Like A Rollingstone

I'm going to make this post sweet and short, since I have little free time this week, and so that I can get some sleep tonight! So I will make a series of short, yet descriptive lists!

Here we go:

Last Friday- Had a free day before my DELE Speaking Exam

• Went to Hospital de la Carridad, Archivos de Indias, and the Casa de Pilatos
• Hospital de la Caridad- thought it was a museum that used to be a hospital, but turned out that it still is a nursing home
• There were all of these old men directing me into random directions
• Nobody was there!
• Bought a HUGE 50 cent pastry
• Went to Archivos de Indias
• Building that has all of the documents from the early explorers of the New World
• Beautiful building, but VERY dry
• Casa de Pilatos
• Old estate that is, actually, now a museum
• Only walked the ground floor, but want to come again to take the tour of the upstairs
• Had my DELE Speaking Exam, and thought that it went fairly well, but we'll see in 3 months
• Couldn't get to sleep until 1, because there was some random party happening in nearby park

Casa de Pilatos

Saturday

• Did the rest of the DELE exam
• Surprisingly easy, but like I said, we'll see what I get for a a grade in three months
• Went to Madrid
• Champions League Final was that night
• Should have known it was a big deal, after talking with the guy I sat next to on the train, who was going to the Real Madrid stadium to watch the game on a huge screen
• Game was in Lisbon
• Met with Isa, the daughter of a work colleague of my parents, and her husband José
• Never met them before, but they were very nice and welcoming to me!
• Walked around Madrid, which is so much prettier in the sun
• Saw tons of people hooting and hollering in their Real or Athletic Madrid attire
• Watched the game that night 
• Everyone was CRAZY in the street afterwards!

• Everyone was CRAZY in the street afterwards!
• 
  

Sunday

• Went to a volleyball game
• Made me realize how much fun athletic events are!
• That evening I went with Isa and José to the local voting station
• Was the European Elections
• Am surprised how few people actually voted in Europe, especially considering that ¨Your Vote is Your Voice!!¨

This weekend, I just kept on thinking of Dr. Seus's, Oh, the Places You'll Go! I know that it's graduation season, so this book is being read all over the world, but I find it incredibly applicable to my life now. Being an exchange student has certainly had it's ups and downs, but I have seen some spectacular things and met some amazing people over these past few months. Tomorrow is the graduation of the my grade, 2nd Bachillerato, and I can't believe that a year ago, I was in their shoes. I can't believe that I am doing the stuff that I am doing! A year ago I was terrified to go into a store by myslef, or drive a lengthened time, but now I am traveling alone, staying with people that I have never met before, and going to museums and stores by myself in a city that I am not incredibly familiar with! So let me end this post with a quote from Oh, the Places You'll Go! “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” 

That's all folks, and until next time, this is the rambling Louisa Jerome signing off!

Me at the center of Spain

ZARAGOZA!!!!!!! Need I Say More??

I'll start by saying that my train to Zaragoza went incredibly smoothly. I was on time for everything, and so was the train!
When I arrived in Zaragoza (the capitol city of Aragon. Located between Barcelona and Madrid,) I was greeted by my friend Lizzie, who is an exchange student from Tacoma, Wahsington. First surprise of the trip, the massive train station, Estacion de Delicias. In 2008 there was an exposition in Zaragoza about water. I'm not entirely sure what entailed, but I feel like it mostly evolved around conservation. Anyways, the city built a lot of very modern, beautiful buildings, such as the main train station.

That evening she showed me the historic center of Zaragoza, which is beautiful! Although Zaragoza isn't exactly a on peoples top lists of things to see in Spain, it still has a beautiful presence!

Saturday, we went to la Catedral Basilica de Nuestra Pilar, which is this HUGE, baroque cathedral, commemorated to no other than la Virgen de Pilar! We went to the top of one of the many tower, where we had an awesome view of the city and the Ebro River, the biggest (in volume) river in Spain.

I discovered, afterwards, that Zaragoza is still a fairly traditional city, so the majority of the sites were closed for the weekend siesta. So we made use of our time, shopping at some cool hip stores, like Tiger. Later on, we took a bus tour (the hop-on-hop-off kind) of the city. I love those sort of tours! Even though they are some times a little canny, it is a really easy way to learn and see and new city (the Viking tours of Dublin?) The most memorable about the whole tour was when we went through the 2008 Exposition. Like I said before, there was an a ¨fair," (if you may) held in Zaragoza, and there were tons of HUGE, beautiful, modern buildings built, that are now abandoned. There's still a functioning aquarium, and a little man made rafting loop, but other than that there was nothing. We saw people swimming in the massive fountains, but I doubt that they wanted to go aquarium. Although such things are kind of dismal, I thought that Zaragoza could be an awesome place to do a National Geographic article. I mean with the exposition grounds, and the contrasting city center? Why not?

