6.30.2011

this weekend

I have much to update, but I am going to wait until after our weekend trip to Andalucia. We leave at 5:30 tomorrow morning and are there until Sunday night. Have a great weekend everyone!
PS good news-  I got my traveler's check situation worked out :) that's the last time I ever try to use those things again!

6.27.2011

The last few days

There hasn't really been much going on, but a certain mother of mine is begging me to write since my blogs are so interesting and informational. As I mentioned in my last post, we went to Madrid for the day Friday. I felt sick all day but it turns out all I needed was a nap (in our air conditioned hostel!) . We took a tour of El Palacio Real (Royal Palace) where no one lives anymore, but it was really cool to see. We only saw about 15 rooms and our guide said that there are over 2000 rooms in the entire palace. Every room had a theme like oriental, clock room, etc and each one had  really cool ceiling as well. Definitely an interesting experience to see how people lived. I can't imagine living there, that's for sure!
After we left the palace we all went to lunch and then it was free time until we were supposed to come back to Toledo, which I think about 10 people actually did. Most people stayed in Madrid for the night or went to the train station to travel elsewhere. We stayed in Madrid in a really nice hostel, which was good because I was expecting a scene from a horror movie. Had our last night with the Princeton boys which was really sad, they were fun to go out with because they protected us from the creepy Spanish men (seriously, you look at them and they think you're going home with them). We had a long day of travel the next morning but it was a beautiful day so couldn't really complain.
Yesterday we walked all the way to the pool which is about 30 minutes away, and I have to say the sun is definitely stronger here. I got burnt on the back of my legs which has never happened before.
It is SO HOT here. There's a high of 100 or higher for at least the next 5 days. None of my roommates can sleep, and I'm no exception. This is going to be a long last 4 weeks! We are taking a trip to Andalucia this weekend though and visiting 2 different cities in that region, so hopefully 1. it'll be cooler because it's closer to the coast and 2. the hotel the Fund booked for us is air conditioned. Expect me to come back about 37 pounds lighter from sweating 24/7.
I start working on Wednesday so I'll actually have something to update by then. Hasta luego!

5/6 of my roommates did kareoke to Bootylicious one night. So much fun. We are definitely going back to the kareoke bar!


El Palacio Real. We couldn't take pictures inside but you can imagine how nice it must be..

6.23.2011

Update

Nothing too crazy has gone on the last few days, just have been going to classes and roasting in the new heat. The first few days when we got here were perfect but now it is HOT HOT HOT! Don't forget the no air conditioning either...just moving my fingers to type this is enough movement to make me break out in a sweat.
I really like both of my classes so far. I wasn't sure what to expect for an internship class but right now it's just sort of a brief history of Spain, which is interesting. We're learning about how fast and how much Spain has changed since the end of the Franco regime in 1975 and last night we learned about the different regions of Spain. It's funny because the weather is varied in the US, but in Spain it's extremely varied as well and is probably the size of Texas, if that.
Tomorrow we're going to Madrid for the day with the Fund, then staying there at night. Should be a fun/tiring day! Not much else to report, hope you're all doing well!


The final decorations for Corpus Christi, which was today. They carry the body of Christ through the streets in a procession...The streets are covered with herbs and the route is covered with tapestries above so that the sun doesn't touch the body.

A midnight fireworks show last night to celebrate the beginning of Corpus
The first place we've gone to for my architecture class. This is a mosque called Cristo de la Luz


When the Christians took over Toledo, they converted the mosque into a church. You can see where they added onto the mosque where the part with the white and red bricks ends (the part with the windows with 3 clover looking designs)



Hope you all enjoyed the informational post..:)

6.21.2011

Well, I have now had 2 classes. Last night I had my internship class and earlier I had my Muslim, Jewish, and Christian art class. Both seem like they'll be pretty enjoyable, especially the art class since we have all 3 religions' architecture at our fingertips here in Toledo. I have an appointment to meet my boss and go to the place I'll be working at on Monday, so that should be exciting.
This morning I went on a long run with a friend I met here that is from Chicago. He took me to the same place that we had gone on the tour to take pictures of the entire city of Toledo. There weren't many hills that way so I managed to sort of run and not die. Very out of shape though, but after being in this city, maybe I won't be! We climbed up some rocks to get an even higher view of the city. The views here are unreal!
We have a dinner tonight to meet our "intercambio", a program we had the option of signing up for which I decided to do. Local people who are trying to learn English sign up and are paired with a student from here so that we can help each other out. It's good to know I won't be the only one struggling.
Thanks to all of you for reading and the comments. Miss you guys back home!

6.20.2011

Pros and Cons of living in Spain

Things will be added as my time goes on. I was just thinking about this the other day in regards to the US.

