Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Semana Santa Part II

Hello Everyone!

I just made it back to Toledo, so it's time to update you on my many comings and goings. Along with this, I have news about future travels plans. Intrigued? Then it's time for Emily Is Abroad.

Titanic!

My program ends at the end of April (the 28th), but I have made the difficult (not really) decision to stay 2 and a half weeks longer. This is still in the works, but I'm at the 90% sure it's going to happen stage, so I've decided to make this announcement to all my adoring fans. I'm hoping to go to Istanbul, Athens, Santorini, and a million places in Italy. Also, maybe Prague. We shall see. I hope this works because it would be the bestest thing ever (besides seeing my dad!)

Now that you are super excited/jealous of me, we'll get to what Claire, Mom, and I did this week. It was extremely busy and hectic, so be prepared. This will (probably) be a long one.

Monday

Unfortunately when starting off this particular post, I had to start with probably the most boring day of week. Alas for that is, as they say, how the cookie crumbles. We traveled by train to Málaga, a coastal city in the south of Spain. From there, we took the metro to Torremolinos, the town our hotel was in. Our travel agent said that Torremolinos, was super pretty and great or whatever. Lies! Okay, it wasn't that bad. But it is more of a resorty, touristy city so it was mostly abandoned when we got there. Claire and I were lazy and there wasn't much to do unless we wanted to catch the metro back to Málaga...and laze won out. We meandered around the streets for a while and got some good seafood. Being the sloths we are (not my mommy), we went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night. (We watched BATMAN cartoons. I regret nothing.)

Tuesday

This day was exhausting. We ate a healthy and nutritious breakfast at the hotel and found the metro stop to get back to Málaga. My mommy has become obsessed with cathedrals, so that was our first stop when we got there. It was quite beautiful, although we all agreed the ones in Sevilla and Toledo were still quite a bit better. We also met more Americans there, which excited my mom a lot. Anytime she found someone to speak English with was probably one of the better times in her trip. (This didn't stop her from jabbering with people on the train though. If they sort of understand English, it's enough for a conversation.)

After our Cathedral adventure, we went to the Alcazaba, which is an ancient fortress castle thing. It had some quite excellent vantage points, but we kept noticing a path to the very top of the hill. Claire and I weren't particularly interested in finding said path; we mostly messed around, which led to a little bit of sassiness when my Mams really wanted to find they way up to the top. Exhausted from our excruciating search (I swear, I don't exaggerate), we went to a nearby restaurant to find some sustenance. In true Emily-and-Claire fashion, we ordered brownies with ice cream while my mommy-face got a salad. Unfortunately we were still hungry, so Claire and I split a salad after that. And then came inspiration for another Claire poem. The pigeons started searching for crumbs by our feet...So Claire fed one chicken. Oops.

Least Flattering Picture

With our spirits much higher after food, we decided to continue our trek in search of the Mysterious Path We Couldn't Find. Fear not, for we did indeed find it, and the view was spectacular. While Mom found more Americans, Claire and I spent the time taking pictures. This led to the Least Flattering Picture of Me, here for your enjoyment. Thanks, Claire! The giant hill led to much exhaustion and it was fairly late, so we headed back to our hotel for the night and get ready for more traveling adventures the next day!

Wednesday

We woke up early Wednesday, so we could take a fairly short trip to Granada. I remember none of this because I slept on the bus and woke up with my neck hurting and being in a new city. Yay! Upon getting settled, we headed out into the wild blue yonder. Actually, it was more like the hunt for the Random Plaza so we could buy tickets to a really old Muslim/Arab palace. Because every map we've had on this trip was sub-par, we ended up (surprise, surprise) getting minorly lost. After a few wrong turns and a short uh... discussion later, we made it to the Magic Plaza (my name for it, not the Spaniards') and found our little kiosk. We got our audio-guides and tickets for the next day.

It had been a while since breakfast, so we went to a nearby restaurant. The waiter asked if we spoke Spanish, to which my mom (obviously) and sister answered in the negative. He got them English menus and me a Spanish one. We had a short conversation in Spanish and he said I spoke it well! It wasn't exactly accurate, but if the cute Spanish waiter is going to say something nice to me, I'll take it. To be perfectly honest with you, all of my days are blending together so I believe we headed back to our hotel whereupon I immediately took a nap and Claire and Mom read/slept. But I could be completely wrong. Either way, we're gonna say we killed a few hours doing these activities. Yup, I'm sticking to it.

