Hiking, and Relaxing

Saturday and Sunday of this weekend were very pleasant.  Saturday, after waking up at 1pm, we decided to go for a hike. It was beautiful out! The temp. was about 60 degrees and we had a lot of rain the previous week so we all wanted to get outside.  We climbed to the top of this "mountain" across the river and actually across from our view at the fund.  It was lovely up there and a great view.  A Spanish family with their 3 kids had also climbed up and was asking about our stay.  I swear the kids in Spain are so much cuter than the kids in the United States.... I don't know why.  We decided to walk around the entire city of Toledo, and then cross over the bridge on the other side of the city.  It was a great 5 mile walk (I mapped it out).

Later that night, the girls went out for dinner.  We went to this little cafe/restaurant, and the waitress didn't hesistate to show that she knew we were American and didn't like us.  We were handed an English menu before we said a word and still ordered our meals in Spanish.... Regardless, we all had a blast together and were happy that tipping is not custom in Europe or Spain, specifically.  I also spotted my first red mini cooper!!! I have seen many minis around Toledo, except none had been red. So I was very excited to see one that reminded me of my own car, but European style.

The cathedral at night.

Yesterday we had a pretty low key day also.  The weather was rainy for the middle of the day.  I went to a cafe to do my "homework" with a friend.  It was fun and a good way to get out of the fund.  Afterwards we relaxed, ate dinner, and booked our trip to Portugal for this weekend.  I am excited to go on my first trip even though its an overnight bus ride... I learned the hard way that the laundry room closes at 8 regardless if you are in the middle of a load.. So when my clothes finished in the wash, the receptionist wouldn't let me dry them... Instead I had to hang them all over my room for them to dry.. I was not amused. After dinner, many of us gathered in the tv room and finished the night off by watching Pitch Perfect.

The weather today is beautiful again, even though I probably won't make it out of the fund today between all my classes.  And when I leave the fund, that means I spend money, which I don't want to do either.  Tomorrow I hope to go to the mall to purchase some warmer clothes for London and Switzerland in the next couple of weeks. :)

Madrid!!

Today we had an excursion to Madrid! We had an early morning that started at 8:15.... We took the hour bus ride to Madrid and then had a bus tour through the main parts of Madrid.  It is SO BIG! It makes me happy that I am studying abroad in a smaller city like Toledo.  I am more comfortable here, feel safer here, and will be more accustomed to the city.  Someone made a good point today.  It's like studying in Minneapolis compared to New York City.

After our bus tour, we went to the Palace de Madrid Real.  It was where most of the monarchy lived until the 19th century, I believe.  It was absolutely beautiful! It is amazing to think that people actually lived in that place.  There was gold in every room and all of the ceilings were "Michaelangeloed".  I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside of the palace unfortunately, but it was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Museo de Jamón.  We had a huge delicious lunch which included gluten free dessert!  I have never been so full.  Afterwards we had some free time to walk around and do some shopping.  And I saw that both the Sound of Music and The Lion King are on broadway here! So that may be a future plan of mine.

Unfortunately, my purse that my sister's got me for Christmas broke today... It is still useable, but the part of the cross-body strap that is connected to the purse ripped half way.. I am so sad since I have only had that purse for a month! But I am going to try to super glue it.   It must not have been able to withstand the amount of weight I was putting in it from water, to cameras, to sunglasses, etc.

Sooo that meant when I went shopping, I was going to look for a new purse! As many of you might know, I have an obsession with purses.  I knew coming into this trip that I wanted to buy a nice purse from Europe.  But I did not expect to find one the same day my purse broke or my second week here.  I didn't want to impulse buy it, so we walked around, went for coffee, and thought about it with my friends.  After discussing, I realized that it was 50% off (which is a great deal), and there was only one left, and I don't know the next time I will be in Madrid.  It could be as late as March.  So I bought it! I am so happy with it!

Today has been a good and exhausting day.  Tomorrow I am sleeping in, and probably going to walk around "old Toledo".

