Spring Break con Mis Padres!

Sunday April 25^th

April 1-19^th was a blast! While many friends back home were finishing up classes, I was taking an extended Spanish siesta also known as my spring break.

A few friends and I went to for the first leg of the trip to Sevilla. We met up with a friend from high school who is studying in Leon, Matt, as well as a friend I went to high school and middle school with who happens to be studying in Sevilla, Mindy.

Sevilla, besides being one of the most “romantic cities” in Spain is also knows for its high crime amount. I read this in my Frommer’s guide to Spain while flying to Seville, got off the plane, proceeded to get dropped off by a bus at 11p.m. right in the area where they said to avoid late at night. Apparently that was where muggings have been reported. I decided to walk it alone instead of getting a taxi since the directions said it was only a twenty minute walk…. This turned out to be one of the worst decisions of my trip as I now have two broken ribs, am in a sling, and have 200 less euro to my name L. Lol jk sometimes stories need some spice. I ended up getting some directions from some very nice Spaniards, made it to the hostel fine and hit the hay for the night.

The next three days we took part in a tour of the bull arena, the Sevillan Cathedral and many tours of the local tourist shops(there were tons of them). The park I was nearly mugged at during the day is actually amazing! It used to be the queen’s private gardens, but is now open to the public. As for some of the highlights of Sevilla, The Guadalquivir River was great for paddle-boating for a few hours, as well as an early morning run. Again, the cathedral was AMAZING! The goal of the builders was to have visitors think they were crazy after it was finished. I think they’re crazy, its massive!

After Sevilla I took a bus up to Madrid and met one of the Sevillan pro-basketball team’s physical therapists. He was a really cool guy, it gave me a good chance to speak Spanish, and we’re now friends on facebook!

I meet my parents in Madrid at the airport the next day and we stayed with some friends of ours in Madrid the Guerras for the next few days. Just like last time, their hospitality was amazing. We had a two and a half hour 6 course meal with them and their relatives! After filling our bellies we proceeded to the Retiro as well as the Museo del Prado.

After Madrid, on Monday morning, we hoped aboard a train to Cordoba. We decided not to rent a car, which turned out to be a great idea. In Cordoba we took a taxi to our hotel very close to the Christian Mosque. While in the taxi, we went through a few of those European metal barriers that protrude from the road. You need a pass to get through them. As we walked back we saw one vehicle had tried to make it through while the barrier while it was down. You can imagine how his car looked afterwards. Some highlights of Cordoba were the Christian Mosque that was originally built in the 6^th century, the Alcazar which is the Arabic word for palace, got lost in town and found a great restaurant where we proceeded to have another two hour Spanish lunch!

The next morning we went to Granada by bus. We made it to the hotel, then on up to the Alhambra or Red Castle. This place is amazing for its gardens, and walled fortress that rises above the rest of the castle. This is one of my favorite places in all of Spain! I definitely recommend it. The view is amazing as its all built on a large hill. After the Alhambra we found another place to have another great Spanish dinner with a hilarious waiter. Another five course meal cost us 8.50 euro per person!

The next day we stayed in Granada and spent most of the day having café con leche, shopping and being lazy. I think this was Mom’s favorite day of the trip. That night we took the TrenHotel to Valencia. A 7.5 hour trip through the night was made so much better with beds and a few drinks. My dad and I ordered the usual, a few beers, and Mom ordered a bottle of wine! Actually she had no choice, she asked for a glass of wine, but it turns out that the entire wine bottle was her only option!

We only spent twelve hours in Valencia, but they were twelve hours well spent. We went to La Cuidad de Artes y Ciencias and I finally got to go inside and check out the exhibits! We checked out the sciences building as well as L’ Oceanografic exhibits in La Cuidad. Afterwards we took a walk down to the Mediterranean Sea, then made it back for our train ride back to Madrid for the night in time for a great Spanish dinner with Pablo and Paloma at the Guerra residence.

