate it on our bus ride to the city. Finding our hostel was probably our most difficult task to accomplish in Amsterdam. The directions the hostel gave us were FAR from correct and no map we found had the street (Bloemstraat) we were looking for on it. If that wasn't enough to confuse us, in Amsterdam, each side of the same street has a different name! I don't understand the point of that, unless they were trying to get people lost. In that case, Amsterdam succeeded. We ended up calling our hostel so that they could give us directions from where we were at. We finallyyy found Shelter Jordan--the Christian hostel we were staying at--and checked in. Other than their inviting us to bible study at 8 p.m. and it being very quiet, Shelter Jordan was no different than any other hostel we have stayed at. Actually, it was probably better. It was quiet, clean, & the people were so friendly. We put our bags in luggage storage and left to explore.
I fell in love with Amsterdam as soon as we started walking around. All of the canals are simply gorgeous--every corner we turned, we found another canal that was prettier than all of the other ones we had seen. I think it would be awesome to live in one of the house boats on a canal! They are adorable. Oh & I loved how EVERYONE rode their old-fashioned bikes through the streets, dinging their bells to let people know they were coming. It gives so much character to the city. Their bikers can get pretty intense though. Their bike paths are absolutely not allowed for people to walk on--you'll get run over if you are on it! They are like cars in Amsterdam--they even have smaller stop lights for bikes :)
Our first sight to see was the Anne Frank House. Actually, we saw Zuiderkerk (Southern Church) first. It is a 17th century Protestant church that played an important part in Rembrandt's life and was the subject of one of Monet's paintings. We could see that from the road of our hostel. We went to the Anne Frank House, saw how long the line was, and decided to come back later. It fit into our schedule better that way anyway. We took a few pictures of it, then decided we wanted a picture of the two of us in front of one of the house boats. We asked a cute, old guy walking by if he could take it for us. He told us that he didn't think he could, and that he has tried so many times but can never get it right. We weren't really sure what he was talking about until he started trying to take the picture. It was hilarious! He held the camera up to his face, then realized there was a screen instead of a hole for his eye and he looked so shocked! Then he started moving the camera back and forth toward us then toward him, toward us then toward him, with the most focused/confused face :) He was adorable! He ended up taking a good picture, but we were cracking up in it!
We went to the Tulip Museum afterward (Amsterdam is known for tulips). We just walked around the first floor. If you pay to go to the basement, you can learn about how to grow tulips. They had a lot of cool stuff inside, especially the pictures of the fields of tulips! We started walking through the city, and I don't know if I have said this before, but I love walking through the cities we visit. I feel like I get to know the city so much better when we walk because we run into so many different things and we can get a sense of direction of the city so that by the time we leave, we can go places without a map. We walked by a few "coffee shops" and could smell the weed from outside of them. Some of the popular ones there were Bulldog Cafe and Feels Good Cafe. We found shop with a wall FULL of wooden shoes, which is another thing that Amsterdam is famous for. We tried on a pair, and I don't know how anybody could actually wear those things! They are so big and uncomfortable. I'd fall down as soon as I started walking.
We went to see the National Monument in Dam Square, which also has Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in it. Their National Monument is so unique--I love the birds sculpted like they are flying into the back of it. We headed to the Red Light District next. Getting there was so awkward. Of course it isn't on the map, so we had to ask some girl working at an ice cream shop where it was. It consists of many streets and canals, but prostitution is limited to a few streets. It was mind-blowing to see the girls in the windows or standing on the streets. I can't even imagine what that kind of lifestyle is like. With the signs for live porn, the girls, and the sex shops, it was hard to believe we were in the same cute, little city with their bikes and canals.
After the RLD, we stopped at the park in front of the Iamsterdam sign, took a picture of me insdie the giant d, then headed to the Van Gogh Museum! The museum was incredible! I didn't want to leave. We kept trying to pick out our favorite, but it was impossible. Although, we both really loved Almond Blossom. The museum has the world's largest collection of van Gogh's work. It has over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and 700 letters. Some of the paintings include The Potato Eaters, Wheatfields under Thunderclouds, and Sunflowers. I know you are probably thinking "I thought you saw the Sunflowers in London", and I did! Van Gogh wanted to capture the blooming August sunflowers in a series of 12 paintings. He finished four sunflower still lifes, but thought only 2 were good enough to hang in Gauguin's bedroom. He later painted three copies of them, one of which is in Amsterdam.
We headed to the Heineken Brewery after the Van Gogh Museum. We looked around the outside, took some pictures, and decided to eat dinner. We ate at a Chinese place called Wok to Walk--delicious! I got noodles with chicken, which I finished in about 5 minutes. We walked by a Vlaamse Frites stand--French fries in mayonnaise--but were too full to get any then (we did get some in Brussels though!).
After dinner, we went back to the Anne Frank House. It was a chilling experience--to think about her story and how we were walking in her footsteps. We went through the secret entrance behind the bookcase, saw her and her family's rooms, and almost every other corner in the house. The hiding place is a labyrinth of hallways, stairs, and little rooms. The steep staircases had such small stairs that I had to walk sidways just to get up them. I remember specifically the one that ran from the ground floor, to the first, and straight up to the second. The eight people hiding in the secret annex depended entirely on the five helpers. Anne Frank often played the clown because she was too scared to show her serious side ("I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart"--Anne Franke). Her diary reveals that side of her, however. She was so intelligent for only 13 years old--I couldn't believe that some of the quotes we read came from such a young girl. ("And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren't any other people living in the world"). It is amazing how positive she was throughout it all ("Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart"; "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world"; "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains"). Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the leader: when any decision needed to be made, all eyes were on him. Anne's mother Edith was often gloomy in the secret annex, but found comfort in her faith. Margot was Anne's sister who was calm and serious. She also kept a diary, but it was never found. The Franks were in hiding with Fritz Pfeffer as well as another familiy: father Hermann, mother Auguste, and son Peter van Pels. Anne Frank wrote her world-famous diary while in hiding in occupied Holland. After two years, however, the people hiding in the secret annex were betrayed and arrested. Otto Frank was the only one to make it back.
The Anne Frank House was the last thing on our list. It was still pretty early, so we went back to the hostel so that Preethi could get her computer and went to a cafe so she could work on her speech. Everyone inside was so friendly, and the waitress was so helpful. We decided to walk to the train station to make sure we knew exactly where we were going the next morning since we had to catch an early train to Brussels. After that, we pretty much called it a day.
I thought it was kind of funny how Amsterdam is so small that you can only get certain things in certain areas. Like if you wanted to buy a shot glass, you could only get them on a side street near Dam Square. If you wanted Vlaamse Frites, there was only one part of town where you could get them. Another thing about Amsterdam is that I love hearing people speak Dutch (most people there can speak English too so we got around fine). It sounds kind of goofy, and I just love it because most of the people we encountered were so happy and friendly. I love listening to other languages in general. I'm always amazed at how so many different languages have developed over time. That is why I love being in airports in Europe. I hear countless different languages there--English, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, African, Russian--it seems like I hear them all! In the States, I really only hear English--maybe Spanish if I'm lucky. Just another thing I've noticed. Anyway, I (of course) LOVED Amsterdam overall! It is definitely one of my favorites.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Dublin
June 21 & 22, 2010
We left our hostel in London at 5 a.m. to get to Victoria Station on time. We took a bus to the airport, and flew into Dublin. Dublin glowed a gorgeous green from the plane. In the airport, we saw signs written in Gaelic, heard Irish accents, and saw the sky blue Irish eyes :) We took a bus to our hostel--Ashfield House. Ashfield House wasn't one of the best hostels we have stayed in. It was cheap, though, and it was only for one night. We got ready in the bathroom in the lobby because it wasn't time to check in, put our stuff in luggage storage, got lunch at a grocery store down the street, and ate it in front of O'Connell statue. We got out our map and planned out our day after we finished eating.