Flamenco

My blogging will be pretty slow throughout the week because there is not much that happens when we have class.  I will for sure update my weekends since I will either be traveling, or doing something else fun.  Now that school has started, we don't have as much free time and planning for activities during the week.

Tonight is our second night of flamenco lessons.  They are a lot of fun and actually very difficult! I'm sure if there weren't 50 students trying to learn, it would be easier.  We had it on Monday as well and I enjoyed it very much.  Last night we had intercambio dinner.  An intercambio is when they match you up with a local Spaniard  and you go to lunch with them or for coffee, and you speak in Spanish for one hour and the next hour they practice their English.  It was strangely organized though because we were just thrown into a room of Spaniards and you had to go find someone to talk to.  I ended up talking to this woman named Ruth. She was very, very nice but did not have very good conversation skills so it was hard to hold a conversation.  And here I am the exchange student who doesn't know what to ask her about.  But it went fine.

I really like my classes and professors.  I think the classes I am taking will really help improve my speaking skills, so I am excited.  The food has been getting better. I don't know if I'm just that hungry that I will eat it anyways or if I am actually adapting to it.

Last night, I booked my trip to London.  I was never planning on going since I was there in 8th grade. But our other plans fell through for a couple of trips so I could spend my money on this.  We are staying with 2 DGs from the U so we won't have to pay for lodging which will be nice. And we can eat pretty cheap.  I am excited though! I loved London the first time, and it will be cool to meet up with friends from the U.

Lunes, Lunes

Today is another first day of classes. Except this is my first full week.  Today was also the first day that I ate a huge meal. The food was pretty good today with great potatoes.  I am very satisfied.

Yesterday shopping was a bust. We got all the way to the mall to find that is was closed.... Apparently, they don't open on Sundays but the food court does. And every first Sunday of the month the stores are open.. Weird. We were not too happy because this little detail is not written on the website and it is quite the trek to the mall. But I ate some Mcdonald's which was a nice taste of home! The french fries were different here because they use olive oil instead of the fat that we use in the US.

Today before class, I went to the bank and went shopping. I bought my first two souvenirs! I bought a warm scarf because it's a lot colder here than I expected and my fashion scarves aren't warm enough. Then I bought an España scarf.  They are the decorative ones that you can hang on your wall or wear.  Most people wear them to soccer games and such.  It was really cheap and I wanted to come home with one!

Please be sure to scan old posts when you read updated ones for pictures. I don't download pictures everyday, but I will be adding them into the posts they pertain to when I download them. :)

La Nuit

Yesterday was one of the laziest days I've had in probably my life. We were up until 3:30am planning trips so I slept until about 1pm... Which I have never done before! So I laid in bed all day and watched tv shows that were very hard to load... I miss netflix and hulu! Because I'm outside of the US I can't use those sites.

I finally got out of bed later in the day to book my trip to Switzerland! I am so excited! It will be so much fun! We are going to Interlaken.  The flight was amazing cheap compared to what it is in the United States.  And this trip will be one of my more expensive ones.  I am also planning a trip to Portugal in the beginning of February and hopefully one to the Spanish islands.

Last night was the funnest night I have had since I've been in Toledo.  We went out to the bars and clubs.  One bar reopened after being remodeled and it was a favorite of students from last semester. And really cheap! It was fun.  Then we went to the club La Nuit.  That was also a blast!

There was a TON of dancing, which was very enjoyable. One of the employees there thought it would be fun to give us a photo shoot.  He took us to the part of the bar that was blocked for the night and took pictures of us behind the bar, on the bar, next to a lion statue, in the VIP section, next to the dj; it was a blast and hilarious! Don't worry, he wasn't being creepy about it.  He knows one of the girl from last semester well and was being nice.  So after we stayed out until 4am....omg--I finally went home and went to bed.

Today we are going to the mall to shop and look around.  I need a blanket and some more clothes....I didn't bring enough warm clothes. Oh well!

Planning is stressful....

