Mi Vida en España...

Today after our Ethics exam, Kaitlyn, Anne and I went to get some Churros con Chocolate which was something that I hadn’t experienced yet.

They were quite delicious, in the moment, then the deliciousness faded when I realized I was full of greasy, fried dough. Nothing against them, I just am getting REALLY tired of spanish food. So much so that the other day, Kaitlyn and I got pancake mix from our local grocery store. We decided that tonight would be the night that we give them a try. They were not good, they were a weird texture and really thick. They were not like traditional pancakes despite what the box says (the box even says - “Just like in American movies!”) This was the second major sadness from the day, the first occurring when we ventured out to where I thought the American (grocery) store was only to find it not there. By the time I asked Katie for the correct name of the store, it was getting ready to close.

So yes, I am going to be sad to leave Madrid but man oh man, my cravings for American foods are reaching new levels. What I’d give for some Chili’s right now…

Friday night, Kate, Colleen, Sarah and myself all had the treat of going to see Enrique Iglesias in concert. This was an extremely special occasion because this was the first time that he has performed in his hometown of Madrid in 12 years! 

Before the concert, we all met up with Kaitlyn and Alex to get a bite to eat at Cien Montaditos. We got to the restaurant right next to the venue and it was really crowded so we tried to find another place nearby but to no avail. Since we all only ever go to Cien Montaditos, we decided to just wait at the crowded restaurant because at least that way we’d be getting food that we knew we liked for a cheap price. Since there was no room inside the restaurant, we stood around the wet tables outside since it had just been raining. After we finished eating, we decided we should probably go pick up our tickets from the box office. 

After asking someone where to pick up our tickets, I got in line to get them. Then we were off to find the entrance to the venue. We got inside and to our seats without any major problems. Our seats weren’t the best but they also weren’t bad considering the fact that they only cost us 40€ each. It was a perfect price to pay for my man, Enrique. 

The opener was a DJ named Juan Magan, who was someone that I had never heard before. I am never really too impressed when I see DJs live because they are just mixing songs that aren’t even their own so we all just sat and chatted. 

After the DJ finished, it took what seemed like a while until Enrique came on but it was well worth the wait. The entire performance was one big dance party. He sang in both English and Spanish and only talked in Spanish. He mentioned that his mom and abuelita were at the concert, which might be the people causing quite the stir at the concert but I’m not entirely sure. 

There were two exciting moments of the show. The first one came when he invited a guy on stage with him. When Enrique was talking to him, he found out that the boy brought his mom to the concert, so Enrique invited the mom on stage too. Once on stage, they all took shots and they took turns singing. The boy got really into it, the mom was much more shy. 

The second exciting moment came when Enrique was on the small stage about to perform Hero(e) and he invited a young girl wearing a tshirt with a British flag on stage. Girlfriend was really excited for this invitation that she ran to him and I was afraid she was going to knock him over and never let go. She didn’t end up letting go for quite some time. At least not until after she got to slow dance with him, touch his butt (which I believe he placed her hands there) and receive a kiss from the sexy spaniard. Oh how jealous we all were of the entire thing. 

Sadly, Enrique didn’t sing a few of my favorite but all and all it was a wonderful concert and I’m glad that I was lucky enough to witness it. It was cool to see him in his hometown especially since it had been so long since he had performed here. 

5.4.12

Click here to see the rest of my photos from the concert!

On thursday evening, there was a celebration at the Plaza de Cibeles in order to celebrate Real Madrid’s victory in the Spanish League. 

Linda, Mauricio, Kaitlyn, Melissa, Louisa and myself all got to the plaza around 545pm and the event wasn’t supposed to start until around 7pm. Though of course in true spanish fashion, the event did not start on time so that amounted for lots of time waiting in the on-and-off rain with very pushy crowds. 

The entire Real Madrid team came out, which was really neat and the captain placed a scarf on the statue in the center of the plaza. I was fortunate enough to snap some fairly good photos despite the big crowds and waving scarfs in the way. After they placed the scarf on the statue, we decided that we could leave, so I started to push through the crowd to get out. We soon realized that this would be a challenge so Kaitlyn, Mauricio and Linda all decided to hop the fence and try to escape that way. I was already too far in the crowd that I decided to keep trudging through. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do because there was so much pushing and so many people telling me that I wouldn’t be able to get through. Finally I did but only after probably getting pushed around for like 20 minutes. Spanish futbol fans just are something else.

Click here to see the rest of my photos from the event!

