Me despido de Europa.

Right now I am on the plane heading to Brussels, where I will jump on another plane that will take me home to the United States. Last night we stayed out partying all night until morning when I had to go to the airport. It was so fun. The stereotype that Latvians are crazy partiers has definitely been confirmed for me. I had a great last night in Europe.

I honestly cannot believe I’m leaving today. This feels like a dream, like maybe I’m just going back to my normal life in Spain instead of a different life in the United States. It’s like I just keep walking in and out of new lives, everywhere becoming a different person. I know that my semester abroad has changed me, but hopefully in a good way. I’ve learned independence and responsibility, which was especially drilled in all those times I was stuck in a bad situation in an airport or train station and just really wished my dad could be there to help me. He wasn’t though, and I got through it just fine, just like I will with every other hard situation in my life. I also have learned how to step out of my comfort zone and be a little reckless at times. The best way to live life is to experience it, no matter the consequences. I’m not going to live forever, so I better make this life good. I’ve learned how to open my eyes to the world, seeing how many different types of people exist. The number of languages and cultures and ethnicities in this small world is so astounding. I’ve gained a passion for culture. I’ve learned the importance of friends. This I did already know, but it was hammered in even more this semester. Without my friends, I would have had a completely different experience and probably would’ve hated my trip. Without the friends I made in Latvia, I would’ve been stuck inside, not seeing nearly as much as I did. The people you’re with can really make or break your trip. And if you find good ones, they’ll stay by your side through thick and thin. I have also learned to keep dreaming, because almost nothing is impossible. I never would have thought I’d end up spending half a year in Europe, away from all my family and friends and everything I knew before I even turned twenty.

I have made so many memories this semester that I will treasure forever. I will always remember my weekend trips with my friends to Barcelona, Portugal, and London. My spring break in Switzerland, Venice, Rome, Sevilla, Ronda, Granada, and Madrid. Wandering around strange cities without a map, trying to figure out metro systems, discovering amazing things. I’ll remember my heart to hearts with Kelly, barging into her room or her barging into mine in the middle of a crisis. I’ll remember school. While it wasn’t my favorite part of Spain, I didn’t hate it either. Nights out in Valladolid, doing the photoshoot with some of my best friends, painful trip-planning meetings in Lula Café. I will miss the school excursions to Segovia, Valladolid, Salamanca, Las Médulas, and Santander, not paying attention while the professors lectured about history. I’ll miss Dioni. She was honestly the best host mom I could ever have asked for. Of course I hated her food, but that’s such a minor complication next to the type of host mom I could’ve had. I consider myself so lucky to have known her. She really made me feel at home and taken care of in Spain. I met some amazing friends in Latvia, saw where my family comes from, had a crazy Latvian drunk night out. I’ll never forget how hard it’s been to say so many goodbyes. Saying goodbye to my friends from Wisconsin for the summer, to my international friends who I may never see again, to Dioni and Kelly, who have been there for me from start to finish, to amazing professors, to Latvian friends, to Spain and Latvia. Now I’m saying the final goodbye to Europe. The last five months have been the best of my life, but I’m only beginning traveling and exploring the world. There is no way I’m ending that here. I will be back to Europe soon, no doubt, to make many more memories and see what else it has to show me. But for now, I’m heading home to good old Minnesota. I will see you all soon!

Letonia; El resto de la semana.

Tuesday, Ruta's sister Sanita took me to the open air museum, where we saw what all the old style houses used to look like back in the day. Very pioneer. We just walked around and looked at all the different types of buildings there were. It was set in a really pretty forest and close to a lake. We spent roughly two hours there before heading out to get some lunch at another Lido restaurant. I tried traditional Latvian meatballs, sausage, and potatoes. Everything tasted delicious, of course. Afterwards, we walked to a park and then met up with Ruta. When Ruta came, we went to the mall and looked around for a dress for her graduation. It's really weird to see huge stores and malls here because, in exception to Corte Ingles, they are nonexistent in Spain and everywhere else I've visited in Europe as well. Later, they took me to see a war memorial and then we went to their parents' house for cake and ice cream. Then Ruta dropped me off at the apartment and I called it a night.

Wednesday was a much busier day. Sanita and I started the day by seeing Riga's biggest market while Ruta was taking an exam. We picked up some strawberries and cherries to eat during the day. Then we shopped around for a bit and I got an amber ring. When Ruta was finished with her exam, she and Lauris picked us up at the apartment to head out to go to another town an hour away from Riga called Bauska. There we saw a big and impressive castle. We climbed to the top to see a beautiful view. Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch. Lauris ate an insane amount of food, like always, and I couldn't even finish mine. It was really good though. I love Latvian food. After lunch, we drove just a bit farther to another castle in Rundāle. This is supposedly one of Latvia's most famous castles. It was of a newer style and had a beautiful garden. We spent a while there, exploring the castle and gardens before heading back to Riga. When they dropped me off at the apartment, I met up with Janis right away to spend the evening with him. He first took me to a small shop to get some bread and then we went to a really nice park and fed the ducks. That was a lot of fun. Then we walked around the lake at the park and just talked for a while. It was a really nice and relaxing evening. He took me back home later and the day was over.

Thursday was a bit boring than the other days. Everyone had things to do so I was by myself for the beginning of the day. I explored Riga again, shopped for a little bit, but soon ran out of things to do so I went back to the apartment. Janis picked me up at 6 pm and took me to Brigita's house to socialize with her and some other people I didn't know. Lauris, Krista, and Janis were there, though. So I still had friends who could translate for me. Brigita also has an adorable beagle who was really fun to play with. We ate dinner at her house and she made sure I was well-fed and after about two hours, Janis and I left. We went back to the center of Riga and got some coffee and walked along the river and talked for another hour before he took me home for the night.

Today (Friday) I went to see the Botanical gardens with Sanita and Krista. That was really pretty and reminded me a lot of my cabin but we had some rainy weather which was not so good. After the gardens, we walked to Brigita's house to have some lunch. We were there for about an hour before she sent us to go to a museum. So Krista and I saw the museum. It was kind of boring, but that's okay. Then she walked me back to the apartment around 4 pm to finish packing my things and clean up the apartment. Later we will go out so I can see what a real Latvian party is like and then I will have to be at the airport around 4:30 am to begin my journey home.

Letonia; Día Tres.

Today, I woke up and made myself some breakfast and got ready for the day. Lauris and Ruta had to work until 5 so I was on my own until then. I spent the morning exploring Old Town Riga, taking photos and checking out some little markets. Old Town is really small, so it didn't take me long to figure out my way around. Later, around 4:45, Lauris and Ruta came to the apartment to pick me up. Then we went to their apartment to grab their bikes and Lauris and I went biking to a really pretty park that reminded me a lot of Itaska, where I used to go every summer as a kid. Being there and biking around brought back a lot of memories. After that, we went back to the apartment and picked up Ruta before driving a little way out of the city to see a bit of the sea. Later, we got some yummy pizza for dinner and then they took me back to the apartment for the night. I am really loving Latvia a lot. First I didn't want to leave Spain, and now I know I'm not going to want to leave Latvia.

¡Letonia!

Okay, I have so much catching up to do on here so here we go.
We'll start with Thursday. As it was our last full day in Spain, some friends and I got churros and chocolate before heading to school to check our grades and talk with our professors. My grades ended up being a lot better than I had expected so I was really happy. They will transfer well to Eau Claire.