We went to the Dublin Spire first, a large, stainless steel pin-like monument that soars into the Dublin sky. It is the world's tallest sculpture at 398 feet tall, and it cost €4 million to construct! We went to the Garden of Remembrance afterward--a memorial garden dedicated to the all of those who gave their lives fighting for Irish freedom. It was a cute little area with a cross-shaped fountain/pool with a statue at the end and flowers all over. We headed to the Custom House afterward, which is an impressive building that houses the departments of environment, heritage, and local government. The square near O'Connell Bridge had Heineken and Bailey's buildings in it. I saw three older women, one with a baby in the stroller, taking swigs out of a brown bottle at 12:30 in the afternoon. Starting early! We walked across O'Connell Bridge over the Liffey River to head toward Trinity College. We stopped at The Steine, a little monument in the middle of an intersection, to double check that we were going the right way. A guy riding by on his bike stopped, got off his bike, and asked if we were lost and needed directions. It was so nice of him! This was the first time that morning that someone offered to help us either. Everyone there was so unbelievably friendly!
The Bank of Ireland is right across the street from Trinity College and is one of the "Big Four" on the island and used to be the parliament house. It is a huge bank with an amazing interior. Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth and is Ireland's oldest university. The history found at that college is incredible! We took a quick look around the first day, and went back for a tour the next. We went to the National Museum: Archaelogy & History Branch afterward, but it was closed :( It is supposed to be really impressive.
We went to St. Stephen's Green afterward-- a 27 acre city centre park landscaped with flowerbeds, trees, lakes, and fountains. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe it. I could have spent the entire day there! We walked toward the National Gallery and saw the Georgian style houses, with their fan shaped windows above their brightly colored doors. The story behind why each door is painted a different color is that a man came home drunk one night, went into the wrong house and got in bed with the wrong woman. When her husband came home he found the man in bed with his wife and shot him. After that night, the women painted their front doors different colors to help their drunk husbands find their way into the right home.
We went into the National Gallery. It was a little confusing to navigate. It seemed like we would leave one room, walk down a set of stairs, and somehow end up in the place we were coming from. The collection spans from the 14th to the 20th centuries. We spent so much time trying to find van Gogh's Rooftops of Paris, and once we found where it was supposed to be, they told us it had been moved to the Taking Stock Exhibition (which we thought we already saw, but only saw half of it). While searching for the Rooftops, one of the workers at the Gallery told us the story about Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid. Three men and one woman drove out to the Russborough House (where Sir Alfred and Lady Beit installed an art collection) and stole the painting along with 18 others. Stolen paintings usually disappear for a long time, but this one was retrieved in just a few weeks. The recovered paintings were sent to the National Gallery of Ireland to be inspected and to be repaired if there was any damage. They were returned to the Russborough House, but the Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid was stolen again--just 12 years after the first robbery. People talked about it being hidden in the mountains, but police swooped on a car parked at Antwerp airport and recovered the stolen painting once again. Crazy!
We saw the unique structure of Central Bank after seeing the National Gallery, and we got our first glimpse of the Temple Bar area. We went to Dublin Castle next--the former seat of British rule in Ireland. It was awesome!
After looking at all sides of the castle, we went to the Guinness Storehouse!! It was soo much fun! It's a self-guided tour, so you can go at your own pace--with information and interactive things to do in every room. We played in the mountain of barley and with the old machinery; we saw the hops and the waterfall; we learned the history of Guinness and the steps and ingredients it takes to make Guinness beer. I went through the taste experience, played a few games, and sent a picture to Nick on one of their computers. I loved their advertising room "Guinness is good for you!" and "My goodness, my Guinness!". It was adorable! They had old black and white Guinness commercials playing, with a pint shaped door entrance and posters covering the walls. The tour ended with a free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar! For me, it ended with 2 pints of Guinness because Preethi gave hers to me. We had a bird's eye view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar which was incredible! We took sooo many pictures here!
After our Guinness experience, we walked allll the way out to Kilmainham Gaol--a cool old jail on the outskirts of town. Our next stop was Phoenix Park--the largest enclosed urban park in Europe, spanning 1,750 acres! We saw the huge Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park, took a walk through the gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous park, and headed to the Jameson Distillery. After those 2 pints of Guinness, I had to pee sooo bad so we stopped at a bar down the road from Phoenix Park. I went in to use the restroom, and we checked out the game while we were in there. The bartender asked if we needed anything, and we said no. Then a customer said if we weren't buying anything, we needed to leave. We said sorry and left, but then they all started laughing and told us they were just kidding. We were too embarrassed to go back in though--haha! We were so exhausted and were running short on time so we decided to try to take a bus to Jameson. We found the closest bus stop and asked the bus driver if he was going toward the Jameson Distillery. He said yes, and we asked him how much the fare was, and he tols us to hop on and not to worry about it ( in a cute Irish accent :] ). That's what I'm saying about everyone being soooo nice in Dublin! He made a special stop just for us and called to us when we were there. We took some pictures outside of Jameson and started walking back toward the city center to see a few more sites.
We saw the Four Courts of Dublin--the Republic of Ireland's main courts building. We went to Christ Church Cathedral, which is the seat of the archbishop of Dublin and also has underground crypts. It was beautiful, of course. The church extended to the other side of the road, with a bridge overhead connecting the two parts of the cathedral. At Christ Church Cathedral is Dublinia, the location of The Viking World on site at St. Michael's Hill. It is also Dublin's oldest building founded c. 1030 by Sitric, King of the Dublin Norsemen. It is the mother church of the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland.
We walked a little further to find St. Patrick's Cathedral--the largest church in Ireland! It was way past dinnertime when we got back to the city center. We found a nice, little authentic Irish restaurant called O'Neill's. It was delicious! We had roasted, broiled, and mashed potatoes, with some meat and gravy. For dessert, we had this apple pie type thing with amazingggg cream on top! The restaurant part was closing, so we were the only ones left in the room eating. The bar upstairs was pretty crowded though--they had a live band that everyone was enjoying. I remember them playing "I Would Walk 500 Miles" :) We listened to the band for a little while, then headed out to Temple Bar. For a Monday night, it was pretty crazy. We walked past countless bars and clubs, a show with half naked dancing cowboys that was going on for Dublin's gay pride festival, and found Stag's Head Pub. The pub had a really cute, Victorian interior. I had my 3rd pint of Guinness for the day, and we decided to head back to the hostel because we were about to pass out!
We were sharing a room with 4 other girls who were all sleeping by the time we got home, so we tried to sneak around the room and the bathroom to get ready for bed (I think we woke them all up anyway). The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, and went back to Trinity College. The Long Hall of the Old Library at the college makes it the largest single corridor library. When you walk into the campus, there are two buildings on each side of you that are mirror images of each other (except the left one is accidently 8 m longer than the other). In the middle of the quad is an arch/statue that they built so that the campus wouldn't look so empty. Behind it are two of the largest maple trees ever. The seeds were brought to the campus from Oregon, and for some reason they grew really well there. The college also has a replica of "A Sphere Within a Sphere". It looks just like the one at the Vatican and represents the new world coming out of the old world. The main attraction at Trinity College is the Book of Kells, which is a decorated latin manuscript of the four gospels of the new testament--very cool! After we finished at Trinity College, all we had time for was to buy souvenirs and head to the bus stop. I was sad to leave so soon, but I loved every minute I was in Dublin! It didn't quite feel like Ireland though. I wish we would have been able to go driving out in the country--I think it would have felt more like Ireland if we would have done that. Maybe one day!
We left our hostel in London at 5 a.m. to get to Victoria Station on time. We took a bus to the airport, and flew into Dublin. Dublin glowed a gorgeous green from the plane. In the airport, we saw signs written in Gaelic, heard Irish accents, and saw the sky blue Irish eyes :) We took a bus to our hostel--Ashfield House. Ashfield House wasn't one of the best hostels we have stayed in. It was cheap, though, and it was only for one night. We got ready in the bathroom in the lobby because it wasn't time to check in, put our stuff in luggage storage, got lunch at a grocery store down the street, and ate it in front of O'Connell statue. We got out our map and planned out our day after we finished eating.