5.3.12

On Wednesday, May 2nd Kaitlyn and I had planned to go to Segovia for the day. Since we only really wanted to see the aqueducts, we planned on taking the 1030am train to Segovia and returning back in the afternoon. However, when our alarms went off at 840am, we immediately regretted our decision. After a lot of complaining, I wondered if we could again change the time, so I got online and changed the time of our departure to around noon, giving us two more hours to relax. However, I guess I also changed what time we will be coming back at, but we didn’t figure that out until later. 

We got to the Renfe station and tried to print out of tickets from the machine but the machine was out of paper. We asked the attendant and instead of printing it for us, they pointed us in the direction of more machines. So helpful. We got our tickets and waited for the platform to be announced. About five minutes before the train was supposed to leave, the platform was announced. Platform 10. Only there was no problem, the stairs that bring you down to the platform were closed. We followed the sign to get to platform 10 and they brought us to platforms 8 & 9, so we went back upstairs and followed the other sign, platforms 12 & 13. How the heck were we supposed to get over to platform 10? In panic that the train was getting ready to leave, we decided to run across the tracks to get to the train. We got across and ran to the train as the doors were closing. We got on and got some seats, we barely made it. How other people did it without using Jason Bourne skills, I just do not know. 

We got to Segovia after what seemed like the longest train ride ever around 2pm. We looked at the map outside of the train station then decided to start walking. We began by following signs of the aqueducts but soon, they disappeared. The couple who was walking in front of us had turned to the left but Kaitlyn was fairly positive that we needed to continue walking straight. So we went straight but I quickly became very skeptical when I didn’t see any signs pointing towards the aqueducts. Finally, we saw some signs that were pointing towards hotels named after the aqueducts so we decided that we should follow in that direction.

After walking for a little bit longer, we got to the aqueducts and were both amazed by their size and age. It’s incredible to think that those were built at the second half of the first century and they are still standing today. We took some photos at the aqueducts then I was hungry so I got some food. I ate a kebab of some sort which was good at the time but in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t eat it again (I am also sick with a cold so that could be a contributing factor). After eating, we climbed the stairs to go to the many view points surrounding the aqueducts and took some photos from there. My friend Alex had said that there were a lot of Asian people there when he visited Segovia and it turned out to be true when I visited.

We continued walking through the town to get to Plaza Mayor and see other sights along the way. We passed by a church called Iglesia de San Martin but that was nothing compared to the Cathedral de Segovia which just about took my breath away. We took some photos in Plaza Mayor and considered going inside the cathedral because it cost money, then we decided it was about time to start heading back to the bus. Unfortunately this meant that we did not have enough time to go see the Alcazar, but oh well.

We got back to the bus station and we were a little confused as to what platform our bus was going to be on. It was a small station so the chances of us guessing and getting it right was good but we decided that we’d ask for help since we only saw a bus labeled “Guadalajara”. We were about to go inside when this old man, who was missing teeth and had weird scars and warts on his face, stopped us and asked us if we were trying to get to Madrid. He swore up and down that that was the correct bus for us to take so we got on it hoping that he was correct. 

Right before the man who checked the bus tickets came around, Kaitlyn and I both realized that the tickets that we had picked up at the Renfe station were incorrect, they were for if we were returning at 1450 (aka 2:50) and not 4:50 like I had thought. I can only assume that in my sleep deprived haze earlier in the morning, I clicked 1450 instead of 1650 because I am still terrible at military time. Luckily I had our old tickets on me so when the checker came around, I gave him those tickets (even though they had gotten a little wet in my purse). He verified that we were indeed going to be stopping in Madrid so we felt a little bit more calm about the matter. While in transit, I would periodically get up to look at the bus map to make sure that we were going in the correct direction. Once when I got up, this couple came and took the seat I was sitting in across from Kaitlyn (we were taking up 4 seats) and moved my stuff. So for the remainder of the trip, Kaitlyn and I were subject to their foul smell, their PDA and the overall annoyance of people taking our legroom. We communicated our complaints about them through our iPhones/iPods to be super sneaky in case they could understand our english.

We got back to Madrid and didn’t have to run across any train tracks to leave, however we did see a homeless man with an adorable kitten which made Kaitlyn want to desperately buy the kitten from the man. I instructed her to just keep walking, as sad as it may be.

5.2.12

On Saturday, April 28th Kaitlyn and I woke up early to head to Salamanca for the day. We had looked up the weather when buying our tickets on Thursday but we thought we’d risk the rain since we had the free time to go somewhere.