My mommy-face didn't want the day to be a complete waste though, so after our lazy afternoon, we stepped into the night and pursued that flighty temptress, adventure (Harry Potter reference much?). Our adventure consisted of more wandering until we ran into another procession near the Cathedral. There was a huge float and a bajillion people around, just chilling and socializing. Because all of the streets were so crowded, our journey probably didn't last more than an hour. Also, more ice cream, so this can be considered a non-waste of a night.

Thursday

I have so many of the days to talk about. It's exhausting! Okay, almost all of Thursday was spent at the Alhambra. We had quite a bit of free time in the morning so we went out into the streets and went shopping. Because of the Arab influence of the Alhambra, there are a ton of Moroccan-y markets in the streets with pretty cheap stuff. All three of us made purchases and we ended up stumbling upon the way to the Alhambra, which was excellent. We decided to go back to our hotel and dump our stuff before heading back. We also bought strawberries which were delicious (otherwise I wouldn't mention them...)

The Alhambra was absolutely A) huge and B) amazing. We were there for four-ish hours because there is so much to see. The Alhambra used to be a fancy palace, so it has a bunch of gardens, castle-y parts, and water stairs. We got there at about two in the afternoon and spent a good deal of time in the gardens because they were so beautiful. Afterwards, we headed to the castle-ish area that has a special name that I forgot. We climbed around this area for a while and got to see a great view of the city. There was also some random labyrinth-y part that my mom kept asking me about. (What is this? I wonder why it's here...Are you sure you don't know what it was used for?) We were there for quite some time before it was our turn to go into the palace part. Which is, again, indescribable. Pictures!

I really fast-forwarded that part, but we were there for forever. I just can't remember describe everything and this is already a lengthy blog. My apologies. 

Because we were so tired, we took the bus back to the Cathedral and then found a delicious place to eat. We all had pasta, which of course, is a very Spanish meal. (Sarcasm hand raised). Either way, it was one of the best meals ever. Our Granada journey ended with relaxation and packing.

Friday

Almost done. I can do it! Friday started off with a plethora of un-fun. We woke up early and took a taxi to the bus station. We thought there were buses from Granada to Madrid at 9AM, 10AM, and 1PM, but this proved false. There were only buses at 9AM and 1PM, so we made an upgrade in our bus and booked it so we could catch the earlier one. 

The Super Fancy Nice Bus was an excellent upgrade. It had super plush seats and we were given two snacks and drinks. We got headphones so we could watch Cars 2 (I like children's movies, okay?) and were given a gift bag at the end. This is the definition of class.

After our four-and-a-half hour bus ride, we were sufficiently tuckered out. We recovered a little at our Super Fancy Nice Hotel in Madrid and took showers to wash the travel off. (It might sound dumb, but I swear travel sticks to you. It feels gross.) Afterwards, my mom was already done with the idea of sitting, so it was time to explore. I was excited because I've been to Madrid, which means I know what's up. It was super easy for me to navigate the metro and Claire and my Mams were quite impressed. And I live for impressing them.

We ended up near the Palacio Real and the Cathedral of Something. Because it was Good Friday, we figured the Cathedral was closed to tourists which left us with the terrible (just kidding) option of seeing the palace. This, however, didn't go as planned. The Palacio was closing in a hour and the tour people told us it would probably take an hour and a half to go through the entire thing, so we made the decision to save it for the next day. 


My Mams was determined the day not be wasted though. Because the Cathedral was right next to the Palacio, we checked to make sure it was closed. Lo and behold, no tourist activity was allowed but a mass was starting within half an hour. My mommy made the split-second decision to go inside to see it. I didn't get any pictures because, church, but this church was very different from the others. The stones were all white and the style of painting was brighter, so it seemed more airy. Unfortunately, we were in a back corner, and it wasn't super easy to see what was going on. At least I could partially understand it though.

Mom would ask me what was going on every once in a while. At first, I couldn't really answer because I would sort of understand but then would lose the flow of the words. It was sort of like having water run through your hands, where you have it one second and then it's gone. By the end, I was doing better though, and things made more sense. It was extremely interesting and fascinating to experience.

Afterwards, we went to an American restaurant because America is the man. 

Saturday

This day, we figured out the most excellent form of touring a city ever, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry, excitement! Saturday morning we were unable to find a place to eat breakfast on account of our hotel was located in some swanky shopping district. This led to us taking the handy-dandy metro to the center of the city and me locating a delicious churro & chocolate restaurant. Obviously, I had churros for breakfast and that was one of the best meals of the trip. Mmmmmm. After a uh, healthy breakfast, we went shopping for a little while and meandered towards the Palacio Real. I've already described this in my...second (?) blog, so I won't go through the details again. Suffice to say, in nearly every room I asked my mom if we could redecorate our house.