Friday was graduation day. We all dressed up and took a million photos and got our diplomas. After getting our diplomas, we had a little party to celebrate graduating but more for saying goodbyes. We all took another million photos and once it was time to go, we all said our goodbyes. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone I spent the last five months with and some I might never see again. When we left to go home, I finished packing all my stuff and soon had to leave for the airport. Saying goodbye to Kelly and Dioni was the hardest. I can't believe this semester is already over. It seems so unreal. I went to the airport, checked my luggage, and left to begin my journey to Latvia. The flight was about two and a half hours. When I arrived in Charleroi, I had to check into my hotel for the night. However, it was about 11:30 pm and when I looked at my confirmation letter, it said that check-in after 11 was impossible. I tried calling them but they wouldn't answer, tried getting a taxi but they just told me to go away. I did not know what to do. I thought I would have to spend the night in the airport. Suddenly, a woman came up to me and said something in French that I didn't understand. When I said I didn't speak French, another woman came up and started speaking to me in English, asking what was wrong. I told her my story and her friend tried calling the hotel. Of course, like before, they didn't answer, but she tried again and they did answer. She talked to them in French and then the English-speaking woman told me the hotel people would wait for me outside of Door 2. So I went to door 2 and a big black van came up with a paper that said "Hotel South" in the front. It looked really sketchy, but I didn't really have anything else I could do. A guy came out, saw that I was still upset, and said "Hi, I'm Kevin. I'll be taking care of you okay?" So he took me to the hotel, set up a time to take me back to the airport in the morning, arranged a wake-up call for me, and then asked me if I was hungry and wanted anything to eat. I really hadn't eaten much that day so I said yes. He then showed me to my room and then showed up five minutes later with a tray containing two sandwiches with the crusts cut off, a bowl of grapes, a melon with the skin cut off, a bottle of milk, and a bottle of water. I asked him if I needed to pay for it and he said "No, of course not. It's the least I can do." I was shocked at how nice he was.

I woke up three hours later at 4:30 am and got ready for my early flight to Riga, Latvia. I went to the airport, got on the plane, and arrived in Riga two hours later. I was picked up by Lauris (family member), Ruta (Lauris' girlfriend), and Krista (another family member and also the only one of them I'd ever met before). Lauris and Ruta are both 25 and Krista is 12. They took me to the apartment I'm staying in and then we got brunch, where I met Janis (close family friend). After brunch, Lauris, Ruta, Krista and I decided to drive to Sigulda, where you can see the beautiful countryside. So we went to Sigulda, but not before picking up some Latvian beer. We saw a beautiful view of Sigulda and then Krista suggested we try out a ropes course that was in Sigulda. It started out pretty easy. There was a lot of ziplining which was fun. But then it got a lot more difficult. I definitely got to work my biceps a lot. It was very physically straining, but really fun nonetheless. We were joking that right when I came to Latvia, really tired from only having three hours of sleep, they took me right away to work out and go to "Latvian boot camp." I did really have a good time, though. It took us about three hours to do that and then we went to see a castle for a bit, which also had a great view of Sigulda. After that, we saw some caves and made a few more stops before getting dinner. We went to a great restaurant where I decided I love Latvian food. It is especially good after having to eat Spanish food so much. Once we drove back to Riga, we were all really tired from the rope climbing and such so they took me back to the apartment to rest and get ready for another day of exploring Riga.

Today (Sunday) was my namesday! It was really exciting that I actually got to be in Latvia for it. I woke up, very sore from the day before, got ready, and then headed out with Lauris and Ruta. Both of them are really awesome. Lauris is always super funny and Ruta is so good at showing me around. They're both really nice. We started out the day with a ferry ride along the river. After that, we walked to the freedom monument, which was right next to a park where we got ice cream for my namesday. After that, we went to a hotel where from the 26th floor, we could see a beautiful view of Riga. Next, we took a tram to Lido, a big restaurant where we could pick and choose whatever we wanted to eat. We ate there, had some beer, and then headed back to the apartment. About ten minutes after arriving there, Janis came to pick me up and take me to Jūrmala, which is on the seaside. He and I drove there, he showed me the fancy houses, and then we walked along the beach. He is a really interesting person to talk to. He's super nice as well. After seeing the sea, we walked along the main street and then sat down for a drink and talked. Then, we didn't really know what to do so he introduced me to his dog. His dog, named Chico, is crazy. He was jumping all over the place and barking but he was a really nice dog. He took me back to the apartment around 10 pm. It was a really great namesday. I am loving Latvia a lot. I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would. I'm so glad I decided to extend my trip and come here.

La semana final del semestre.

So it's finally here: the last week of Spain. Finals week. I've been here for five months now but it feels like two weeks. I honestly cannot believe I'm leaving so soon. There's a big part of me that isn't ready and doesn't want to leave but there's another part of me that has been slowly adjusting to the idea of going home for the last couple of weeks. I'm really excited to do all my favorite things, eat my favorite foods, and see my favorite people once I get back. First, though, I have to get through finals (which are slowly killing me) and enjoy my last European adventure in Latvia! The thing about school in Spain is that the classes are super easy, but the tests are super hard. There is no multiple choice on the tests and the grades are a lot rougher. A 10 (A) is supposed to be professor-level, so it's basically impossible to get. So I've been studying nonstop for the last week. I'm over halfway done with the exams now and so ready to be done with them.
Now I am getting super excited about Latvia and getting ready to go! Kim is no longer going with me so it'll just be me but that's alright because I'll have my family in Riga. So I'll be there meeting people and seeing where my family comes from for a week and then it's back to the states!
Right now is the epitome of mixed emotions.
Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life.

Santander.

Yesterday, we went on our final excursion to Santander. It was so nice there - sun, sand, sea - what's not to love? We met at 8 am for a three and a half hour bus ride. I slept most of the way, but when I was awake I was able to see some incredible views. Before we got to Santander, we stopped in a tiny town called Santillana. We were only there for about an hour but were able to hang out, eat some lunch, and shop a bit. One of our professors told us to try a couple desserts called Sobao and Quesada because Santillana was known for them. We got some to share between six of us, but it was pretty unremarkable. Neither of them tasted bad but they weren't anything special. Soon, we got back on the bus and drove for another hour to Santander. Upon arriving, we were given a choice between just going to the beach and going to see a historical castle. I've seen enough castles and cathedrals here to last me a lifetime and I wasn't really up for anymore history, so my friend Andrea and I stayed and hung out on the beach for the day. We spent a lot of time sitting and enjoying the view and talking, then walked around for a bit and got some ice cream. When we got back to the beach, the sun finally came out, but soon it was time to go. It was a very nice and relaxing day. Santander was a really nice city. I loved being able to go to the beach and just have an excursion that wasn't jam packed with activites and sight-seeing. We got back on the bus around 6 pm and arrived in Valladolid around 9. It was a great way to end the excursions.

This week is my last week of classes. I have one final in Geography tomorrow (Monday) and then the rest next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's so crazy how little time I have! Just one more week of classes, two days of finals, graduation, and I'm off to Latvia! While I'm really not liking the idea of having to leave Spain, I am finally getting more ready to go back home. My mind is adjusting to the fact that the semester is ending and soon I'll wake up from this amazing dream. The end is in sight and I'm now getting excited to do things like eat my favorite foods, drive, see my family, and enjoy the summer. Everything is coming so fast, but first, Here I come Latvia! One more last shabang.

Día Dieciséis: Valladolid.

The final day of spring break arrived so quickly. We woke up, all feeling a bit woozy, sick, and tired. One of the tapas we ate the night before must have been bad. We headed out anyway, getting some breakfast at a café I go to fairly often. We were slow-moving on Saturday due to not feeling 100%. After breakfast, I showed my parents Campo Grande, the huge park we have in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, most of the paths were closed off, but we were able to see some peacocks freaking out. One peacock had all his feathers out and appeared to be trying to threaten the other peacocks for some reason. They were all freaking out and making weird noises – it was very interesting to see. After that, we walked around a bit before we headed toward my school so I could show it to them. Later, we went to a grocery store so my mom and I could get some sandwiches for lunch and some crackers for my dad – he couldn’t eat much from being sick. After that, I was pretty much out of ideas for things to see in Valladolid. It’s really not that exciting of a city, so we went to the internet café I like and tried to skype with Lucas, but soon realized he had a band festival that morning and wouldn’t be there. My parents decided to head for the train station around 5:30 pm, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. It was hard seeing them go after not being here very long at all, but I will see them sooner than it seems. I feel like time is just slipping through my fingers. I wish it would slow down a little; this trip is going by way too fast and I feel like I don’t have much time to just enjoy where I am and smell the roses. Well, after we parted, I headed back to my apartment, but soon realized I had forgotten my keys in my room. Dioni also had told me the day before that she wouldn’t be at home on Saturday so I couldn’t even buzz in. So, I pretty much had no way of getting in the apartment. Great. When I got there, I waited a few minutes before someone opened the building door to leave, so I was able to get in the building, but still couldn’t get in the apartment. I stood around for a bit, trying to think of a plan, until a couple ladies noticed me standing by my door. I asked them if they knew Dioni, and thankfully, Dioni knows everyone. They said they were friends of hers and let me into the apartment. Crisis averted. So I spent the rest of the night home alone, editing photos and writing blogs, readjusting to normal life again.

