Saturday, May 26, 2007

Return to Spain

Now I´m back in Spain again, readjusting to speaking Spanish instead of Portuguese. The 10 hour train ride wasn´t as horrible as I expected, and I wasn´t too tired when I arrived in Madrid at 9am. My first stop of ´errand-running´was the Atocha train station to reserve tickets to Andalucía for this coming Monday. Next I went to the bus station for Toledo to drop off luggage, and then to Puerta del Sol with a German lady who needed help finding her way.

I had almost 5hrs free still by that point, and it was pouring outside, so I decided to figure out a few indoor activities. First, a meatball sub at Subway! The first one since I arrived. . . Next was the third great art museum in Madrid (besides El Prado and the Reina Sofía) Thyssen-blah blah (I need to look up the name. . .). This museum was really spectacular and I gained a few new favorite artists from it too.

Okay, I can´t take the smoke anymore here, so I´ll be back later!

Lisboa in 48 hours!

After surviving my lonely time in Porto and Coimbra, I finally made it to Lisboa, where things started to brighten up. Though I had some issues getting to the bus station in Coimbra (got on a local bus that the driver said went to the station, but he didn´t tell me when, so I rode around again. . . for over an hour. . .just to miss the Lisboa bound bus, watching it drive out as I walked up, and having to wait another hour and a half for the next one), the ride to Lisboa was pleasant, with pretty scenery as well. Much unlike the sickening 8hr ride from Oviedo to Vigo. I arrived at 9pm and didn´t have too hard of a time getting to the pension. It was even easier than I thought´d be, fortunately. And the two women at the pension were really nice and friendly to me, giving me the pretty single room with a view of the Tajo River/Atlantic Ocean. I didn´t head out that night, but the next day I had a busy time with a day trip to Sintra, an 30 minute trian ride from Lisboa.

Sintra was an amazing place. I could really spend pages explaning everything, but I think the pictures really describe it best, so I´ll wait till I can put those up.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Portugal Blues

I get to finally realize just how boring and superbly lonely it is to travel by myself. Yay! Saturday was a long day in the bus, fighting the urge to puke most of the time. Sunday was creepy Porto and a day walking around on the beach, then making it to Coimbra after meeting a good amount of new people. And now Monday is here; I walked around Coimbra for 3 hours after breakfast, got lost, realized I didn´t have my bus pass, so I continued walking. . . until I finally reached a familiar landmark. And now I´m back at the internet spot, mostly because I have no where else I want to be. Lovely.

I still need to get a bus or train to Lisboa so I can get to my pension by 6 or 7 tonight. My luggage is at the hostel, which was actually quite nice and came with a big breakfast (half of which I saved for lunch). And the guy at the desk this morning decided I was Spanish because of my hostel card from Spain and the fact that I insert vale into my Portuguese (on accident, just out of habit), which is Spanish for okay. So he thought he was being all smart talking to me in Spanish on my way out. Bah.

At least the sun is starting to shine now. It would have been chilly this morning if I hadn´t been walking nonstop. Hopefully my travel interest perks up with Lisboa (sort of doubting it. . .) I want to go to a fado show and take a few day trips. One to Belem for the pastries, another to the huge park with an Ocenarium, and a third to Sintra, which has large ruins of a Moorish castle. I´ve really been questioning the point of travelling right now (since I have no one to talk to but myself. . .) I spent loads of money just getting from Oviedo to Portugal, yet didn´t spend much time anywhere in particular, and didn´t even step into any of the typical tourist sites (cathedrals, museums, wineries, etc).

Well that´s enough complaints for now I suppose. . . até logo!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Los Domingos

Sundays are usually some of my favorite days in Spain. Waking up early in the morning to head to Gijon, a town 20 minutes away, to attend the missionary church with Sara. The streets are normally quiet and empty. One of the few times that ever happens (but only because most people went out so late on Saturday night they are now at home sleeping at nine in the morning, and everything is closed on Sunday).

So yesterday I got to enjoy the bright sun and greenery in San Francisco Park as I walked to the gym before church. We had a goodbye picnic planned in Gijon, and therefore wouldn´t be leaving till around one in the afternoon. For once this allowed me my only opportunity at the gym on a Sunday, since it is only open 9am-2pm, exactly the time I´m in Gijon. My host mom told me when I got back that she didn´t even hear me get up. . .