Me: Oooh! Blue and gold! Mom, can we get a chandelier? I think we need to rethink our floor plan.

Okay, now the best touring experience of the trip. [Sidenote: I realize I've gotten your expectations up. You are probably thinking we rode upon the backs of some majestic emus or something that pranced of into the sunset. I'm so, so sorry.] A bus! We got on a double-decker open air bus and this was the best decision ever. Now you may ask "Why are you so excited about a bus, Emily?" 

Answer: We did not get lost and laze.

For most of the trip, we've walked nearly everywhere. Which can get fairly exhausting. So a chance to see most of the city without walking is better than majestic emus. Also, Madrid is huge so we would have been able to do significantly less had we not taken this tour. It was beautiful out for most of the day, which made this and even better decision. We hopped off at the Puerta del Sol, a huge plaza. Claire bought a Crisitano Ronaldo my future husband's fútbol jersey and I showed them the best pastry shop ever. We jumped on the bus again after a little bit and searched for a restaurant from the comfort of our bus. (I am not endorsed by the company, I swear.) Eventually, we found the Hard Rock Cafe. Yup, authentic Spanish food at its finest. Either way, the food was good and our entire Spain journey ended on a high note.   

Sunday

How I feel about missing the fam

We woke up early (actually this time), with a few false starts. The time change just occurred here, so that made the travel day extra fun. It was a whirlwind of packing and then checking out of the hotel. My mom decided to take a taxi to the airport instead of the metro because real adults don't need to be quite as cheap as college students. (The front desk said it was going to be 30 euros. I said it was 42 euros when we took a taxi...and it ended up being like 41-something. Nailed it!)

After printing boarding passes and checking bags, it was time to say goodbye. I miss you people already! (Especially inside jokes with Claire. Save Bandit!) I can NOT wait to see MY DAD, Mom and Claire again when I get back. Maybe Tom.

A uninteresting metro and bus ride left me happily in Toledo. It's good to be home.   

Traveling Conclusions

1) Being the leader is the worst. I navigated (!!!!!) almost everywhere, which is terrifying in itself. Also, being the only translator is a rough gig. My mom would want to talk to people and I was always thinking, "But people. We aren't supposed to talk to strangers!" This left my mom un-thrilled and ready to get the English back. She later asked me how I did everything on my other trips and wasn't super surprised by my response. Answer: follow everyone. It's (mostly) stress free and easy.

2) My mom is paranoid. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing because it's somewhere between practical, hilarious and annoying. She's more of a "ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure" type of gal and I'm more "Eh, what happens, happens." We didn't get anything stolen (good job, Mams!) but it also led to Claire and me waiting in the lobby of every hotel while my mom went to fish out our passports from her hidden money belt. And this gem of a conversation:

Me: Mom, the room is super hot. Can we leave the window open tonight, pleeease?

Mom:....Okay

Mom: [20 MINUTES LATER] I can't sleep! We have a balcony...someone could sneak in through the window....I just have to close it!

Me: .....*sigh* 

3) It is fun but exhausting. I don't think anything is quite so exciting and so draining at the same time.

Next weekend will hopefully be a bit more relaxing, as we plan on staying in Toledo.

Adios until then!

Semana Santa & Sass

Hola!

For you, Faj. They are catching goldfish.

As you may (or may not) know, my Mommy-face and Claire are here in Spain with me. Unfortunately, however, all is not well. Why? I am missing a key piece of my life, one I may not have mentioned as much in my past blogs. This is not due to carelessness, but rather my mind has repressed my memories because it is too painful to deal with. That's right, I miss my Dad. He was unable to come to Spain due to... stuff (that's a technical term), and now I am left to suffer the consequences. I do my best to pay attention to all the fish I see, in hopes of remembering how great he is, but alas this doesn't make up for the actual being that is My Dad. So just know, we all wish he could be here in Spain, helping add to the sass. (One and a half months til I see the Most Handsome Dad Ever!) I miss you more than all the (spiral) Mac & Cheese in the world!

