Portugal

Portugal was great! I went to Lisbon and Sintra. I saw the Cathedral, Monastery, Palace, Botanical Gardens in Lisbon. In Sintra I saw the Palace and Castle. I was there over their independence weekend so there were some festivities in the Botanical Garden including home made products like honey and jam. There are this super amazing pasteries made in the Belem section of Lisbon, I had like a million of them...SOO good! I did some shopping at H&M and tourist shopping. Overall, it was a fun, non-stressful weekend of travel.

Semana Santa

Alright so for Semana Santa (Holy week) my parents came to visit me and we went to Vienna and Prague. They left Chicago on Thursday April 2nd and arrived in Madrid on the morning of April 3rd then they took a bus to Burgos to meet me. We visited the Cathedral, my school, my dorm, and walked around my the historical center. I showed them my favorite places for cafe con leche and we had some churros. Overall, it was a very good day. The next day we took the bus to Madrid in the morning. Our hotel was in an amazing location right in then center next to Puerta del Sol. We went to some museums, El Prado and La Riena Sofia. We also walked around the park, El Reterio, because the weather was AMAZING, super sunny and warm just like my entire vacation (great luck). Then we walked to Plaza Mayor and through Sol. The next day we got up and went to see the Royal Palace and just as we were leaving we heard tons of noise outside and saw a huge processional leading into the Cathedral (it was Palm Sunday) and at the end of the processional were the King and Queen of Spain. Then we walked back to our hotel and got a cab to the airport to go to Vienna! We arrived in the evening in Vienna got checked into our hotel (my bed was a couch covered in sheets). Then we walked to the Cathedral and got dinner (the food in Vienna and Prague was AMAZING). The next day we made our way to the Hofburg complex, on the way we saw this really famous chandiler maker's shop and stopped inside, really pretty. We went to the The Imperial Silver and Porcelian Collection, the Sisi musuem, and the Imperial apartments which was all really cool but a bit of informaiton over load. We took a short break for some ice cream! Then we went to the Imperial treasury which is also in the Hofburg complex. The evening we went to this show, which turned out to be super tourist and horrible. The next day we went to the Spanish riding school in the Hofburg complex to watch the morning practice because there are no shows during Holy week. On the way out of the complex we walked past the parlament house and another government building (the name of which I cannot remember). Then we went to watch this clock that has figures that move with the minutes and at noon there is a procession of all the figures, so we watched that. Then we went shopping and afterward we went to the cathedral, including going up one of the towers (the smaller one for two reasons 1) it had a lift, 2) the taller one was closed). That evening we went to the Opera, which was AMAZING! We saw Arabella and there were little screens that had the english translation of the script. My two favorite parts were when, the man guy (the one Arabella falls in love with) says right after he got a letter, he was attacked by a she-bear...but no worries he got away hehe. The other part was near the end when Arabella came downstairs to talk to the guy she loves and says that she couldnt sleep or drink her glass of water knowing he was all alone. Pretty amazing stuff hehe but the signing was out of this world. Ohh and my mom and I sat in the 3rd row and my dad in the 5th, super cool! The next day we went to the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Hofburgs, which is a bit outside the city. We walked around the beautiful gardens to The Gloriette, which is this crazy pretty stone building where Queen Maria Theresa had her breakfast when she stayed here, which was a lot because it was a wedding gift for her from her father. The grounds also include a Zoo and a maze. We had lunch at the Gloriette and then walked back to the Palace and got a guided tour through the rooms that are opened to the public. The other rooms are rented by people as apartments. The next day we took the train to Prague, it was about 3 to 4 hours long. After we got checked into our hotel, we took a walk around and stopped at the Communist musuem which was enlightening beyond the actual material that was displayed. First of all, it was pretty much a collection of junk in a very dingy couple of rooms in the same building as a casino and with a McDonald's right nextdoor. Also, a lot the information talked about how the communist regime used propaganda to stay in power but the whole musuem felt like a lot of propaganda in the other direction. Overall though, it was a very interesting experience. Then we continued walking to Wenceclas square which is very long and narrow and filled with shops. At the one end is the Czech National Musuem and at the other is the road that leads to the Old Town. After dropping by our hotel for a jacket, we headed to the Old Town square. On the way we pasted this crazy bar outside of which some guy (definetly American) said very loudly to another man "I thought 2 grams ususal cost..." It was ridiculous because the guy basicly announced it to the entire street hehe. In the old town square there was a dance show going on. The rest of the day we simply walked around the square and popped into some tourist shops. The next day we had a guided walking tour. It started up in Prague castle where we walked around and saw the different buildings including the palace, the Cathedral, the Basilica, and the Convent. After walking around the Castle grounds we walked back down the hill and walked through Wallenstein Palace grounds which have the Czech Parlament building in it. Then we walked across Charles Bridge which was crowded with people and had beautiful statues on both sides. We walked past the New Town Hall building and through the old Jewish quarter and to the Old Town Square and then to Wenceclas square where our tour ended. After lunch, we headed back up to Prague castle to go into the Cathedral because the line was too long earlier in the day. After the Cathedral, we went into a musuem called the Story of Prague castle which had very interesting arftifacts dating to well before the Middle Ages. Then we went into St. George's Basilica and from there through Golden Lane and into the Mideval dungeon which had old tools for torture. The next day we went up the Astronomy Tower in the Old Town Square. After that we went on a tour of the Municipal House, which was very beautiful. And then went next door to go up Powder Gate. The next day, Easter, we went to church in the Cathedral at Prague Castle, the Cathedral was so empty and the service was obviously in Czech so I understood none of it. After Church we walked through the Castle gardens which had been closed the other day we were at the Castle. Shortly after that we went to the airport and took our flight back to Madrid. We arrived in Madrid very late at night, went to the airport hotel and went to sleep. The next morning, I left for Burgos and my parents left to go home.