Afterwards, we went to the Goya museum, which was free!!!!!!!!!! Goya was actually born in a town outside of Zaragoza, and painted some of the murals in the Basilica de Pilar. They had some of his famous works, like the portraits of Queen Maria Luisa, but they had TONS (if not all) of his political drawings. I didn't know if all of them were published, but he obviously had some very deep feelings about what was going on in society at the time!
Sunday we went to the Aljaferia, which was originally a Muslim fort, which was, guess, conquered by the ¨Catholic Kings,¨ and later a site of the Inquisition. But, overall, it was very well preserved. Almost every room had a beautiful, wooden, medieval ceiling that was still intact, as well as Moorish styled, alabaster doorways!

We had lunch in the historic center, and at the restaurant we ate I accidentally caused the waiter to drop Lizzie's food on the floor, and break the platter. Bad omen!!!!! I'll get to why later!
After walking off our lunch, we went to La Seo, which is another HUGE cathedral, located on the same plaza as la Basilica de Pilar (named- Plaza de Pilar.) It had the highest ceiling, with grand, curving pillars. All of the large alter pieces were painted differently, which gave the cathedral a special flare. There was also a Medieval tapestry museum in the up stair rooms, but personally, I like paintings more.

And now for the juiciest part! I missed my train! Yep! Stupid mistake, mostly due to the fact that I didn't double check my ticket earlier that day. I thought that my train was leaving for Sevilla at 6, when it actually left at 5:30. We were at the bus stop by Lizzie's house at 5:45 when I checked my tickets. I had a little bit of a cussing fiasco, which I need not to do the next time, but I really hope that the old women waiting did not understand my profanity!
We headed to the train station to get things situated, which was a fiasco in itself, considering that we had to go back and forth, between the ticket office and the Renfe (the main Spanish train company) to get my train switched. I was unable to take a back that night, but was able to get a ticket at 12:30 the next day, that would go to Madrid and I'd switch trains to return to Sevilla. This meant that I had to stay another night in Zaragoza, but, thankfully, Lizzie's host family was fine with me staying another night. Although things had worked out I was a nervous mess, right until I started writing this blog post.
We arrived at the train station an hour early, because I did not want to miss another train, and pay for another ticket. So, I successfully caught the train to Madrid. When I got to Madrid I figured out what terminal I had to go to, but I had no idea where to go, and I had limited time! Again, I was a frantic frenzy! I walked with the crowd, and then I turned around to ask a woman where I should go for connections, and she said that I should turn around. Not true, but thank goodness the escalators had stopped, because I went down one, that usually goes up, to get to my train. I probably skipped security, and the part where I showed my ticket (I was worried during the train ride, quite unrealistically, that someone was going to arrested because I didn't do so.) Sprinting, I looked like a disaster, and the people sitting by me were staring at me with open mouths! But who cares! I'm back in Sevilla- SAFE AND SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!

An American in Sevilla

Semana Santa + Two Weeks Later= Fería! Yep, the April (May this year) Fair, one of the most world renowned festivals in the world. For those that are unfamiliar with what Fería is, it is this big party that always takes place two weeks after Holy Week. It begins, officially on Monday at midnight, when the Portada, or gate, to the Fería is lighted up. The people get dressed up, the women in the normal suit and dress shirt, but the women go in these huge flamenco dresses, called traje de gitana. There are tons of different styles, but most women wear big flowers on top, with there hair beautifully pulled back, and dresses wrapped in shawls. I conformed to this fashion, but suffered only a little bit, considering that it was in the 90s this week! It was even worse in the casetas, at times. At the Fería there are streets lined up with these casetas, which are these little houses that look really tiny and crammed from the outside, but when you enter they are long. In all of the casetas people congregate to eat, drink, and dance (flamenco, or specifically the five Sevillian dances) the night away, but each caseta is different. A company's caseta is sometimes huge with a fancy band and food, like the department store Cortes Ingles, while a family's caseta is small and narrow, and there might be a few people planning some pick up flamenco music. Some of the casetas are public (like the one ran by the Communist party) but the majority are private. Those that are private are usually ran by companies or families. Sometimes, in order to go into a caseta you need to have an connection to an associate, or someone that has paid to have a spot in the caseta. If not, you'll have to pay a lot of money, or get arrested, but even if you went in, the food and drinks are already expensive enough! (10 euros for a plate of foods, which you share, so then you'd have to order three plates to make it a meal, and two drinks to keep yourself from passing out from dehydration!)
When people asked me if there is anything similar to the Fería in America, and I said that the majority of the fairs are agricultural, and people eat ridiculous food, like fried Coca-Cola (hardest thing to explain, ever!) But, everyone said that the Fería actual began as an agricultural fair, also, but mostly with animals. During the Fería, people still ride around the fairgrounds on horseback, wearing traditional Andalucian riding clothes. Another thing about Fería is that all of the towns in Andalucía have a fería, but Sevilla boasts that it is the first and most important of all of them!
I had school Monday through Wednesday, but the majority of the kids only went on Monday. After Semana Santa and doing absolutely nothing on el Día de Trabajo, I told myself that I was going to have something to do everyday this week, and it was going to be with different people. I can say that this mission was successful!

