mis primeros dias en Valladolid

¡Hola amigos!

I thought I would take this time to tell you guys a little bit about my first few days in Valladolid. I know that my posts have been super long, but that is why I am writing in a blog, so that I don't e-mail everybody individually and waste my time typing everything a hundred times, and so that you can read this on your own free time instead of forgetting about the e-mail or whatever, and then never going back to read it or looking at the pictures. Take what you want from this blog. If you want to read the whole thing, I'd love for you to do that. If you want to just scan through and look at the pictures, that is wonderful to. I also have pictures posted on my Facebook account and I think I might also get a Flicker account where I will just post ALL of the pictures that I am taking.

Anyway, now on to the good stuff.

On Tuesday we arrived in Valladolid late because we all had so much luggage and it wouldn't all fit on the bus so we had to rent an extra van so that the rest of the luggage could get here. When we arrived, all of our "familias" were waiting for us by the bus to pick us up. Everybody was looking outside the bus window, guessing who their "mamá" was. The girls were admiring one stylish mamá (or hermana) who had a super cute red purse and super cute red shoes to match. Guess who's mamá she was... that's right, MINE!

Her name is Eva and she is 33 years old. She lives by herself in a super chic apartment in the "Barrio Delicias" (that is the name of her neighborhood). I ended up not having a roommate, so it is just me and Eva. She speaks English but she said that she won't speak in English unless I really don't understand something. So far we have not had any problems.

My room is a decent size (probably about the size of the rooms in Poly Canyon last year... maybe about 6 inches bigger on each side) and has a wardrobe, a little desk, a small bed, and a bedside table. There are artistic pictures of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe on the yellow walls. I have a window with cute curtains and super cute sheets with flowers on them (made by Burrito Fashion). Once I get all my stuff organized, I will have to take pictures and post them here.

Eva (I call her "mi mamá when I am talking to my friends, but Eva when I am talking to her) took me on the bus and showed me where my language classes will be. Then we walked from there around the city so she could show me where other things were, like my Cal Poly classes and such. It was very helpful. She has also showed me ways to get back to our apartment from different places in the city (one way from el Edificio Derecho where my Poly classes are, another way from La Plaza Mayor where there are little cafés, etc.). She has pointed out different stores that are cute and different places I should go. So far, we get along so well.

Yesterday we took a placement test for our "clases de Español" and today we had our first sections of those classes. I got placed in the middle of five levels. That means that we are intermediate. Our Spanish classes are split into three sections: grammar, oral communication, and culture. Today we had grammar (with Profesora Raquel) and oral communication (with Profesora Cristina García). I think I will really enjoy those classes. I understood every single thing that my professors said in those classes (they NEVER spoke English, at all). I also got to speak to a girl from Taiwan in my oral communication class. It was really cool that our only common language is Spanish... I couldn't ask her how to say a an English word in Spanish because she wouldn't know English!! I think that really helps us to know the language better.

Last night we met up with some of the students from Wisconsin who are here as well. They are from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. They are very nice and I look forward to getting to know more of them.

Yesterday my mamá made me Paella for lunch. It was so good!! Then I had my first Ag Business 444 class. That class is all about wine. It is taught by Professor MacDougall from Cal Poly. After that, some of us girls wandered around looking for notebooks and other school supplies. Maryn decided she wants to buy the seventh Harry Potter book in Spanish. I asked Eva about this and she said it was a great way for us to grow accustomed to reading Spanish. Maybe I will do the same. We also went to a little café that Kristen and Kelsey's mamá said we HAD to try, so we got churros y chocolate caliente. They were the most amazing things I've ever had in my life. (Liana, you would LOVE this treat. I will take the familia when you guys come visit in November.. my mamá said this is a wonderful snack when it gets cold!)

 

 

Okay, I think that I have written enough thus far. Even I don't want to go back and proof-read this because it is so long.

Hopefully my posts will get shorter and easier to read, no promises though. This doesn't even TOUCH on all the things I've been doing, learning, and experiencing!! I'm so glad I get to share everything with everybody at home.

¡Hasta luego!

P.S. I read through Tiffany's blog (another girl on the trip) and it reminded me of some of the names of the places we have been to. I went through my last couple posts and added in those names. I hope it is a little more helpful if you were sitting there going "I have no idea where she was when she took this picture!!"

finalmente, estoy en Valladolid!

