Me in Madrid!

1) Royal Palace
2) Plaza Mayor
3) Handpainted toros (bulls) line the city streets

Madrid

Well this weekend I set off to see another Spanish city, Madrid. The capital of Spain is a 5 hour bus ride from Pamplona. I left Friday morning at 8 with a group of students from my university, along with some Pamplonans who like to participate in the school's cultural activities program. It was my first time to be almost completely away from English speakers--the other students that went are German, Polish, Spanish, Puerto Rican, and Greek. Some of the people can speak some English, but when you're in a group of people who don't understand English, it's rude to speak it. We stopped for lunch and a side trip in Guadalajara, a city one hour outside of Madrid. There we saw the Yebes Astronomical Center, which was basically just a huge satellite in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't quite sure why we stopped to see this, but I was just along for the ride. Unlike my trip to Barcelona, Madrid was a structured trip with tour guides and an itinerary. We arrived in Madrid mid-afternoon and met up with our tour guide. I quickly figured out that I would be leaving the group and ditching the tour guide. The lady seemed nice enough, but wasted too much time standing in one spot talking in lengthy detail. I convinced some of the other students to come with me, opened up my city map, and started my own tour through the city. Typical me, right? We ended up seeing more sights than the group with the guide! The city is very old and filled with amazing architecture. Every couple of blocks there are fountains, plazas, domes, arcs, cathedrals, museums, statues, and government buildings. We walked around until dark, and then ate tapas and headed back to our hotel. Unfortunately the other students did not want to go out, so we ended up calling it an early night. I say unfortunately because Spain is all about the nightlife, and especially in big cities. Imagine my disappointment when we're in the biggest city in Spain and my travel buddies want to go to sleep at 11pm. I wasn't about to let that put a damper on things though, and I was excited for Saturday. Saturday we went to El Prado, the museum with tons of 12th-early 19th century paintings, including famous works by Goya, Rubens, Ribera, El Greco, Raphael, and Velazquez. Las Meninas by Velazquez was as impressive as I was hoping. After that, we ate lunch and walked around more. I had a McDeluxe sandwich, which is just a regular McDonald's burger, and it tasted the exact same as at home. After our fast food stop we went to the Museo Reina Sofia (Museum Queen Sofia), which houses modern art. I usually prefer traditional art over modern art, but I really enjoyed seeing all of Picasso and Salvador Dali's works. Picasso's "Guernica" was massive and really moving in person. That evening we spent more time in the city before heading back to our hotel. Again, the group didn't feel like doing anything after we got home around 7pm. I took a bath and a nap and was ready for some excitement. My roommate Louise has a friend from Belgium who studies in Madrid, and Louise had given her my number. Celine, Louise's friend, called me on Saturday night and invited me to go out with her and some of her friends. I met up with her and we hung out together all night. She was a great host, her friends were really nice, and the bar "Honky Tonk" was just right for a Southern girl visiting Madrid. On Sunday morning we made our way to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), which was massive and stunning. The artwork, carvings, woodwork, and frescos on the inside were incredible. The king of Spain is just a honorary position, much like in England. Still, it comes with a pretty sweet house :) After the Palace we went to a flea market and I bought a bought a pretty dress from a gypsy lady for 14 dollars. I could've spent all day there. Overall, it was a good trip. Nothing can compare to Barcelona though; that is a really special place, and so far is the one place I will for sure return to at some point in my life. This Saturday I am going on a day trip, again with the university (just because they offer good trips on the cheap) through Navarra, the region I live in. We are going to a wine vineyard and to a sheep cheese farm. The weekend after that I will be going to Monte Carlo in Monaco with Jill, Jill's friend Victoria (who went with us to Barcelona), and Cara (who is also studying in France) for Jill's birthday. I am SO excited to visit one of the world's most famous cities. Jill's parents have been kind enough to give Jill as a present hotel rooms for us girls for the weekend. It is the big 21, afterall! I will post pictures of Madrid soon. Love to you all.