We went to the Dublin Spire first, a large, stainless steel pin-like monument that soars into the Dublin sky. It is the world's tallest sculpture at 398 feet tall, and it cost €4 million to construct! We went to the Garden of Remembrance afterward--a memorial garden dedicated to the all of those who gave their lives fighting for Irish freedom. It was a cute little area with a cross-shaped fountain/pool with a statue at the end and flowers all over. We headed to the Custom House afterward, which is an impressive building that houses the departments of environment, heritage, and local government. The square near O'Connell Bridge had Heineken and Bailey's buildings in it. I saw three older women, one with a baby in the stroller, taking swigs out of a brown bottle at 12:30 in the afternoon. Starting early! We walked across O'Connell Bridge over the Liffey River to head toward Trinity College. We stopped at The Steine, a little monument in the middle of an intersection, to double check that we were going the right way. A guy riding by on his bike stopped, got off his bike, and asked if we were lost and needed directions. It was so nice of him! This was the first time that morning that someone offered to help us either. Everyone there was so unbelievably friendly!
The Bank of Ireland is right across the street from Trinity College and is one of the "Big Four" on the island and used to be the parliament house. It is a huge bank with an amazing interior. Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth and is Ireland's oldest university. The history found at that college is incredible! We took a quick look around the first day, and went back for a tour the next. We went to the National Museum: Archaelogy & History Branch afterward, but it was closed :( It is supposed to be really impressive.
We went to St. Stephen's Green afterward-- a 27 acre city centre park landscaped with flowerbeds, trees, lakes, and fountains. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe it. I could have spent the entire day there! We walked toward the National Gallery and saw the Georgian style houses, with their fan shaped windows above their brightly colored doors. The story behind why each door is painted a different color is that a man came home drunk one night, went into the wrong house and got in bed with the wrong woman. When her husband came home he found the man in bed with his wife and shot him. After that night, the women painted their front doors different colors to help their drunk husbands find their way into the right home.
We went into the National Gallery. It was a little confusing to navigate. It seemed like we would leave one room, walk down a set of stairs, and somehow end up in the place we were coming from. The collection spans from the 14th to the 20th centuries. We spent so much time trying to find van Gogh's Rooftops of Paris, and once we found where it was supposed to be, they told us it had been moved to the Taking Stock Exhibition (which we thought we already saw, but only saw half of it). While searching for the Rooftops, one of the workers at the Gallery told us the story about Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid. Three men and one woman drove out to the Russborough House (where Sir Alfred and Lady Beit installed an art collection) and stole the painting along with 18 others. Stolen paintings usually disappear for a long time, but this one was retrieved in just a few weeks. The recovered paintings were sent to the National Gallery of Ireland to be inspected and to be repaired if there was any damage. They were returned to the Russborough House, but the Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid was stolen again--just 12 years after the first robbery. People talked about it being hidden in the mountains, but police swooped on a car parked at Antwerp airport and recovered the stolen painting once again. Crazy!
We saw the unique structure of Central Bank after seeing the National Gallery, and we got our first glimpse of the Temple Bar area. We went to Dublin Castle next--the former seat of British rule in Ireland. It was awesome!
After looking at all sides of the castle, we went to the Guinness Storehouse!! It was soo much fun! It's a self-guided tour, so you can go at your own pace--with information and interactive things to do in every room. We played in the mountain of barley and with the old machinery; we saw the hops and the waterfall; we learned the history of Guinness and the steps and ingredients it takes to make Guinness beer. I went through the taste experience, played a few games, and sent a picture to Nick on one of their computers. I loved their advertising room "Guinness is good for you!" and "My goodness, my Guinness!". It was adorable! They had old black and white Guinness commercials playing, with a pint shaped door entrance and posters covering the walls. The tour ended with a free pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar! For me, it ended with 2 pints of Guinness because Preethi gave hers to me. We had a bird's eye view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar which was incredible! We took sooo many pictures here!
After our Guinness experience, we walked allll the way out to Kilmainham Gaol--a cool old jail on the outskirts of town. Our next stop was Phoenix Park--the largest enclosed urban park in Europe, spanning 1,750 acres! We saw the huge Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park, took a walk through the gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous park, and headed to the Jameson Distillery. After those 2 pints of Guinness, I had to pee sooo bad so we stopped at a bar down the road from Phoenix Park. I went in to use the restroom, and we checked out the game while we were in there. The bartender asked if we needed anything, and we said no. Then a customer said if we weren't buying anything, we needed to leave. We said sorry and left, but then they all started laughing and told us they were just kidding. We were too embarrassed to go back in though--haha! We were so exhausted and were running short on time so we decided to try to take a bus to Jameson. We found the closest bus stop and asked the bus driver if he was going toward the Jameson Distillery. He said yes, and we asked him how much the fare was, and he tols us to hop on and not to worry about it ( in a cute Irish accent :] ). That's what I'm saying about everyone being soooo nice in Dublin! He made a special stop just for us and called to us when we were there. We took some pictures outside of Jameson and started walking back toward the city center to see a few more sites.
We saw the Four Courts of Dublin--the Republic of Ireland's main courts building. We went to Christ Church Cathedral, which is the seat of the archbishop of Dublin and also has underground crypts. It was beautiful, of course. The church extended to the other side of the road, with a bridge overhead connecting the two parts of the cathedral. At Christ Church Cathedral is Dublinia, the location of The Viking World on site at St. Michael's Hill. It is also Dublin's oldest building founded c. 1030 by Sitric, King of the Dublin Norsemen. It is the mother church of the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland.
We walked a little further to find St. Patrick's Cathedral--the largest church in Ireland! It was way past dinnertime when we got back to the city center. We found a nice, little authentic Irish restaurant called O'Neill's. It was delicious! We had roasted, broiled, and mashed potatoes, with some meat and gravy. For dessert, we had this apple pie type thing with amazingggg cream on top! The restaurant part was closing, so we were the only ones left in the room eating. The bar upstairs was pretty crowded though--they had a live band that everyone was enjoying. I remember them playing "I Would Walk 500 Miles" :) We listened to the band for a little while, then headed out to Temple Bar. For a Monday night, it was pretty crazy. We walked past countless bars and clubs, a show with half naked dancing cowboys that was going on for Dublin's gay pride festival, and found Stag's Head Pub. The pub had a really cute, Victorian interior. I had my 3rd pint of Guinness for the day, and we decided to head back to the hostel because we were about to pass out!
We were sharing a room with 4 other girls who were all sleeping by the time we got home, so we tried to sneak around the room and the bathroom to get ready for bed (I think we woke them all up anyway). The next morning, we woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, and went back to Trinity College. The Long Hall of the Old Library at the college makes it the largest single corridor library. When you walk into the campus, there are two buildings on each side of you that are mirror images of each other (except the left one is accidently 8 m longer than the other). In the middle of the quad is an arch/statue that they built so that the campus wouldn't look so empty. Behind it are two of the largest maple trees ever. The seeds were brought to the campus from Oregon, and for some reason they grew really well there. The college also has a replica of "A Sphere Within a Sphere". It looks just like the one at the Vatican and represents the new world coming out of the old world. The main attraction at Trinity College is the Book of Kells, which is a decorated latin manuscript of the four gospels of the new testament--very cool! After we finished at Trinity College, all we had time for was to buy souvenirs and head to the bus stop. I was sad to leave so soon, but I loved every minute I was in Dublin! It didn't quite feel like Ireland though. I wish we would have been able to go driving out in the country--I think it would have felt more like Ireland if we would have done that. Maybe one day!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
London
June 19 & 20, 2010
Right before we left for the airport for London, Preethi's straightener exploded on her head. She was half way done with her hair, and I had just gotten out of the shower so we looked reallll cute when we had to camp out in the airport for awhile before our flight. Preethi, Yelena, and I all ate some chips, and I had a San Miguel beer, then we took a little nap before our flight. When we arrived in London, we grabbed some lunch, exchanged our euros for pounds, and caught a bus to the city center. I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the bus. Half way to the city, I started waking up and freaking out a little. I was like "oh my gosh we are driving on the wrong side of the road...oh my gosh where is the driver!?". Then I remembered where we were. Hahaa! We got to Victoria Station (which was PACKED!), got in line to buy tickets, and took the tube to our hostel. Yelena had two suitcases with her because she was going straight from London to Belarus then back to the US, so it was a little hectic trying to lug them around through the metro station.