Camino de Santiago

This past Saturday as a part of BU's seminar class we walked an hour of the camino de Santiago which leads to a city where Saint Jame's bones are buried near the Atlantic coast of Spain, it is one of the three holy sites for Catholics. The Camino is really imporant as far as the development of the north of Spain. Most of the towns that ran along the camino's path were built for the pilgrims in the middle ages including Burgos the town I am studying in. First we drove about twenty minutes west to a very small town which we walked through in about 5 minutes that is just there for the pilgrims there are houses, lodging, and resturants on either side of the actual road but not much else in the surround area. Then we drove another 10 minutes and got out to walk for about 1 hour to where an old hospital is located and then we drove another 15 minutes to another small camino town where we had lunch and then got a tour of the wine cellars from the resturant owner (because our director appears to know everyone). After that we got a tour of two different churchs from a priest, one of the churches was locked and he had to open the door with two super huge keys ( the really old fashion ones) and it has made me decide that I want to redo the door of whatever house I buy so they have keys like that (so I can be like "wait hold on, let me just get my very large key out" hehe). After this we drove back to Burgos.

Barcelona Barcelona

On Wednesday March 18th Michelle and I left on our epic journey to Barcelona...We got in late on Wednesday night and basically had dinner and then went out with our hostel to a very nice bar where we got a free vodka drink and champagne. I met a guy from Wisconsin and there were a bunch of other guys from MIT (in Boston like BU). Thursday we went to the Sangrada Familia, a church by Gaudi that is still being built, and then to the park he designed. Both of these sites were crazy beautiful. There were tons of little school childern on class trips in the park and they were all holding hands with their buddies and then there was one part of the park that had art on the ceiling so their teachers had them all lay down in a circle to look up at it. Super cute! In the park as we were just chilling in the pretty weather we ran into a group of French guys and one of them was dressed up as a bird. The guys dressed as a bird insited on taking a picture with Michelle and I and then after he left, him and one of his friends, who was drinking a beer, joined a jogger for about two minutes through the park. It was beyond funny! That night we went out with the hostel again to a club on the beach! It was a really nice club and actually played rap music instead of house :) There wre also these three guys that were clearly payed by the club to dance but were soo second class to anything that you would see in the US...everything was very obviously planned out but still interesting to see.
Friday we went to see one of Gaudi's houses and walked along a main road. The house was built crazy cool with the most amazing roof ever and the top floor apartment was all done up from the time period of the last owners. In the afternoon we went shopping. As we were walking we past a rather small but intense protest in front of one of the Zara stores. There were guys yelling and playing the drums and there were signs everywhere saying things like if you have any dignaty do not go into Zara today and Zara hates families. It was crazy intense but it was only in front of this store so like five blocks away there was another Zara with no one protesting. That night we saw the new Pedro Almadovar movie staring Penelope Cruz called Los Abrazos Rotos (The broken hugs). It was very good and I understood most of what was going on, although I plan to see it again and I am sure I'll get more out of it.