The following morning we woke up early, went to the train station to get tickets for the 10a.m. train to Toledo, which happened to be sold out. We eventually made it to Toledo on a 12:30 train. This roadblock ended up not hindering our day trip as two of the main attractions were closed. The Alcazar was closed because that museum as well as another one were swapping exhibits. Apparently it has been closed for 4 years! Now that’s Spanish time for you. We ended up seeing the cathedral of Toledo, which had a great presentation as well as a 500 pound monstrance! We did some more shopping, had another extended Spanish lunch and went home for another great Spanish dinner.

The last trip we took from Madrid was to Segovia, which really made me think of Genovia from Princess Diaries (don’t tell anyone I said that). Pablo and his wife, Alicia came with Mom, Dad and me. We saw the summer home of the Spanish royal families as well as the Segovian Alcazar, then went out for a Spanish lunch, or more of a Spanish feast! After being fed we walked the city some more, sat down for some more café con leche out on the terrace overlooking a the city, and headed back for the night.

The next morning I woke up, Pablo and I took my parents to the airport after a crazy busy week of fun. It was really great to see them! They made it back safe and sound, without any Icelandic volcanoes/ash getting in their way. My roommate was another story. I’ll let him tell that one. I didn’t know where he was for a few days, somewhere in Europe…

Enjoy and God Bless,

Kyle

Spring Break with A Bang

My spring break started March 30 during Holy Week. Almost everythign was closed in Spain during this time. My parents showed up on Good Friday. We did some sightseeing in Valencia over the next couple of days. Went to the Oceonografico, which is just a big aquarium. The aquarium itself wasn't that impressive, but the the dolphin show was very good. It was like sea world good. We also went to the Cathedral for mass on Sunday to see the cup of Christ, or what is claimed to be the Cup of Christ. It is a vey beautiful cathedral.
After we got bored with Valencia we went to Denia, to our apartment down there, thank you Tina and Danny. The resort was small, but very nice. Unfortunately it was not lay on the beach and take in the sun weather, but we did have fun there. We saw the Castle there and and went to a pub to get Jamie his first guiness. We also went to a resturaunt and I ordered cuttlefish, which turned out to be actually very good. We got it again latter, my brother and I that is. From Denia we took the train to Alicante and walked around there. We also went to a castle there too. It was a little bit bigger than the one in Denia. We gabbed the train back to Denia for the night and then went back to Valencia and dropped our luggage off before we went to Toledo.
Toledo was amazing. It is an old midevil city that looks pretty much like it did when they were dumping their waste out the windows. There were swords everywhere and a lot of gold and jewelry. The city is famous for the handmade jewelry. Don't bring your girlfriend there, or you will be broke by the time you leave! The cathedral there was absolutely amazing. Unlike anything that I have every seen. We went to a resturaunt and my parents and my borther ordered spaghetti with baby eels, one of the most disgusting things I have every seen. Well we then took a train back to Valencia and we had to take first class on the train which is well worth it. We got served snacks, juice, wine, and liquor.
When we got back to Valencia we went to the American bar and had a drink there. The following morning, my parents left and I did some laundry and cleaned a little. Then on Momday I left for Fatima, Portugal. It was very relaxing. Not the best weather, but very nice. I got a very cheap place that was literally right across from the shrine an it had room for 3 people even though I only booked for one. I then left for London. There I met Mike and we went to some pubs and saw the H.M.S. Bellfast, a british naval ship. Then it happened, the volcano in Iceland erupted and all flights out of the UK were grounded. My flight was rescheduled for Monday so Mike and I decided to go to Cambridge and see the American WWII cemetery there. We went walking down some random path and through some small villages. We checked out the college, which is very beautiful. Then we came back to London in time to have some tea with some of Mike's friends. We actually didn't have tea, just champagne, finger sandwhiches, biscuits, and the you know, the usuall. Then I found out my flight got canceled all together. So I am sitting in London right now trying to figure out how I can get back to Spain within the next month. I will let you know how it goes.

