I suck at blogging

I officially am a horrible blogger. After reading my friend's blog from home, I became inspired to finish what I started. Since my last post, I've been a pretty busy woman! We went on an excursion to Toro y Zamora. In Zamora I had the best danish I have had in Spain as of yet and in Toro we toured a family-owned winery and taste-tested some very good white wine. Of course I bought some to bring to the States. As you can see there's an importance of food and drinks in my travels ;) In Zamora we also saw the castle and I managed to get hit with a newspaper by an old man sitting on a bench.. possibly because I was just standing their listening to our tour leader? not sure....

Last week a group of us traveled to Barcelona. I just loved this trip! The food was great, there were so many things to do and see, and of course there was THE BEACH! Our trip started off with, what I was told earlier in our program, was a normal Spanish meal: An appetizer, main plate, bread, wine or sangria, and dessert. I chose the gazpacho (which tasted like it was sent from heaven), paella with seafood, and crema de Catalan (which basically tasted like a roasted marshmallow). I wanted to cry from happiness, the perfect Spanish meal was in my belly. We checked into our hostel and found that it was like a hotel. It was very accommodating, had dinners every night for those staying if they were interested, and had planned activities. Our first night out we braved the beach on El Dia de San Juan. Whoa. So many people. When our metro came we had planned to throw some bows to ensure we actually got on. Not necessary. As soon as the doors opened, you felt a huge wave of shoving in your back to get on the metro. It was insane. The beach proved to be just as insane. People everywhere, on the beach, hanging out at bars on the boardwalk, at a concert, just walking around, and jumping fires (a tradition for this holiday?). During the days I was able to see the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, one of the house's made by Gaudi, the Olympic Track and Soccer Stadiums, and travel on the cable cars over the city. It was a very fun and successful trip. How could it not be after encountering a Harry Potter shot that sparks like the end of their wands?!!

Even though it has started to sink in that our time in Madrid is running short, I am still very excited to make our final trip to Granada and Toledo next weekend. More blogs and pictures to come soon!

Sticky Metro by Calvin Klein

'What does the title of this blog mean?' you may ask yourself... Well, when you take the world's 6th largest metro everyday, you see some interesting things. Recently, I smelled a not-so-interesting thing, B.O. When I searched around for the source, I found a shirt reading: "Lust for Glory". BINGO. And he was looking at me like I had a problem. I dislike the metro. I guess it's part of the experience???

This past weekend, a few of us traveled to Sevilla. Luckily, my first hostel experience was great! AND I got free breakfast. Sevilla was very pretty and I saw many things including: La Catedral de Sevilla, La Giralda, Torre de Oro, Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza, the Alcazar, the Plaza de España and a flamenco show. My favorite was the Alcazar. It was so pretty and cool to think about the royal family living there. The current king, Juan Carlos, still stays there when he visits Sevilla!

My birthday is on Thursday and I asked our host mom for recommendations. A nice place to make reservations for dinner would have been great. However, she recommends a drag queen bar and a place with "chicos sensuales"! So tomorrow night a group of us are going to a drag queen bar called Gula Gula. I'm excited! (check it out on the internet, looks fun!) Fun pictures to come soon!

Una semana se hace

Tonight for dinner I ate a large steak, eggs, french fries, and bacon. (oh yeah, bread on the side) Where's the fruit?! How bout them vegies?! They eat ridiculous here. I am now going to ask my host mom where the scale is. Yesterday we went to Segovia. I took so many cool pictures that seemed out of one on those super cool history movies we used to watch in class ;) This morning I went to Rastro which is an outdoor flea market on Sundays. It was very big and fun to see all the stands and roads full of people. This evening we went to the Real Madrid retirees soccer game vs. Germany. They killed them! Although it wasn't a real game, it was the closest I could get to the real deal. I can only imagine how crazy it gets for them. Tomorrow is class.. woopie! One week down, 5 more fun weeks to go!

Es como una carrera en el Parque de Retiro

I have now experienced the legendary tapas in Spain. Beware: for any interested travelers... if you order a drink, you may be handed two plates full of a mountain of bread, cheese (possibly fried), potato wedge/chips, and pork variety. (And how do I not gain weight?) Needless to say, Kara and I ran in Retiro today. After the locals made us look crazy for asking where an apparently non-existent street was to find a running buddy, we found it, and our buddy! No, I am not crazy contrary to many people's beliefs eh? ;) We have also started classes. Yes, we are taking classes. But be jealous, my food and culture class entails walking around the streets of Madrid learning its history from our profesora and wandering into markets, cafes, pastelerias, or bars to try the food and drinks courtesy of our school! However, we must understand more than 50% of what our teachers are saying in order to understand our class. This is somewhat difficult when our teachers are talking at Guinness World Record speed. But it is a challenge I am committed to! Here is a picture in Retiro in La Rosaleda...

El segunda día

Waking up to "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce is awesome. Today we had orientation at Universidad Nebrija. Just like school in the US: participation, papers, exams, and yes, those wretched oral presentations. BUT, our teachers talk reeeeeally fast! And, they made it clear that to yawn or show any signs of being tired is bad mannered and they don't want to see it. (That should be interesting) The man in charge is very passionate about Purdue students and the program. His whole family has been at Purdue for roughly 30 years and has chosen to stick with our program becasuse he loves helping us grow and have great experiences. (We must be extra special or something) I am super excited about the food and culture class Kara and I are taking. I love food, so it's fitting. After the orientation and tour of the University, they served us lunch. Mini salmon sandwiches, cheese, baguette, carne, and chorizo. Oh, and sangria! We were planning to explore the Parque Retiro afterwards, but decided that a nap was necessary so we took the metro back. On the way, I found the greatest thing I have seen yet. A poster of Nadal in the metro. Heaven. I screamed until Kara saw it and we took our picture with him. Next step, see him in real life.(We were so American) After such excitement, it was time for a long nap. Tonight we are exploring the tapas bars. Beer and food=goodness.

El primer día

Those of you that know me well, know that I love my sleep. Sooo.. not sleeping on the megabus or the plane turned out to be really painful. But we took a quick siesta after meeting our host family: Alfonso, Esperanza, and Sofia. Esperanza and Sofia ironically love American music. It is playing all the time in our 5 bedroom condo! We took some time to learn the metro, rode the La Puerta del Sol and got off to find many protestors in the Center! The architecture is amazing and there are bars, tapas, shopping, and cafes everywhere! We have a lot of exploring to do! We also walked to Plaza Mayor which was beautiful. However, we ran across some strange "performers": woman in a lamb/donkey and tinsel costume (who was not very nice), three men with there Halloween-painted faces on a table, and a headless man! We decided to end our day there and came back for some much-needed dinner and sleep ;) (look closely, he has NO head!)

Goodbye America and English! Hola España y español!