Saturday, we went down to the beach but it was crazy windy and very cold. We had a pinic lunch and sat by the port and then walked to the Gothic quarter of town and looked at the cathedral. That night we went out to a club that played house, salsa, and reggetone but the people that came out with the hostel that night were crazy awkward and so it was my least favorite night in Barcelona.
Sunday we went to the national art muesum, which was closed but was beautiful on the outside. Then we went and saw the Olympic stadium and another art muesum which houses exhibits, there was one painter and then an arcitect. Finally we went to the "Spanish town" which was horrible and hardly worth mentioning. Then Monday we got up and started our epic journey back to Burgos. Overall, it was a great time but because the weather wasnt as warm as I had hoped the trip was about a day too long. Although I still love Barcelona Barcelona!!!

Madrid madness

Ok so March 7th through 9th Bre and Ashleigh came to visit me. We met in Madrid. So after the longest metro ride ever and checking into the hostel, we decided to get tapas, the favorite was tortilla patas which is like a potato omelette. Then we part took in siesta since all of us had basically stayed up the entire previous night. After siesta we got up and went to Sol, which is near where a lot of shopping and resturants are. We wandered around for a while and got more tapas, and chocolate con churros. We also walked through the Plaza Mayor. On Sunday we went to the gyps flee market which was massive and amazing!! Then since it was crazy sunny and warm we went and sat near the Royal Palace and watched some street flamingo dancing. We then walked back to Sol and sat outside and had some sangria. That night we went to two different bars then hung out at the hostel waiting for Bre and Ashleigh's cab to the airport. It was a short, relaxing and crazy fun weekend with my sisters!!
The next weekend Michelle, Jill and I went to Madrid for the Fall Out Boy concert on Friday night. It turns out that the concert was sponsered by undereighteen.com so basically we were like some of the oldest people there. The first opening band was a spanish band with lots of screaming there was one member whos job it seemed to be was just scream at random intervals. After them was The Sounds who were crazy bad ass. Their lead singer was a woman and I would much rather have ran into the entire Spanish band in an alley than her. The first song they sang had a line that said "We're not living in America and we're not sorry" but the song didn't diss the US and even really talk about...it was just kind of a random and awkward song. Then Fall Out Boy played and they were pretty good, better than I expected. One of the songs all the lights went out and their guitars light up and one of the members was like SHIT FACED and kept talking to the crowd but pretty much Michelle, Jill, and I were far more entertained by his comments than anyone else and we are pretty sure that is because no one else really understood what he was saying. On Saturday we took the bus down to Toledo, which is about 1 hour north. Toledo use to be the capital of Spain, back in the day because its on a huge hill. We went to an art museum for El Greco because he lived many years of his life in Toledo. Then we went to the Cathedral and a synagogue with a small museum. We walked around a lot but Toledo is super small so it was easy to see a lot of things. Many of the tourist shops sold swords because it is a typical trade of Toledo. Mazapan is a typical dessert from Toledo and we ended up buying a small box of that, it was a very doughy cookie. For lunch we found a nice patio and had some pitchers of sangria and just sat in the sun :) Then we took the bus back to Madrid and we went to a bar that night where Michelle and I had two shots of Absinthe each. Then on Sunday we returned to Burgos!