Día Quince: Madrid y Valladolid.

Friday, we got up, ready for another train ride to the final city of our trip: Valladolid. Before catching the train, though, we walked to Plaza Mayor to take photos and got some breakfast on the way. Later, we hopped on a train headed to Valladolid, which only lasted an hour, so it was very quick and easy. Upon arriving in Valla, we walked to the hotel as I pointed out some of my favorite landmarks and shopping places. The hotel was not far – about a ten minute walk and very close to Plaza Mayor – and super nice. After settling into the hotel, I showed my parents my favorite internet café so they could check on their emails and such, and then a park close to that. Soon, we were due to be at my apartment so that they could meet my host mom. It went pretty much exactly as I had expected – my host mom talked and talked and I hardly had room to translate between her sentences and she was so incredibly excited to meet them. She had made a delicious cake (one of the few things I like that she makes) for them along with some coffee and wine. I was surprised when she pulled out the wine, as I have never seen her drink before. There was much conversation, mostly on her part, and it was very pleasant and fun. After socializing, I showed my room to my parents and packed up a bag of things I don’t need for them to take home for me. Soon, we left, hung out for a bit, and then went out for tapas and drinks. We found a place close to our hotel and had some tapas that were actually really good and very reasonable. It was a very satisfying dinner. Afterwards, we had wanted to walk around a bit, but it had started raining, so we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Día Catorce: Madrid.

Our trip started coming to a close on Thursday, when we took a train to Madrid. The train ride was about four hours long so it was very nice once we got there and could get off the train. When we arrived in Madrid, my parents knew exactly what to do, as they had already been in Madrid and I hadn’t. We took the metro to Sol, the area where our hotel was, and walked about five minutes to our hotel. After settling in at the hotel, I was very excited to get out and go shopping – there was tons of shopping right around where we were! We walked around the streets for a while heading toward the Prado Museum (the huge famous art museum). Everyone knows that the Prado is the thing to see in Madrid, so obviously we had to see it, especially with my mom the art history fanatic. Knowing our time in Madrid was very limited and we couldn’t see absolutely everything in the museum, my dad and I mapped out a plan, making sure we went to all the rooms with paintings we wanted to see. The plan made it go much quicker so we’d still have time for other things later. My mom knew a lot of the artwork and she loved seeing the Goya pieces. I was excited to see some famous paintings I’ve learned about this semester in my Spanish Art class, and my dad also had a few he seemed excited to see. Upon leaving the museum, my mom and I were ready for some more shopping, so my dad went back to the hotel to rest while she and I shopped for a bit. We left again to seek out some dinner around Plaza Mayor around 9 pm. My dad, obsessed with Rick Steves, had seen an episode about eating pig’s ears in Madrid, so we had to find that place first. I hadn’t seen him so excited the whole trip. On the way there, we passed a ham museum, which he was almost even more enthusiastic about. We arrived at the pig’s ears place and my mom and I decided to pass – we give my dog pig’s ears as treats; there’s just something weird about eating the same food as your dog. My dad enjoyed them, though. Afterwards, my mom and I decided we wanted a non-Spanish dinner (like I had warned them, they found Spanish food to be a little bit less than appetizing; my dad liked it better than my mom though). We went to a fast food sandwich place called Pan’s, ordered a couple sandwiches and ate them in Plaza Sol. The sandwiches were decent. After that, my dad wanted to get some tapas and drinks, so we did that before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel.

Día Trece: Granada.

We got up on Wednesday and had breakfast right away. Finding the breakfast area was super weird. We had to go outside and through a random sliding door – very hard to find. The breakfast was great, though. We had pastries and fruit and warm buns and coffee. Upon finishing our food, we left to explore Granada before we had to be at the Alhambra at 3:30 pm. We headed over to a part of Granada called Albaicin, a Moorish district where we could supposedly find street vendors and gypsies, but we didn’t really find what we were looking for. After wandering the streets of Granada, we headed back near our hotel, where we found some lunch and then soon left for the Alhambra. For those who aren’t familiar with the Alhambra (pronounced [all-ahm-brah]), it is a very important monument of Spain. It is a huge palace that goes way back in history, well-used in Moorish culture. When we got there, it was pouring again. To say the least, I was not very happy about the rain. But we made the most of it, walking through the Alhambra grounds and heading toward the palace where we needed to be at 4:30 pm. We stayed under cover as much as we could until we got into the indoor palace. We saw a few rooms in the palace and, much to our surprise, once we got back outside, the sun was shining and the skies were blue. The sun felt so good and again, I was so happy to have the wonderful weather. We got through the palace, and then went up a few towers to see some truly incredible views. After that, we went through the “Generalife” [hen-er-all-eef-ay] gardens, which were beautiful, like the rest of the Alhambra. When we finished this, we were exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel to rest just a little before getting dinner. My parents finally tried paella for dinner and, just like I had warned them, they didn’t like it very much. Of course, trying paella was obviously necessary no matter what, but it really is not that good.

Día Doce: Conducir y Granada.

Tuesday, we left Ronda to head to our last city in Andalucía: Granada. We drove along the Mediterranean Sea for a long time and stopped in a city called Nerja on the coast. The weather was sunny and beautiful and so warm. I loved it! We stopped at a restaurant for what was supposed to be a quick lunch but actually turned out to be quite long. My mom and I just split a small sandwich and then had ice cream and my dad just had a salad. Once my mom and I finished eating, we hurried down to the beach to get as much time there as possible. Unfortunately, when we got there, we found many topless women, bottomless kids, and just plain weird people. A little girl took off her bottoms and peed in the sand and at that point it was too much, so we went back up to find my dad. So our Mediterranean beach experience wasn’t the best, but it was still nice being in a beach town. Later, we left to get back on the road for Granada, and didn’t reach the city much long after. When we got there, we drove around the confusing roads for a while, then returned the car (thankfully) and found our hotel. We stayed in a suite! The suite was the size of an apartment, with a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and balcony. Super nice, but very loud at night. The walls and windows facing the street were not very noise-cancelling, so everything that went on outside was clearly audible. That usually didn’t bother me, though, as I’m always pretty tired after a long day of traveling. Well once we had found our hotel and settled in, we left to explore the streets and find something to eat. We found a place where I had some delicious garlic grilled chicken and my parents had garlic shrimp. Yum! Then, after exploring some more, we called it a night.

Día Once: Conducir y Ronda.

Monday, we left pretty early to hit the road. We got a rental car, which I was pretty nervous about, knowing how crazy the drivers are here. We headed east, driving for a while before hitting a town called Arcos de la Frontera. It was a cute town, but very hilly and with very narrow roads. We walked around, taking some photos and exploring before deciding there wasn’t much to see, so we got back in the car. The next place we drove through was the natural park of Grazalema. It was gorgeous. Everything was so green and lush. There were mountains and hills and windy roads. We stopped at an overlook to have some lunch. This was such a beautiful park. After a while, the park began to get much drier, as most of Spain is, so it wasn’t as pretty anymore. The northern border of Spain is very green and is supposed to be really beautiful. I would love to go there if I had more time here, because the rest of Spain is not very pretty. Anyway, after making it through the park, we reached a small town named Zahara, but the roads were even narrower and steeper, so we didn’t spend much time there. Then, once we left Zahara, we were on the main stretch to our final destination for the day: Ronda. When we reached Ronda, we found a lovely little town with lots of shopping and places to eat. Once we had parked and walked a little further, we found a beautiful view off of a bridge. We were staring at gorgeous mountains and valleys and waterways. It was such a pretty sight. Later, we found our hotel in the older part of town – a sort of modernized B&B. It was so cute – the employees were charming and our room was super nice. We soon went back out to see more of the town, take photos, and do some shopping. There were tons of fun shops and I found a dress in addition to some gifts. After shopping, we got dinner at a pizzeria, but while we were eating, it started pouring cats and dogs. So once we were finished, we had to book it back to the hotel through the cold rain. I decided I really like Ronda. It’s small and cute and beautiful at the same time.