Thursday

Regarding the less important part of this blog: my Mommy and Claire made it to Toledo on Thursday afternoon after (I believe) a few language mishaps and a little luck. Both were quite jet-lagged but in good spirits because Spain. After my classes, I took them on the grand tour of the city where my Mommy realized I was a genius for telling her not to rent a car. It would be impossible to drive in Toledo because the streets don't believe in being wide and straight and drivable. They turned in rather early to catch up on beauty sleep and so they wouldn't be dead the next day. Sidenote: My mom was rather impressed at my ability to negotiate a cab for the next morning and less impressed when I told the receptionist that she was afraid of missing the train, which is why we had to leave so early.

Friday

Friday morning was an early wake up call. Just kidding. After breakfast, I headed over to the hotel and found both Claire and Mams still asleep. Apparently time changes are difficult and I forgot. (More repressed memories?) They got dressed and ate, but we still had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to be at the train station. Because the hotel was really close to the Cathedral, we decided to go there. And, yet again, any description I can give will not do what we saw any justice. The building is massive on the inside and a combination of simple and complicated. And beautiful. The words I use are actually meaningless until you see it. Words don't actually express the....everything (especially the work involved. 270ish years to complete a building?!?). I kept thinking (along with my Mommy) back to the book The Pillars of the Earth, which is a story revolving around the building of a 12th (11th?) century cathedral. I clearly didn't appreciate the descriptions prior to seeing a similar building. I am constantly amazed by my experiences here.

It was also a day of travel and trains among other things. We headed of to the train station and went first from Toledo to Madrid and then Madrid to Sevilla. Minor hilarity (and major sass) ensued due to the language barrier.


Mom: We aren't on the right floor! We need to go to the P one!
Me: Okay, that's upstairs. "Planta Primera" is first floor.
Mom: *looks at sign* That's not what it says! The words aren't the same!
Me: Mom, it means the same thing. Don't worry about it.
Mom: The words aren't the same!

After a brief disagreement, we made it to the right floor (the first floor!) and made it onto the train. My mommy-face was relieved and I believe I passed my translator test, so all was well. Claire and I snagged seats next to each other and spent the ride A) writing terrible poetry for a school project B) swapping sisterly gossip and C) talking about how cute the little boy in front of us was.

A Sample Of Poetry:

I am a panda.

My main hobby is eating

All of the bamboo.

The rest of our poetry session yielded very similar results and included me trying to convince Claire to present her project in the form of an interpretive dance. If you agree, leave a comment. I would be willing to pay her and put up a video because this is probably the greatest idea I've ever had. I honestly can't think of a more hilarious poetry project. No joke.

While this was going on, a really cute little boy kept peeking back at us and smiling. He and his dad were sitting right in front of us, and that kid was probably the cutest thing ever. I want one. But only for like ten minutes.

A conversation

Dad: [in English] Marcos! Don't draw on the window. When we are going by the countryside, all we are going to see is the dirt. You are going to be missing out on all of the beautiful views. 

Marcos: [in Spanish] You can still see through the window, Papa.

Dad: I know! But we don't do that. You will be distracted and it's bad for the window.

Honestly, the whole trip the kid was being both cute and sassy to his dad, and his dad would patiently explain why he couldn't do something. (I want my chocolate, Papa! ... I know but if you don't eat everything else and I give it to you, you will be spoiled.) So, so cute.

Upon our arrival, we took a taxi to our hotel and unpacked. We decided to get an idea of the city, so we meandered around the streets, finding a few of the major attractions. The main issue became finding a place to eat and my apparent lack of practical knowledge in the form of knowing words for food. Results were mixed.

I knew enough for one night, but not nearly so for the rest of the trip.

We may have stolen a menu so we could look up some of the words.

Saturday

Why do I have so many things to say??? Saturday morning, we went across the street to get our breakfast. Pastries, coffee, and sandwiches mmmmm... We were ready to start the day. It was raining, so we bought a couple of umbrellas and hoped for the best (and no. The best didn't really occur). We decided to go to the Cathedral, and, like the one in Toledo, my words are useless. So...pictures! I mean, I could say that it is impressive and the stones tower above you and create an elegance that awes you; honestly, that means very little compared to actually seeing the place. Even with pictures, the scale is lost. (Go to Spain, guys!) We could climb the tower (it wasn't flimsy metal like the Eiffel Tower, so it wasn't that bad.) and got some fantastic views of the city. Incredible. It was a fascinating place, especially because we are here during holy week and it makes you appreciate the site more.