Message for Cousin (Amanda)

Message for Big

Message for Little

Morocco Day 3 and 4

Day 3 for breakfast I had toast and tea. Then we left our host families and drove to the Rif mountains were we then walked in the mud and rain to a families house in a very rural village. There we had a snack of strawberries, apples, sandwiches with cheese and veggies and then we had lunch which was couscous without meat. We learned about what the family farmed and how they made their bread. Fun fact: black olives are just picked later than green ones, but they come from the same tree. After spending a few hours with the family we drove to Chefchaouen where we were given time to shop before dinner. For dinner I had chicken kaba (again probably spelt wrong) and a moroccan salad (diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions) and lots of bread and olives. We stayed in a hostel that night and it rained really hard most of the evening, night, and next morning. Because of the rain our walk to outside the city was cancelled. For breakfast we had pastries. Then we drove to Ceuta, one of the two Spanish towns in Africa and crossed the border there. We then took the ferry past the rock of Gibraltar to Algeciras and our trip was over. I traveled back the following morning by train to Madrid and by bus to Burgos. Over all I am very glad to have taken this trip and very much enjoyed Morocco!!

Morocco Day 2

On day 2, I had toast and tea for breakfast. Then we went to the University and met with a professor to talk about the "West and Islamic worlds - images about each other". It was very interesting to learn more about Islam and Morocco as I know very little about both. After that we went to the Roman ruins, Chellah, which were very beautiful with tons of plants and birds and cats. There is also a pool that has eel in it and some of the people in my group feed them eggs which is suppose to help with fertility. After the ruins we went to the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V here there is a mosque (sorry if this is spelt wrong) that King Mohammed V began buidling but during the building process there was an earthquake that knocked a bunch of it down and then the King died and it was never finished. But both him and his son were burried in a tomb right next to it. After this visit we returned to our families for couscous. It was good but not my favorite meal. Again we eat out of the same big bowl but we had spoons this time. After lunch we met up with some Moroccan University students and walked around the city for a while and then went to a pool bar and had some tea. One of the girls I talked with acutally studied in Lacrosse, Wisconsin last semester :) After meeting with the students we met with a former peace corps volunteer and a current rhodes scholar and learned about these organizations, their experiences, and how to get involved. That night my host sister took all of the girls in my group to Hammam, which is a public bath. It was definetly an experience that I'm glad I have but will not be repeating. Then we had dinner with our families. That night we had pasta with meatballs, bread, oranges, and salad.

