'Ello London

On Thursday I packed myself a nice dinner to eat on the plane and then I was off for a fun weekend with Briana. Unfortunately it took way too long for everyone to board and we sat on the runway for a good amount of time so the plane took off an hour late, which made me nervous about my transportation options when I would arrive. I got into London and I made my way to the trains and after I picked up my tickets I found out I had the perfect amount of time to catch the 11:16 train. Originally Briana was supposed to meet me at the tube stop and we'd go together but she somehow had the wrong information about the Tube (London's subway) closing at 11 PM. I caught the lady right before she shut the window for the night to buy an oystercard and filled it with 20 pounds. I asked a few girls which line went to King's Cross, managed to get on going the right direction and made it to King's Cross around midnight where Briana met me.

At the dorm her friend Riley signed me in to get a guest pass under his name because they have a rule that there can only be one guest per room and her roommate Jess already had her friend Kim visiting. We went upstairs and sat in her communal kitchen to hang out for a bit because Jess and Kim were sleeping because they had to get up at 5 AM to catch a train to Brussels. Briana and I got all caught up and then went to bed fairly early with big plans for sightseeing the next day, which turned into an off the beaten path trip instead.

Around the time the girls were getting up I heard someone sniffling and crying. I was afraid to say anything and luckily Briana asked Jess what was wrong. She said she felt horribly sick and didn't think she'd be able to go to Brussels. I wasn't sure if she was crying because she felt sick or because they were going to lose the money they spent on tickets, but we all tried to figure out what was wrong with her and how we could help. She was feeling really nauseous and had the chills so Briana figured out what the deal was with their health center. Unfortunately it didn't open until 9 and it was only around 6 AM so we decided to just keep an eye on her and wait.

They called the front desk and all they offered was calling an ambulance for her, which didn't seem to be what she needed. Since Kim was visiting from NYC she talked to her parents about switching her plane ticket to be able to go back early and not spend the weekend if Jess was feeling sick. As Kim was getting signed out Jess wandered away from the desk and fainted, hitting her head and was out for a few minutes. All the people working at the dorm were aware of the situation at that point and decided to call a cab for us to take her to the hospital. Kim felt so terrible and started crying, but she had to catch her plane so we did our best to keep her updated. Briana and I waited in the hospital for about an hour but she was getting a lot of tests done and so we just decided to go home. She had booked the London Eye for 7 PM so we decided to wait at the dorm for a while to see if Jess called an then left around 5 PM (which happened to be the time she got home).

After such a stressful morning it was nice to go on the Eye. It's hard to describe the experience except for that it's like a slow moving ferris wheel with incredible sites of London. We went at the perfect time, just at sunset to see everything with a beautiful sunset and then also at night all lit up. London is HUGE, overwhelmingly huge. Not like NYC tall, but just massive in how far it expands. On my trip I only saw the tiniest fraction of it. We got back, were relieved Jess was home and sleeping, and made some pasta for dinner and were so exhausted after the day's turn of events we went to bed super early.

The next day we went to go see Westminster/Big Ben, St. Jame's Park with the Buckingham Palace, and I got to try out my new art appreciation skills at the National Gallery. I was quite impressed with my newfound ability to spot Spanish artists from across the room. It was a great museum and was free. It was nice to go to a museum and see other artists outside of the Prado, today in class I really impressed my teacher, too.

WINSTON!

I stayed in a hostel for my last two nights due to all the restrictive rules of the dorm and the fact I had to get up at 4 AM on monday morning to go to the airport. It did the trick and was RIGHT around the corner from Briana and even closer to the train station, which made it very convenient. We spent Sunday shopping on Oxford St and I found a lot of great buys and was able to use the rest of my 20 pounds that would be a pain to exchange.

Overall it was a really great getaway and it helped to have a lot of the things I missed including hummus(which I ate the equivalent of an entire big tub of), pomegranate, cranberry juice, bagels, and Briana! It put me in a really great mood and after a stressful week in my homestay due to various reasons, it was exactly what I needed. Now I'm in my last week of school before Spring Break, and I have a big paper due.

Becoming a chef and assorted other successes

So I just wanted to share with all of you who know how terrible I (usually) am at cooking all the wonderful food I've made this week. I found a new love for recipezaar.com because there's a filter where you can search for recipes that have 5 ingredients or less. So far I've made Spicy Mustard Chicken, Honey Lime Chicken, and Chicken Parmesan. I was very proud of myself to say the least. They all came out really tasty (surprisingly) and I even brought my second batch of Chik Parm to school to eat while I studied and everyone was saying "ooooh, did you make that?!"

I've also been pretty excited about the grades I've been getting so far. I came here knowing I wouldn't be putting in as much effort but I got an A- on my Cinema midterm, an A on my first Prado quiz, and an A- on the midterm. I got a B+ on my Cuban Revolution paper that I thought I did horribly on (which I did grammar-wise but he really liked the content). I have yet to see how I did on my Islam and Spain midterm but I think I could possibly get an A. So this makes me a lot less worried about how I'm doing in class and I know the effort I've been putting in is sufficient.
UPDATE: I got a 97 on my Islam and Spain Midterm... went from knowing nothing to an expert!

Also I've been going to the gym a lot lately and it really feels great to get back into working out. I take a class called Cardio Tonic with Adrian and I'm always dripping in sweat and every muscle in my body gets worked. I went from once a week to two and this week I went to all three classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. After all that hard work I treated myself to a massage today which I desperately needed and my gym has a great hour long massage for 30 euro (which is less than $40!).