Día Diez: Sevilla.

Sunday, we made sure to get up earlier than we had the day before. We had our breakfast at the hotel and then my dad left to pick up our tickets for the futbol game we were going to that night. About a half hour after my dad left, my mom and I left to meet him at Sevilla’s Plaza España, hoping this time things would work out better than the last. The Plaza España in Sevilla is really impressive. It’s huge and pretty and very detailed. The plaza is also surrounded by parks, making it even prettier. Luckily, we had no problems meeting my dad this time and when he showed up, we started exploring the plaza. We walked around taking photos and checked out the representations of all the main Spanish cities around the plaza. After that, we strolled through the park, exploring some more before going to the Alcázar Palace. We explored the palace and spent about an hour and half there. It was a gorgeous palace, with an enormous courtyard in the middle, and it was really nice just walking through it. After that, we grabbed a quick dinner at a restaurant near our hotel before going back to the hotel to get ready for the game. We ran into a minor complication, however. My dad was looking over the tickets and realized we had six tickets when we obviously only needed three. Apparently there was a promotion going on where if you buy a ticket, you get one free. Well of course we didn’t want to just waste three perfectly good tickets, so I quickly went to the Eau Claire Valladolid Study Abroad facebook page and posted something, hoping someone would happen to be traveling in Sevilla at the same time. Much to my surprise, I got a reply from a girl in our program named Kristina! She and her mom were in Sevilla so we met up with them and watched the game with them. Kristina is actually a soccer player so it worked out perfectly! The game was insane! It was Sevilla against Villarreal and these fans were absolutely crazy. I was expecting it to be much crazier than American games, already having known how important soccer is to these people, but I wasn’t expecting this much. There was a section of really rowdy fans who sang and shouted literally the whole game. If something bad happened, they would scream, cursing whoever did whatever wrong. We actually heard a chant, shouted by everyone, saying “mother fucker,” in Spanish. Completely crazy. I was actually really worried about what would happen if Sevilla lost, but luckily, they won the game 3-2 and everyone was happy. That was quite the experience. I’m so glad I got to see it though. It was actually a lot of fun. On the way back, I got some ice cream and was very disappointed by how bad it tasted next to gelato. It might take me a while to get over the fact that I can’t have real gelato anymore. Once we got back, we quickly hit the sack, exhausted.

Días Ocho y Nueve: Mis Padres y Sevilla.

Friday morning I got up early so I could catch my flight at 1 pm. As usual, it took an hour to get to the center of the city and probably another 45 minutes to get to the airport by bus. I got my passport checked and everything and in line, I met a girl from Washington DC who was on my flight and studying in Sevilla. She gave me some pointers on where to go and what to do. My flight was about two and a half hours and right when I got to Sevilla I took a bus to meet my parents at the train station. I only had to wait about ten minutes before their train arrived. Perfect timing! It was so awesome seeing them again! I realized that this is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing them in my entire life. Crazy! After trading stories about my trip and their flight, we headed out to find our hotel. After staying in so many hostels, this hotel seemed so nice! My parents weren’t as enthusiastic as I was, but I thought it was great. Later, we explored the town, got some tapas, and then relaxed at the hotel. They obviously went to bed early, exhausted from their flight over, and I stayed up a bit later.

Saturday, we accidentally slept in until 11 am. Oops. I actually didn’t even know it was possible for my dad to sleep that late. We headed out right away to find some breakfast, as we had missed the hotel’s breakfast. After much searching, we found a tapas place where my parents could have an eggs tapa and I had a muffin. Later, we bummed around the city for a while and then went back to the hotel for a bit. My mom and I then split up with my dad, planning to meet later at Sevilla’s famous cathedral, the third largest in Europe. Unfortunately, when my mom and I arrived at the cathedral, my dad was nowhere to be found. We searched and searched throughout the church but could not find him anywhere. However, we were able to see a Holy Week procession from the huge tower. Holy Week in Spain is a HUGE deal. There are many processions every day and much more. Sevilla is famous for their Holy Week, as is Valladolid. Anyway, after a long time of looking for my dad, we went back to the hotel and finally found him. Later, we got some dinner at a nice little restaurant before seeing a Flamenco show! As most people know, Flamenco dancing is a big deal in Spain, but it’s actually more of a South Spain thing. We don’t really see much of it in Valladolid, as we’re more toward the North, but Andalucía (especially Sevilla) is much more known for Flamenco. The show was awesome. The guitar players were insane – I usually couldn’t even see their fingers move! I hadn’t even seen a Flamenco show yet so it was really interesting seeing it. Flamenco is such a different form of dance, unlike anything else. After the show, we went out to get some churros y chocolate, one of my favorite Spanish desserts. We then headed back to the hotel and called it a night, ready for some more much needed rest.

Día Siete: Roma.

Thursday morning, I woke up to Aryn waking me up, telling me she couldn’t get out of the room. The night before, the door handle had fallen off while I was coming in, but we were still able to stick it in and open the door, so it was no big deal. Somehow, overnight, the notch we stuck the handle on had gotten pushed farther into the door, so we couldn’t get the handle on anymore. We were completely stuck in the room. I told Aryn to try opening the window, but there was a screen that only budged a few inches – definitely not enough to climb out of. Also, it was 6 am at the time, so finding a passerby to open the door for us from the outside was highly unlikely. My solution: I got up out of bed and pried the screen off the window so Aryn could climb out. After that, I passed out on my bed again for another hour. When I got up at 7, Aryn had set up someone to come and fix our door and we went and got breakfast at the hostel restaurant. We left around 9 to meet a couple of our friends, Kim and Lindsay, from school at the Colosseum. We took the shuttle, then the tram, and then the metro and arrived at the Colosseum around 10:15. We found them pretty quickly and got in line right away. After about a half hour wait, we got in! The Colosseum was so cool! It was really neat just being there and realizing how old it is. We stayed there for a while and then left to see the Forum and Palatine. It was so fun seeing Rome with Kim and Lindsay. I love those girls. After we finished seeing all the ruins, it was time for some lunch. Lindsay and Aryn got some Chinese food, but Kim and I were hoping to find an authentic little family-owned Italian place, so we split up. We ended up being successful and found a small place where we ate delicious Ragu. After lunch, gelato was necessary, of course. We found a place that had about a million flavors – I had Nutella, Oreo, and something that looked like S’mores, but wasn’t. So. Delicious! Later, we met up again with Lindsay and Aryn and walked around again before seeing the Pantheon church. After that, we saw Trevi Fountain, and then headed to meet up with someone Kim knew and her friend. They are studying in Rome now, so they offered to bring us to their favorite restaurant for pizza. They were super nice and the pizza was delicious. We got gelato one last time before the night was over and then, after some transportation complications, Aryn and I got back to our hostel to rest after such a fun day. I would definitely say the second day of Rome was the best so far. I packed up my stuff and got ready to see my parents the next day and then went to bed.

Día Seis: Roma.

Wednesday, we woke up in Rome. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to start seeing the sights. We started out seeing Repubblica, which was basically just a bunch of ancient ruins. It was interesting. Then we headed over to the Vatican. The guy working at the hotel told us how to find a trustworthy tour guide and once we arrived there, it was very easy to find one. The tours not only have the perk of being super informative, but you get to skip a four-hour line which obviously saves so much time. When we got to the tour office, we had a bit of a dress code issue. The Vatican is very strict on their dress code – you have to be dressed very conservatively. You can’t show shoulders or knees, and if you do, the guards can kick you out. I was wearing a white dress that exposed both my shoulders and knees. I was able to buy a scarf for 3 Euros that covered my shoulders and my dress was just above my knees so we decided to chance it for that part. When we left for the tour, they gave each of us headsets so we could easily hear what the tour guide was saying and he didn’t have to shout. Super handy, but they sometimes made it easy to lose the group, as I couldn’t hear where the voice was coming from. We walked to the Vatican museum, skipping the enormous line, and had a quick tour of the museum, seeing tons of statues and other ancient Roman art. I didn’t run into any problems with my dress. After the museum, we got to see the Sistine Chapel! It was so cool! The details of Michelangelo’s painted ceiling were immaculate. There was so much to look at. It probably took the tour guide at least a half hour to explain all the pictures shown. It really was so cool to actually see that, after having learned about it a hundred times in art and history classes. Once the tour was over, we explored the museum a bit more before walking around the city’s walled border to see the basilica. We only saw the front plaza area so we didn’t stay there very long. The pope gives public addresses every Wednesday, so a lot of it was closed off for that. After that, we got some gelato and then headed to get our stuff and leave for the next hostel, a “campsite” (meaning small cabins) quite a distance from the main part of the city, but very cheap. We settled in there, ate some pizza, and then headed to rest after another long day.