Morocco Day 1

On Wednesday I got on a 2 1/2 hour long bus ride to Madrid and then a 5 hour long train ride to Algeciras, Spain...all in all a very uneventful trip. On Thursday morning I met with the other people in the program at 8am at the port. Unfortunately, the morning was very windy and all of the fast ferries were cancelled. We got on the 9:30 ferry at like 10am and didn't leave for another half hour and the ferry ride was something like 3 hours long. The trip over was very rocky and pretty unpleasant. There were ten people including myself in my group and another slightly smaller group. There was one leader per group. When we arrived in Tangier, Morocco we went through very lax security and then dropped over our bags in the van and changed euros for derum, 1 euro = 10 derum. After that we drove to the market to buy snacks for the first part of our trip. The market had everything from packaged goods like cookies to fresh meat (hanging from the booths of course) to olives to fruit. Any part of an animal was for sale. For example, I was some cow lungs for sale. The whole market smelled very good though because of all the spices. After loading up on food and bottled water, we went to the DARNA women's center. At the center we met a Moroccan woman who is studying for her masters in english translation and she told us about the many serivices that the center offers women. The center teaches women to read and write, if they never learned, to sew, cook, use the computer. Basically, the center gives women marketable skills so that they can find a job to support their families. We had lunch at the center and it was amazing!! It was a chicken dish with vegetables that is stewed for about an hour and it is eaten with bread. The salad had two parts these pea type vegetable that I can't remember the name of and the other was chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. Then we had amazing tea and cookies. The center also has a shop where the women can sell their products. During lunch I had a chance to talk to the women that showed us around the center and hear aobut Morocco from her point of view. After lunch we left to drive to Rabat where we would be staying with host families. On the way to Rabat we stopped to ride camals on the beach...so sterotypical but it was still amazing :) While I was sitting on my camal waiting for the ride to start one of the babies came over and started smelling and nibbling my ear and hair, it tickled a lot hehe. Then we also stopped at Asilah and walked through the old town and went near the ocean to watch the sun set. It was soo beautiful. We finally arrived in Rabat and met our host families who we stayed with for 2 nights. There were three to a family and our family lived in an appartment right above another host family. In the building where my family lived there was a square cut out over the bottom appartment's courtyard and there was no glass or roof covering. There was like a walkway that connected all the rooms but you had to walk in a square to get to the rooms on the other side. My room which I shared with two other girls was the length of the building, long and narrow, and there were coches all around the room and on one end three different sections had blankets and sheets and those were our beds. For dinner that night we had turkey meatballs in a gravey sauce, bread, and salad. There were no utencils and just one large dish. So to eat, you break off a chuck of bread and scoop up a meatball or dip it in the gravey. It was soooooo amazing!!! That is the end of day 1 :)

Clases at the University

This week started classes at the Universidad de Burgos. I picked out about 8 classes that I wanted to try out but I will only register for 3. In the morning there was a meeting for the new international students so I was unable to attend my first class (but in Spain this apparently really does not matter). The first class I attend was Creacion Lexica en el Espanol actual which is taught by one of my professors from my seminar class. This class about the formation of words. So I will learn what different parts of words mean and I think it will be very useful for understand Spanish better. I really liked this class and have decided that I will definitely be taking it. The next class I attended was Historia de America Latina. I think the material in this class is interesting and I can understand the professor fairly well (although taking notes definitely complicates my comprehension). I still have another history class to try out which is not meeting until next Monday, La Monarquia Hispanica y su proyeccion Exterior, which is more of a Spanish history class. After I attend that class, I will decided between it and Historia de America Latina. On Tuesday I attended La Educacion de Intercultural which I LOVE, the professor is amazing, very hippy like. The class basically consists of reading three books and discussing them in class. That is it, no final, no papers, SO SWEET :D So obviously I have decided to take that class. After 5pm today, I am done with classes for the week because none of my classes or class options meet on Thursday or Friday. I am hoping to know my schedule by the end of the day next Monday. The next big event in my life is my trip to Morocco at the end of this month!

Madrid and Sevilla

On Wednesday the 11th I left for Madrid at 2:30 and it was unfortunately the bus ride from hell. Normally it takes between 2 1/2 to 3 hours to travel from Madrid to Burgos...it took more than 6 HOURS!! There was this huge accident on the way and we sat on the bus for like EVER waiting for everything to be cleared. It must have been pretty bad cause like three helicopters came to airlift people out. So when I got to Madrid and had dropped my stuff off at the hotel. Jill, Michelle, Amanda (the assistant for the BU program in Madrid), and I went to a Flamingo show. It was pretty amazing, the violinist and the singers were unbelievable. The Thursday we went to the Royal Palace, Plaza de la Villa, Plaza Mayor, and the Prado with Amalia the director of the BU program in Burgos. After that I went to the park, people watched, and basically sat in the sun. While I was in the park, some guys were walking around with rafts and they gave us a flyer for a match.com valentines day event. It was a very bizarre site. That night, we failed miserably at going out in Madrid but that was okay because the train to Sevilla was super early the next day. On Friday we left Madrid at 9:00 to go to Sevilla, I traveled not only with the other two girls in my program but also with the entire BU Madrid program which as 80plus students in it. In Sevilla we saw the Cathedral and Los Reales Alcazares. That night I went to the BEST tapas restaurants I have been to in Spain and then I went to a local bar which was super crowded and basically just walked around Sevilla a little bit. On Saturday I visited el mueso de Bellas Artes which is the second most important art museums in Spain. Then in the afternoon I went to the river and to el Plazo de torros (a bullfighting ring). We left Sevilla in the evening and left Madrid the following afternoon after visiting the museum de Reina Sofia. The bus ride back was uneventful and I was very happy to be back in Burgos and away from sooo many Americans :)

