School time

I decided that I am fascinated with the Spanish or more likely broader Europe's classroom situation. Since my university is fairly atypical in terms of Spanish universities, Im not really sure what my observations are representative of... but here we go:

• I feel like Im in high school with the way our days are structured. Although I have classes in the morning and afternoons, the normal Comillas student just goes for consecutive classes in the morning OR the afternoon. During the day, there are breaks when none of the departments have class which makes for a Reservoir-like extended passing. And, everyone goes to lunch at 2:30, meaning everyone eats together in the cafeteria. All of the students know one another in their classes since they have little freedom in picking their classes (I think they get one elective a semester and there's only one section for each class). This makes the international kids even more obvious than we already are.
• They use graph paper instead of college ruled...
• ...Unless they are taking notes during class in which case they use the white computer paper. For taking notes, it's almost like (and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it were true) they have a class devoted to note-taking in high school. Here's how it goes:

1. You must have a cute, tiny pencil pouch
2. In this pencil pouch, you must have at minimum: mini ruler, white-out, 100 different colored pens, highlighters, and regular pens
3. Your handwriting must be perfect
4. To take notes, take out way more computer paper than you think you will use
5. Write the lecture topic REALLY big at the heading
6. Start your notes halfway down the page to waste some space NOTE: you must change colors between headings and notes-notes
7. Never try to conserve space: write as far apart as possible skipping 3 finger-spaces inbetween lines, give yourself 3 inch margins on the left and right, and don't write on the back of the page
8. Change colored pens, underline and box in different colors, and highlight as often as possible NOTE: if you ever underline or box, take out that mini-ruler
9. If you receive a hand-out, highlight every word as the professor reads it
10. Dont make any mistakes, and if you do, use white-out instead of crossing anything out

This is not an exaggeration. Everyone's notes look like a non environmentally-conscious rainbow threw up in perfect order over extra long sheets of white paper.

Las Canarias

Back from 4 days of doing nothing but laying on the beach in the Canary Islands. Tuesday night in the airport wasn't too bad and there was NO ONE there. It was a ghost town, so we got our choice of sleeping spots- Starbucks couches. We got into Gran Canaria island around 11am and it was so hot out. Finally! We took a bus to the northeast shore, Las Palmas, and checked into our hostel. Then, immediately went to the beach. It was cloudy and with the wind off the ocean almost chilly, so we could only layout for an hour before we got too cold. That night we walked the entire boardwalk and took in the beatutiful coast. We had a fancy italian dinner on the boardwalk terrace.

I brilliantly suggested we swtich hostels cause I thouht we could get a better deal than the one we booked online. I found Hostel Perez, which looked a little dingier, but much cheaper, so we moved over Thursday morning. This turned out to be one of my worst ideas after we saw the "unsavory charachters" hangingout outside, got cat calls when we went into the co-owned restaurant/bar nextdoor, and worst of all realized a raspy, raging drunk man lived on the floor below us. That night when we went out for dinner, the man was screaming in his creepy voice at some woman (we're assuming because we heard a woman crying). It was really scary, but we managed to escape when we saw that he was out on his balcony. The police were at the hostel questioning him when we got back from dinner, but later when we were ready for bed, he started yelling again. ANYWAY, we spent as little time at the hostel as possible, and were on the beach all day (mom, you would have been proud, I don't think anyone but you could've lasted that long on the beach). Earlier in the day, it was cloudy and chilly, so sunscreen was not an obvious choice. By 6pm, we were completely roasted and only then realized we're pretty much on the freaking equator and the sun is insanely strong. That night, we ran along the coast on a wide sidewalk with tons of people biking, running, and walking. The ocean was soooo pretty at night. I took a freezing cold, but still very painful shower that night.

Friday morning, we checked out of the hostel from hell and stored our luggage while we spent the day on the beach- this time with ample sunscreen. (I literally used more than half of a big bottle, and still somehow got even more burned). We took some breaks from the beach this time- I really wanted a smoothie, so we found a fresh juice place. When I asked what my choices were, the guy at the counter told me there was a "house mixture of fruits", so I took the risk and got it. It was delicious! We watched the guy peel bananas, kiwis, oranges, strange melons, and more and put them into the juicer. I was in heaven. Once we finished our day on the beach, we took a bus from Las Palmas all the way to the south of the island to Playa del Ingles. We couldn't book a hostel in advance, so we figured we'd just find one when we got there. After wandering for an hour with heavy bags and no comfortable way to carry them cause my shoulders were in too much pain, we finally found an apartment complex that let us stay for the night. The place was soo nice- too bad we only used it to sleep. In our exhauastion, we signed up for a "club crawl" that we realized was a scam immediately after. Oh well. The huge pizza we had for dinner and the really good live music kind of made up for it.

