Dear Paris, I Love You!

Our first trip out of Spain was to PARIS!!! Our flight was late Thursday night and when we got in a bus took us into the city. We were dropped off in front of the Paris Opera House, so we took pictures of that and did a little walking around. It was pretty late so we got on the metro and headed to our hostel. We THOUGHT we had really good directions, but that turn out to not be the case. When we got off the metro the stop was right by a McDonalds. It was late, so nothing was open and we were hungry. Therefore, the first meal we had in Paris was a burger, fries and McFlurry from McDonalds! HA!
After that we realized that the directions weren’t all that clear and we didn’t know what direction to walk from McDonalds. There were some guys that spoke a little English and asked us if we need help. We ask them if they knew where this street was and he had no idea. One of the guys decided to call a cab company and ask, and the cab company said we were really far away. All of this made us really confused! So we decided just to walk in the direction that we thought it was. We ran into some other people and they said they think they knew where it was. We followed them for a while and then it turned out that they were thinking of a different hostel, not ours. It was getting really late, almost 1 in the morning, so we stopped at hotel to ask and if he didn’t know we were thinking of just staying there. Luckily the man knew where it was, and pointed us in the right direction. We finally got there and everything turned out ok. It was better than we thought! We had out own room and bathroom and the beds were soooooo comfy!

The next morning we woke up early and we had breakfast at our hostel because it was included! It was actually really good! They had fresh croissants and nutella, classic. It was a little rainy that day but thankfully Natalie brought an umbrella so it was all good! Our first stop was the Musee de O’rsay, which was huge and everything was amazing! We got to see Van Gogh and Monet paints and a ton of impressionism! After that we made our way to the Palais Royal and the Garden. It was so beautiful, especially because it was fall and all of the leaves were pretty colors! We also made our way to another garden that had a church in it! It was all so beautiful.At around six we made our way to the Louvre because it is FREE at this time on Friday nights!! That was also a very, very cool museum! The outside and the plaza in the center were crazy cool because of all the lights! It looked breath taking at night! Inside we saw tons and tons of things. It is a huge museum. Some of the things we saw were the Mona Lisa, some Picasso paintings and the statue of Venus de Milo. Way cool! Also, at the Louvre we ran into everyone that was in Paris that weekend! There were four or five other groups of people and we saw them all! So that was really neat! After the Louvre we went to see the EIFFEL TOWER!! It was incredible, just surreal! It was light up blue and every half an hour it would sparkle and a while. We took tons of pictures and we also met Natalie’s friend there! Cute right: meeting under the Eiffel Tower! And, before we went there we were starving so we got pizza and brought it with us! It was probably the best cheese pizza I have ever tasted, and we got to eat it under the Eiffel Tower. We decided that we wanted to go up the tower, so we did and we went ALL the way to the top. It was beautiful to see the city at night. I love it! The last thing we did that night was go see the Arc de Triomphe. It was also very cool, so we took some pictures and then headed to our hostel to get some sleep!The next morning we ate breakfast again started our day. First we were going to go to the Panthéon, but we got a little distracted and headed to the Latin Quarter. There is a street called Rue Mouffetard, which is one of the busiest street markets in Paris! We clearly had a lot of fun shopping for little touristy things! Finally, we got to the Panthéon, took some pictures and again got distracted by the statues all around it! They were really cool looking, so we may have taken more pictures with them than of the actual building. After that we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg and had a snack in the garden. Again, it was one of Paris beautiful gardens and it was very relaxing to just sit there! We then decided to head for Notre Dame, but purposely got a little lost on the way. We just wanted to walk the streets of Paris and see all of the amazing scenery. When we final made it to Notre Dame we took pictures from the outside and then went in. It was a huge cathedral with some very intense decorations. We spent some time in there just looking around and then just sat in front of the alter for a bit. We did a little more shopping after this, and at dinner. We had Doner Kebabs; they are our favorite! Our last stop was to see Moulin Rouge! It looked really cool at night and there was even a band of French kids around our age that played instruments. This made it so much better, so we got a crepe (with nutella and banana YUM) and just sat there and listened and watched the huge line in front of Moulin Rouge slowly move in. Our last day was just supposed to be a relaxing one to see what else happens in Paris. We actually decided that we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower again, in the daylight. Also, the Eiffel Tower was one of our favorite things to see! Again it was incredible and we took tons of pictures again. Also, Natalie wanted to buy some key chains from a street vender (obviously an illegal street vender) so we went up to him and started talking and all of a sudden all the street venders started to run, so he just took off. We were left standing there, laughing! Then the guy stopped and walked towards us like nothing happened! It was hilarious! After our second trip to the Tower we got a cute French dinner in a little restaurant and then headed to the airport to catch our flight. We did run into one problem on the way there though. Natalie and I were sitting on the metro, at a stop, when a voice came over the loud speaker. It rambled a whole bunch of stuff in French, and when it was done EVERYONE on the metro got up at left! HA! Natalie and I were like ummmm we need to keep going straight. Thankfully there was a lady that spoke a little English and she was willing to help. We just had to transfer to another metro, no big deal if we would have understood! Despite the language difficulties, it was a perfect weekend! I would love to go back sometime!