We finally got to our hostel--Hillspring Lodge. It was the cutest hostel we have stayed at so far! They have a restaurant, a deck with flowers everywhere, and three adorable lounge areas. There was a bunch of furs everywhere--like bear furs hanging on the walls and horse hair seats--that kind of creeped me out a little. Other than that, it was awesome! We freshened up a little in the bathroom while we were waiting for check-in to open. When it opened, we headed up to our room, I unlocked the door and opened it up to an Australian man washing his face. I thought we had the wrong room, but I opened up the door a little more, saw our three beds open, and remembered what we booked. We booked a 4 bed mixed dorm, and since there were three of us girls, we figured it wasn't very likely that someone would book a hostel alone. We were wrong! He was moving to London, so while he was apartment hunting, he was staying in hostels. We barely saw him, but when we did, he was really sweet and put up with all of our crap. Our bags took over the room, my alarm woke him up at 6:45 in the morning the next day, and we were in the room getting ready for like an hour and a half. We kept saying sorry, and he yelled at us for saying sorry so much. Then I apologized for saying sorry so much. Haha!
We headed out for the day around noon. We went to London Bridge first! We had an awesome view of the River Thames from there. Across the bridge and around the corner, we found the monument built for the great fire of London. On our way to see the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange, we had our first view of a classical double decker bus and a red telephone booth. The taxis in London are the cutest taxis ever! They look so old-fashioned--I love it! It started raining while we were outside the Bank of England. Unfortunately, we forgot our umbrellas in the hostel (of all the cities to forget an umbrella--London is not the one!), so we had to take cover until it died down. It kept raining pretty hard then stopping, then raining again and stopping. It eventually stopped for good, and we headed for St. Paul's Cathedral. Then on our way to St. Paul's, we ran into Guildhall Yard, which is a little square with a gorgeous church. We also saw some kind of 5K race going on. We, of course, made a caffeine stop and I had some British tea. St. Paul's Cathedral was amazing! It sits on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the city of London. It's also the seat of the Bishop of London. The services for the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Winston Churchill all took place here!
Our next stop was Tate Modern Art Museum. The bridge from Harry Potter--London Millenium Bridge--is right outside Tate! That bridge is AWESOME! It looks so contorted and twisted. We explored a few floors of the Tate Modern. One of the first rooms we walked in had this painting on the wall with a dead bird like running into the wall. I still don't know if it was a real bird or not--it looked like it! We saw Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus there! I love Dali.
We went to Shakespeare's Globe afterward which is on the exact spot where many of Shakespeare's plays opened! CRAZYYY! We saw the ruins of Winchester Palace and a big pirate ship on our way to Southwark Cathedral. We seemed to stumble upon a lot of neat things in London. Winchester Palace was the palace of the powerful bishops of Winchester and was one of the most important buildings in medieval London. Southwark Cathedral is a really interesting church. It looks like two completely different buildings because half of the outside is designed completely differently from the other half. It was beautiful nonetheless. We saw the London Dungeon and passed by tons of creepy characters in costumes on the way. It looked awesome!
We saw these model elephants literally everywhere we went while we were in London. Each one was painted differently, and there were over 250 of them that invaded London for a public art exhibition (trying to raise money for elephants throughout the world). They were awesome! We took pictures of sooo many of them. We walked through this park area to get to Tower Bridge. I'm in loveee with Tower Bridge! It's an adorable 19th century drawbridge. We got to see it opening up for the boats, which is actually extremely rare! It only opens up about 500 times a year, which seems like a lot, but it is actually really difficult to catch it opening up. We went to the Tower of London, but it was closed by the time we got there. It is London's original royal fortress by the Thames River. The Tower of London is a little bit of everything. It has been a castle, fortress, prison, palace, and now a museum. It contains the crown jewels, is guarded by beefeaters, and is a world heritage site. Tower Hill Memorial is right near the Tower of London. It is a national war memorial on the south side of Trinity Square Gardens. It was built to commemorate those from the Merchant Navy and from fishing fleets in both world wars. It is for those who have "no grave but the sea".
Next stop: Piccadilly Circus! Piccadilly is a famous road junction and and public space. The Statue of Eros stands proudly in the middle. Piccadilly kind of reminds me of Times Square. Only half of it was all lit up though because the other half was under construction. We headed down the street to Trafalagar Square after checking out a few shops in Piccadilly. The National Gallery & Nelson's Column are two of the main attractions in Trafalgar Square. Admiralty Arch is just across the street too. We went to a restaurant right outside of Trafalgar Square to get some fish & chips. The place was packed, and the only table left was the one in the corner. Preethi and I left to put our order in at the bar so that Yelena could save our table. When we came back, Yelena told us there was a MOUSE under our table! I sat down to save our table while she ordered (which was actually kind of pointless since we were switching tables anyway), and he ran up right under my foot! It wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't in a dark corner so we couldn't see where he was coming from or if there were more. We switched tables and ended up staying. The food was good, but hard to enjoy when you are thinking about the critters running around there. By the time we were done with dinner, it was late. We were tired too, so we ended our night there.
The next day, we woke up early (& woke up our Australian roomie early) and left for the London Eye! We checked it out, but then decided we would rather go up after we had seen most of the sites so that we could point them out. The London Aquariam is right next to the Eye and is gigantic! We saw Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, which are right across the river from the Eye. Big Ben is so cute! He's not as big as I thought he would be though. A little farther down the road lies Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. Most of England's kings and queens have been crowned here and many are buried here as well. It's gorgeous. Even farther down the road is Westminster Cathedral. I think it looks like it should be a building in Candyland or something. I loved how all of the apartment buildings surrounding it copied its design with the stripes.
We walked to Buckingham Palace afterward--the official residence of the Queen of England. We were stopped outside a souvenir shop looking at some paintings when Graham pulled a Jack x 100 on us! I said I didn't really like one of the paintings that much, and Graham came up behind us and said "Yea I don't really like it that much either". At first I was thinking who is this creep behind us, but then I turned around and was like "GRAHAMMM!!". It was crazy--we didn't even know he was in London yet, and we somehow ran into him. We all went to Buckingham Palace just in time to see the Changing of the Guard! It was packed! There were people on horses controlling all of the people since they had to make a path for the guards. The band played for a little bit, they chanted a few things, and then they marched out of the palace. Every guard was carrying something--if it wasn't an instrument, it was a gun. I don't know how they can keep straight faces when they are wearing such goofy hats and doing such a funny march. You can't get close enough to the guards at Buckingham Palace to take a picture, so we went down the road a little bit to St. James Palace. We took pictures with a guard named Charlie. I felt bad because everyoneee was taking pictures with him, and he just stood there so seriously. We asked him what his name was, and he didn't respond right away. So we asked him if he wasn't allowed to talk, and he whispered that he wasn't supposed to, but he will anyway, and that his name is Charlie. We said nice to meet you, and then Yelena and I decided to take another picture with him--one of us on each side pretending to kiss his cheeks! He just smiled :)
After saying bye to Charlie, we went back to Trafalgar Square. We took pictures with the GIANT lion statues at the base of Nelson's Column. My entire body was as big as one of its legs! I told Megh that I tried to steal it for her, but it was a little too heavy :) It was HILARIOUS to watch Yelena and Preethi try to get up on them. Yelena got half way up and just stood there frozen, and Preethi was practically laying on the lion, clenching on to it so that she wouldn't fall, while she was walking her feet around the lion's leg trying to get to the front of it. There was an Indian festival going on in front of the National Gallery, so we got free lunch! The chicken and rice were delicious, but the dessert was a little questionable. It was free, though, so I had nothing to complain about. I really liked the fountains and the statue of a glass bottle with a ship inside of it in front of the Gallery too. We went inside the National Gallery after lunch, which has over 2,300 masterpieces inside, and it is free to get in! We saw Cezanne's Bathers, van Gogh's Sunflowers, Stubb's Whistlejacket, and many many many more! The Gallery itself was just as beautiful as the paintings in it. After the Gallery, we took Graham to Piccadilly Circus since he hadn't been yet. We stopped at this really cool souvenir shop on the way. EVERYTHING was decked out in the English flag--even this old-fashioned car sitting in the middle of the store.