Wow, the past few days have been such a whirlwind! We spent four days in Mardid doing so many different things. I don't quite remember all of the places we went and the things that we saw, but I will ask Dr. Hilpold and I will write them down here so that all of you at home can know more about our different adventures.

The first full day in Mardid, we actually left Madrid and went to Toledo. It was absolutely beautiful and we had so much fun touring around the old town and seeing different things. The city is almost exactly the way it was in the 14th century (and maybe before.. my recollection is a little hazy considering I have been hit with so much new information within the past few days). It was a great little day trip and it helped me to get to know a lot of the girls on the trip. They are all super sweet and I can't wait to get to know them better!

Me with a view of Toledo in the background

 The girls in an alleyway in the city 

Natalie, me, Dalia, and Kelsey in “La Plaza Mayor” (pronounced with a lisp). We were all very tired and decided it would be a good idea if we didn’t go out on the town that night. We went and got ice cream, hot chocolate, and café con leche instead! Kristen had a surprise when her hot chocolate was really just… well… melted chocolate!

 The second day in Madrid we went to the Prado museum and saw lots of famous paintings by artists like Velazquez (and his famous painting Las Meninas), Goya, Raphael, and el Greco. We only had a short time for our tour, but after we were done with our tour guide and we’d all been refreshed by tapas y café con leche, a few of us decided to go back and tour through it a bit more. It was cool to hear different people’s perspectives of the artwork. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum (how come I was allowed to take pictures in the Louvre but not in the Prado?), so I don’t have very much to show for myself, but it was still very exciting.  After that, a bunch of us went to Parque Retiro which is right next to the museum.  We had fun taking pictures, getting to know each other, and messing around.

Most of the group  outside the Prado.  

Me in the Parque Retiro

Once again, on day three in Madrid, we left the city. First we went to El Valle de los Caidos, it was slightly overwhelming. There was a huge basilica that Franco had built into a mountain and it has a huge cross on top of it (the biggest cross in the world). The basilica was a HUGE domed church and since we went on a Sunday, people were getting ready for worship so throughout our tour we had organ music playing in the background. Once again, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the building, but take my word for it, it was breathtaking. After that, we went to a beautiful little town called El Escorial de San Lorenzo for lunch and toured one of king Philip II’s residences, we also bought some freshly baked bread which was absolutely fantastic. There was a huge monastery with lots and lots of rooms, and another beautiful basilica.

 

Franco’s Basilica up close, and the same Basilica from further away 

Entrance to the residence of King Philip

The fourth day in Madrid (yesterday) was kind of a free day. We didn’t have anything planned until 4 that afternoon, so some of us walked around Madrid, looked in to getting cell phones, and then went down to the same park we went before and studied. We have a lot of reading to do for classes so this was the perfect place to study. The weather was wonderful, and everybody focused on what they were supposed to be reading. That afternoon we went to el Museo Reina Sofia which is a modern art museum. This is where Picasso’s “Guernica” is housed as well as many paintings by Dali. They were very interesting to see, but I definitely enjoyed the Prado more. After we went to the museum, we all went to a phone company called “Yoigo” and got cell phones for communication while we’re here. It was a very long and tedious process, but in the end it worked out and now the stress is gone. That night we had a blast going out with a lot of people in the group. I think everybody had fun, but we got back very late and I was exhausted when I woke up this morning!

Reading in the park

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Some of us with our "Yoigo" phones

Finally, today was the big day! We got to Valladolid. Unfortunately though, you will have to wait until some time tomorrow or the next day to hear about our trip here because it is about 11 p.m. here and I am exhausted. I still have reading to do, and classes start MAÑANA! I will say, however, that "mi madre" is very nice and I feel very comfortable here.

There are not enough hours in the day for me to fill people in on everything going on in life!! Tonight I am missing home a lot. I am online, checking Skype and what not, but everybody is in school or at work. Oh well. At least if you all read this you will know that I miss you and love you! However, for now, hasta luego!

muy rapido

Lo siento for not writing more often.

We are staying in a hotel in Madrid (Tryp Atocha) and the internet sucks. I paid 2 euro for an hour of internet. An hour of bad-connection internet.