Saturday we were leaving at 730pm, so we checked out of the "hotel" and spent the whole day at the beach. This one was a lot bigger than Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas, and somehow even more tolerant of nudity. They were everywhere- in the nudist sections, not in the nudist sections meaning right next to us in our section, frolicking in the ocean, standing at the snack bar... I thought Id be more used to it after 3 days on the north shore. nope. I also had enough sense to rent an umbrella today and minimized burning. On our walk along the beach, Renee spotted a Hooters, so of course we went for lunch. I don't know what beach trip would be complete without a trip to Hooters? Sadly, we left our tropical paraidise around 4 to catch a bus to the airport.

Despite the sketchiest hostel in the world, club scams, 3rd degree burns, and sand still coming out of my ears, I absolutely loved Las Canerias. I never had to leave Spain and saw a new and beautiful part of the country (It was kind of like Spain meets California-- aka Europe meets a beachy desert).

(just ignore the Wolverine-do) ^

On my way to the airport

For real, Im leaving in 10 min. I just wanted to update really fast. Amsterdam got cancelled arount 9pm because of all this volcano business, so Renee and I booked about 30 sec later to Las Canarias. Our flight is at 8am, but with all the chaos, we figure there will be lines, so Im on my way to the airport now. BEACH. BEACH. BEACH. After days of panic, back and forth, up and down-- Im siked to have 4 relaxing days on the beach off the coast of Africa. CYA Later ashy continent.

Damn you, Eyjafjallajoekull

This Eyjafjallajoekull better not ruin my trip to the Netherlands on Wednesday. Bans are being lifted and theres slow progress. They are clearing flight paths and have flown today out of Amsterdam for some flights. And the Madrid Airport has been ok, pretty much the whole time I think. Our flight is really early in the morning, so Im really hoping they open it up in time for us and not like 3 hours later.

Today, Elvira used the Old Bay Mom brought for the first time. She put it on my fish and it was really good and tasted like home. And shes also using the crab towels Mom brought as spit up towels for her grandson when he visits. Great.... She says they're brand new so theyre better for the baby. Right.



I am always shocked when I encounter people that are trusting with strangers. I went to buy a piece of cardstock/poster board stuff to mount the photo im submitting to the Comillas Fotografia competition. She handed it to me and asked for the 20 cents that it cost, and I realized I only had a $50 bill. She said she couldn't make change, so I said I would come back later and buy it. I left the poster board on the table and she said told me to take the poster board and come back and pay later. I know it was only 20 cents (in dollars, a whopping 28 cents), but still, its the principle of it. Yes, I did go back after I tutored and had some coins. Here's the foto im submitting: (I posted it on an earlier blog form my trip to Extremadura)
I went out with my intercambio this past weekend. Apparently there's a German restaurant in the mall close to my house. At first, I couldn't imagine why anyone would go to a german restuarant, but when her friends ordered the 3L bathtub of beer, I understood. Seriously, 3 LITERS. 3 LITERS! I didn't even see anything that big in real Germany.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY in 1 hour Spain time, ROBBIE!!!!! If you were over here, you could drink that ^^^ ;)

Lucky Lucky Day

I didn't realize until the day was over, but April 13, 2010 could be one of my luckiest days ever:

First, I was supposed to have my first presentation in class over here, and naturally, I was nervous. I was ready to go- I had my presentation prepped and saved on a USB. When I got to class, we started working on a business case, so I figured we would do the presentations the second half of class. All of the sudden everyone was getting up, handing in our papers, and leaving. The class was over and there was no mention of the presentation!

Second, I went to get cafe con leche with 2 friends after class cause it was a terribly rainy and cold day. I realized later that afternoon, that I had left my umbrella in our booth at the restaurant. Great. This would be my third umbrella down in barely 3 months. And this one was sooo good too- no kinked poles like my last one. I went back to the restaurant just in case somehow it was still there. I walked in and asked the bartender, and he pulls out my umbrella from under the bar!