Día Cinco: Venecia y Trenes.

Tuesday, we were still in Venice. Our train was scheduled to leave at 6:30 pm so we pretty much had the whole day to spend in Venice. We went back to Rialto, where I got some strawberries for breakfast at a market, but one of them ended up having a worm in it so, long story short, most of them did not get eaten. We walked around for a while, basically just exploring the city again. There isn’t really much sightseeing to do in Venice; it’s just a really nice place to explore and get lost. Of course, we had plenty of gelato again, and a giant piece of pizza. One thing I’ve noticed here that’s been kind of disappointing is that the pizza and pasta aren’t that different. The pizza we’ve had has pretty much tasted the same and the pasta we had was just as good as pasta I can get at an Italian restaurant. Actually, when it comes to actual cooked food, I really haven’t had anything amazing in Europe. The sweets, on the other hand, are always to die for. Anyway, we kept exploring for a while until we had to head back to the hotel to get our things and go to the train station to catch our train to Rome.

Our train left at 6:30, so we figured we’d be just fine if we left the main Venice area at 4. However, the water taxis are extremely slow. It took about forty minutes to get to Lido, where our hotel was at. When we got there, we got on a bus to get back to our hotel. Everything was still running smoothly… until we realized we were on the wrong bus. We got off at the first stop and walked back to the main bus stop. So then we got on a different bus, which surely had to be the right bus. Nope. Wrong again. We ended up just walking to the hotel after that, as we had no time for any more bus mistakes. When we got to the hotel, we grabbed our stuff and rushed back to the water taxi station, getting there around 5:45. We got on the water taxi, but it took an hour to get to the train station and we missed our train. Fortunately for us, though, that wasn’t the last train leaving for Rome that day. We went in and asked if we could change our reservation to the 7:30 train instead and that was perfectly fine. No charge or anything. While waiting in line, we met two guys about our age who were going to be on the same train. One was from California and the other from Texas, both studying in London. We chatted for a while and ended up all sitting together on the train and talking the whole way. Here’s the crazy part – one of them spent last summer in Latvia! What a small world. No one ever wants to go to Latvia, if they even know what it is. We talked for a while about that and he gave me some advice on things to see and do. So awesome. Well they got off the train in Florence and for the remaining hour and a half, Aryn and I played cards.

When we finally arrived in Rome, I pulled out the directions to the hostel, which turned out to be a quick five minutes away. When we got there, however, we found out that we had booked the hostel for the wrong days and they only had one open bed that night. They were very helpful and understanding though and helped us find a place to stay. We ended up staying in a really awesome hotel/hostel, getting a room for two with two beds for the price of a four-bed room (much cheaper). So that worked out well. We were finally able to settle in and relax around 1 am. What a day.

Días Tres y Cuatro: Trenes y Venecia.

Day three was not that exciting. We left Lauterbrunnen on Sunday morning and took a train to Interlaken. From Interlaken, we went to Bern, from Bern to Lausanne, Lausanne to Milan, and from Milan to Venice. It was just another horrible day of trains. We arrived in Venice around 11 pm and took a water taxi to our hotel in Lido. Tired from the day of traveling, we pretty much just went to bed. But before going to bed, I decided to take a shower and discovered we didn’t have any hot water. I felt like I was involuntarily doing the polar plunge. That was wonderful.

Anyway, Monday morning, we woke up in Venice and left around 9 am for St. Mark’s Square. We explored the square for a bit and had breakfast. Aryn, always the smart one, had a turkey sandwich while I enjoyed some authentic Italian tiramisu. I know tiramisu probably isn’t the ideal breakfast, but how could I resist tiramisu from Italy? It was delicious, by the way. Afterwards, we waited in a huge line to see St. Mark’s Basilica. We walked through, but I am still very much cathedral’ed out and unfortunately, didn’t get much from it. After seeing the basilica, we decided to try some gelato, because, of course, we can’t go to Italy without having gelato. It. Was. AMAZING. I don’t know how I will ever be able to eat normal ice cream again. I really could go on and on about how much I loved it, but I won’t bore you. After that, Aryn and I split up. She went and saw Doge’s Palace while I explored Venice. I did some gift shopping, walked around the city, took photos, read a bit by the waterways, and ate some more gelato. Of course, it was just as amazing as the first try. I decided then and there that buying gelato could never be a waste of money (which turned out to be very dangerous, as you can imagine). When I met up with Aryn again, we did some exploring, taking photos and such, and then had some more gelato (hopefully you’re not surprised by now). Then we walked around a bit more before we decided it might be smart to get some actual food inside us, so we had some pasta. I had delicious ravioli and she had spicy penne. Then, we headed back toward St. Mark’s Square and took a back road which led us to tons of shopping, lots of people, more gelato, and gorgeous views from the Rialto Bridge. Pretty soon, things started closing up so we headed back to the hotel, getting back around 10 pm, to rest from our busy day. I’m liking Venice – not as much as Switzerland, but this is a really pretty city and actually much better than I had expected.

Día Dos: Suiza.

Day two of spring break was a complete turn-around from day one. It was so much better. We woke up in Interlaken to a gorgeous view of the Alps right out our window. We had a nice breakfast of bread and nutella, yogurt, and coffee outside in beautiful Switzerland. After eating breakfast, packing up, and talking to Texas guy a bit more, we headed out to take the 20-minute scenic train ride to Lauterbrunnen. I was freaking out all morning because of how gorgeous it was. I have never been anywhere more beautiful than Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen was even prettier. The grass is greener, the water is bluer, just everything about Switzerland is prettier than anywhere I’ve ever been. Interlaken is just on the edge of the mountains and Lauterbrunnen is actually in the mountains in an amazing valley. I didn’t even know it was possible for somewhere to be so pretty. Well we got to Lauterbrunnen and only had to walk about two minutes to get to our hostel. Lauterbrunnen is a super small town – pretty much just a street that takes five minutes total to walk down. It is so cute and everyone there was so friendly. We checked into our hostel and after getting settled, we headed out for the much anticipated hike through the valley. The hike was amazing. It was very easy since it was all flat and I could never get tired of the immaculate beauty. Of course, I was going photo-crazy the entire time. We hiked through the valley to Trümmelbachfälle, a huge waterfall that is actually inside a mountain. We took an elevator up to the top and climbed back down, seeing the waterfall twist and turn down the narrow passageway in the mountain. After seeing Trümmelbach, we sat down in the valley for a quick lunch, after which Aryn decided to turn back to Lauterbrunnen. I kept hiking to the end of the valley, where there was a cable car that took me higher up in the mountain to another small town named Mürren. It was so gorgeous being up there. The immensity of the mountains was mind-blowing. I walked around for a bit, taking photos and watching hang gliders flying through the sky before heading back down. When I got back down, I took a bus back to Lauterbrunnen, ending my day of hiking. When I got back, it was about 7 pm, so Aryn and I decided to go look for food. Apparently, everything in the town closes around 5 pm, including all reasonably priced restaurants and grocery stores. I wondered what time people ate their dinner there, because 5 pm is the start of dinner in the states and after living in Spain, we’re used to eating dinner around 9:30 pm. We walked around for a while, hoping to find something we could eat, when we found a small café that had sandwiches for not too expensive. We walked inside and ordered our food and the lady working said, “Sorry, we don’t serve food anymore at this time.” However, she did sell us some frozen chicken pies we could throw in the oven to eat. When we got back to the hostel, we discovered the hostel kitchen didn’t have an oven. Great. So we tried cooking them in the microwave. They turned out…interesting, but edible nonetheless. Since Lauterbrunnen is such a small town, absolutely nothing happens at night, so we spent the night hanging out and talking to some people at the hostel – one couple from Los Angeles/Korea, and another couple from Canada. Before bed, we just sat outside in the amazing fresh Switzerland air and chatted, surrounded by mountains and serenity. I have decided that Switzerland – specifically Lauterbrunnen – is my new favorite place in the world. It tops Barcelona by a mile. One day, I will go back for sure.