The Second week

I just finished my second week of class and I only have three more to go. Ohh and a 2,000 word essay but not thinking about that yet. It snowed today which was pretty but sucked to walk in, I almost fell like a million times. Next Wednesday I am going to Madrid and Sevilla for 5 days which I am very excited about. Also classes at the UBU (the university of Burgos) will be starting the 16th. I have it narrowed down to 8 classes that I am interested in and I will be attending those for the first week and then narrowing it down to 3 for the semester. It is looking like at the most I will have 1 class on Thursday and no classes on Friday, making traveling during the semester super easy.

Going out

This weekend, I went out both Friday and Saturday night. Going out in Spain is quite different from back home. Nobody goes out before midnight and even that is still on the early side. On Friday, the other two girls in the program, Jill and Michelle, and I went to a bar behind the cathedral at about 11:30. We had a round of callimocho and then left to go met up with some other international students at a bar called Twenty at about 1am. After about a half hour we left to go to another bar 7'70 and stayed out til 3:30 which was going home early (because we had class the next day). Last night we went out with the same international students and met even more of them. We got to Twenty at about 1:45am and stayed out til the bar closed at 4:30am. Then we walked to another party of the city which has after hours clubs but it was either closed or too crowded so we left. The second day we pre-gamed the bar which I definetly think is essential because other wise I'll spend way to much at the bars. Although we are not suppose to drink in the dorms here so I had to sneak in the bottle of rum, which reminded me of the dorms at AU. Here though they are not nearly as strict because no one is All things considered it was a very fun two days. At both bars they played an interesting mix of American and spanish music. At twenty both nights we were there they played a Grease mix. Although 7'70 plays house music which I find impossible to dance. On Saturday Jill, Michelle, and I also went out to dinner which was only slightly successful. I have decided that next time I need to bring my spanish-english dictionary. I only knew a few words on the menu so I ended up ordering something that said ham and then another word. It turned out to be a plate of thinnly sliced ham which is fine, since I actually like that. That fact that we had a bowl of bread helped a lot because then I could eat the ham and bread together. Although considering how picky of an eater I am, I think it was a good dish.

San Miguel

Today the university was closed for a holiday so my BU class went to the San Miguel factory. San Miguel is a Spanish beer company. We took a tour of the brewery and then they had different types of beer for us to taste at the end as well as some snacks. Unfortunately, they had olives but it was stuffed with tuna :( We also watched two really werid movies. One introductory movie at the beginning of the tour was very dramatic and told the history of the San Miguel company. It was by far too dramatic. Then there was another movie at the end of the tour which basicly suggested that every human advancement was done to make beer. For example it talked about the wheel and how that was used to brew beer. Again very dramatic but this time it had the additional benefit but have some really horrible actors. They were both certainly entertaining ;) Today lunch at the dorms has horrible...they had a dish that had rice and mixed seafood but everything was put together so the rice had a very seafood taste (which I couldn't eat because I hate seafood). Then there was this pudding things which was not very good either so I was very grateful that I had eaten some of the snacks at the factory otherwise my lunch of bread would not have been enough. Although I think I'll probably get hungry before dinner which is at 8:30 but then again I usually do because I am still not use to the Spanish eating schedule.