Pros:
  • People don't rush here as much. Time is valued but going fast isn't important
  • The waiters don't come check on you every 18 seconds and aren't trying to rush you out of a restaurant
  • Beautiful, old, very historical
  • Business settings are more relaxed and people get to spend time with their families
  • Travel within the Eurozone is extremely easy/inexpensive
  • Plazas galore
  • SANGRIA.
  • The views. Everywhere in Toledo and Madrid is beautiful.
  • Siesta time every day...enough said!
Cons
  • SMOKING. ugh. so many people smoke.
  • Not many people speak English here at all.
  • The exchange rate right now. It's killing me.
  • Not much AC, at least where we are
  • Slower internet, again where we are
  • Ke$ha still plays here. Somehow.

HI

Dear Jorge,
HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Brittany

Honeymoon phase over

Saturday there was a group of us that went to Madrid. It was really pretty and busy, which makes me like Toledo even more. Everything is so calm here. It's definitely my kind of lifestyle since I'm such a laid back person. In Madrid we walked around all day and saw a bunch of different buildings and places. We didn't want to go anywhere that required money because we have a paid day trip there on Friday with the Fund. We saw Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, then went to this HUGE park and rented boats on a lake there. 4.55 euro for 45 minutes on a boat. I found out that I am not very good at rowing. The tiniest person in our boat rowed the other 2 of us around while we laid down.
Yesterday we went to mass at El Catedral. The outside is beautiful, but the inside is even prettier! It was cool to see the mass performed in another service especially since I had an idea of what was going on after my 4 years at Rosary. Then last night there was a free concert close to the cathedral that was really cool too (there are free concerts all week because of the festival on Thursday). Afterwards a few of us went and split a pitcher of sangria. I'm really going to miss sangria when I go back home.
So about my title. Today has been a really stressful day and it's not even noon yet. I'm ready to curl up in a ball. I'm getting so frustrated with the fact that no one speaks English and everyone speaks really fast. I mean, I understand Spanish, but I can't catch half the words they're saying so I have to attempt to fill in the blanks. It's frustrating at the Fund because all of the staff speaks SO fast and only in Spanish. I nod my head like I understand but a lot of the time I don't. But the main source of my stress and frustration today is the fact that I can't use my traveler's checks. I tried to use one today at a store and they couldn't take it because the checks are in US dollars, which I definitely understand, but I don't understand why my bank back home didn't mention that fact when I bought them. So basically I have 250 dollars that is just frozen. I talked to the program director and she's going to try and figure out if she can deposit the checks into her account and just give me the converted money. Also I can't access my Chase account because I have to verify my identity and I can't get texts from them here, and my email address is saved wrong. Money issues galore and I am extremely stressed about it.
I don't have class until 7:45 so I am going to curl up in a ball for a while. Sorry I have barely any photos on Flickr, I'm having a lot of trouble uploading them there. Adios

Toledo at sunset (kind of)
Plaza Mayor (Madrid)

Pretty buildings in Madrid. Everything is so ornate.

Fountain in a park in Madrid

Sitting by the water and this giant monument

6.17.2011

The last 24 hours

Yesterday was another pretty calm day. I found out that my internship placement is at FEDETO, which is a business federation that represents small businesses. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, because I was still pretty tired and out of it yesterday and couldn't understand much Spanish to save my life. Today is better though! They only speak to you in Spanish here and not many of the locals speak English which can be challenging. I feel like it's definitely different in places that are more touristy like Madrid and Barcelona but Toledo is more off the map than the others. Seriously though, if you ever come to Spain, you need to visit Toledo. I can't even put into words how beautiful and special it is.
Last night we had an orientation and a little party with a bunch of different foods and a little Spanish mariachi band that came and played for us. Very cool. Then a giant group of us went out. 3 euros for a giant mug of sangria right outside of the Fund (nickname for the place we're staying) and it was delicious. Then we all walked to this discoteca that actually used to be in church; it was a strange feeling ordering drinks inside a church. The nightlife is definitely different here. We thought we went out late at 11:30, but we were literally the only ones there until at least 12:30 and the bars don't close until 4 or 5 in the morning. It was a great chance to get to talk to people more and I now have found 3 other people from the Chicagoland area!
Today was a long day. We had a long tour of the city which was amazing. I will post the link to my Flickr at the end so you can just look at all of the pictures. Everything here is so old and detailed. It is absolutely incredible here with all of the history and different styles. One funny thing is that the streets are SO NARROW. I have no idea how cars even drive down them. They're all 1 way streets and half the time you have to squeeze into a doorway to avoid getting hit by a car.
We had a meeting for Arcadia students today just to get to know eachother a little more. I just got back from it and dinner is in a few minutes thank GOD. I don't know how Spanish people survive. First of all, they barely eat a breakfast which is my favorite meal of the day. We have cereal, some pastries, and coffee. Breakfast is at 8:30 and I'm starving in an hour. Then, they don't eat lunch until 1:30! I'm so used to snacking throughout the day and it's really difficult to go that long without eating. The past 2 days I've felt sick to my stomach from being so hungry and I think that was a huge part of my problem yesterday. Then, they don't eat dinner until 8:30 at night. They have tapas during the day that are open for a certain amount of time which is basically a tiny little appetizer to tide you over. A couple of us took advantage of those today on the way back from our tour. I had something that I can't remember the same other than the word migas. It had bread pieces that tasted exactly like stuffing, a couple pieces of chorizo (sausage), garlic, and topped with an overeasy egg (these food descriptions are for my father)
Hope everyone is doing well and hopefully it finally warmed up back home.
I haven't loaded the pictures yet because food is on my mind but here's the link for later:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brittanydoss/

6.16.2011

Love.