Vacaciones de Primavera: Día Uno. Trenes.

The start to my spring break included trains, trains, and...more trains. We left Valladolid on Thursday at 5:30 pm to Hendaye, France. While attempting to reserve tickets at the train station on Wednesday, we learned that in order to reserve tickets for the Eurail pass, you have to actually be in the country you're wanting to travel in. Meaning you can't be responsible and order all your tickets ahead of time to make sure nothing goes wrong. You just have to wait until you're in the country and hope the trains aren't full. And most trains need reservations with the Eurail pass. So it turned out that we had to switch our plans around a bit and go through Hendaye, France to Paris. The train ride to Hendaye was gorgeous. I wish I could have seen more of North Spain while here because it is so beautiful. When we arrived in Hendaye Thursday night, we literally had four minutes to catch the train to Paris. And of course we didn't have seat reservations yet. Luckily, they let us on the train and let us reserve our seats while on the train. So then we took the overnight Paris train, trying to ignore the crying baby while trying to sleep. Once in Paris, our original plan was to take a train from Paris to Bern, Switzerland - easy. Well obviously, we weren't able to reserve tickets when we croseed the country border in Hendaye because of needing to catch the train, so, of course, all the trains to Bern were full. As were the trains to pretty much everywhere else that made sense to go. After speaking with a train station worker for a while, he finally helped us figure out a way to get to Switzerland. The goal was just to get to Switzerland, because once in Switzerland, we would no longer need to reserve tickets. So around 11:00 am, we took a train from Paris to Troyes, France. In Troyes, we had about five hours to kill until the next train so we walked around the city, looking for internet so we could tell our hostel we wouldn't make it that night and try to find another one. We found a wifi hotspot after a while of searching, but the person working hardly knew any English and wouldn't let us order anything and told us to just leave. So much for that plan. Troyes is a smaller French city, so really, almost no one knew English outside of the train station. I never realized until then how difficult a language barrier can actually be. We walked around a bit longer and had some lunch - Aryn had a kabob and I had a French pastry. We sat around in a park for a while, watched a girl trying to learn stick shift and crashing into the curb every few seconds, found internet in a McDonalds, and eventually made it back to the train station. Before our train left, I decided to run to the bathroom quick. I walked into the bathroom and this lady started yelling something in French at me. I used my ever so useful phrase "Je ne parle français" (I don't speak French) but she would not stop yelling this at me. After a while I just left, planning to use the bathroom on the train. When we got on the train, I went to the bathroom and a minute later, some lady started banging on the door, screaming at me in French. It was probably the scariest bathroom experience I've ever had. So then once I sat back down, a kid two seats behind us started screaming - so much worse than the baby on the overnight train and so much worse than the French woman outside the bathroom door. He screamed the entire three hours, his parents actually laughing at him while he did so and encouraging him to keep going. Needless to say, Advil was an absolute must when the train ride was over. We arrived in Mulhouse, France around 8 pm and soon left for the next train to Basel, Switzerland. I was so glad to leave France and arrive in Switzerland. I was so tired from hardly getting any sleep, super crabby, incredibly annoyed with all the French people yelling at me, and so frustrated with the language barrier. So when we arrived in Switzerland, I was very happy. I already knew I would like Switzerland much better. While waiting for the train in Basel, I decided to grab a quick dinner at an "American Bakery" which I thought was incredibly funny. I'm not sure why anyone would want to run an American bakery when they could be running a French bakery or something. From Basel, we took the next train to Bern. Once arriving in Bern, we got on our last train of the night to Interlaken, Switzerland. We arrived around midnight and the streets were absolutely empty. This was so weird for us, as we're used to everyone usually being out until 4 am on Friday nights. Well we found our hostel (which just so happened to be the top ranked hostel in Switzerland), got our keys outside the building, and finally got to rest. In our room, we met a guy from Texas who was super nice and super helpful. He had just gotten released from the Air Force the day before and was just traveling and doing crazy things to celebrate. His plans for Europe included bungee jumping, hang gliding, sky diving, mountain biking, intense hiking, etc. Crazy, but very cool. We went to bed around 1 am and finally were able to get a decent night's sleep. Horrible first day, but it was so nice when it was finally over.

Las Médulas.

Oh, what beautiful weather we are having in Valladolid! It’s been sunny and hot! It has been in the 80’s all week and it is definitely shorts and tank top weather. Unfortunately, these crazy Spaniards don’t start pulling out their summer clothes until mid-June so these days, we have the option of looking like stupid trashy Americans or dying of heat. People like to wear shorts with black tights here – definitely not my style. People are also still wearing thick jackets and sweaters. I think I would drown in my own sweat if I wore a jacket or sweater now. Also, I haven’t had the chance to soak up the sun as much as I’d like because of all the work I’ve had in school lately. Last week, in addition to working on my 10-page paper (which I hope to finish by Thursday), I had to work on a presentation and a Literature paper. Now this week I have two exams, so with everything else going on, I’m not quite sure how I’m supposed to finish my paper. Life will be good come Thursday. I’m leaving right after school to begin my two-week journey around Switzerland, Italy, and then back to Spain. Spring break plans have changed again, probably not to anyone’s surprise. I am now going with just one other girl named Aryn to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, then Venice and then Rome until next Friday when I will meet up in Seville with my parents. I cannot wait for spring break to start – I just have to get through one more week of school first.

Yesterday we went on our “naturaleza” (nature) excursion to see Las Médulas. Before this weekend, our professors had told us how intense it would be and that we would die if we didn’t wear a hat and things like this, so I was a little scared for the day of hiking. However, I made myself think, “No, I’ve been hiking in the mountains plenty of times before. How hard could a school excursion hike be? It’ll be fine.” It turned out to be a long hike up a steep hill with no flat spots to rest until we got to the top. It was extremely tiring and, of course, pretty hot out. Everyone was sweating and many people became dehydrated, including myself. I tend to have issues with always getting dehydrated. But luckily my dehydration didn’t kick in until the very end of the day. Anyway, as we were trudging up the hill, Alfredo, one of our professors who happens to be a chain smoker, admitted that he hated this excursion. At the time, I had wished he had told us earlier it was going to be so hard. However, once we finally got to the top we were able to see a beautiful view of the Médulas (not quite sure how to describe them – they’re a lot like the rock formations in the Southwest). We stayed at the top for a while, enjoying the view and perfect weather before we began our descent back down. After this, we also quick saw a cave formed from these rocks. Soon we headed back to the bus to begin our three-hour journey back to Valladolid. It was a very tiring day, and as much as I hated the uphill hiking, this was probably my favorite excursion so far. Seeing so many ancient cities can get dull after a while and eventually, they begin to all look the same.

This week, I’m going to be working nonstop on my paper and studying for my exams, so I’m not sure when I can post next. I will try my hardest to update you all on everything that goes on during spring break, but I will be really busy traveling all the time, so we’ll see how that goes. Wish me luck on yet another great adventure around Europe!

¡Salamanca!

This last Saturday we went on another school excursion – this time to Salamanca. It was about an hour and a half bus ride to the city. When we arrived there, we started out separating into groups and taking a tour with our professors. It’s always the same professors that take us on the excursions. The tour lasted about an hour. We saw a few historical buildings (I wasn’t really paying that close attention so unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you most of what we saw) and the outside of the University of Salamanca. The outside entrance of this building is so intricately sculpted, like most Spanish buildings, but everything that is shown in the building is symbolic. It is divided in thirds, the upper third representing the father, the middle third shows the symbol for Carlos V, and the bottom third representing the “Reyes Católicos,” Fernando and Isabel. While in the region of Castilla y Leon (which is Valladolid, Salamanca, and Segovia’s region), you can’t really go anywhere without seeing something representing Fernando and Isabel somewhere. They are very much worshipped here. The building is also divided vertically in two sides. The left side represents good. It displays heroes like Hercules and many other good things. The right side represents bad. It shows Venus and skulls to symbolize death and other things to symbolize lust. There is also a frog hidden somewhere on the right side and many people believe that if you can find it, you will have good luck. For example, if you find it before a test, you will pass the test. However, I just learned in my Art class today that it does not actually represent good luck, but sex. Very interesting. There are two doors, one on each side, which represent the choice to walk into good or bad.

