Oh Spain how i love you...

So it’s been awhile since I’ve written, but I’ve so busy with school and seeing Spain. This past week we had midterms here, so in one week I had five tests. Thankfully they were all pretty straightforward and not too hard, although I did have to write essays for all of them. So the weekend before I basically studied and wrote papers, except for a couple of things. Thursday for dinner we had a cena de rociera, which was basically a dinner with flamenco performers. That night Natalie, Daniella and I went to my intercambios house and him and his roommates made us mojitos. We listened to Spanish music, told jokes in Spanish and had a lot of fun! We left rather early…for Spain that is…because we had an excursion the next morning and we had to be ready by eight in the morning.

The excursion was to Alcalá de Henares, which is near Madrid. The first thing we did when we got there was tour old university. It is one of the oldest in Spain. My intercambio actually said he went to college there. It was very pretty and we saw the room where the students take their final exams. Our tour guide told us that the students would take their doctorate exams in this one room and if they past they could go through a door that lead to a plaza where a fiesta would await them. But, if they failed they would have to go out a different door and have almost like a “walk of shame.” Basically the whole town knew who passes and who failed! Good thing that changed! After that we went to Coral de Comedía, which is a really old theater. That was basically our tour of Alcalá de Henares, because after that we got free time and at dinner. During free time we shopped and I bought a really cheap pair of flats, and then we went to lunch. It was at a really fancy restaurant, the first entrée was a seafood lasagna, the second was almost like a beef stew, and then we got this amazing dessert. AND, like I’ve said before there are always AMAZING bread rolls throughout the entire meal! Needless to say we were sooooo full by the end!

When we got back that day and did one of our papers, and then took a nap! The rest of the weekend was spent studying or writing papers. The hard work paid off because all of the exams were pretty easy! The main paper we had to do was for our art class, and it was a paper on the torres or towers of Toledo. It was an interesting paper to write, but it was very time consuming. We had to pick four towers in Toledo that we wanted to research, and there are TONS of towers, and then we had to write a paper on them. The paper had to answer the questions who, what, where, when, how and why. We also had to go visit the tower to take pictures of it and write down an initial response as to what we thought of it. So I think the paper was interesting because we got to learn more about Toledo and we got to see more of the city we live in. The next weekend I met with my intercambio again, but that was about it for going out. It was a pretty low-key weekend. Natalie and I spent a lot of time catching up on the new season of gossip girl. Also, I actually had a phone for the weekend because I got my new one in the mail that week! Getting my new phone inspired me to start looking for a new camera. I got the idea for some of the girls here to check for my same camera on ebay, so I did and there were like seven! I put bids on four of them and lost them all, but then I finally won one and it was the cheapest out of all of the bid I made! So I have a new phone and now and new camera too!! Yay! On Friday a group of girls decided to go to the zoo in Madrid. We had so much fun, except for the walk there. It was probably the coolest zoo I’ve ever been to! They had so many animals and an amazing aquarium. We watched the monkeys for probably 40 minutes and we saw a seal show. It was a great day, but we were all so tired after it.

Sunday we went to a Real Madrid soccer game, which is one of the best teams over here! Soccer is sooooo big, and I knew that but going to the game made it so much clearer! The stadium was HUGE and it was packed!! We had a great time and Real Madrid won 3-2! The game was a night game so it didn’t get over until late and the buses had already stopped running at this time, so we had to stay in Madrid. We knew we were going to have to, and luckily the guys we hang out with went to the game with us and their moms came that weekend to see them so they had a hotel room! They said we could just stay with them, so it all worked out perfectly! Seeing a soccer game was one of the main things I wanted to do in Spain, so I am really glad I got to experience that!!! Today…. I VOTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a weekend....

So I have been getting a lot of questions, and I think I have told this story a million times, so I figured i might as well just write about it. This past weekend we decided to stay in Toledo. Thursday night I hung out with my intercambio, which is a guy from here that I get together with so I can practice my Spanish. His name is Cesar and he is great! He brought us to the botellon, which is just outside of the walls of Toledo and everyone our age goes there to meet new people and drink before going out. It was a great night!