Barcelona

Wow. What a weekend. I left Pamplona at 8 Friday morning via bus, headed for Barcelona. The trip took 5 hours and I slept the whole way. I woke up just in time, right when we were going through the toll into the city. My first impression-this place is huge. Most parts of Pamplona are quaint, old European, with a touch of modern, but this place is truly metropolitan. If I could say anywhere it reminded me of, I would say a cross between New York and New Orleans. Those are two of my favorite places, so needless to say I loved Barcelona. I got there right around lunch, hopped on the subway and found my hostel pretty easily. As I was turning the corner, I recognized one of Jill's friends from Facebook and immediately started running, knowing Jill was not far behind. I was really happy to see Jill and to get to hang out in such an awesome place together. Jill and I have had some pretty cool trips together, from New York, Chicago, Greece, and now Barcelona. We talked about how lucky we've been to do so many things, and especially to enjoy that with a friend. Jill, her three friends Victoria, Elizabeth, and Juli, and I went to lunch and had traditional Barcelona fare with sangria. Food there is more seafood based due to its location on the Mediterranean, so I was also excited to try new food. After lunch we met up with Santi, Victoria's friend from Knoxville, TN, who is studying this semester is Barcelona. He showed us around some famous places and was a great host the whole weekend. Friday night we went to a club one block from our hostel and danced until 5 am. That may seem extreme, but no one goes out until 1 am, so things are just very different. You can take a nap before you go out so you have the energy to stay awake. On Saturday we got up and had a day full of sightseeing. We went took the cable cars up to Montjuic, the mountain overlooking the city with a fortress at the top. The view was really impressive, and the furthest sight in the distance was La Sagrada Familia, which is the artist/architect Gaudi's masterpiece, however it's unfinished. If you don't know what this huge cathedral looks like, you need to look it up. From Montjuic we went to La Sagrada Familia, and when I saw it I teared up. Honestly, it was the most amazing, breathtaking thing I have ever seen in my entire life. We girls stared with mouths agape for five minutes before moving or speaking. From there we went to Gaudi's next accomplishment, Guell Park, which is the most outstanding park I've ever seen. I'm telling you, Gaudi was a complete genius and pretty much dominated the city when he was alive. I could write a whole post on my new obsession with him and his work. Saturday night we saw the beach and the port. I had no idea, but the beach in Barcelona is man made, and was created solely for the Olympic Games in 1992, and every year they import sand from Egypt. We then roamed the city in search of a sushi restaurant, which turned out to be well worth the walking. After dinner, we went to a small bar called Chupitos with fun drink names like "Monica Lewinsky" and "Teletubby." We went back to our hostel (which, by the way, was awesome and fun. Very impressed with my first hostel experience...a hostel is like a hotel but cheaper and with public rooms with bunk beds) to meet up with our new friends and then we went to the club Razzmatazz, which is a giant club with 5 clubs inside, all with different music at each one. We danced again until 6am, and had a blast. Going to Barcelona and not doing the nightlife scene is a mistake, because so much more goes on in the early morning hours. Even older people go out to the clubs...it's just the way of life. Sunday we took it easy and just chilled out at the hostel. Not a lot is open on Sundays, as I've mentioned before. One of our new hostel friends had rented a motorcycle for the weekend, and I got to ride up to Montjuic, the mountain, to see the panoramic view of the city. Overall, the city was fabulous and fun, and it was really a weekend I will never forget. Sorry to drag on so much, I just don't know how to cut short such a great time!

Pamplona is full of my two favorite things: dogs and babies. The city is so family oriented, and there's a lot of interaction between people of all ages. Look into any bar at 6pm and you'll see teens right along side 75 year olds (who, by the way, are enjoying a beer and a cigarette). Every evening after siesta, usually between 6-8 there is a "paseo" or stroll. This is the time when the city is most alive and bubbling with activity. Children run around in the avenues seemingly without supervision. It's just that safe. It's a very common site to see a young couple pushing a stroller and walking a dog, and I'm also noticing lots of elderly couples moving slower, but still in the middle of things. You would think the Westminster Dog Show was in Pamplona because I have seen more breeds that I ever knew existed, and all are well groomed and friendly. A lot of times the dogs are wearing raincoats as Pamplona is usually rainy, although we've had good weather lately. Dogs as well as people dress to the nines, all of the time, complete with fur coats and hats. The only exception to this is the age group of about 15-21. The Spanish highschoolers and college student usually have multiple piercings, sagging pants (including the girls, which I find very strange), short choppy hair for girls and long messy hair for boys, and usually a ticked-off look on their faces. Don't worry guys I'm not gonna come back with a whole in any body parts (lip ring? no?). Needless to say my classmates are intimidating, and they know it. For instance, yesterday in my literature class the teacher broke us up into small groups for discussion. One boy announced to the class that the Americans (an American boy Bill and I were in the same group with this kid) didn't know anything and he wanted to switch groups. The teacher seemed to think this was a logical request, and the class felt sorry for the poor boy who got stuck talking in slow Spanish to the foreigners. That's the only time I have felt especially socially awkward, and you all know I don't embarrass easily. Today, however, the boy tried to make amends, or at least I think so. After class we got on the same bus to come home, and it was empty. He could have chosen any seat but instead chose the only seat on the bus that directly faced me. So we're sitting directly across from each other, but he didn't initiate conversation until I was about to get off, and he said something along the lines "I'm looking forward to working with you in class." So I said thank you and got off at my stop, confused. Tomorrow I'm off to Barcelona and I CAN'T WAIT!! I'll be sure to let y'all know how it goes.