Ireland & Las Fallas

Hello All,

Sorry it has been a very long time since I have been on here, I apologize, it's just hard to blog when you are always on vacation. :) Well, March 12 Kyle and I left for Ireland. We spent 5 days there, including St. Patrick's Day, and then came back to Valencia for Las Fallas. Our first night of our Ireland trip was spent in the Bristol airport because we got in late and flew out early, bad choice, but something every student abroad does at least once. When we got into Dublin, we went downtown to catch the tour bus that Kyle signed us up for. This was a very nice tour. We went south of dublin and saw the 40 foot, which is on the coast where people go swimming everyday all year long supposedly to keep them looking young, also saw James Joyce Tower, and much of the country side. One of our final stops was the ruins of an old monastery. All that was left of it was a tower, the walls to the church, an out building, and the cemetery. We also walked some of the park around it. Then we went into the Wicklow mountains and went to a viewing area overlooking Guinness Lake. It's called this because it is shaped like a pint glass, has a very dark color, and Guinness actually trucked in 30,000 tons of white sand to create the frosty top. Then we got back on the bus and all had a shot of Jameson together. In short this was the tour which actually lasted about 8 hours. Well worth it.

The following day we went to the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson. That took up our entire day. The Guinness Storehouse tour was self-guided and we were able to pour out own pints of complimentary Guinness and then received a certificate proving that we are Certified to Pour Guinness. lol The "tour" ended in the 360 degree viewing area at the top of the storehouse. Overall, an excellent tour. The Jameson tour was not self guided and was actually very short. I was not all that impressed, but I did learn a little bit from it. At the end we were given a glass of Jameson whiskey either, straight, with ginger-ale, or with cranberry juice. I took the ginger-ale, it was surprisingly very good.

Our third day in Dublin was spent walking around the city looking at the old buildings and taking tours of some of them. We went into City Hall and they had an exhibit on the history of Dublin and Ireland, very nice. We also took a tour of Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We were even allowed to go down into the crypt of Christ Church, which was pretty sweet. We also went to the Wax Museum, which was quite interesting. They had some interesting figures in there. Anything from the Ninja Turtles to Pope Benedict XVI. We tried to get into Dublin castle but by 2:00 all the tickets were already sold out.

Our last day in Dublin we spent at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was not your typical parade. For example one of the floats was a big turtle with a DJ on top with his mixing board playing techno, that was it. And the majority of the floats were pushed. After the Parade we went to Hurling Match and a Gaelic Football Match. Hurling is a lot like lacrosse and Gaelic Football is like soccer accept more physical and you can use your hands and run with the ball, but you have to dribble it or bounce it off your foot every so often. It was really sweet to watch and we sat next to some Irish guys whole explained to us what was going on. I would have preferred the Rugy game Ireland vs. Wales, but those tickets were a little bit out of my price range, cheapest being 250 euros.

After the games we caught our plane to London-heathrow, slept in the airport again and then got our flight to Valencia. When we got to Valencia, we took a siesta and then were ready to begin the Fallas festivities. Lucy and Lauren came down from Madrid for Las Fallas and we sat in our apartment until about 1 in the morning pre-gaming, but that actually ended up being all the game that Kyle and I had for that night thanks to the house drink Kyle and Eddy decided to make which was made up of anything and everything that they found in our liquor cabinet. The following night was much better. We went out and watched the "floats," more like statues cuz they were never in a parade and never moved from their location, that each neighborhood made burn and then went to the big one in Plaza Ayuntamiento. I am pretty sure that they were all made up of very little wood and a lot of Styrofoam. The floats were located in very small places in downtown so the firefighters were present for each one watering down the surrounding building so that they did not catch fire. This is something that you would never see in the States. If Obama saw this, he would shit his pants. The rest of the weekend was very nice and relaxing.

I just got back from a vacation with my parents around southeastern Spain and am in the process of preparing for my next trip in which I leave for in 2 days. When I get back from that one I will do another blog, maybe.;)

God Bless,

John

O does time Fly!