I also thought I'd fill everyone in on the upcoming weeks ahead because I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling. Next weekend I'm going to London to visit Briana. Then the following weekend our two week Spring Break begins. I'm spending the first weekend in the Canary Islands (May 28-April 1), then I'm going to have one day back in Madrid to get reorganized and then I head to London to spend the night with Briana before we head to Amsterdam (April 3-6) and Paris (April 6-9). Then I have Easter Weekend to relax before I have to go back to the reality of school. The weekend after we return to classes (April 17-19) I am going to Lisbon, Portugal with 7 of my friends here. All of the transportation and hostels for all the trips above is costing me less than $800.

It's going to be a lot of traveling but it's really one of the things I was most excited for in coming here. I'm definitely going to need another massage after all of it. I'm a bit disappointed I won't be going to Morocco and a few other places in Spain but I know I'll be coming back to Spain for a year to teach English after I graduate which will give me plenty of time to see the spots I missed.

Castles, Castles, and more Castles!

NYU let us pick out of three weekend trips to take, and I picked the trip to places that I knew I would never see on my own, and it was really worth it! We went to a region in Spain called Extremadura and crossed over into Portugal.

The trip didn't start out on the greatest foot. I was all ready to go the night before and left early so as to not have to rush around in the metro to get to campus at 8 am. I've never had problems with the metro here, not once, and of course on that morning there were issues and it was announced it might not come for another 15 or 20 minutes. Then, the nervous person I am, call my friend Jill who was already there and told her there were issues and I would take a taxi even though at that point I would still probably be late. After spending 8 euro on the taxi ride I found out that they were waiting for everyone to get there because of the metro issues. I was so flustered and angry about wasting the money that I was ready to deem the trip a fail before we even left. Luckily things turned around and it turned out to be a beautiful trip.

The first stop, Merida, was full of Roman ruins which after going my freshman year of high school on my trip around Rome and Athens I felt like I could fully appreciate. We watched Gladiator on the bus right before we got there (Maximus the Spaniard is supposed to come from this town in the movie!) and it really helped set the tone to picture all the fights that went on there. I forgot my camera in my backpack which happened to be under the bus, so sorry to say no pictures from here.

We stayed in a small city called Caceres. There were storks all over the place clacking their beaks. We got a tour of all of the old quarter inside the castle walls with it's churches and royal homes. There was also a film festival going on, red carpeted street and all.

NYU really hooked us up with a nice hotel, big rooms, lovely bathrooms, and a GREAT breakfast. Jill who I was rooming with and I were still full from lunch and were so exhausted so we just had some snacks and went to bed at like 9:30.

Saturday we went to Portugal and saw two more castles. The one little town Castelo de Vide I loved mostly because of all the old men walking around with their newsies caps. They all had them, in lots of different colors and styles, and they all had canes. I'm not exaggerating, the town was just filled with groups of cute old men in their Caps for Sale caps (my parents better get that reference!) and their canes.

The Fearless Leaders

Marvao, the other Portuguese castle town was up high on a mountain, so as to not be attacked easily. The castle was beautiful and we had plenty of time to wander around and explore it. The views were amazing.

That night Jill and I had tapas in outside seating in the Plaza Mayor of Caceres looking at the lit-up castle, then had some delicous ice cream. I forgot to mention how beautiful the weather was the whole time and I got my first sunburn in the first week of March which has to be a record. Today it was in the upper 60's, sunny, and gorgeous. Yes, I know you are all jealous.

Today we went to this funky museum. It was all modern and hard to explain, and although I don't usually understand or like modern art, this stuff was pretty cool and in a gorgeous location in the middle of nowhere.

Then we had to go to one last castle. This one was pretty funny because there were some college aged kids dressed up in medieval outfits trying to make some sort of movie. The views here were also incredible. Lunch was a bit disappointing because I ordered the hamburguesa (hamburger) and they brought out just the patty, fries, and fried eggs. Not exactly what I had in mind.

Reunited

Irene came to Madrid to visit me this weekend. It was a really great time, and we are both so excited to have so much time together this summer (Dad you guessed right, luckily she isn't getting a job). She came Saturday morning and left on Sunday night and we did a lot of walking around Madrid. We got Indian food for lunch and basically had dessert for dinner because we were still so full.

We did a little shopping, but it was more like perusing because neither of us wanted to spend a lot of money. Nothing all too exciting really, we just had a lot to catch up on not seeing each other in two years. Her English is still excellent, and although we should have talked in Spanish we mostly spoke in English with eachother.

Reme LOVED Irene. It was so funny. She just kept going on and on after she left about what a nice girl she was (tan simpatica, maja, preciosa, guapa). I think it was a nice break for her to have someone Spanish to talk to outside of her family. I mean she could go on about the current state of things in Spain and political stuff and Irene was following along right with her as we watched the news.

Although the weekend was a lot of fun, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep and happened to have a midterm today in my Spanish Cinema class. I think I did okay on it, nothing spectacular but I'll get at least a B I think (and hope). This is midterm week so everyone's stressing out, mine are spread out over the next two weeks so it won't be so piled on. This weekend I have a trip with the school to Extremadura and Portugal which I'm looking forward to.

I hope everyone back home is doing alright with this snowstorm I'm hearing and reading about. I saw "A Foot of Snow is Predicted for New York City" on my NYTimes newsfeed and felt a lot better about being here. They cancelled school everywhere in NYC except NYU.