Unfortunately, it was raining again by the time we left the Cathedral and the rest of the day involved Claire and I being rather soaked. That is life, I suppose. The Alcazar was quite close to the Cathedral so we ended up there. This was also completely worth seeing because of it's beautiful architecture (first try on that word I spelled it half in Spanish and had to show Claire) and gardens. I'm going to only post pictures of it because my abilities are sub-par in the description realm and pictures! (I'm rapidly becoming worried because I couldn't remember what I did yesterday. Also, I spent forever talking about a train ride and hardly anytime on the cool stuff. Yowza.) Claire became extremely excited by all of the animals we saw, including the peacocks inside the gardens. (Because if you tame chipmunks for fun, why wouldn't you be excited about all the lil aminals?) This might have been my favorite part of the trip so far because it was so gorgeous. And huge. It was almost endless and seemed to have secret rooms because you could just keep going forever. (I mean, until you couldn't).

After the sight-seeing, we went back to our hotel room to snack (Cheez-its!), relax and dry off. My mommy was wonderful and used a hair dryer on my pants and shoes to make them no longer feel like I had just been in a monsoon and more dry and homey (I'm sorry, first word I thought of and I wasn't changing it.) 

After The Relaxation Period, we went out into the wide world again in search of the Biggest Wood Thing in the World (Metropol Parasol). My thoughts were this would be akin to the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota, however I was both quite wrong and pleasantly surprised. You can climb the giant wood thing (my favorite) for the best view ever. Also, because it wasn't tower shaped and you can't really see the ground, it wasn't absolutely terror-filled for me. As far as not-tower-shaped goes, it looks sort of like a wooden blob (amoeba) with a path that winds around like a snake. I have quite a few pictures from there because it has some excellent vantage points.

Now you are thinking, Emily, your title has the word "sass" in it. You've told us very little about the group dynamics that led you to choose this and where the conflict is. Because sass implies conflict.

You are in luck, my friends! There is nothing that can make my mom and I sassier than A) being lost and B) having to find food. There was a discussion of sorts (i.e. lots and lots of sass going on) until we located both ourselves and food.

(Claire, obliviously: Do we know where we are?)

Food was slightly better because we knew what we were getting but it was pretty clear we didn't choose the best restaurant. Third time's the charm? We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Sunday

We woke up early (lies) and my Mommy-face kindly brought back breakfast for Claire and I because laze was involved on our part. We had a few things on our checklist to do, namely see the Plaza de España, Torre de Oro and the Plaza de Toros.

To start off, we headed to the Plaza de Toros which is where they hold the bullfights. We took a tour of the place and saw a museum of bullfighting stuff (kee-rap, as my Dad would say). Today was actually quite beautiful unlike the monsoon that was yesterday, so it was a perfect day for this. I would like a fancy bullfighting costume because they have bling. (6000 euros just for a cape!) Bullfighting doesn't start til April, but it was cool just to see the ring.

After, we went just down the street towards the Torre de Oro (Tower of gold). It used to have some significance in regards to shipping but we didn't pay for audio-guides so my knowledge of the place is minimal. When we got to the top (it wasn't that high) we had a good view of the river and parts of the city. Our first two activities of the day didn't take very long, so we still had quite a bit of time to view the city.

Not the KKK

We headed to the Plaza de España next, and were stopped part of the way by a huge procession. Sevilla takes Semana Santa (holy week) really seriously and they have huge floats and people dressed up and everyone (everyone) is out and about. The crowds were huge around the Plaza because of this but we were able to witness some more of the culture. It was amazing to see although I'm glad we are heading to a different city tomorrow. The crowds are crazy! We wandered around and admired the Plaza because it is super beautiful (pictures!). We stayed there for quite a while and even got warm (in stark contrast from the cold rain of yesterday.)

In the middle-ish afternnon, we went out to eat at a crowded (like everything) pizzeria. The pizza was good (not Italy-quality though) and we decided to go back to our room to rest up for our exciting evening out on the town (that might be an exaggeration). After my mommy's power-nap (and uploading pictures to Facebook) we went out again to catch a Flamenco show.

Another brief sidenote: During this entire trip, I've been the navigator. For those of you who know my skills in this field, that is downright terrifying. I can barely get around St Cloud, let alone foreign countries. I don't even know...

Impressively, we didn't get lost on our way to the show. Unfortunately, it was all sold out so we were directed to another place where we could see the dance. But alas, for that was closed so we got a little bit to the Lost and Stressed and Sassy stage of the day. The crowds didn't necessarily help the situation. But ice cream did.

Because of the hecticness of the streets, we called it an early night. We are, more or less, prepared for another adventure to a new city tomorrow.

Adios until next weekend!

Mama Mia! That's an Italian Journey!

Hey guys! I'm back!