Halloween!!!

We were all rather sad that we weren’t going to be able to celebrate Halloween in the states this year, but our Halloween turned out awesome anyway! Thursday during the day our art class toured the cathedral! This was really exciting because we have only seen the outside and it is something Toledo is well known for. It was absolutely gorgeous, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. The cathedral of Toledo is the most beautiful and most important of Spain! I was really glad we got to see it. That night we stayed in and watched the first Saw movie, and then after we had to walk Daniella back to her room! Our plan for Friday was to stay up all night in Madrid so we figured we should probably get some sleep on Thursday. Friday we had an excursion at El Escorial, which use to be a huge royal palace just out side of Madrid. Now it is a museum for everyone that wants to see it. It was really rainy all day, so that kind of sucked, but we ended up having a good time. The palace was beautiful and interesting and we also learned a lot about the history of Spain. On every excursion we get lunch, which is usually one of the best parts of the day. It is always really fancy and we get served like four courses. This day we got steak, and we don’t get that often here!That night we didn’t leave for Madrid until 10ish because we knew we were going to have to be there all night. The last bus from Madrid to Toledo is around 11, so we had to wait until the morning and take the first bus. On our way to Madrid we heard something hit our bus and realized we were just egged. At first we were confused as to why we got egged, but then we saw another bus that had gotten egged as well. We found out that egging is what the older kids do on Halloween. I guess in the morning everything is just covered in eggs! That isn’t the only thing that is different about Halloween here; their whole view on Halloween is scary…literally. We all dressed up of course…Natalie was a princess, Kate was a cat, Karen was a butterfly, I was a nurse, Maggie was a dark angel, Ashley was a bunny, Erin was a leopard and Laura was a devil. When we were walking through Madrid we definitely stuck out! This is what is so different about Halloween here, they all dressed as DEATH! Everyone on the streets were so scary and bloody and DEAD! We were dressed all cute, so we felt like celebrities because people were coming up and asking us to take pictures with them.

We started in a smaller bar/club, because the entrance fee and drinks weren’t so expensive. A promoter on the street actually told us about it, it was called Dreams. He said if we went he would get us a free shot and a cheaper entrance fee. Basically we got in with a 5 euro entrance fee, which got us one drink, and then we got the free shot and a bachelor party got us another shot! AND, when we got out of the metro station when we first got to Madrid, another promoter gave us a free entrance into the big club we were planning on going to! Therefore, we got into two clubs and all of our drinks for the night with 5 euros! Joy was the name of the huge club that we went to second and all we did there was dance, until 5 in the morning! We had a blast, that’s for sure! The worst part was getting back, because we were all tired and it took so long. We did make it, and we even got back when breakfast opened at the Fund. We ate and then went to bed until dinnertime! After dinner we got ready and went out in Toledo! This weekend was our last weekend in Toledo, because we have travel plans for all of the other ones, so we figured we had to go out! We started at O’briens and then went to Camelot and then to Picaros. We planned on it being an early night, but ended up being out until 6!! Mind you, this is completely normal here in Spain. Again we had a great time, but the next day we both had huge papers to write! But overall it was a fantastic Halloween weekend!

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!