We got to Salamanca around noon and we started walking towards Plaza Mayor and the University. Our only problem: we had no idea where they were. So we started walking in the direction of what I assumed was southwest, since my travel book said that the train station was northeast of the area we needed to be. We walked and just tried to use maps at bus stations to ensure that we were heading in the right direction. Once we got to the main road, I suggested that we go right, so we did and it turned out that we went the wrong way. No harm, no foul, we just started going in the other direction. After walking for what seemed like forever, we found a cathedral that looked really pretty so we assumed that it might be something of relevance. It was not but it pointed us in the correct direction of Plaza Mayor. We took some pictures in Plaza Mayor and witnessed a married couple taking some photos on the balcony. After leaving Plaza Mayor, we started walking to La Casa de Conchas, which also housed a library and was located right across the street from a pontifical university like the one I attend in Madrid. Inside the Casa de Conchas was a little art exhibit with photos of the Himalayas, so we looked at those for a little bit. After exiting the Casa de Conchas, we decided to try to enter in the pontifical university but there was a charge to get in so we decided against it.

We kept walking down the main road and quickly found the Catedral Nueva. We spent a good couple moments admiring the flowers and the architecture then we spent time meticulously searching for the frog on the doors of the cathedral. We weren’t sure if this was where we were supposed to find the frog, but our literature teacher had warned us that it was bad luck to not find it. We didn’t want to risk it, but after looking for a while and only noticing the astronaut and rubbing the rabbit for good luck, we gave up and went to look around inside. My travel book said that the old cathedral was located nearby but we searched and walked and couldn’t find it. Only after walking a little bit passed the new cathedral did we decide to head back and then we found the old cathedral. Since it cost money to get in, we decided to not go inside. After all, how many cathedrals have I seen on this trip? About a thousand.

We came to Salamanca only really wanting to see the cathedrals and the University because those were the things that my travel book recommended, so next we went to the university. At the university is where we found out that we had to look for the frog. We found it, but only after cheating a little bit and using the postcards that were on sale there. How people are supposed to find that, I have no idea but I guess we might get our good luck. Maybe.

By this time, we still had lots of time to kill before our train was heading back to Madrid so we just wandered around a little bit and found what looked like another cathedral. We were both hungry and it was starting to rain so we thought it was time to find solace in American haven, McDonald’s. We both brought lunch with us on the trip and I don’t mind taking outside food into a place like McDonald’s, but I felt compelled to buy something to, so I landed on a kit kat mcflurry with Carmel syrup and it was delicious. While we were eating our food, I brought up the suggestion that maybe we could get an earlier train back home. Thankfully McDonald’s has free wifi so I was able to look it up on my iPhone and we could indeed change the tickets, but the pop ups weren’t working on my phone. We decided to start heading towards the station. If we get there and they let us change our tickets, perfect. If they don’t, we could just wait inside the train station until it was time to go. As we were walking back, we almost stopped to get some puppies for souvenirs because they looked oh so cute, but unfortunately the store was closed. We were also met by some sleet as we were walking back which helped confirm that I probably do have a hole in the bottom of my boots.

We got to the train station and there were Renfe machines that allowed us to scan our existing tickets and change out departure time. Therefore we only had to wait around another 20 minutes as opposed to 2 hours to head back home to Madrid.

4.28.12

So the grocery store has been closed for FOUR DAYS NOW due to Sunday and the recent festivals, but had I known that they would be closing for the apocalypse, I would’ve stocked up on food days ago. So that leaves me and Kaitlyn with a few slices of bread, nutella and soup. Well I guess we used to have soup…

Earlier this evening, Kaitlyn made a whole new pot of soup for us to have over the next few days. When I went to the kitchen to have some then clean up, the pot was gone. We discovered that some of our roommates took it upon themselves to throw away our entire pot of soup. They also left notes saying to clean. Well Kaitlyn did not take it very well, so she decided to write them a note. Here’s the note translated into english:

EVERYONE: I agree that everyone needs to clean after they use the kitchen. I don’t know who threw away our soup in the trash BUT THAT IS RIDICULOUS. When I cook, I ALWAYS clean up after including my plates in the kitchen. Yes, sometimes it takes me a while to put away my food but I ALWAYS clean it up. I understand that sometimes you are mad or frustrated but if my food is in your space, MOVE IT! OR ASK ME TO MOVE IT! DO NOT TOUCH MY FOOD!!! Please don’t throw away our stuff another time. We assure you that we always clean up after we use the kitchen. I think that everyone needs to clean after themselves a little better including their plates AND the counter tops. Pardon me if I offended anyone. - Kaitlyn and Lauren

It’s safe to say that I am scared for my life since Kaitlyn has transformed into the Incredible Hulk.

5.2.12