La primera dia de clase/ The first day of class

Today I went to the UBU (university) to have my fist class with the language professor. The class was spent learning about many of the cultural activities that are available in Burgos. There was this very amazing website that had tapas "routes". There were about 8 of them and they would list a number of tapas restaurant, one had three another eleven, and the idea is that you go to one restaurant and have a tapa (and maybe a glass of wine or at least that is what my professor said to do) and then move on to the next. However, my professor cautioned against having wine at everyone of the restaurant for the 11 restaurant route, as you would probably be intoxicated by the end. I have a huge reading for tomorrow when I have class with a different professor, but for the same class. Then Wednesday we are going to a factory for a tour.

First weekend/ La Primera fin de semana

On Friday night I went out for the first time. I went to a bar behind the cathedral and had a typical Spanish drink, red wine and coke. It may sound very werid but I was surprised to find that I liked it a lot. Saturday I went to the Cathedral and walked around a bit while one of my teachers told us historical things about it. For homework I have to write a summary of what she told us for next Saturday. Then we walked up to the ruins of the castle and took a tour of the tunnels that were built to escape from the castle and to get at the water underground. On the way we stoped somewhere that had a very good view of the city. The tunnels were a little creepy and as the tour was in spanish I didn't understand many of them. On Saturday night, I played poker with a couple of people in the dorms, it was a very interesting experience. Today I had a mini-class with the director of the program about some of Spain's history mostly during Franco's rule. Tomorrow I have a language class at the University in the morning and a meeting with the residencia (dorm) director in the evening. It snowed but did not stick a little bit this afternoon which is not common at all for Spain. Also the it has been very very windy these past couple of days which has made it very cold. The forcast calls for rain the rest of the week. I have the internet on my laptop now which is very nice. It will be interesting to start class and to get into a rythmn.

Second day

Ok so today is my second day. I went to the university using the bus system which is super easy and very nice. It is apparently a 20 to 30 minute walk to the university. But there is also a bike rental program through the university and a special bike only path that runs from near my dorm to the university. All the people I met at the university are very nice. I was given a lot of information, almost too much for how sleep deprived I am. I will be continuing orientation tonight and through the weekend. My seminar starts Monday and classes at the university start on the 16th of Feb.

Arrived

So I arrived in Spain this morning at 10am, almost a full 24 hours after I left my house for the airport. In Germany, I was asked twice if I spoke German in German, which i thought was a compliment. I am mostly moved into my dorm which is very small with like no storage compared to AU (but really that is how most dorms are compared to AU). My roommate is really nice, her name is Laura and she is 18 years old. She and most of her friends speak little if any english which is just fine by me. They are all really nice and patient with my spanish. The downside they all smoke, even in the room, so I will pretty much smell like I smoke even though I don´t...ohh well i guess just the first of many cultural differences. One of Laura´s friends, Ana, her roommate watches Gossip Girl which is just sooo werid to me (and she isn´t american). I went with Laura and a bunch of her friends to a cafe this afternoon which was interesting, i def. did not follow half the conversations they were having with each other, but when they would talk to me, like i said they were very patient. Apparently, tonight is one of the guys birthday so on the way back to the dorm they bought like a shit ton of booze and then got it in through a window. I´m not exactly sure why they had to do this, but it was def interesting and made me think of AU and our dry campus hehe. Well tomorrow I start orientation at 10:45am. We are going to the University so hopefully, I will be signing up for my classes and will be a bit more informed about how this whole semester is going to work.

About this Blog

Ok, so the other day someone asked me if I was going to be doing an e-mail update for people who wanted to hear about my abroadness...and I admitted that I hadn't really thought about it. So I have decided to use this blog and try to write about my going ons for anyone that cares :) Just 11 days til I leave for SPAIN and I absolutely cannot wait!!!!