Wednesday, despite being exhausted (I was tired all of this week!) I went with Margarita, her friends, and their daughters to the Fería. We spent most of our time at Margarita's brother's caseta, which was fine, but I made it better because I made worthwhile conversations with people. I unfortunately did not learn how to dance flamenco during my time at Fería, but it was a sight to see. Everyone seemed so animated, even the people who were watching!

Portada de la Fería

Which brings us to Thursday. Originally I didn't have plans, but I ended up going with my English teacher, Tere, which was great. First we went to a retired Latin teacher's caseta, who used to teach at my school in Sevilla, when it was all girls. I had the best ham ever there, and also learned that she has relatives in Quebec! Not like I have ever heard of the town that her family is from, but it was an interesting coincidence. We then went to Gema's caseta, the math teacher I have lunch with every Wednesday. We waited for Gema and her husband, Javi, while we ate croquetas de sanmorejo (fried gazpacho) and plumas de jamón (steak with very fine pieces of ham on top.) When we met them we went to the another math teacher's caseta, which was actually the caseta of a business, Telefonica (not hard to figure out what they do.) Probably one of the most incredible one I went to, not only because of it's size, but also because of the crazily amazing event band that was playing. I danced for a little bit which was a little awkward, because I was surrounded by middle age people that had way better moves than me! I think that it's a mortal sin to not be able to dance well here in Spain! It's not a country where I'd go around doing ¨the shopping cart,¨ or ¨the snorkle.¨
Saturday I went with Gema and her family, and met the rest of her husband's family. We sat and ate in the caseta for five hours, in 95 (35 Celsisus) degree heat, in addition to wearing a canvas flamenco dress with sleeves. But I was under good company, which all really mattered to me! After, we went to Calle del Infierno, which is where all of the rides are. The fairgrounds were a lot cleaner, and the people in the crowd were all dressed, but Spanish rides still play obnoxiously loud pop songs, and have scary looking carnies. But watcha' going to do? Expect the worst: filth, loud music, sketchy people (question why you never see them in broad daylight), and over course- overly fattening, carbohydrate-ridden food! Let me just end with that I was very happy to have been included by the teachers at my school, because without them, I would really be doing nothing. Maybe I'd twiddle my thumbs here and there, but other than that-ZIP! So thank you for your kindness!
In continuation of keeping myself busy, today I met Gabriella and another exchange student, Elora, from Alcazar, and we went to the Alcazar. I think, though, that with only five weeks left, I really need to make myself happy, especially on week days, when I am very bored! And even though things aren't exactly perfect (like school) I should still do what I have always done, focus on the positive and to make sure that I do something to make myself feel better! Until next time (ZARAGOZA!!!!!!!!)

This peacock was just walking around los Jardines de la Alcazar! So cool!

Barcelona: Second Time Around

Well, where should I start? Oh, well I guess I should talk a little bit about the DELE prep class that I am taking. I signed up to take the Spanish B1 exam, and it is VERY hard. I feel like I do fine when we do comprehension, which is when we listen to audio, and the reading, but when it comes to writing and speaking with correct grammar, forget it! After my first day, I was distraught, but then I told myself that although I thought I was proficient in Spanish when I came to Spain, I honestly had nothing, and I definitely wasn't prepared for the strong Andaluz accent! But, yes, after five months I am not going to be a fluent speaker, but I have improved tremendously over these past three months (boy, does time fly by!)
Another thing that I thought I had, but really didn't, was independence. Yes, I have been told many times that I am a strong individual, but that doesn't mean that I am independent. But hey, this past Friday, I flew from Sevilla to Barcelona all by myself, without any anxiety, and I got to and from the airport all by myself. And not only that, I had a great conversation (in Spanish), going to Barcelona, with a Norwegian architect. She was shocked that I knew who Bjorn Daehlie is, but for those that are familiar with the book Sophie's World, the author, Jostein Gaarder, is her mother's ex-boyfriend. Don't know how many degrees of separation that is, but it's just like my connections to Taylor Swift and Christopher Lloyd. (Forget the return flight. I sat next to some kid who was about my age, but obviously gave me the body language that he didn't want to talk. But I did talk to some San Diego State med students, that looked like stereotypical Americans, who were quite hilarious!)