From Piccadilly Circus, we hopped on the tube and took it over to Hyde Park. Outside of the park and across the street is Wellington Arch. There were guards under the arch and their leader was walking them through a bunch of different positions and commands, teaching the crowd at the same time. We walked into the gorgeous and gigantic Hyde Park. There was an enormous open field with hundreds and hundreds of people playing countless different games and sports. It was nuts! We decided to walk across it so we could see the Marble Arch on the other side. On the way, we ran into Speaker's Corner. Some of the most influential figures in world history such as Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and V.I. Lenin have attended meetings here. Oliver Cromwell's corpse was hung up here in a cage for public display as a warning for others who might want to abolish Monarchy. It is a place where people from almost every walk of life, every class, and almost every country come to discuss important issues. People stand up on these little pedestals and voice their opinions while other people gather around them and debate. We listened to a few groups. One guy was particularly popular--he was red in the face from screaming so loudly. It was a little shocking to see people so worked up, so we didn't stay long. We went to the Marble Arch, which is a white Carrara marble monument that is located in the middle of a huge traffic island at one of the busiest intersections in central London. Another intersection we probably shouldn't have crossed, but we did anyway! After seeing the arch, we headed back to Hyde Park to go see the Peter Pan statue. The craziest little squirrel came up to us when we were walking through the park. He like ran up to us and kept reaching out to us like he wanted us to give him something. Yelena found some food in her purse, so Yelena and Graham handed him pieces of it, and he took it right out of their hands! He eventually took the whole wrapper and ran away with it. Then another squirrel came up and started doing the same thing, found the other squirrel with the wrapper, and chased after him. haha! We found the Peter Pan statue, took some pictures, then spent some time near the pond/river watching all of the ducks and ducklings.
We got back on the tube to go to ABBEY ROAD!! (the famous street where the Beatles shot their "Abbey Road" album cover and the road where their recording studio was). We texted LC on our way there because there's a live feed on the internet so you can see everyone on the road, but I'm not sure if she saw us or not. That road was soo busy and everyone was trying to get a picture like their album cover, so it was hard to get a good one. It was amazing to be there! We signed the wall in front of their recording studio with an "All You Need is Love" quote, hung out there for a little while, then headed back to the metro station.
We had seen all of our sights by this point, so we decided that it was time for the London Eye! The sun had just come out and the skies were so blue--perfect timing! It is the world's third largest observation wheel, and you can see 25 miles away in all directions. It is ENORMOUS!! We got our tickets, watched the 4D movie about it (which was actually really cool! and we got sprayed with water), then got in line. We jumped in one of the giant glass ovals as it was moving. Each car can hold probably thirty people. It moves reallyyyy slowly so that you can see everything. I love seeing cities from a bird's eye view--we could see absolutely everything! I took like a million pictures while I was up there. Afterward, we went to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant, which was really good! Graham had to leave us after dinner to go meet up with his friend, so Yelena, Preethi and I went to King's Cross Station to go to Platform 9 and 3/4--the platform for the London to Hogwarts trip on Hogwarts Express! We took some pictures there, realized how exhausted we were, and decided to go back to the hostel for the night. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up breakfast (since we were leaving at 5 a.m.--Preethi and I for Dublin, Yelena for Wimbledon), some cookies and a giant strawberry milk bottle that we took swigs out of. We figured out how we were going to get to the bus station in the morning, and went to bed. I had such an amazing time in London--I really love this city ( and their accents too :] ).
Right before we left for the airport for London, Preethi's straightener exploded on her head. She was half way done with her hair, and I had just gotten out of the shower so we looked reallll cute when we had to camp out in the airport for awhile before our flight. Preethi, Yelena, and I all ate some chips, and I had a San Miguel beer, then we took a little nap before our flight. When we arrived in London, we grabbed some lunch, exchanged our euros for pounds, and caught a bus to the city center. I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the bus. Half way to the city, I started waking up and freaking out a little. I was like "oh my gosh we are driving on the wrong side of the road...oh my gosh where is the driver!?". Then I remembered where we were. Hahaa! We got to Victoria Station (which was PACKED!), got in line to buy tickets, and took the tube to our hostel. Yelena had two suitcases with her because she was going straight from London to Belarus then back to the US, so it was a little hectic trying to lug them around through the metro station.
We finally got to our hostel--Hillspring Lodge. It was the cutest hostel we have stayed at so far! They have a restaurant, a deck with flowers everywhere, and three adorable lounge areas. There was a bunch of furs everywhere--like bear furs hanging on the walls and horse hair seats--that kind of creeped me out a little. Other than that, it was awesome! We freshened up a little in the bathroom while we were waiting for check-in to open. When it opened, we headed up to our room, I unlocked the door and opened it up to an Australian man washing his face. I thought we had the wrong room, but I opened up the door a little more, saw our three beds open, and remembered what we booked. We booked a 4 bed mixed dorm, and since there were three of us girls, we figured it wasn't very likely that someone would book a hostel alone. We were wrong! He was moving to London, so while he was apartment hunting, he was staying in hostels. We barely saw him, but when we did, he was really sweet and put up with all of our crap. Our bags took over the room, my alarm woke him up at 6:45 in the morning the next day, and we were in the room getting ready for like an hour and a half. We kept saying sorry, and he yelled at us for saying sorry so much. Then I apologized for saying sorry so much. Haha!
We headed out for the day around noon. We went to London Bridge first! We had an awesome view of the River Thames from there. Across the bridge and around the corner, we found the monument built for the great fire of London. On our way to see the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange, we had our first view of a classical double decker bus and a red telephone booth. The taxis in London are the cutest taxis ever! They look so old-fashioned--I love it! It started raining while we were outside the Bank of England. Unfortunately, we forgot our umbrellas in the hostel (of all the cities to forget an umbrella--London is not the one!), so we had to take cover until it died down. It kept raining pretty hard then stopping, then raining again and stopping. It eventually stopped for good, and we headed for St. Paul's Cathedral. Then on our way to St. Paul's, we ran into Guildhall Yard, which is a little square with a gorgeous church. We also saw some kind of 5K race going on. We, of course, made a caffeine stop and I had some British tea. St. Paul's Cathedral was amazing! It sits on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the city of London. It's also the seat of the Bishop of London. The services for the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Winston Churchill all took place here!
Our next stop was Tate Modern Art Museum. The bridge from Harry Potter--London Millenium Bridge--is right outside Tate! That bridge is AWESOME! It looks so contorted and twisted. We explored a few floors of the Tate Modern. One of the first rooms we walked in had this painting on the wall with a dead bird like running into the wall. I still don't know if it was a real bird or not--it looked like it! We saw Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus there! I love Dali.
We went to Shakespeare's Globe afterward which is on the exact spot where many of Shakespeare's plays opened! CRAZYYY! We saw the ruins of Winchester Palace and a big pirate ship on our way to Southwark Cathedral. We seemed to stumble upon a lot of neat things in London. Winchester Palace was the palace of the powerful bishops of Winchester and was one of the most important buildings in medieval London. Southwark Cathedral is a really interesting church. It looks like two completely different buildings because half of the outside is designed completely differently from the other half. It was beautiful nonetheless. We saw the London Dungeon and passed by tons of creepy characters in costumes on the way. It looked awesome!