Viajes por Pamplona...

Sorry if I've been out of touch for the past couple of days...on Saturday my laptop charger exploded...so I have been without my computer. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find another one, but unfortunately there aren't stores as convenient as Wal Mart or Best Buy. Everything here is on a smaller scale. For instance, little tiendas have only have a little selection and then one or two of whatever item you're looking for. Restuarants are pretty much the same way, not so much a restaurant as a little cafe of every corner (literally). This weekend was a busy one, with a costume party and Carnaval. I'm guessing Carnaval is probably where Mardi Gras' history comes from but no one seems to really know what we're celebrating. I saw some pretty outrageous costumes and it was really interesting to see Pamplona come alive in such a different and fun way. On Saturday I went to several clubs with my friends, and for me the most exciting part of the night was when I saw a line of people waiting to get into a club--at 4 a.m. Only during Carnaval is it THAT wild, but it was fun. I of course was heading home at this point because my American body needs more sleep than these Europeans. Tonight I cooked Mexican food for my roommate Louise(who's become a really great friend), and now Ivan is letting me use his laptop while he helps his girlfriend move into our piso. Kinda sudden news, but it doesn't matter to me since it doesn't really affect me, only in that I have to pay less for utilities. Always a good thing, especially since I have altogether stopped converting dollars to euros in my head, but I remember the currency drop when I check my bank statement. For the most part Pamplona is a really livable city with good prices and a great atmosphere. I'm trying to plan a trip to Barcelona to go see Jill, who will be there from France with some of her classmates. Next weekend for sure I am going to Madrid for the weekend on an excursion planned by the university. Flying into Madrid in early February, it looked like a desert I didn't want to visit, but I think I got a bad view as the airport is outside of the city. It is, afterall, the capital and largest city in Spain. Plus I need a weekend away from my noisy neighbors, who I'm convinced have a gym in their piso, because someone is constantly doing jumping jacks above my room. They may also have a music school, because yesterday someone was playing a very bad, out of tune version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on a recorder. WHO even has a recorder outside of 2nd grade music teachers? If it weren't for my sound machine I would probably have lots of sleepless nights, but fortunately I sleep like a baby. I'm off to do that now, love to you all.

School...finally

Today I started my first day of real classes with the other students at the university. I don't have class until 1pm each day and no classes on Friday, which is quite nice. When my history class was over today I turned around to ask the other two Americans what they thought. I didn't have too; their faces revealed the exact same thoughts I was having: what have I gotten myself into? Imagine if class was kind of like this: you walk in ten minutes late, take a five minute personal break in the middle of lecture, and then leave ten minutes early. I say that because I got most of the information...but I don't know if what I was missing was uber important or not at all. My defensive move was to try to take notes, whether or not they made sense, if the other students were writing too. So today I think I got the general idea of the 2nd Industrial Revolution, haha. Getting back to class was like journeying back to the real world. Andrew arrived on Thursday in Bilbao and we toured the city and went to the Guggenheim Museum (if you don't know what it looks like, google it). Back here in Pamplona we did more sightseeing and my personal favorite activity, eating. There are two restaurant options, I've noticed. A place with only sandwiches and tortilla de patatas (like of like a potato omelet that's delicious), or a place with a "Menu del Dia" or menu of the day. You get three courses and a bottle of wine for about 13 dollars per person. Not a bad way to do it. I am sick of sandwiches and don't want to see my bank account dwindle so I have been cooking in a lot. My roommates and I cook together, which is fun and nice because I get to learn new words for food. I am about to go on a guide-led tour of the city with my roommate Louise, who hasn't gotten the chance to venture out much since she just arrived a few days ago. There's a masquerade party on Thursday...so be thinking about ideas for my costume...

Whew!