Third, I finally decided to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, so when I got back from class, I signed up online. Later that night, I was talking with my friend, Amy, who was also thinking of signing up. She was bummed because the registration was closed- I said it couldnt be since I had just registered a few hours before. Sure enough, I checked on the website, and after only a week and a half of being open, the 30,000 slots filled up hours or maybe minutes after I registered. (I guess this one could be luck or extreme misfortune)

Fourth, I interviewed on Monday for a marketing internship with Sweet Green, a salad and frozen yogurt chain in DC, and I thought the interview went pretty well, but the woman who interviewed me made it seem like it would be a long process with another round of interviews with the owners. So, I was shocked and excited that I received an email the next day saying they would love to offer me the internship (with the perk of free salads and froyo) and as a paid part-time employee in addition to the internship with the potential upward mobility to "shift manager". Summer back home, just got a lot sweeter!

Yeah thats it. Just ONE day in the life over here.

Madrid half marathon

AYAYAY. Finished the Madrid half marathon and beat my best time so far with 1:48:29. Im going to lay out a pro/con list to others Ive done:

PRO

• Gorgeous city to look at
• Best free t-shirt by far- its black underarmour-ish with a cool logo. and it says "Madrid"
• Words of encouragement in Spanish are somehow more effective: vamos, animos, tienes que volar
• They give out bottled water= easier to drink (this should prob also be a con for environmental reasons...and because the tap water here is like the best in the world)
• They have a system so you can leave your clothes in a bag while you run. This was crucial cause the race started at 43 degrees and ended at 65
• Running with iPods is not taboo

CON

• The first 5km when everyone is still crammed together, the amount of BO I inhaled was sickening. The deoderant quality here is definitely subpar... for those who were even wearing it. (I imported mine)
• The last 3km were all UPHILL. I wanted to die when every turn kept inclining
• The post-race runners area was lacking. I wanted my powerbars, cliffbars...something! We got powerade and bananas. I wonder if they know that in the US we finish races with Ledos Pizza, Phillps Cream of Crab Soup, Bagels, and Beer!

Im thinking of doing the Marine Corps Marathon in October. (openly declaring it here might encourage me to get it over with and register)

Mucho gusto, baby

Yesterday, I walked into the room where Elvira has the clothes drying rack, and I see 10 little baby outfits drying. And there was a pair of brown corduroy overalls too...that's when I decided I could not wait any longer and I would have to meet this corduroy-wearing baby.

That was in the morning and I didn't think about baby Tomas the rest of the day. UNTIL, I came home from the pre-race fair (commentary: scroll down) and Elvira said the baby was just here and that I missed him(ahhhhhh again! this is the third close call) BUT he will be back to the house later tonight (yesssssssss). So, later that night, I finally met baby Tomas. He just turned one month a few days ago but he still looks like he's FOB -- fresh outta the belly. I didn't get to hold him, but I did pat his hair a little bit. And no, unfortunately he didnt have anything ridicuously cute on like I'd hoped- no overalls and no corduroy. He was wearing a onesie with a juicy-esque velour blue sweatsuit. I'm going to publicize this right now: if I ever have children he or she will NEVER wear velour sweatsuits. ever.


So- before all of this excitement, I went to the race fair for the half marathon THIS SUNDAY!!!! I love these fairs because I get:

1. to see the t-shirt (this one is really really good-- probably the coolest souvenir I could bring home)
2. to check out the compeition (they all look pretty standard)
3. free samples (this fair was lacking in this area- we tried some nasty sportsdrink and got a "free" lecture on sock technology)
4. extreme excitement for the race

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: thank you thank you thank you for everyone who contributed to the CD. It is a really cool collection that has been fun to listen to. (also a better than your average souvenir)

Semana Santa with the Mama

I can't believe I have only been gone for a little over a week. It feels like Ive been away for a month (note how long this entry is!) Spring break was a huge throw-off from my "normal" life and it's nice to be back in Madrid- I missed it here and I missed speaking Spanish.