We saw these model elephants literally everywhere we went while we were in London. Each one was painted differently, and there were over 250 of them that invaded London for a public art exhibition (trying to raise money for elephants throughout the world). They were awesome! We took pictures of sooo many of them. We walked through this park area to get to Tower Bridge. I'm in loveee with Tower Bridge! It's an adorable 19th century drawbridge. We got to see it opening up for the boats, which is actually extremely rare! It only opens up about 500 times a year, which seems like a lot, but it is actually really difficult to catch it opening up. We went to the Tower of London, but it was closed by the time we got there. It is London's original royal fortress by the Thames River. The Tower of London is a little bit of everything. It has been a castle, fortress, prison, palace, and now a museum. It contains the crown jewels, is guarded by beefeaters, and is a world heritage site. Tower Hill Memorial is right near the Tower of London. It is a national war memorial on the south side of Trinity Square Gardens. It was built to commemorate those from the Merchant Navy and from fishing fleets in both world wars. It is for those who have "no grave but the sea".
Next stop: Piccadilly Circus! Piccadilly is a famous road junction and and public space. The Statue of Eros stands proudly in the middle. Piccadilly kind of reminds me of Times Square. Only half of it was all lit up though because the other half was under construction. We headed down the street to Trafalagar Square after checking out a few shops in Piccadilly. The National Gallery & Nelson's Column are two of the main attractions in Trafalgar Square. Admiralty Arch is just across the street too. We went to a restaurant right outside of Trafalgar Square to get some fish & chips. The place was packed, and the only table left was the one in the corner. Preethi and I left to put our order in at the bar so that Yelena could save our table. When we came back, Yelena told us there was a MOUSE under our table! I sat down to save our table while she ordered (which was actually kind of pointless since we were switching tables anyway), and he ran up right under my foot! It wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't in a dark corner so we couldn't see where he was coming from or if there were more. We switched tables and ended up staying. The food was good, but hard to enjoy when you are thinking about the critters running around there. By the time we were done with dinner, it was late. We were tired too, so we ended our night there.
The next day, we woke up early (& woke up our Australian roomie early) and left for the London Eye! We checked it out, but then decided we would rather go up after we had seen most of the sites so that we could point them out. The London Aquariam is right next to the Eye and is gigantic! We saw Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, which are right across the river from the Eye. Big Ben is so cute! He's not as big as I thought he would be though. A little farther down the road lies Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. Most of England's kings and queens have been crowned here and many are buried here as well. It's gorgeous. Even farther down the road is Westminster Cathedral. I think it looks like it should be a building in Candyland or something. I loved how all of the apartment buildings surrounding it copied its design with the stripes.
We walked to Buckingham Palace afterward--the official residence of the Queen of England. We were stopped outside a souvenir shop looking at some paintings when Graham pulled a Jack x 100 on us! I said I didn't really like one of the paintings that much, and Graham came up behind us and said "Yea I don't really like it that much either". At first I was thinking who is this creep behind us, but then I turned around and was like "GRAHAMMM!!". It was crazy--we didn't even know he was in London yet, and we somehow ran into him. We all went to Buckingham Palace just in time to see the Changing of the Guard! It was packed! There were people on horses controlling all of the people since they had to make a path for the guards. The band played for a little bit, they chanted a few things, and then they marched out of the palace. Every guard was carrying something--if it wasn't an instrument, it was a gun. I don't know how they can keep straight faces when they are wearing such goofy hats and doing such a funny march. You can't get close enough to the guards at Buckingham Palace to take a picture, so we went down the road a little bit to St. James Palace. We took pictures with a guard named Charlie. I felt bad because everyoneee was taking pictures with him, and he just stood there so seriously. We asked him what his name was, and he didn't respond right away. So we asked him if he wasn't allowed to talk, and he whispered that he wasn't supposed to, but he will anyway, and that his name is Charlie. We said nice to meet you, and then Yelena and I decided to take another picture with him--one of us on each side pretending to kiss his cheeks! He just smiled :)
After saying bye to Charlie, we went back to Trafalgar Square. We took pictures with the GIANT lion statues at the base of Nelson's Column. My entire body was as big as one of its legs! I told Megh that I tried to steal it for her, but it was a little too heavy :) It was HILARIOUS to watch Yelena and Preethi try to get up on them. Yelena got half way up and just stood there frozen, and Preethi was practically laying on the lion, clenching on to it so that she wouldn't fall, while she was walking her feet around the lion's leg trying to get to the front of it. There was an Indian festival going on in front of the National Gallery, so we got free lunch! The chicken and rice were delicious, but the dessert was a little questionable. It was free, though, so I had nothing to complain about. I really liked the fountains and the statue of a glass bottle with a ship inside of it in front of the Gallery too. We went inside the National Gallery after lunch, which has over 2,300 masterpieces inside, and it is free to get in! We saw Cezanne's Bathers, van Gogh's Sunflowers, Stubb's Whistlejacket, and many many many more! The Gallery itself was just as beautiful as the paintings in it. After the Gallery, we took Graham to Piccadilly Circus since he hadn't been yet. We stopped at this really cool souvenir shop on the way. EVERYTHING was decked out in the English flag--even this old-fashioned car sitting in the middle of the store.
From Piccadilly Circus, we hopped on the tube and took it over to Hyde Park. Outside of the park and across the street is Wellington Arch. There were guards under the arch and their leader was walking them through a bunch of different positions and commands, teaching the crowd at the same time. We walked into the gorgeous and gigantic Hyde Park. There was an enormous open field with hundreds and hundreds of people playing countless different games and sports. It was nuts! We decided to walk across it so we could see the Marble Arch on the other side. On the way, we ran into Speaker's Corner. Some of the most influential figures in world history such as Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and V.I. Lenin have attended meetings here. Oliver Cromwell's corpse was hung up here in a cage for public display as a warning for others who might want to abolish Monarchy. It is a place where people from almost every walk of life, every class, and almost every country come to discuss important issues. People stand up on these little pedestals and voice their opinions while other people gather around them and debate. We listened to a few groups. One guy was particularly popular--he was red in the face from screaming so loudly. It was a little shocking to see people so worked up, so we didn't stay long. We went to the Marble Arch, which is a white Carrara marble monument that is located in the middle of a huge traffic island at one of the busiest intersections in central London. Another intersection we probably shouldn't have crossed, but we did anyway! After seeing the arch, we headed back to Hyde Park to go see the Peter Pan statue. The craziest little squirrel came up to us when we were walking through the park. He like ran up to us and kept reaching out to us like he wanted us to give him something. Yelena found some food in her purse, so Yelena and Graham handed him pieces of it, and he took it right out of their hands! He eventually took the whole wrapper and ran away with it. Then another squirrel came up and started doing the same thing, found the other squirrel with the wrapper, and chased after him. haha! We found the Peter Pan statue, took some pictures, then spent some time near the pond/river watching all of the ducks and ducklings.
We got back on the tube to go to ABBEY ROAD!! (the famous street where the Beatles shot their "Abbey Road" album cover and the road where their recording studio was). We texted LC on our way there because there's a live feed on the internet so you can see everyone on the road, but I'm not sure if she saw us or not. That road was soo busy and everyone was trying to get a picture like their album cover, so it was hard to get a good one. It was amazing to be there! We signed the wall in front of their recording studio with an "All You Need is Love" quote, hung out there for a little while, then headed back to the metro station.