So I already know it is going to be hard to fit the essence of my trip to Italy into a blog post, but I'll try my best. If you didn't know, I decided to visit my friend, Isaac, in Bolonia (the Spanish spelling of the city) this past weekend. Prior to going there, I knew absolutely nothing about the city except that it was north of Rome. That was all.

I'm going to skip all descriptions of the traveling because it's A) not very interesting and B) a way to romanticize my trip. It's easy to list all the inconveniences, and say they just made my time in Italy better because I knew what something un-fun was like, so it had to have made me realize just how great Italy was. In reality, I would rather not have to deal with the traveling because it doesn't do any of the things we lie and say it does. Okay, enough bitterness for one post.

The Two Towers

I'm going to preface the actual descriptions of my trip with this: I'm beginning to realize places are just places. This isn't to say I dislike traveling and seeing and trying new things because I actually really like them. And I would go back to Italy (or Paris or Portugal) in a moment if I was given the opportunity. This trip, more than the others, made me realize the differences between the greatness of places and the greatness of people though. I was visiting a city more because my friend lives there rather than it was the city I super-duper wanted to go to. If it was simply for a city, Rome or Venice would've been my first choices. But in terms of how my weekend would've been, I think it would've been incredibly different, and I wouldn't have understood how people can make my life way more than seeing a beautiful city. (If you are reading this Isaac, don't think you're that cool. You aren't even The Man.)

Now we can get to the things we actual did over the weekend. For lunch on Friday we ate delicious (and cheap) Italian pizza.

An Ode to America

America, you can't have nice things because you ruin nice things.

 You  have destroyed the food of the Italians.

They call your coffee "dirty water"

and I'm inclined to agree.

Your pizza is not real pizza because how did you screw it up so much?

Olive Garden is a sham.

How could you, America?

Sorry, I got a little carried away. I have eaten probably the best food of my life this past weekend (That was the first thing I said when asked about my trip) so I'm a little annoyed at the American idea that a lot of food = good food. I've done some basic calculations (math major) and realized that is utterly ridiculous. I might go live in Italy just for the food.

Anyway, after our huge, delicious pizza (A full pizza for four euros? Yes, please) we toured some of the city center. Isaac was probably the least helpful tour guide. A small sample of his skills:

Me: Isaac, what is that castle thing?

Isaac: I don't know it's name, so it can't be that important.

Isaac: There was something going down, so they built this. Then something happened.

For the most part, it was a hilarious tour by someone who was incompetent in directions (Although it takes one to know one) and constantly had to call "his people" for things to do and places to eat. Which led to us getting sort of lost and just meandering through the city, which was fine by me. Because I didn't have any expectations of the trip, we didn't have a set schedule and it led to a pretty relaxing trip, unlike Paris where we wanted to see everything. It was a really nice change of pace. We headed to a market because "Women like those" (Always trying to get a rise out of me....I can't count the times I told Isaac I was going to punch him) and then went to a park. It had some pretty cool mythological statues which also led to hilarity. There was a carved mural nearby, where some of the figures had missing heads, and almost in reaction, some of the people had super surprised expressions. 

Part of the Tour de Isaac

After our tour of the city we headed back to Isaac's apartment, where I met some of his roommates. In Italy, students go back home for the weekend so I only really ended up talking to one of them for a long time. It was both interesting and tiring because he spoke in a mixture of Italian and English. I could understand a little of the Italian, but it was like having a really fuzzy radio and only being able to catch a few of the sentences. After the three of us talking, I felt like I had an extremely broken translator in my head. But it was worth it. Later, Lori (Lore, Lorrie....? How do you spell an Italian nickname?!?) left and Isaac and I "made dinner." Basically, we boiled water for pasta and heated up a sauce. Which was good, but didn't come close to our meal for lunch.  Because Isaac's apartment is sort of outside the city, we decided just to stay in and watch the only movie they had in the apartment. Which we proceeded to make fun of because the plot line left something to be desired. After, we stayed up and talked to catch up on the Life of Studying Abroad and a bunch of things we noticed and saw changing about ourselves because we decided to Leave America for a while. Then it was time for the sleeping because we were both tuckered out from our long day.

Cathedral

Saturday, we slept in and then went wandering around the city again.  We went wandering around for a while, trying to find a park which we eventually did. Huzzah! It was an extremely beautiful day out which made this an excellent decision. Our walk to the park left something to be desired and by the end I was pretty sure Isaac was trying to show me the most boring parts of Italy. He found this pretty funny because everyone apparently sees the prettiest parts. After the park, there was another call to "his people" to find a restaurant. His people really pulled through and told us about a really great place to eat.  We had to wait a little while for a table so, we headed out to one of the main streets that is closed to traffic on weekends.  We went to an amazing cathedral, which was so different from the bustle of the streets and Isaac's words on the church were it "settles a stillness in you."  Can more people talk like this please? 