Anyway, after the tour, we were let go for three hours of free time, during which my friends and I ate our lunch, then ice cream, checked out a really neat bar, and hung out in Salamanca’s famous Plaza Mayor and soaked up the sun. While sitting in Plaza Mayor, we saw many very interesting characters. We probably saw ten bachelor/bachelorette parties, most of which the bride or groom was dressed in a full costume. There were also just a lot of random people dressed up. We also saw a marching band type thing parading around there and much more. It was really interesting. We noticed that Salamanca has a much bigger younger population than Valladolid. Both Salamanca and Valladolid are college towns but it’s much clearer in Salamanca.

After a while, we were due to meet back up with the group. When everyone was there, we went and had a tour of Salamanca’s Cathedral. I feel like I’ve seen twenty cathedrals since I’ve been here, and the only one I can clearly remember was Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia. Right now I’m a bit cathedraled out. Spain, though, could never get sick of its cathedrals. There are probably a thousand cathedrals in this country. So, I’ll probably see a few more before my time here is up. The outside of Salamanca’s cathedral was pretty cool. I was a bit unimpressed with the inside, though. It’s probably because of how many cathedrals I’ve seen now. After the cathedral, we had 45 more minutes of free time, during which we got more ice cream. There’s definitely no such thing as too much ice cream. Later, we met back up at the cathedral and got on the bus to head back to Valladolid.

Salamanca was not quite as great as I had hoped. I really think they need to pick more interesting cities for these excursions, but oh well. It was still a fun trip. In two weeks, we will have another excursion to somewhere naturey. That is really all they’ve told us about that excursion. They still haven’t told us where it is. I’m hoping for a national park or something but knowing Castilla y Leon, it could easily just be looking at fields or something boring. I’ll keep hoping for the best, though. I’m starting to get a bit of cabin fever since I’ve been in Valladolid for three weekends in a row and will be here still for the next two weeks, not including the excursions. I think, though, that once spring break comes around in three weeks, it’ll be an explosion of traveling. I’ll be traveling for two weeks for spring break, then the next weekend we have an excursion to Santander, which I’m really excited about, then the next weekend is the weekend before finals, and then Latvia! I can’t wait!

We only have two months left now. I feel like time is flying by way too fast – it’s slipping right through my fingers and before I know it, I’ll be back home. I really don’t think I’ll want to go back home in May. It’s kind of a scary thought. I’m making the most of my time here now. I don’t want to leave Spain with any regrets.

Mi cena para Dioni.

Last night, I cooked dinner for Dioni. I told her it was because she does so much for us and I wanted to do something for her, which is true, but it was really mostly just to get away from Spanish food for a night. I made scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, green peppers, and onions and salad. She loved it! She was so happy she could have a night without cooking dinner or buying food. And I was happy to have a non-Spanish dinner. Win-win situation. Dioni said she loved my meal and even asked for the recipe. I´m hoping now she´ll let me cook again someday.
I don´t really have much else to talk about. This week has been pretty dull. Last weekend most of my friends were traveling so I didn´t do much then. It was nice to have a weekend to relax, though. This weekend I am going to Salamanca for another school excursion. I´m hoping this excursion will be a little more interesting than the last one. I´m confident it will be, though. There´s not much to see in Valladolid´s province but Salamanca is a bigger city so I´m sure there will be more to see and do.
Spring break is coming up so fast. Only three weeks now! And after spring break is over, there´s just two weeks until finals and then Latvia! This trip is going to be over before I know it and I feel like I just got here! Time is flying way too fast right now.
Sorry this post is so short! This week just hasn´t been that exciting. I´ll write a better post after Salamanca.

¡No más examenes por favor!

This week has been full of studying, studying, a little homesickness, and more studying. We had “finals” this week, which were actually midterms. Our semester is divided into two trimesters (the first trimester was in the fall before we arrived) so these were our finals for our first trimester. A little bit of homesickness has been creeping up on me this week as well, but I think that might have to do with the fact that I couldn’t really skype with any friends or family because I was constantly studying. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal next week. Anyway, for the next trimester, I will no longer have Culture class and may possibly be getting a new class? Not entirely sure. Now we are just starting to work on our “Trabajo Monográfico,” which is a 10-page term paper on some sort of aspect on Spain. We could choose from many cultural topics, like bull fighting or flamenco, historical topics, geography, literature, art, even grammar, in which we could talk about the past tenses of Spanish for ten whole pages. I don’t even think I could write one page on grammar. Yuck. My paper will be on the National Parks of Spain. I haven’t yet started researching, because we only just got to choose our topics, but I’m hoping to finish it before spring break. I think it’s due around three days after we get back from spring break and I don’t want to come back from two weeks of traveling to have to worry about finishing my paper.

Plans are starting to come together for spring break. The first week, before my parents arrive, I will no longer be traveling to Greece and Italy, but instead Switzerland and Italy. Greece is at a really poor economical state at the moment and has stopped running their trains. We’re using a “Eurail” train pass to get around to all our cities and would need to take a ferry to Greece, which could take around 29 hours. I’m kind of short on time with having to meet up with my parents so we decided to change it up and they will continue on to Greece after I leave. I’m super excited to take photos in Switzerland. It looks gorgeous. I also wasn’t too crazy about seeing Greece anyway, but that was their plan so I had to go with it. Santorini would’ve been cool but I didn’t really care about seeing Athens. I am liking the new plan much better. I also have bought my plane tickets home from Riga so it is set in stone that I am going to Latvia for sure! I cannot wait to see the country my family comes from. I think it’ll be a great way to end the semester.

Not sure if I wrote this already, but I did finally talk to my host mom about the food a couple weeks ago. Kelly wasn’t there and Dioni commented, once again, on how I didn’t eat very much and I told her in the nicest way possible that I just have not adjusted to the food. My body isn’t accustomed to this type of food and it’s really different for me to eat fish every day. I think I might have hurt her feelings just a tiny bit, but she listened. She sat down and we talked about the types of food Kelly and I like and it’s been a little better now. She makes chicken and pasta a lot more now, which we like, and we still have fish often but not every day. So now the food is much more tolerable.

Not much else is new. I’m about halfway done with the semester already. I can’t believe how fast time as been flying! It feels like I just got here a few weeks ago! I’m definitely not ready to go home yet. I think I have changed a lot here, though. Living abroad has made me feel so much more independent in every sense of the word. I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself better here and I’ve made so many new connections. I really am living the life I always dreamed of having right now. Traveling and going on adventures and doing things completely out of my comfort zone; this is what I dreamed of when I was a kid. I never thought I’d actually be able to do something like this. I think I’m getting old.

¡Londres!

This week, I went on yet another wonderful trip, this time to London! London was very different from what I was expecting. In my opinion, it’s very overrated, but we were presented with many disappointments that hindered our experience. It was a fun trip, and I am so glad I went, but it just was not as great as I was expecting.

We started out our trip on Sunday afternoon. Jess, Newly and I took the bus from Valladolid to the airport, and then flew to the London-Stansted airport. Once we arrived, went through customs, and exchanged our money, we quickly learned that the London-Stansted airport is actually a two-hour bus ride from the city of London itself. So, we took the bus to London, then the metro to our hostel, arriving around 9pm and not having a chance to see any of London on Sunday night. Once we got to the hostel, which turned out to be in a horrible location for nightlife, we had to wait for half an hour for the two people ahead of us checking in. We were not very happy about that, because when we checked in, it only took them five minutes. We ended up staying in a 12-person mixed room. This was the first time I’ve traveled in a group too small to get rooms for just us, so the 12-person room was quite a different experience for me. The beds were uncomfortable and not the cleanest and one guy always came in late and turned on the light, waking everyone up. It was lovely. People staying there also didn’t seem very open to meeting new people so we didn’t get to meet anyone.