Ok so I lied, last night some of us went out into the city to look for an ATM and a place to have a glass of wine. My roommate and I decided to decline the last part and got semi lost in the city, which is a great thing to do actually if you have nowhere to go. We ran into the library which was ....can't think of a word to describe, majestic, beautiful, magnicifent...I will definitely be making a trip there. Shocker! As we were wandering around halfway trying to find our way back, we saw El Catedral de Toledo through a street/ally and it was all lit up at night..another beautiful sight. I will be making a trip there as well. After we finally found our way back, we passed out immediately. I wish I could say I slept great but our fan is the loudest thing on earth. For the first half of the night, it was squeaking and squealing and the second half it was clicking extremely loud. I guess you can't expect much more in such an old building, and I should be happy because some rooms don't even have fans- we lucked out!
I'm extremely excited because my Spanish advisor finally wrote m e back about my class conflict that I had because of my internship and she said that I can take basically any class I want. The one I really wanted to originally take is an art class in which we study Christian, Muslim, and Jewish architecture. For those of you who don't know, Toledo has been ruled by all 3 of these religious groups so there's a bunch of different architecture. We get to take a field trip to Madrid to go to El Prado which will be very exciting as well!
We finished our written exam about 30 minutes ago and I don't have anything to do for almost 3 hours, (which is why I'm writing so much) when I'll have my oral exam. An hour after that I'll interview for the internship. I might go wander around the city but I'm feeling a little queasy and dizzy. One of my roommates keeps getting sick and they told her it was probably because of jetlag. I'm probably feeling the effects of that as well so I'll probably just lay low for a bit...we do have 6 weeks to explore!

I just did some research on festivals going on in Spain while we're here and it turns out there's one here next week (the 23rd) called Festival of Corpus Christi, an important religious holiday. Apparently the streets get adorned with old craftsmanship, herbs, and these awnings that we happened to actually be walking under last night. The awnings mark the way of the religious procession that takes place on the 23rd. Pretty cool!

La plaza de Zocodover...there is a McDonalds in that building that is blocked by the tree. Haha

This is la Biblioteca (library). Way too big to get into one picture. SO PRETTY

Our sneak view of the Cathedral

I took this this morning. This is the view from one of the classrooms . I am in love. This is El Catedral as well

6.15.2011

Now that I'm awake..

I landed in Madrid this morning around 7:00 their time so midnight back home. We had to wait like 40 minutes for our luggage and people from the Fundacion met us right away. Couldn't tell you about my bus ride from Madrid to Toledo, since I slept through most of it. The land looks pretty dry; it's all grassy but it's barely green and mostly brown. Once we got to Toledo, I was immediately in awe! The city is on top of a huge hill (seems like I really like going places situated on top of hills) and the hill's sides have giant stone walls. Everything is so old and cobblestoned and quaint and precious.. I was too tired today to get out and explore, but we had to walk through some of it to get to the Fundacion and I can't wait to go see more of it. We didn't really have anything to do today, the big day is tomorrow when we will have oral and written placement tests and I'll have an interview for my internship as well.
I was really nervous because there's no air conditioning in our dorm rooms (and if you know me, you know I am not tolerable of heat) but Toledo doesn't have much humidity and we have wide windows that open that I'm obsessed with, and best of all, a ceiling fan! I strategically chose my bed to be right under that just in case. There's 6 of us in our suite I guess you'd say, there's a little hallway leading into the room with 2 bathrooms off of it- 1 with a shower, 1 with a toilet. Interesting. Then there are 2 rooms, and each has 3 people in it. We have precious 90's looking little twin beds and we each have our own closet that's pretty big. We also each have our own desk with a shelf on it...in my desk drawer someone from the class of '93 had written a warning note about a "sneaky Moroccan" named Ali Baba??
This is going to be a great experience because I'm the only one from Western and there are people from all over the country. 2 of my roommates are from Minnesota, 2 from Ohio State, and one is from Evanston but goes to Notre Dame (she has a list of all the bars and interesting places to go to from her cousin so she is definitely an asset :) )
Hope everyone is doing well back home, it hasn't hit me yet that I'm not at home, but I'll definitely miss you all!

To clarify for Aunt Dianna- I am in love with the city, never saw my pilot :) I was in love with the airline though!

My one picture I've taken of a street in Toledo. It's right by the Fundacion. So many twisty narrow streets
Our room.


View from our room

Our giant oldschool window

Day 1? 2? I don't know

I'm too tired and jetlagged to write much but I will say this: I am already in love. I have no idea what time zone I'm in, or what time it is, or really much of anything other than that right now. Hopefully tomorrow I will be slightly less dead :)