We went back to the restaurant and the pasta we had was superb. I had um....tortellini with ricotta cheese and sage and butter (I think....) and after that we got chocolate and something-with-chocolate gelato. I never want to eat American food again. Then, because we had to work off the carbs (or something), we went on a mini-pilgrimage to the church of San Luca at the top of a giant hill. The entire way was covered, and there were a bunch of arches to go through to get to the top. Each was numbered so you knew how far you had gone. I almost died from a heart attack because stairs are against my principles. Realizing this, Isaac had more opportunities to tease me and say we had a lot farther to go then we actually did (There are 658 arches, not 2000, you liar!) The vies from the top was incredible because you could see the entire city and the church was gorgeous. It was super different from those in Spain because it wasn't a Gothic church and therefore looked more friendly. We had timed it so we could watch the sunset from on the hill and (attempt) to take pictures of it. My camera dislikes me, so my sunset photos didn't work. Le sigh.

After going back down (much better than up) we went looking for a supermarket to buy groceries for dinner. We only found little stores that sold fruit for a long time, and Isaac kept talking about if he had a supermarket he would call it the "Sell your Soul Supermarket" so that's the kind of store we looked for:

"That looks like a place you could sell your soul. Let's go there!"

Honestly.... After, we waited for a long time for a bus but they didn't like us. Isaac told me sometimes the people who drive buses will go on strike for something like eight hours just because they can. In the end, we started walking back and got a long, long way before we saw another bus. We ended up running to catch it, which is also against my principles. When we got back to the apartment, we ended up making pasta again: green olives, tomatoes, bacon and onions make a really good sauce.

We ended up just relaxing at the apartment for the rest of the night because I was real tired out from our pilgrimage to San Luca.

The next morning, I met one of Isaac's other roommates, Joe (Short for Giovanni, so I'm sure it is spelled differently. Oh well) who was incredibly nice. I had the same I-can-sort-of-understand-a-little-Italian experience, so Joe was able to speak in a mix of Italian and English. He made Isaac and me coffee, and Italian coffee is fantastic. (Why, America? Why?)

Isaac suggested we go to an Italian mass and, even though I understood next to nothing (Like I knew when they were saying the Our Father) it was an enlightening experience. And the church was, once again, beautiful. We had more Italian pizza (<3) for lunch and then it was time for me to go on my way. I'm going to skip the actual traveling part again (Because who actually cares? I lived it and I don't...). I was super tired when I got back, so I took a shower and went straight to bed. Which was a mistake.

A 3:41 AM Conversation

[Ringing phone. Instead of answering, girl assumes it's her alarm and presses the 'END CALL' button. Realizing her mistake,she tries to listen to the message that was left but the instructions are too fast in Spanish and it is too late for her to understand. She decides to figure it out tomorrow. The phone rings again. This time she answers.]

GIRL: [in sleepy voice] Hullo?

WOMAN'S VOICE: Emily? Is that you?

G: [still in sleepy voice] Yeah. Whuddo....What's happening Mom? It's 4 in the morning...

WV: I just wanted to make sure you got back alright. You didn't email me back or message me...I was worried! You didn't give me the right phone number. It has a 5-8 at the end.

G: [Confused, unintelligible grumbling for a few seconds] M'kay. I just was tired and went to bed when I got back. I messaged Claire. [In expressionless, sleepy voice] I'm mad at you.

WV: What? Why?

G: [Sleepily, slightly confused] You woke...me...up... I'm mad at you.

WV: [laughs] Okay. Love you.

G: [Gives up having any energy for the conversation] Love you too. I'm mad at you. Goodnight.

[Girl promptly falls back asleep, unsure who she might be mad at or why. The confusion goes away as she drifts off.]

Life lesson #54: Always tell your Mams when you get back in the country.

On a related note: I will be seeing said Mams and my little hermanita this coming Thursday! I'm SOOOO EXCITED. There. Are. No. Words.

I may not update next weekend due this and more traveling; I'm not sure if I'll bring my computer. We shall see. So don't be super surprised if nothing is up next weekend.

Adios until next time!