Anyways, so I left my apartment for the airport, on Friday, at 6:30 (blah!) I got to the airport a little too early, but now I know how much time I will need when I go to Valencia at the end of the month. So, with my free time I had a coffee and read El País, and also observed some incredibly studious looking priests. 

So, all went smoothly, and I met Alejandro (the son of a work colleague of my parents) and Elisa, his girlfriend, at the airport. We then went to Alejandro's apartment, to drop my stuff off, and then headed out to the Passeig de Garcia, which is where many of Arte Noveau houses, two (I think) of which were designed by Gaudi. We went to one, Casa Batlló, and it was INCREDIBLE!!!! I think that I need to go to the Sagrada Familia again, to just go inside, and not under the wrath of jet lag, but it's also a little overwhelming. Casa Batlló felt intimate, and I could easily soak everything in. What was so interesting about Casa Batlló was how Gaudi incorporated all of these natural elements into the building. For example, the ceilings looked like ripples of water, or the front of the house looked like scales, while the balconies looked as if they were carnival (not a natural element, I know.) He also, put a lot of thought into everything (obviously) and symbols of Cataluna, like the scales represent the dragon that Saint George slayed, the patron saint of Cataluna.

After we went to a restaurant called Lizarron, which is a Basque (?) chain, where you can buy little sandwiches called pinchas. I got five, at first, from the buffet line, but then waitresses came around and around with more and more. I think that this would be the best place to go after completing the Camino de Santiago, or even better, the Appalachain Trail, because you can easily eat a ton of good food at a decent price.
We walked on Calle de las Ramblas,* which was busy and crowded, but still really cool! We went to Mercado de San Jose (which is also called the Bocaderia?) It was so incredibly colorful and lively, and I learned that there was an insect shack there (last time I had an insect was at the BioDome, in Montreal, for my sixth grade field trip.) There were also tons of fruits and vegetables from abroad, like dragon fruit, which I can't even find in the US.

Marzapan

We then walked towards the water front, and went into a ship museum for a little bit, which had a replica of old Barcelona. After resting our feet for a little bit, we then went to a really cool comic book store. I didn't buy anything, since I don't know anything about comics, but I did see an interesting non-fiction comic about nomads, and I wish I had bought it, but I guess I should learn to just go with my impulses! We then walked past the Barcelona Cathedral, the first church to be constructed outside of the city walls, which was magnificent.

We then went to Alejandro's apartment to get my bag, and then went to meet his parents, Conchi and Manuel. Conchi is a work colleague of my parents, who specializes in audiovisual media for schools, and is also from Sevilla. We went out to dinner at a Japanese fusion-like restaurant, which was great because it was the first meal that I had, in Spain, where I had a whole dish to myself. The things that I miss!
Saturday we went to Barrí Gothic, where we had a Catalan lunch in a restaurant call L'Havana. It was delicious! I mean the food here in Spain really does prove how different each region is. For instance, I would never find mussels with tomatoes in Sevilla, or have cheese drizzled with honey for dessert.

After we walked around the neighborhood, which is a very hipster-like, with all of these cool second-hand stores and dred-locked skateboarders doing their thing (Barcelona is the skateboarding capitol of the world.) Later, we went to a place called El Barro, which was originally a market, but was vacant for a long period of time, until 2003, when people wanted to make it the provincial library, but discovered ruins underneath, that were related to the Catalan Revolution in 1714.

Sunday, el Día de la Madre, we had lunch at Conchi's house, which was the most healthy and delicious lunch that I have had here in Spain: tomato and avocado salads with lean hamburgers. And for dessert, Elisa, who is from a town in Valencia, brought Spanish horchata* (the first I have had here in Spain) accompanied with fartons polo, long, sweet, brioche-like pastries.
                                 
Before we went to the airport, we went to look at the beach house where my family and I will be staying this summer, in the town of Castelldefels (more like the corner.) It's so awesome because it's right by the beach and stores, opposed to when we go to Georgetown, Maine, and we always need to drive ten minutes to get to Reid State Park and thirty to Bath. It will be a different experience, but I am excited for my next visit to Barcelona this summer.

I saw some incredible things while in Barcelona, and I am so happy that I came again. Right now I think I'm done with traveling in big groups, and would much rather prefer to have a real local show me the ropes of their native terrain. I mean, this weekend I gained a totally new perspective about Spain, Cataluna, and the world! But I think the most important thing is that I was surrounded by people that were willing to speak to me and make conversation. I mean, I was speaking in Spanish almost the whole weekend, and I had a great time. This honestly hasn't happened to often during my time here in Spain, so here's an incredibly thankful shout-out to Alejandro, Elisa, Conchi, and Manuel. Thank you so much for such a great weekend! It really made a difference!




*Ramblas has two difnitions- fast water or a street where there is a big sidewalk in the middle.
*Horchata is different in Spain because it is made of chufa, or tigernuts