Well I had a great time with Molly and Shannon! We went to la iglesia de los Jesuitas and they have a tower that you can climb to see above the city. It was a blast. We walked around, shopped, ate lunch, and went down by the river for a bit. We found this great little souvenir place that has so much stuff handmade for a great price.  After that we found an antique shop for you, Dad! We can't forget about our crazy photo shoot either! After that and some down time, Molly and Shan headed back to Madrid so Shan could catch her flight today.  I missed the other Caraway this weekend (Cait)!

Last night we all decided to stay in and watch a movie.  While doing that, we went trip planning crazy! It is soooo stressful to coordinate everything, have enough time to do everything, and find someone to go with you to all the places you want to go.  I have narrowed my list down to the places I want to go and this is where I am currently at.

I am going to Paris in April, Switzerland in February, the Canary Islands in February (they are islands off the coast of Spain that are owned by Spain). I will make it to Barcelona, Granada, Seville, and Valencia at some point (all cities in Spain).  And then for spring break, I am going to Auschwitz!!! For those of you that don't know, I have an extreme obsession with the Holocaust and learning about it.  I know that this is a very depressing place to be excited about going to but it has been my dream for many years.  I think the history that was there is incredible.  After Poland, I would meet up with others in Prague, and then Amsterdam to finish off spring break.  Molly might come with me to Auschwitz! We are going to skype today to figure it all out.

I want to start traveling ASAP because Toledo is pretty quiet and boring during the weekends unfortunately... But it's good to be around the city this weekend.

My first visitors!

Today was the first day of classes! It went pretty well.  The professors are good about talking slow, repeating their words, and making sure we understand.  I really like my professors. They are very relaxed, unlike in the states, and are pretty comical.  It's even funnier when they try to relate and compare lecture to things in the US. The classes are not as intense as ones at the U, but it will still be difficult because of the language barrier.  I have to actually pay attention and listen to what they are saying otherwise it goes in one ear and out the other.

The most exciting part of the day is Shannon and Molly arrived from Algeciras, Spain! I met Shannon at 3:45.  After getting lost trying to find the hostel they are staying at, (we circled it twice) we went out for a glass of wine to catch up.  After that, I showed her my room, and we hung out for a couple of hours.  For dinner we went to get pizza (I know, nothing too exciting).  And while waiting for Molly to arrive, we went for tea and dessert.  I had a churro type chocolate thing.

Even though the food in Spain is terrible, the desserts are to die for!

Tomorrow we are going to go down by the river and hang out, shop, and go to this tower where we can see the entire city.

I also realized today is the first day I didn't take a single picture.... !Hasta luego!

Tour de Toledo

Today was a very fun day.  We had a tour of Toledo that was beautiful! We crossed the river and went up the mountain to get a view of the entire city.  It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life--so far.  The pictures don't do it justice.  We had a tour guide which was fun and he gave us some fun facts about the city, and showed us important places that will be useful during our time here.

That lasted the entire morning.  We walked around and bought some other necessities.  The hot chocolate here is actually just chocolate melted... buzz kill.  But I did have my first expresso at lunch and it was decent with sugar and milk.

I had to buy a hair dryer and straightener today because they either didn't have enough air pressure, and my straightener burnt out because the voltage is so different.

Tonight is the big night out in Toledo.  Instead of going to the bars on the weekend, like in the states;  the Spaniards go out on Wednesdays and Thursday until about 5 or 6 am.... So we will see what happens. We are going to a club called La Nuit.  It should be a good time.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes.  I hope it will go well.

Tapas y Cervezas

Well yesterday was a very busy day!  First we started out waking up to take a grammar test....which I'm pretty sure I failed.  But in the end it will be okay because they just want to make sure you are taking classes that will be too hard for you to understand.

After that, we had a meeting with one of the professors to talk about the class schedule, and we made our class schedule.  I am taking 15 credits to finish my Spanish minor to make sure I graduate in four years.  I have about 2-3 classes a day, which is a lot compared to other students.  But I am not doing an internship, which most are.  The classes are only an hour and a half long--it will be a breeze compared to the 2-3 hour classes I had last semester at the U!