Germany march 27-march 30

Saturday: Not too many prblems meeting mom in the airport- I expected the worst. Once we got settled in our hotel- she thought it was a mini room, but it really wasn't bad. We braved the metro and went downtown for lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to pick a place down one of the side streets- so we sat down at a place with absolutely no English and without English-speaking waitresses. I picked something that didn't have the words "liversurst" or "bratwurst" and ended up with a ham and egg sandwhich--- so an egg sandwhich. Mom thought she was getting cheese and liverwurst- she got a travel toothpaste size liverwurst and a huge pretzel. From then on we dreaded the rest of our German meals. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Marienplatz; we found the market which was my favorite :) Mom discovered white asparragus and I discovered real truffles are not poo. That night, we took the "Beer Challenge" which took us to 3 different beer houses and included 2 free beers, a wealth of beer facts, and a drinking song. At the end, the guide had to decide the winner of the beer challenge, so he took mom (the only non-college student), and 2 guys and played rock paper scissors for the championship. Mom won the Beer Challenge haha. Im so proud.

Sunday: We took a tour through Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp that bascially served as the model camp throughout Europe. It was a really informative tour, although a huge downer for a Spring Break trip. We cheered up with lunch: a traditional german-style Thai restaurant. kidding- it was just regular Thai. Then, to pass the afternoon we looked for a cafe to chill but like Madrid, nothing is open on Sundays so we stayed at the first place we saw was open. Meet "Muffins and More". We didn't notice how insane this place was until we ordered, and by then it was too late. Every inch of this place was covered with the "and More". Lots of naked women, men, transvetites, world currencies, famous Americans, bloody masks in blenders, and More. The music that was playing was in English, and it was little children singing about pigs. A few days later I searched for the cafe online and since I couldnt read the German, I made Kyle read it and report back if he noticed anything "strange" about the cafe. Here's his reponse: "Not sure whats out of the ordinary other than they have a Canadian flag on their site, and serve nude chocolate figures with their food. So, yeah I guess its a bit strange" yeah... That night mom and I went back to Hofbrauhaus- we tackled the liter. We sat upstairs on the third floor so that we could watch the band, and since we were the only people left at the end of their performance, Joseph from the band invited us to have a drink with him downstairs. He took us to one of his friends' table- Crog was dressed in full lederhosen. I got to use my Beer Challenge drinking song with them. Then, they tried to marry me off to the drummer in the band.

Monday: The Neushwanstein Castle was very pretty. Im still not convinced though that Disney based Cindarella's castle off of this one. The castle in Segovia I saw was more convincing. (I wasn't about to tell the Germans that though- they're very proud of Neushwanstein). Finally, we got the gelato from the gelato stand I had been eyeing the past couple of days- each flavor was piled so high, it looked fake. That night, we went to the Olympic Tower because it was described as having "fantastic" views of the city. We tried to go up to the restaurant at the top of the tower, but since we didn't have a reservation, or want to pay the 100 euro meal price, we just went to the observation point at the top. Oh and apparently it has the fastest elevator on the continent.

Final impressions of Germany: They know how to make some pretzels! Very Easter-obsessed (thought an add for "Osterfest" was funny). They have the best trainstation ever in terms of everything except for visual appeal- we were there at least once a day. And Im still amazed by the German language- it sounds so harsh, yet they have ridiculous words like elefantenbaby.

Prague march 30-april 3

Tuesday: We had a 6 hour train ride to Prague from Munich, but it was the best ride cause mom and I had the car to ourselves. Everytime someone passed by, we spread out and pretended we were alseep, so that they would pass to the next car. I know, it's awful, but it worked everytime! As our train pulled in, everyone was in short-sleeves!!! But of course, by the time we made it to an outdoor cafe terrace for lunch, the sun hid behind the buildings and it was freezing. We were entertained by an Eastern European couple on their first date... their common language was broken English. very entertaining. We explored the street market and discovered the turtlnik- spik-roasted pastry rolled in almonds and spread with nutella. yeah, i know. That gave us energy to explore some more and we thought we discovered the famous Charles Bridge but we couldnt figure out what was so special about it. It turns out that wasn't Charles Bridge- the real thing is very old and impressive looking. Our 8pm nap turned into a much needed 13 hour-nights sleep. Oh our hotel room is ginormous.