We had seen all of our sights by this point, so we decided that it was time for the London Eye! The sun had just come out and the skies were so blue--perfect timing! It is the world's third largest observation wheel, and you can see 25 miles away in all directions. It is ENORMOUS!! We got our tickets, watched the 4D movie about it (which was actually really cool! and we got sprayed with water), then got in line. We jumped in one of the giant glass ovals as it was moving. Each car can hold probably thirty people. It moves reallyyyy slowly so that you can see everything. I love seeing cities from a bird's eye view--we could see absolutely everything! I took like a million pictures while I was up there. Afterward, we went to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant, which was really good! Graham had to leave us after dinner to go meet up with his friend, so Yelena, Preethi and I went to King's Cross Station to go to Platform 9 and 3/4--the platform for the London to Hogwarts trip on Hogwarts Express! We took some pictures there, realized how exhausted we were, and decided to go back to the hostel for the night. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up breakfast (since we were leaving at 5 a.m.--Preethi and I for Dublin, Yelena for Wimbledon), some cookies and a giant strawberry milk bottle that we took swigs out of. We figured out how we were going to get to the bus station in the morning, and went to bed. I had such an amazing time in London--I really love this city ( and their accents too :] ).
Monday, July 5, 2010
More Madrid
Before I start writing about all of the other cities I've visited, I thought I should give you guys a little update about the city I'm living in. I haven't spent a ton of time in Madrid since I have been traveling so much, but most of my traveling is over with so I'm looking forward to exploring Madrid in the next month.
MUSEUMS
A few weeks ago, around June 15th, Preethi, Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen's friend Zoey, and I went to El Museo de Thyssen-Bornemisza and El Museo del Prado (Yelena joined us for this one). They are a couple of popular art museums in Madrid. Mary Ellen was taking an art history class at the time so she was like our teacher as we went through these museums. It was pretty funny--every time she started talking about a painting, we would all run over to hear what she had to say about it.
The Thyssen was really nice--we started off by looking at some abstract art and then worked our way back through the ages. It has artwork from the 13th-20th century so it was interesting to see the different styles of art over the years. I had a smile on my face throughout this entire museum. I really loved all of the nature paintings or paintings with boats in the sea, and I loved to look at all of the small details in each painting too. Some masterpieces that you can find here are Dali's Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranata a Second Before Waking Up, Cezanne's Portrait of a Peasant, van Gogh's "Les Vessenots" in Auvers, and Degas' Swaying Dancer. Even though this is one of the smaller museum's, we spent hours in here! We probably could have spent even more time in the Thyssen if we wouldn't have been on a tight schedule.
The Prado is super close to the Thyssen, so after a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed over there. The Prado is free for all visitors from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday and from 5 - 8 on Sundays, so we decided to go the Thyssen first to save some money. The Prado is huge though, so it is definitely going to take a few trips to see the majority of it. It has some really famous masterpieces too, like Velazquez's Las Meninas, Greco's The Trinity, Ribera's Jacob's Dream, Goya's The Nude Maja (& the clothed one--the nude one was painted first), and tonssss more! There was also a copy of Hermaphrodite at the Prado--we saw the original one at the Louvre. It was really cool to hear about & see The Black Paintings by Goya. Goya painted these 14 haunting works with dark themes in the later years of his life. After, the Napoleonic Wars, surviving two near-fatal illnesses, and going deaf, Goya began to express his anxiety in his Black Paintings. Right before his death, though, he painted a couple brighter, more pleasant paintings that brings a sense of peace. We didn't get to see nearly as much as we wanted in the Prado, so I will probably go back this weekend.
FUTBOL
On Wednesday, the 16th, Sarah, Yelena, Dan, and I went to watch the Spain vs. Switzerland game at the Hyundai Fan Park outside of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. The game was at 4 p.m. Madrid time, so Yelena and I left right after class to get to the stadium early enough. It was two days before my Ethics Final, and we just got our study guide for it about ten minutes before the end of class, but we went anyway :) It was absolutely insane there!! They had a huge screen set up for the hundreds and hundreds of crazy Spanish fans. Most of the people there were drinking sangria out of a box or drinking mixed drinks out of water bottle. Hyundai was handing out free Hyundai hats and Spanish flags. They were painting faces for free too--mostly Spanish flags. They had a GIGANTIC blow up FIFA soccer ball that everyone had signed and tons of vuvuzelas and other noise makers. Everyone was chanting, cheering, waving their flags, & jumping up and down. Some of the cheers were "Yo soy espanol, espanol, espanol!" (which means I am Spanish), and "Villa Villa Maravilla!" (Villa is the name of one of the players--love him :)-- and maravilla means marvelous). Spain ended up losing to Switzerland 0-1, but it was still soo much fun!
I went back to the stadium for the Spain vs. Portugal game with Preethi, and it was even crazier! Spanish people hate Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal's team. Every time he came up on the screen, they would all flip him off. They always have a contest for the Fan of the Match, and for this game it was the Goblins from El Rastro! Soooo funny! I tried to get a picture of them dancing on stage, but it was too hard to. Spain beat Portugal 1-0, and when Villa scored the goal toward the end of the game, everyone went NUTS!! Screaming, vuvuzelas, hugging, jumping, waving flags--it was complete chaos and I absolutely loved it! There wasn't much time left, and Portugal got close to scoring once, but when the game was over, everyone went just as nuts as when Villa scored. I watched Spain beat Paraguay in the quarterfinals with my family in Lisbon, so now Spain is in the semifinals with the Netherlands, Uruguay, and Germany!! I'M SOOO EXCITED/NERVOUS FOR THE GAME ON WEDNESDAY! I'm trying not to get my hopes up for them winning the cup, but I can't help it :)
PAINTING CLASS
It has been about 2 weeks since I started my painting class. There are only 6 people total in my class--2 guys and 4 girls. Class is in a little painting salon near Manresa Hall--one of the 4 buildings on campus. There isn't any air conditioning in the building and with temperatures in the high 90's, it gets a little unbearable. Plus we have to wear painting shirts over our clothes so that we don't get paint everywhere (well, so that everyone else doesn't get paint everywhere--I still manage to cover myself in paint and turpentine.
I love the professor (Juan Massana) and the class though! All we do is paint for three hours a day Monday through Thursday. We take a five minute break after every hour, and every now and then we break for Juan to teach us something about painting theory (like the chromatic circle). We always listen to music, and Juan said that we get a better grade if we sing or do something that shows that we are expressing our emotions. Our first painting was of a sculpture--it was a woman's body from her neck to her thighs and her body is twisted and contorted. We used two colors--white and a dark color (I used cobalt blue). It was pretty hard to draw and paint, and I want to go back and fix a few things after I leave it alone for awhile. Now we are starting our second paintings--two vases on a tablecloth. I drew the vases a little too big for the size of the canvas we have, but I'm hoping it still turns out okay. We are starting to use more colors with this painting--like 5-7 different colors. I think the subject is a lot easier though. I would put up pictures, but this site won't let me. I'll have to show everyone my thousands of pictures when I get back!
RANDOM
A few random things...
July is the time for rebajas in Europe--rebajas=sales! Most stores have 50% discounts on the majority of their items--some have even higher discounts! I don't have room in my suitcase for anything else so I'm trying to limit myself, but it is hard to pass up good deals.
Dona Estrella is one of Encarnita's friends that I met. She is one of the sweetest ladies in the world! Encarnita said that Dona Estrella is like a mother to her--she is always checking in on her and is bringing her gifts. Her husband is a doctor--he specializes in pulmonary/heart and digestion--who is just as caring as she is. She always tells me that I have the most beautiful eyes and calls Encarnita to ask her how I am doing. She thinks I speak less Spanish than I actually do so she always talks really slowly to me--it's pretty funny :) She said I should come over sometime to talk to her granddaughter who is 13 years old. I can practice my Spanish, and she can practice her English. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her and Encarnita this month.
My mom brought Encarnita a couple gifts to Lisbon, and I brought them back with me to give to her. Before I gave her them, I told her I had a couple things for her, and she told me the same thing that she told Preethi and me when we bought her a gift from Segovia. She said that the only thing that she wants is something they don't sell in stores--all she wants is for people to love her. I told her she already has that, so we had to get her something else. My mom got her an angel statue and a picture frame with a cross and religious words in the background. My mom wrote her a note that said (in Spanish) "Thank you for being such a good mom to Dana. She tells me that you are a great cook. I am very grateful for you helping her follow her gluten free diet. She adores you teaching her how to cook different foods, for you teaching her about gardening and about the simple things in life. Enjoy this angel and this picture. God bless you." From what I can remember, it was something along those lines. Encarnita started crying when she read it. She said thats exactly what she was talking about--you can't buy that in stores. I told her that my mom got her an angel because I told her about how she always tells us to sleep and dream with angels, and that she knows more English than she admits so she shouldn't have a problem with the picture. She just smiled with tears in her eyes.