On Monday morning, we got up around 8:30 and headed right out. We started our day in Hyde Park, which was right across the street from our hostel. The park was HUGE, and very pretty. There were so many dogs there! I loved it! Once we made our way through the park, we headed over to Buckingham Palace, but before we got there, we met a really nice lady who gave us some pointers on things to see and where to go. One constant thing I noticed was how incredibly nice British people are. They were so polite and so happy to talk to you and help out in any way they could. After we talked with the nice lady, we walked over to Buckingham Palace, where there were TONS of cops and a million people. We were wondering what could be going on because this was definitely not just a bunch of people wanting to see the palace, so we stayed and eventually the policemen started moving people out of the street and organizing everyone. It turned out to be the changing of the guard! It was a huge production and I cannot believe this happens every day. It was crazy! Unfortunately, we were across the street from the palace so we didn’t get to see what was happening inside the gates but it was still pretty cool. After it was all over, Jess and I made it our mission to get a photo with a policeman and his funny hat. Once we got our picture, we headed over to Westminster Abbey. On the way there, we saw people feeding a squirrel right out of their hands!! Yuck! My mom has definitely passed the squirrel-hating trait on to me. I was so freaked out by this. Anyway, we made it to Westminster Abbey, which was very impressive, but we only saw the outside. I can only imagine how much prettier it was on the inside. Later, we headed to Trafalgar Square, wanting to feed the pigeons. On our way there though, we found a huge bookstore and obviously had to go in. Being the bookworms we all are, we spent about an hour and a half there. It was super exciting to have such a wide selection of books in English! If you go to a bookstore in Spain, there is only one bookshelf of books in English, if any at all. After the bookstore, we crossed the street to Trafalgar Square, where we were shocked to find that there were no pigeons at all. Apparently, they don’t allow pigeon feeding anymore there. We were super disappointed about that. However, they did have four statues of lions, which was super exciting because I am obsessed with lions. Obviously, I had to get my picture taken with them. We didn’t stick around Trafalgar Square for too long and next we moved on to Covent Garden. Once we got there, we were under the quite false impression that Covent Garden was actually a garden. So we kept walking around looking for the gardens only to find that it was just a big shopping center! We felt so dumb, but were excited to see all the shops. It was a very fun atmosphere. After we saw everything around Covent Garden, we went to a Japanese restaurant my friend recommended to me called Wagamama. It was delicious! It felt super weird to go back to the normal eating schedule after being so used to eating late in Spain. One thing about London, it is SO expensive! The dollar is very weak there now, so everything was incredibly expensive. The dollar is also weak to Euros, but not as bad. I am now discovering why foreigners love shopping in the US. Also, we loved the British accent. I think it is so funny listening to everyone speak with it all the time. I had so many urges to just speak in a British accent all the time, but I figured the natives would not appreciate that very much. The thousands of tourists might’ve believed it though. Also, it was so confusing having to walk on the left side of the path all the time. London is so full of tourists, and many of them still walked on the right side, so we never knew what to do. The cars driving on the left side of the road always got me, and often I would look in the driver’s side of the car and freak out because there was no driver there, only to realize the driver was on the other side. Anyway, after Wagamama, we walked over to where we could see the London Eye at night. It was lit up in dark blue, so I didn’t get any clear pictures of it. After that, we went back to the hostel. We were going to make Monday our night to go out to a pub, but we were so tired and I had an awful headache, so we stayed in and rested, figuring we’d need our strength for another jam-packed day.

Tuesday morning, we got up at 8:30 again and took the metro to King’s Cross Station to see the ever-famous Platform 9 ¾. Jess and I were so psyched to see the actual place where the train station scene was filmed, especially since we had been uncontrollably referencing Harry Potter the whole trip. Newly is not really a Harry Potter fan, so she couldn’t share our sparking enthusiasm, but that did not get in the way of our excitement. Little did we know, though, this would be the biggest disappointment of all. We got to King’s Cross, which was under major construction, and followed the signs to Platform 9. Once we got there, there was no Platform 9 ¾ to be found. I’ve seen pictures of it and known people who have seen it so I knew it was real. When we were walking out of Platform 9, a lady asked us, “are you a Harry Potter family?” so we said “Yes!” and she directed us to Platform 8. Fully confused as to why it would be located in Platform 8, we followed her directions anyway and once we got there, we still couldn’t find it. We walked up and down the platform, so determined to find it, when we finally came across a tiny little corner where people were taking pictures. We found Platform 9 ¾. It was just a backdrop of a brick wall with a sign that said “Platform 9 ¾” and half a cart in the wall. Apparently they no longer have the real platform because of all the construction that was going on. We were so disappointed but took tons of photos anyway, making the most of what we had. After we left the station, we headed over to the Tower of London and London Bridge. The bridge was super impressive – it was so huge! Once we crossed it, we found a cute little cobblestone street and were so happy because we finally found something that was close to how we had pictured London. We ate lunch at a pizza place there and then walked down the cobblestone street along the river heading for Globe Theater. After a long walk, we found a building that said “Globe Theater” but was obviously not actually the theater itself. It was a building that surrounded it. So we went in, and discovered that only people possessing show tickets could go out and see it from the outside. Just one more disappointment to add to the list. However, when we walked back out onto the street a little ways further, we found that we actually could see the theater very well and got some good photos of it. While sitting outside by the river, we met a really humorous lady from Boston who was now living in London. She told us to go and see the Tate Modern where there was an exhibit of over 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds that an Asian artist had decided to make for the museum. So we went and saw it, and it was very impressive. After that, we took the metro over to Piccadilly Circus and guess what… it’s just like Covent Garden. There’s no circus there! This was not as much of a surprise as the garden situation, but we found it funny how misleading everything in London is. We hung around London for a while, checking out shops and buying gifts for family and friends. Once dinnertime came around, we knew that we had to get fish and chips. I was originally not going to get fish and chips because of how sick I am of fish, but I did anyway, figuring I’d probably never go back to London. It was good, though. It’d probably be better if I still liked fish like I did before I left for Spain, but I still liked it. After dinner, we didn’t know what else to do, so we took the metro back to the hostel to rest before hitting the pub. Once we got in our room, however, I noticed my sleeping bag was missing! The hostel workers left a note saying they took it because they didn’t allow sleeping bags. I was so mad! I use my sleeping bag at hostels because one, the beds are gross and two, I just got it for Christmas and I love using it because it is so small! So I went and asked to have it back, expecting them to tell me I couldn’t have it until we checked out. I showed the note to the girl working the reception desk and she looked at it like she didn’t even know they had that rule, and then started searching. She searched around for about five minutes before telling me she couldn’t find it and I should come back later. They took my sleeping bag and then lost it! Arggg. Anyway, we hung out in the lounge for a while and watched the movie that was playing in there and I went back to the reception desk an hour later. Luckily, they found it, and she gave it right back to me. So I used it when I slept that night. Pretty dumb situation in my opinion, but whatever. I’m happy I got it back. Later, we headed out to the pub, because obviously we had to see a pub in London. We got there and ordered drinks, but the bartender asked for our IDs and, of course, I was dumb and forgot mine. We NEVER get carded in Spain at the bars, so I was just used to not needing it. So, we ended up not drinking. It was a pretty lame pub anyway since we were in such a bad location for nightlife with young people. So we went back to the hostel, got ready for bed, talked for a while, then went to get some sleep before we had to get up at 5 am the next morning.

Wednesday morning, we got up at 5:30 am to catch our flight. We took a double-decker bus to the bus station, had some stress trying to find our bus but caught it just in time, took the bus to the airport, and flew home to Valladolid.

It was a really tiring weekend full of random disappointments, but it was worth it and I’m so glad I went. We really did have a great time, even though it wasn’t what we expected. Now I’m glad to be back in Valladolid and resting. We have mid-terms next week so I’ll be studying hard all weekend. Then possibly Morocco the weekend after? We’ll see.

Also, it is FREEZING in London. It's warming up here in Valladolid, though. If the weather stays like this, I no longer need my jacket when I go outside! Definitely not laughing at all of you in Minnesota. Nope.

Sorry this post is so long! Thanks for reading all the way to the end!