Hmm, didn´t finish this post in a timely manner, but the picnic was nice, a little windy and sad with all the goodbyes, but test studying was waiting for us!

Monday, May 7, 2007

Weekend Updates

Two weeks left! Amazing how much faster this month will go than all the others. I leave on May 19th for Portugal and just finished adding up all the expenses for that 12 day excursion (which includes 5 days in Portugal, 4 in Madrid/Toledo, and 3 in southern Spain). The final number was painful, but I think it will be well worth it. I'm missing the last two days of school, but I doubt I'll actually be 'missing' anything important. These classes don't make sense because we have finals spread out over a week, yet still have regular classes for the whole week and two days of the next week. Weird.

Still very happy with the new family-- no more fires either! I've been eating very solid meals now (soup, salad, main course, side dish, dessert. . .) and should probably be increasing my frequency at the gym, but maybe the many extra hours of walking to and from will pay off too. I love talking to Josefina, and the 'abuelita' is so cute too! They have been so superbly nice, and I even had to stop Josefina from ironing my gym clothes. . . I just didn't see the necessity in that. Obviously. Lot's of contacts to make still with all the trip planning. Seems like I finish one trip and I end up with another to do anyway!

Last weekend was rather quiet, but fun. I finally finished homework and can now maybe start working on those independent study projects. Mmmm. And Saturday evening we had a Cinco de Mayo party in Miguel's, a Spaniard, parents' apartment. So I ended up cooking fajitas for about twenty people!! It was absolutely crazy. Miguel had to help me considering I had no idea where stuff was, and some other people helped cut up food or clean up afterward. But now there are some rather poor (a.k.a. extremely horrible) photos of me on facebook. Yuck.

I'm off to work on crossing things off my to-do list! Hasta luego!

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Headline: Fire in the House!!

This week has certainly been a busy one, starting with my change of families on Wednesday afternoon. It was not a pleasant departure, with only Raquel home, but I still managed to move my stuff all the way across town and meet Josefina and her 92 year old mother, as well as Irene, her daughter who studies law.

Though it now takes me over a half hour to walk to school, Josefina is so amazing I think these next two weeks will be my best, if not my busiest, here. And when I told her my schedule I included the Combat classes at the gym of Tues/Thurs nights, which prompted her to ask who was the instructor. Not thinking too much of it, I said 'Ricardo,' and soon found out after being shown some photos in the living room that he's her son! Small world!-- or as we say in Spanish, 'El mundo es un panuelo.'

But the surprises still weren't over yesterday. Soon after that revelation a friend came visiting who already had heard of me from my conversation partner, Tati! Things were starting to get surreal. However, the real clincher was later that afternoon as I headed out to Combat class after a quick dinner (french fries and bacon/egg cooked in the same huge vat of oil! Ah!).

Upon saying goodbye (kiss, kiss!) I began walking down the stairs from our fifth floor apartment. As I neared the fourth floor I noticed smoke was in the air. Figuring someone had possibly burned a tortilla or something I continued down the stairs. But by the third floor the smoke was getting so thick I could hardly breath, and I started hearing shouts and the floors below me. I ran straight back up to the apartment yelling 'FIRE!' and helped Josefina get the abuela ready with jacket and shoes. She stuck the cat, Musi, in his bag while I wetted some cloths to stick over our mouths.

But what I didn't realize was that abuela can't walk down stairs (and the smoke was probably too much to do it anyway) so we hopped in the elevator, an act that goes against any fire drill I've ever done. We made it safely down, coughing and smelling of smoke and as we exited the building we could see a huge crowd of people, an ambulance, and firefighters arriving.

In the end, Josefina told me to go to Combat class (she had made a point of grabbing my stuff for class on the way out) and said she'd send me a text message when everything was okay. So I headed off, shaking still from the whole experience. I found out when I came home that, fortunately, no one was injured; the fire started with a senora on the first floor and she was taken to the hospital along with one other man because of the smoke. Besides that, nothing too serious, but quite an experience!