MUSEUMS
A few weeks ago, around June 15th, Preethi, Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen's friend Zoey, and I went to El Museo de Thyssen-Bornemisza and El Museo del Prado (Yelena joined us for this one). They are a couple of popular art museums in Madrid. Mary Ellen was taking an art history class at the time so she was like our teacher as we went through these museums. It was pretty funny--every time she started talking about a painting, we would all run over to hear what she had to say about it.
The Thyssen was really nice--we started off by looking at some abstract art and then worked our way back through the ages. It has artwork from the 13th-20th century so it was interesting to see the different styles of art over the years. I had a smile on my face throughout this entire museum. I really loved all of the nature paintings or paintings with boats in the sea, and I loved to look at all of the small details in each painting too. Some masterpieces that you can find here are Dali's Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranata a Second Before Waking Up, Cezanne's Portrait of a Peasant, van Gogh's "Les Vessenots" in Auvers, and Degas' Swaying Dancer. Even though this is one of the smaller museum's, we spent hours in here! We probably could have spent even more time in the Thyssen if we wouldn't have been on a tight schedule.
The Prado is super close to the Thyssen, so after a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed over there. The Prado is free for all visitors from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday and from 5 - 8 on Sundays, so we decided to go the Thyssen first to save some money. The Prado is huge though, so it is definitely going to take a few trips to see the majority of it. It has some really famous masterpieces too, like Velazquez's Las Meninas, Greco's The Trinity, Ribera's Jacob's Dream, Goya's The Nude Maja (& the clothed one--the nude one was painted first), and tonssss more! There was also a copy of Hermaphrodite at the Prado--we saw the original one at the Louvre. It was really cool to hear about & see The Black Paintings by Goya. Goya painted these 14 haunting works with dark themes in the later years of his life. After, the Napoleonic Wars, surviving two near-fatal illnesses, and going deaf, Goya began to express his anxiety in his Black Paintings. Right before his death, though, he painted a couple brighter, more pleasant paintings that brings a sense of peace. We didn't get to see nearly as much as we wanted in the Prado, so I will probably go back this weekend.
FUTBOL
On Wednesday, the 16th, Sarah, Yelena, Dan, and I went to watch the Spain vs. Switzerland game at the Hyundai Fan Park outside of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. The game was at 4 p.m. Madrid time, so Yelena and I left right after class to get to the stadium early enough. It was two days before my Ethics Final, and we just got our study guide for it about ten minutes before the end of class, but we went anyway :) It was absolutely insane there!! They had a huge screen set up for the hundreds and hundreds of crazy Spanish fans. Most of the people there were drinking sangria out of a box or drinking mixed drinks out of water bottle. Hyundai was handing out free Hyundai hats and Spanish flags. They were painting faces for free too--mostly Spanish flags. They had a GIGANTIC blow up FIFA soccer ball that everyone had signed and tons of vuvuzelas and other noise makers. Everyone was chanting, cheering, waving their flags, & jumping up and down. Some of the cheers were "Yo soy espanol, espanol, espanol!" (which means I am Spanish), and "Villa Villa Maravilla!" (Villa is the name of one of the players--love him :)-- and maravilla means marvelous). Spain ended up losing to Switzerland 0-1, but it was still soo much fun!
I went back to the stadium for the Spain vs. Portugal game with Preethi, and it was even crazier! Spanish people hate Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal's team. Every time he came up on the screen, they would all flip him off. They always have a contest for the Fan of the Match, and for this game it was the Goblins from El Rastro! Soooo funny! I tried to get a picture of them dancing on stage, but it was too hard to. Spain beat Portugal 1-0, and when Villa scored the goal toward the end of the game, everyone went NUTS!! Screaming, vuvuzelas, hugging, jumping, waving flags--it was complete chaos and I absolutely loved it! There wasn't much time left, and Portugal got close to scoring once, but when the game was over, everyone went just as nuts as when Villa scored. I watched Spain beat Paraguay in the quarterfinals with my family in Lisbon, so now Spain is in the semifinals with the Netherlands, Uruguay, and Germany!! I'M SOOO EXCITED/NERVOUS FOR THE GAME ON WEDNESDAY! I'm trying not to get my hopes up for them winning the cup, but I can't help it :)
PAINTING CLASS
It has been about 2 weeks since I started my painting class. There are only 6 people total in my class--2 guys and 4 girls. Class is in a little painting salon near Manresa Hall--one of the 4 buildings on campus. There isn't any air conditioning in the building and with temperatures in the high 90's, it gets a little unbearable. Plus we have to wear painting shirts over our clothes so that we don't get paint everywhere (well, so that everyone else doesn't get paint everywhere--I still manage to cover myself in paint and turpentine.
I love the professor (Juan Massana) and the class though! All we do is paint for three hours a day Monday through Thursday. We take a five minute break after every hour, and every now and then we break for Juan to teach us something about painting theory (like the chromatic circle). We always listen to music, and Juan said that we get a better grade if we sing or do something that shows that we are expressing our emotions. Our first painting was of a sculpture--it was a woman's body from her neck to her thighs and her body is twisted and contorted. We used two colors--white and a dark color (I used cobalt blue). It was pretty hard to draw and paint, and I want to go back and fix a few things after I leave it alone for awhile. Now we are starting our second paintings--two vases on a tablecloth. I drew the vases a little too big for the size of the canvas we have, but I'm hoping it still turns out okay. We are starting to use more colors with this painting--like 5-7 different colors. I think the subject is a lot easier though. I would put up pictures, but this site won't let me. I'll have to show everyone my thousands of pictures when I get back!
RANDOM
A few random things...
July is the time for rebajas in Europe--rebajas=sales! Most stores have 50% discounts on the majority of their items--some have even higher discounts! I don't have room in my suitcase for anything else so I'm trying to limit myself, but it is hard to pass up good deals.
Dona Estrella is one of Encarnita's friends that I met. She is one of the sweetest ladies in the world! Encarnita said that Dona Estrella is like a mother to her--she is always checking in on her and is bringing her gifts. Her husband is a doctor--he specializes in pulmonary/heart and digestion--who is just as caring as she is. She always tells me that I have the most beautiful eyes and calls Encarnita to ask her how I am doing. She thinks I speak less Spanish than I actually do so she always talks really slowly to me--it's pretty funny :) She said I should come over sometime to talk to her granddaughter who is 13 years old. I can practice my Spanish, and she can practice her English. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her and Encarnita this month.
My mom brought Encarnita a couple gifts to Lisbon, and I brought them back with me to give to her. Before I gave her them, I told her I had a couple things for her, and she told me the same thing that she told Preethi and me when we bought her a gift from Segovia. She said that the only thing that she wants is something they don't sell in stores--all she wants is for people to love her. I told her she already has that, so we had to get her something else. My mom got her an angel statue and a picture frame with a cross and religious words in the background. My mom wrote her a note that said (in Spanish) "Thank you for being such a good mom to Dana. She tells me that you are a great cook. I am very grateful for you helping her follow her gluten free diet. She adores you teaching her how to cook different foods, for you teaching her about gardening and about the simple things in life. Enjoy this angel and this picture. God bless you." From what I can remember, it was something along those lines. Encarnita started crying when she read it. She said thats exactly what she was talking about--you can't buy that in stores. I told her that my mom got her an angel because I told her about how she always tells us to sleep and dream with angels, and that she knows more English than she admits so she shouldn't have a problem with the picture. She just smiled with tears in her eyes.
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