Hey All,

Classes

When in Spain, time flies, the last month was no exception. Classes, we’ll start there. The first week at the University (UPV) was a little crazy. It was Feb. 12^th when I went to my first international student meeting for my department where I was told by my international advisor that it didn’t have to have my class schedule together/go to class if I didn’t want to until the 20^th of February. Many of my classes had already started the week earlier on the 1^st. As I started going around to classes the professors seemed to have a different opinion on the issue. Shortly thereafter, I would come to find out in Spain, everything is “tranquillo,” you need to “relajarte,” and whatever happens “no pasa nada.” I was told to be “tranquillo” more times than any other word in the first week of school.

I am currently enrolled in Water Resources and Management (an English class taught by a Spanish professor), Ingenieria Sismica (a Spanish class taught by a Spanish professor), a Spanish course, Regional and Practical Geology in Spanish, as well as a Geotecnias y Cimientos (Geotechnical and Foundations in Spanish). Some of my Spanish friends have told me that twenty percent of the Spanish students pass the last class I mentioned. The ones in Spanish are fairly difficult, but tranquillo, it’ll work itself out.

In Valencia I’ve been going out for some Spanish “tapas y canas” with some Spanish students every once in a while. Every Monday the study abroad program here, Erasmus, gives out free Paella, which is a Spanish rice-based dish and great for a college kid looking to save some money. I will start adding “tandem” to my schedule as well which is every Tuesday and Wednesday night. You show up at a restaurant, find a Spanish student who wants to learn English, speak Spanish for an hour and English for the next. It’s a good way to meet people as well as learn the language.

Birthday Weekend

February 25^th was my 21^st birthday, and came a lot faster than I had anticipated. Paolina, our French roommate, made French crepes for my birthday, which were delicious, especially with our peanut butter, which goes great with anything! John and I have pretty much been living off the stuff over here. Lol. Paolina had a French friend over who, like Paolina, thought our peanut-butter substance was revolting. I found out later that she didn’t appreciate us putting it on the crepes and was put off by it. Oops…But Tranquillo, no pasa nada.

We took our first trip from Valencia to Barcelona/Andorra the weekend of my 21^st birthday, not a bad birthday present. I can’t complain. In Barcelona we visited la Iglesia de la Segrada Familia, spent a good amount of time on Las Ramblas (one of the most famous streets in Europe), enjoyed Gaudi Park and went to a club at night.

Next we spent two days in Andorra. Andorra is a country between France and Spain and is advertized all around Spain as one big ski resort in the Pyrenees. We got a tour of the Andorran parliament at my buddy Mike’s request, and checked out a lot of the Andorran tax free shops including a few spy shops. At night Sander (a friend from Holland traveling with us), Lucy (from Madrid), and I went to a concert that we thought was jazz. It ended up being a classical guitarist and violinist. I played the same style of guitar for six years, so that was cool to see. Afterward we ended up meeting a really friendly 84 year old guy (yes he told us his age) who had been a journalist in Andorra for 60 years. He ended up introducing us to just about everyone at the concert. He was introducing us to composers, music coaches, and finally the musicians themselves, and later on their families! Sander got to talking with the violinist who apparently is from Holland and is famous there. One of the family members actually asked him if he was her boyfriend! Anyway, we went to a Catalan restaurant afterward for some great regional Spanish cuisine. John, Mike and Heather had been at Europe’s largest spa that night and came back to the hostel loving life. All is good right? ;)

Skiing

The next day was Sunday of skiing, which I’d been looking forward to for the entire weekend. We took a gondola up to the mountain, taught Lucy, John and Heather how to ski, then hit up the rest of the park. It didn’t take us too long to hit some road bumps however. We had gone down one blue square fine, well I was fine. It was a steep hill and everyone else ended up falling. Sander’s fall was the best as he skidded about halfway down the hill and ended up unable to move in some orange fencing. I got to see the whole thing! Great wipe-out buddy. I wanted to take a little harder run next so I took a red circle and everyone else was going to meet me at the bottom after taking another blue square. Mike decided at the last minute to come with me on the harder hill for some reason (I thought to myself this probably isn't a good idea). He ended up making it all the way down fine until it came to stopping, he fell, hit his back off the snow and ended up colliding with a snowboarder with his bad knee.