The next day we spent the day writing papers, and then we decided to go out again that night. Saturday was Jamie's birthday, one of the guys in our group. So we were going to start at the botellon and then go out to a discoteca. When we go to a botellon we have to bring our own alcohol, and Daniella and I were the only two with big purses. So we brought the alcohol in our purses. Otherwise we NEVER carry our purses on us at night. The botellon and the discoteca were a good time, so when half of the group wanted to go, the other half (myself included) stayed. Most of the people we were with lived with host families, so when it came time to walk home it was just Claire and I that lived in the Fundacion. So we were almost back, I mean in the alley of the fundacion! I heard some people run up towards us, so i grabbed Claires arm. Claire is my sweetmate and she is a bigger girl, like almost 6 foot, but she is from a small town in south Carolina. Then someone grabbed my purse, so i turned around and there were three guys. Two where is darker clothing and one was in a white zip-up sweatshirt with his hood up. The one in the white had my purse. I wouldn't give them my purse, so the guy in the white took his other hand and grabbed a gun. He had the gun on my back kind of holding me because i was also pulling on my purse, so i didn't see the gun at first. Claire freaked out and told me to just give them my purse, but I still wouldn't. Then i saw the gun, but right away I realized that it was fake. It looked just like my little brother's airsoft gun, and Dan has real guns, so I know what they look and feel like. I was yelling at Claire and at the three guys that I knew the gun was fake, so I wasn't going to give them my purse. Then the guy with the gun started shooting me. He shot me twice and once was when the gun was on my face. Thankfully, I was too worried about not letting go and my adrenaline was pumping that I didn't even feel it. I was still yelling that I wasn't stupid and I knew that the gun wasn't really going to hurt me that bad. At this time i was face to face with the guy that had my purse and the gun (which makes me made because i can't remember for the life of me what he looked like) and I remember thinking that he looked worried because he shot me and i still wasn't letting go. I could tell that they didn't want to physically hurt me (like beat me up) because he didn't touch me at all and the two other guys just stood around me. BUT, my new, expensive camera was in my purse so i wasn't about it let go. After this, I looked back at Claire and realized that they had pulled me really far from her and she looked like she had no idea what to do. It was then that i decided i should probably let go of my purse because I didn't want to be alone with these guys, and they almost had me out of the street already. I thought about trying to punch him or, as Dan always tells me, kicking him in the crotch, but I realized that I was on my own with three guys. If i would have hit the one, the other two would have had to step in. And as much as i would like to believe I could have taken them all, I know i probably couldn't have. They were quite a bit bigger than I was. So what do you do in that situation? We are always told to kick or go for their "weak spot," but what do you do when there are three of them?!!? Needless to say, I lost my phone and my camera....$400 at least. Makes me wonder if it would have been better for them to have just taken my credit card because that i could have canceled right away. But there is nothing i can do now. I'm ok, and although it doesn't feel it, i know that is all that matters....

The police were called that night, and i had to explain everything. The next day I talked to two detectives, and told them everything. And then I went to the police station to get it all in writing. i doubt they will find the guys, but they are making a good effort. They have under-cover cops in our plaza during the night time hours and they are attempting to trace my phone. Hopefully something comes up!

I wasn't about to let that ruin my weekend though. The next day we went to this huge market in Toledo that happens once a year. I didn't get anything but it was still really cool. That night we went out, and i had a boy on each side of me when we walked. I eneded up have a good time. And then on Sunday we went to watch the Toledo soccer team play, and they won. Good ending to a crazy weekend.

Avila y Salamanca

This past weekend was our trip to Avila y Salamanca. It was the one and only weekend-group trip that our school put on. This is also the only trip that wasn’t included in our tuition, but it was well worth it! One of the main reasons we wanted to do this was because everything was already planned for us. We didn’t have to worry about anything, and that is nice seeing that we have to plan all of our other trips. Our transportation, hotel, food, and guided tours were all included. AND…we stayed in a four star HOTEL, which was so nice. We usually stay in cheap, dorm style hostels.

We left early Friday morning and rode a coach bus to Avila. It was over a two-hour ride, but we got to watch a movie so it was ok. We were warned that it was going to be a little colder than it is in Toledo, but we didn’t think it was going to be that bad. Most of the girls wore tank tops and jeans with a jacket, and some wore skirts. Well, I will just say that the girls with skirts ended up buying jeans there! When we got there it was eight degrees Celsius! This is because Avila is the highest city in Spain, and third highest in Europe! We basically froze, but the city was so pretty. First, we toured the church of San Vicente. Then, there was a two-hour tour of La Muralla de Avila, which is a big castle looking wall that separates the old city from the newer city. The church was beautiful, just like all of the churches in Spain, and the city reminded me of Toledo. It was old; cobble stone roads, small streets, and lots of buildings really close to each other. After the tour we had a really nice lunch at a hotel. We got some kind of potato dish as the first dish and then chicken and French fries with a salad. Dessert was some kind of flavored ice cream. It was really good, but the best part about every meal we ever have is the bread! A little loaf of bread is always sitting next to each plate, and it always tastes fresh and amazing! The bread here is my favorite thing to eat. After lunch we all got on the bus to head to Salamanca, which was a little over an hour away.

When we arrived in Salamanca we got settled in our hotel and took a little nap before we had to be down for dinner. Dinner was really nice; we had some kind of beef with potatoes and carrots. Flan was for dessert, which I don’t like at all. After dinner we all went out. We went to a club and danced, which was a blast. Salamanca is a younger town, which is great, and there is a college there so there were a lot more people our age. We met a lot of new people and had tons of fun.

The next morning we had to be down to breakfast at nine and then our started our day. Saturday was a really long day because had almost six hours of touring the city. We saw so many things that I don’t know if I even remember what all of my pictures are of! We started the tour in la plaza mayor and then we went on to see the old University, the cathedral and other monuments. The university was the first one in Spain and is very prestigious still today. We had lunch back at the hotel, which was chicken and French fries…again. I don’t think that was suppose to happen, but it was funny and still good! It’s probably pretty obvious that the things we eat are pretty American; everything comes with French fries here! It’s weird! After lunch we toured las dueñas y San Esteban. WE were all soooo tired after all of the touring, but we got free time so we shopped! I got a pair of really cute flats and are so comfy and a cheap sweatshirt from the university. That night we went out again, but couldn’t find one club that we really liked so we were in and out of tons all night. In the end it turned out to be a good night

Sunday we had breakfast and then the rest of the day, until three, was free time for us. Me and a couple other people went to mass in the cathedral. It was really interesting because it was in Spanish and it was in this huge, beautiful cathedral! After mass we just walk the streets of Salamanca, got lunch and ice cream, and then went back to get on the bus. I can honestly say that, so far, Salamanca is my favorite city. It was beautiful, clean, the people were nice, and it was exciting! Another great weekend!