I just wanted to post a few pictures to show you guys what I've been doing the past few days. I promise, when I have a better connection I will give a real update and post more pictures.

The girls in front of the cathedral in Teledo.

One of many jumping pictures taken after we went to the Prado. What a beautiful park!

I was trying to post more pictures, but it is taking a very long time (dumb slow internet) so I will have to upload more later.

I am having so much fun getting to know everybody here. Every single person on this trip is so nice and welcoming and I am so looking forward to the next three months with them. It will be a blast!!

estoy en Madrid!

So, I made it to Madrid. The flights ran very smoothly (the only issue being the "breakfast" we got served from SFO to LHR... that was not good). Maryn and I almost missed our connecting flight to MAD because we read the ticket wrong, but we made it and had a very easy (and nearly empty) flight the rest of the way to Madrid.

We made it to the hotel with bout 10 minutes to spare before we had to meet the entire group for a rundown of what is happening while we are here. In those ten minutes I brought all my stuff to my room, met my roommates for this week (girls from Poly), took about a 2 minute shower, dryed my hair, put on makeup, and left for the meeting. What a whirlwind of things to do!

I didn't get very many good pictures today. I didn't actually take that many considering I'm so tired and there is no way I was going to take a bunch of pictures of myself looking as exhausted as I do right now. Luckily I slept pretty well on the plane (like I always do).

I am going to bed right now, but I just wanted to update for the first time in Spain. Tomorrow we are meeting at 8:50 and taking a bus to Toledo. I have seen pictures, I think it will be absolutely beautiful!

Hasta Luego. Buenos noches.

Adios a los Estados Unidos!

My flight out of the United States is today.

Maryn and I leave San Francisco at 4:55. We have a layover in London, and then we make our way from there to Madrid. Once we get there, we have a little bit of a time crunch to get to the hotel we are staying at. Our flight lands at 4:30 and we are supposed to be at the hotel by 6. We will see how that goes.

As of right now, I am all packed and ready to go. I think I packed too much, but as my dad said, I am going to be there for three months and I don't quite know what situations I will need to dress for so I needed to take everything otherwise I'd be left with nothing to wear. (Thanks Daddy!)

This is going to be a short post, but I just wanted to kick off my "aventura española" with a blog entry. For those of you who are reading this, thank you! Feel free to leave comments, etc. I will be posting pictures, writing stories, and talking about my overall experience. I also write in my other blog (http://intelligentbabble.blogspot.com/), but I'm not sure how I'm going to determine what I write in this blog vs my other one. Feel free to follow both!

I'm a little nervous, but extremely excited. I'm looking forward to my time there and I'm hoping my experience will be a positive one.

In 24 hours I will be in Madrid. Crazy!

Adios amigos y familia en los estados unidos. ¡Te Amo!

Planning

I'm looking online for flights around Europe. I found flights from Madrid to Venice (round trip) for my birthday for only €118!!!

I'm hoping this site is legit because that means I'll be able to travel around Europe a lot cheaper than I had hoped!

Do you think it's legit? I'm getting so excited!!

that's all

El Primero

So, this is the first entry in my Spanish blog.

I just wanted to put a little intro piece because I won't be writing in here very frequently for right now.

This is where I will write most of the stuff having to do with my trip to Spain. My step sister created a blog when she went to Hungary last fall. She did it because most people send out weekly e-mails to everybody they know but she didn't want to be annoying like that. She said that most people who receive those e-mails generally just delete them because they don't have time to read the entire thing when they get it.

If I have a blog, it allows people to read it if they want to, when they decide they have enough time. I can post pictures, include links, post videos, or basically anything that generally eats up storage space in your e-mail account or is a pain in the butt to load when you are in a rush or whatever.

I will be posting updates as things continue to fall in to place. Until planning and meetings start picking up a bit more, though, there won't be anything to read on this blog.

I may post a few entries about how I'm feeling about the whole experience and stuff, but we'll see about that. That may just be a thing that I post in my normal blog.

Anyway, I'm glad that you're reading this. Feel free to read my other blog as well its called Thinking Out Loud. You should definitely check it out. (http://intelligentbabble.blogspot.com/)

Until next time, Adios!