Wednesday: Prague Castle (in the rain!) where we basically paid to see nothing. There's a really big castle grounds with buildings and a church in the center, but a lot of it is still in use, so the parts open to the public are few and far between. Had our first meal of Czech food that was really good- and a really good beer with it, kozel! We found a great Starbucks-style coffeeshop called CoffeeHeaven with free wifi. (This is what Madrid is missing!!) From our research online, we found that there's a really good, inexpensive restauant with an incredible view at the top of this architechturally famous building, the Dancing House. We get there, and there are 2 men that meet us at the top of the elevator and take our coats, we notice no one else is wearing jeans and sneakers, and theres a whole wall devoted to wine. Yeah, it was a really fancy, and not inexpensive at all, French-restaurant. But the view was incredible- the $100 view.

Thursday: Also from the CoffeeHeaven research, there was supposedly a great hike through the mountains from the Karlstejn caslte to a monastery in the caves/mountains that can't be accessed by train. We took a train to Karlstejn, saw the caslte and opted not to go inside and instead set out on our 8km hike to the monastery. The hike was not clearly marked, so we just followed a path from the castle that led into the woods. We got to a crossroads with colors, and decided the follow the red one listed as 8km with a word that kind of looked like it could be "saint"-something. 2 hours later we're still hiking through really steep mountains. mom is cursing me and about to have a heart attack when we run into some people and they speak English! They tolf us that the monastery wasn't far away and that we could take a train back to Karlstejn instead of re-hiking hell. We finally see civilization, and there are no cool caves like the blog post about the hike said, the monastery was closed, and the train station was another 5km away! Luckily we didn't have to hike the mountains back! I was about to die from hunger and we found the czech version of Panera, Panderia. Did some more market shopping. Mom caved and decided we should do the Thai massages that are advertised all over the city. OMG best decision ever. This was the kind of massage where they use their whole body to massge you- like walk on the back of your legs while simultaneously pulling back on your shoulders to fol you in half backwards.

Friday: This morning was the first morning we didn't ache all over from walking all day (or hiking through the czech mountains). We took the free walking tour given by the same company that did all of our tours in Munich (expect we never did the free tour there). I really wanted to find the tea shop I found on the first day, but we couldn't remember where we had seen it, so we just walked around for hours. I made the neclace from cool wooden beads I bought at a shop the day before. Mom and I had one last dinner at this really elegant place with really big comfortable chairs. They were playing instrumental versions of Celine Dion songs, and there were candles everywhere- so it was a funny contrast with the plates that were comics with sexual humor. oh Europe. Afterwards, we went to a cafe that was more of a fancy bar for locals, but mom and I ordered ice cream sundaes instead of alcohol. I chose mine because I liked the name and wanted to say "Ill have the 'hot love'" to our waiter.

Final impressions of Prague: a lot more touristy than I expected. It bothered me how there were not any shops in the entire city that weren't aimed at tourists, and not only that, literally, there are about 4 different things for sale in all of Prague- decorated eggs, crystal glasses, pashminas, and clothing with "prague" written on it or some cheesy saying like "prague: czech me out". Culturally, it was an interesting combination of Germany and Russia.

Madrid april 3-april 4

Saturday: Mom and I took different flights from Prague to Madrid, which shouldn't have been a problem since it was successful upon arriving in Munich. That was beginners luck or something. Both our flights were late and then my directions of where to meet me were a little less than clear. All the freaking out was remedied with the amazing lunch Elvira had waiting for us. She made like 5 courses--- with PAELLA as the main course. After, I took mom on a walking tour past the Palacio Real into Sol where were had tapas (I introduced mom to manchego cheese) at a very old-school Jerez wine bar. And no trip to Spain would be complete without a little visit to Zara for some shopping :)

Sunday: We met Esmeralda at La Mallorquina for pastelitos and cafe. We got one with a whole chocolate egg in the center and then torrica, a specialty for Easter which is basically cold and sugarier french toast. Then we did a walking tour of the ENTIRE city: Mercado de San Miguel in Plaza de Mayor, saw the flowers in Paseo de Prado, people-watched in Parque del Retiro, had a traditional menu del dia lunch, took a siesta in the sun in Parque del Oeste, saw the view of Madrid from above in el teleferico, amd finished up walking through Plaza de Espana, and Palacio Real's Sabatini Gardens. Elvira went to her daughter's for the night, so we had the apartment to ourselves- we got milkshakes from my fav icecream place and watched The Office and 30 Rock.

The End.