After the meetings were done, I got my cell phone.  It is about half the size of my iphone, and twice as light.  I miss when cell phones used to be that simple.  Than a group of about 20 of us, went down to the river to walk around and take pictures.  It was BEAUTIFUL! The grass is so green, and the mountains (or what I think as mountains), and the landscaping was gorgeous.  I took way to many photos and we explored the ruins that were around the river.

Once we had enough, we went for a beer and tapas.  My tapas (appetizers) was decent.  I thought I would try something instead of taking the peanuts.  It was a beef ball.  Kind of like a meatball, minus the flavor, and twice the salt.  I also tried an Amstel beer.  I am just not a beer fan, but it is the cheapest so I am forcing myself to like it.

After we had a presentation about living life in Spain from the bank, to the post office, to traveling, the bus routes, etc., we decided to go out for the first big night on the town.  We went to an outside bar that overlooks the "suburbs" of Toledo.  It was gorgeous, and not that cold for the first 3 hours.

ATTENTION: DO NOT SEND PACKAGES TO TOLEDO.  I know all of you want to send me stuff, but customs will confiscate it if they think it's been used for business related things.  If anything needs to be brought to me, please send it to my mom or dad in the states.  MOM AND DAD: DON'T SEND ME ANYTHING.  Bring it with you when you visit. :)

Down by the river.  On the side of Toledo.  (Toledo is surrounded by a river on 3/4 of the city.)

My beer and tapas.

Día Uno

I have arrived in Spain!  My flight from MSP to Atlanta was not the best in the world.  It ended up being delayed because another plane was blocking us in at the gate.... Once we got on the next flight, I was disappointed to find that we didn't have our individual televisions like I were counting on. But the flight went pretty quickly and we were fed some nasty plane food, which tasted great because we were starving.

Overall, today has been the longest day of my life.  It's weird to think it's Monday and that I never really got a full nights sleep. We arrived in Toledo, made it through customs, and got both of the bags (I had to check one of my carry ons in Atlanta), and followed the group to find the people with the "fundación" sign (the nickname of my program).  After an hour bus ride, a luggage transfer, and then a short bus ride and walk, we arrived to the fundación which is tucked away in the middle of Toledo.

The streets are so small and the architecture is amazing!  All the streets are cobblestone which is hard to walk on, even in flats.  My feet were exhausted when we walked around for only an hour.

I am in a triple.  It is a suite to another triple, which my friend Amanda happened to be assigned to the other side of the suite.  I live with a girl named Carla from Puerto Rico.  She is really nice, and is going to help me with my Spanish.  Even though I made a fool out of myself today... But I am going to blame that on being up for more than 24 hours.  So far we do not have a 3rd roommate and I'm hoping it stays that way.

After our tour of the fundación, we had some free time to go explore.  We walked the streets, looked into shops (many of which were medieval themed), and eventually met up with some other students at the bar.  I had my first ever legal drink, a Spanish beer.  It was okay.  I like to think of today as my 21st birthday!

The food here is really interesting, and not very good at all.  I am hoping breakfast will be better tomorrow.  Maybe it will just take some getting used to.

Tomorrow I have a written exam on my Spanish and grammar, and also an interview about my classes, I believe.  Hopefully tomorrow will be less overwhelming than today.

Buenas noches.

Hello family and friends!

This is my blog that I will be updating weekly while I am living in Spain.  I will give updates on what new foods I try, what amazing places I see, the problems I have speaking Spanish with the locals, and everything in between! Feel free to share this blog with anyone who is interested.

Tomorrow is the big day.  I finished packing last night.  Despite my fear that I would never be able to pack an entire wardrobe for a whole semester in one suitcase, I managed to fit it all in! I was very proud of myself to say the least.  Many of you have asked me if I am excited about going to Toledo, and my answers have been very vague.  I have been planning this study abroad experience since freshman year of college, and it is very surreal that it is actually happening.

I know I will be excited once I set foot in the airport tomorrow morning.  It will be quite the experience and one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

More to follow once I am on Spanish soil. ¡Hasta luego!