The week just started and I feel so busy already! On Sunday afternoon, Ivan's girlfriend Francesca came over with several of her Italian friends. They are all exchange students in the university. The afternoon was spent watching three Italian girls cook in my kitchen. Normally I would've jumped in, but my kitchen is a bit on the small side (although really big compared to my friends') and there's no way I could've kept up with them. They were everything I imagined Italians in the kitchen to be, over the top with lots of loud talking, gesticulating, and intermittently pushing bread and parmigiano cheese in my mouth. 9 of us ate pasta with tomato sauce and prosciutto that simmered all day, then potato salad of mayo and tuna (kinda weird but good and they were convinced it was an American dish). Everyone spoke Italian but my roommate Adam and I (Ivan speaks a little and understands a lot; he's been learning since he is dating Francesca, an Italian), but Adam understands a lot of Italian. Here is when I was cursing being from the US where we are lucky if we get to learn one other language. Here are these people from all over Europe, casually interchanging between Spanish, English, and Italian. I was able to understand some of the Italian because it is similar to Spanish. Once we all sat down to eat they changed to Spanish so we could all be included in conversation. And by that I mean, I listened while everyone talked. My spanish is pretty good, but damn these people are fluent. We played pictionary after dinner which was good for me because I learned a lot of new vocabulary words. Monday I started the jumpstart language class for foreign students. I am called "foreigner" a lot, so I am going to be using that term a lot less when I get home talking about people who look or talk different than me. Last night I met up with another American girl who has already been here for a semester. Her mom and grandmother were visiting from Walnut, Mississippi and I thought that was really cool. Imagine Nanny at a smoky bar in Spain, ha. Class is from 9:30-3 only this week, but I am with my friends and we have two breaks so it's not bad at all. Today my alarm on my cell phone nor my actual clock went off when it was supposed to. Imagine my thoughts when I got a text message at 9:30 when class is supposed to start from a friend I was supposed to meet for a coffee before class. Needless to say my next purchase will be a watch. I threw on some clothes and was about to leave for class when my new roommate appeared. Her name is Luis and she is from Belgium. She is really cute, and looks like Katie Holmes but is cooler because she isn't possessed by Tom Cruise. She wanted to come to class with me, and we made it 30 minutes late. I thought this might be an issue. Upon my arrival, I realized only half the students were there because apparently attendance is VERY optional. The teacher looked confused when I tried to apologize. I was later advised "You are Erasmus. It doesn't matter what you do." So that's gonna take a little get used to, but definitely a good thing. Today after class Luis and I went shopping and cleaned our apartment. We get along really well so far, so I am happy to have a little more estrogen in the piso. Adam is making us dinner now, some Polish concoction that involves a lot of carrots. On Thursday I am going to pick up Andrew from the airport in Bilbao, which is a 2 hour bus ride away. We'll come back here to Pamplona and he will stay until Monday. I am really happy he's coming, because I get to share with someone how awesome this place is. I wish you were all coming to see me...but until then...besos! (Oh yeah that's another thing...you kiss everyone on both cheeks like all the time) Sorry my posts are so long, y'all know I'm long winded anyway.

Address

Just in case someone needs it:

Ashley Wright
Calle San Fermin 33 2 Derecha
31004 Pamplona
Spain

Siesta

It's almost 3pm and I just woke up. And yesterday, I woke up after 4pm. Needless to say my sleeping hours are way screwed up. After the big party on Friday night I stayed in last night to finally finish unpacking everything and get my room organized. I got in bed around 2am but couldn't turn my brain off long enough to go to sleep. My new problem: I can't stop thinking in Spanish! This is only a problem when I want and need to go to sleep but instead I'm trying to remind myself of the new words I learned or go over important phrases. Fortunately, the siesta is alive and well here in Spain. From 1-4pm everyday, all of the shops and business close except the hospital/doctor for people to go home or to a bar or restaurant and eat a big lunch and take a nap if the want. It makes total sense considering here we don't eat dinner until ten (however I have been mostly eating in my apartment so I have been eating a little earlier), and for the most part classes don't start until 11. So my biggest task in addition to the actual language is the getting used to the schedule. Yesterday I went to El Corte Ingles, which is a huge department store that's 6 or 7 floors. The have everything you could need, except maybe a car. It was really cool to see that basically everything you could ever want or expect to find in America is in this one store. Like a Macy's on steroids. Today I am going to venture out for the first time without my roommates to see if I can find my way around. There are no street signs and the city is big and beautiful, lots to be distracted by. Adios!