The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side (of the Ocean)

Okay, everyone, I'm going to apologize in advance for this post because I didn't do anything particularly interesting this week. So this isn't a I-went-here-and-here-and-had-a-great-time-with-great-people-at-all-times sort of post. It's more of a mundane-things-happen-here-too type of blog. (Also, my pictures aren't connected to this week at all.)

Now you might say: But you're in Spain, Emily. How could you have an uninteresting week and weekend?

Clock at the Impressionist Museum

Well, we can't go to Paris every weekend. This week consisted of school and... more school. Some of you can even relate. I didn't even have my Visit All The Places class, so nothing new on that front. Also, this weekend was for homework because, in all honestly, I had an impressive amount that I had been procrastinating on. Shocking, right? This means I have two presentations, a debate, and two (three?) papers due this upcoming week among other things. One of which is seven pages long (!!!). So I'm having a, uh, relaxing weekend of All Of The Homework. And that, my friends, is how you have a mostly uninteresting week(end) in Spain. And the rain doesn't help.

Now I don't want this post to be entirely me complaining because life is so hard and how dare I get homework while I'm in school and everything is so unfair. So I've decided to elaborate on some of the things I've said in the past and address some of the things I've ignored in the past couple of blogs.

I know a couple of posts ago I listed things I missed and liked and was slightly confused about, so I thought I could expand on this a little. Things I miss have hit me the most this week...and the specifics are kind of embarrassing. Perhaps you know of my love of Mac & Cheese. Perhaps you don't. In either case, I am missing it far, far too much this week. And I think my desire for fake cheese is a little unhealthy. Because guess what? I've also been craving a grilled cheese like crazy. Mmmmmmmm....I miss you American cheese in all forms.

That was really the only expansion of my list. I miss fake cheese....Lordy.

The Louvre

I suppose I could add family to this list (Sometimes. Don't think I've got too many feelings for you guys. I have to keep up appearances, so I won't gush.) Claire and I have been keeping a countdown via social networking of how long it is until I get to see her and my Mommy-face. Words cannot express my excitement to see them. That was awfully close to gushing; I'm sorry!

In other news: my ability to Spanish is progressing. Nerdily (It's a word, even if I just made it up), I love looking at words in Spanish and noticing the similarity to words in English. For the life of me, I can't think of one example right now. Anyway, the knowledge that languages are actually living and changing fascinates me. So yeah, my nerd is showing a little. Also, my English and Spanish are melding, and it's harder for me to think in just one language. I couldn't think of the phrase "Spring Break" when Skyping my mom and thought "Semana Santa" instead. And I caught myself asking someone "How was your fin de semana?" So that's gotten pretty crazy.

La Hospital Something Something. I don't remember the real name.

On to the meat of this post. Just kidding. This is literally me rambling and hoping for the best. So it goes. Oh! I forgot to explain more about where I'm living, even though this should have been done in my very first post. I'm living in a dorm suite with three other girls where we share a bathroom and shower area. Our rooms are pretty big; I think it's probably bigger than my first dorm at the U. I affectionately think of it as Siberia due to it 1) being isolated and 2) being always freezing (really tile floor?). Because I am feeling incredibly generous, you can even see pictures of it. Which I will add later...(Generosity is joke. I mean, it's a dorm room.)

I live in La Fundación, which we call the Fund. I know I've said this, but bear with me because I'm going to give you a brief Spanish lesson. Exciting! Now if you think it should be said the same as the English word, you'd be wrong. It's pronounced "foo-nd" because the "u" in Spanish is an ooooooo sound. Knowledge!

This post is really unexciting. My apologies. I'll just continue the verbal vomiting and keep hoping. (Textual vomiting?) 

La Sinogoga I-Also-Forgot-the-Name

Hey, this is fun! I'm going to Italy next weekend to visit my friend, Isaac. My federal tax return paid for the trip, so that makes life awesome. The thought of Italy is what is going to get me through my longish, stressful week. I am doubly excited because I've wanted to go Italy for forever. Side note: My love and desire to see other countries probably stems from books that have these places as settings. So Amsterdam, Venice and Hogwarts are all on my list of places I really want to see. Don't judge.

Okay, I'm drawing blanks now.

What should I say???

Ummm.....

Unfortunately, I think my hope in salvaging this post was misplaced. I've added some pictures I didn't put up in the past blogs due to lack of space as a way of rewarding you for making it through this. It's the little things in life.

Guys, I promise this will be better and more cohesive next weekend. A weekend in the Tuscan countryside (I have no idea where Tuscany is in Italy...) should be more exciting.

Just think about Italy until next time. I know I will.

¡Hasta Luego!