I have been about ten feet from Mike on a ski hill every time he breaks some thing, so I was a little concerned. I’ve seen this three times previously. So he told me he’d go up to the top of the hill to rest at a bench. He couldn’t find a bench at the top and ended up trying to ski back down and made it about two feet as his knee pretty much fell out from under him. He ended up tearing some ligaments as well as his ACL. For some reason we couldn’t go down to the hospital with him unless we wanted to pay extra, so we kept skiing. John and I got to ski for about an hour after that and bombed many of the hills as usual. It was absolutely amazing with the backdrop of the Pyrenees Mountains. Andorra is definitely on the list of places to go back to.

Coming soon:

Ireland- St. Patty’s Day

Las Fallas

On a side note, just for pure entertainment, John is sitting here looking up random flights as I’m typing out the blog. Rome for New Years came up for next year, then brilliance came over me. New Years in Rome, then get a flight back to the states to catch it in New York! I’m sure my dad will love the idea.

Enjoy,

Kyle

The Land of the Siestas and the Fiestas

Hey you guys!

Its February 14th, my big sis's birthday. Happy Birthday Val! Crazy, we've been here for over a month already! Its flying by. Sorry about the delayed response, although we are in Espana, the place where time seems to not exist. Anyway, we finally found a place to stay after two weeks of searching. If you want the whole story ask me in person, but here's the condensed version.

The house hunt began in Gandia, we would get out of class, get to the train station as quick as possible for the hour train ride to Valencia. Once we arrived we'd take the metro to our first destination to visit. We'd walk all over the city, look at four places then take the hour train back to Gandia for the night for class the next morning. We did this three times, and after a while found a better way! After our Spanish course finished up we moved to Valencia, and spent a week at a youth hostel. The owner of the hostel is from Oregon, is American, and works at the only American bar in Valencia, so after searching all day, there were many nights hanging out with some Brits at the Portland Ale House. Near the end of the search I found a place near the university with all spaniards (who don't speak English) and who didn't smoke. I was pumped that I had finally found the place. I was all but ready to sign the papers to live in the apartment when the owner called me up and wanted to talk to me in person by myself at night! I was a little nervous about it but went anyway. I found out through a somewhat awkward conversation that the owner and his partner were gay, that I need to be VERY open to his gayness, and that we needed to be more of a family than just a place to live for the semester. Wow I did not see that coming! After much deliberation and a few brews at the Portland Ale house, I decided against it. John and I did have another place to live however between downtown and our University, near a huge garden. Its really nice and is actually fairly massive. Five of us live here, a French Girl, Paolina, a guy from Morrocco, Simo, a Bloody Brit, Eddy, and the two Americans. Quite the cultural experience.

Also, Don't worry we're not doing everything American over here, although I have eaten more fast food here than I ever had back home, we have had some paella, churros y chocolate, along with a Doner Kebab (a Turkish wrap which is Amazing)!

Last night we went to El Museo de Artes y Ciencias (John mentioned it in a previous post) for a free concert! The atmosphere was amazing, they drained one of the huge pools of water right in the middle, and had the biggest concert that I've ever been to. I couldn't even give you a rough count. I've uploaded some pics onto my facebook if you want to check it out. I'm sure there are also some great google images of the place as well. Today is Sunday, and John and I haven't done anything! Its great.

Enjoy,
Kyle

First Day in Valencia

So we got in about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. Showed up at our hostel, which is actually just some guys apartment where he rents out the extra rooms. He's a really cool guy. Originally from Iowa, but moved here 3 years ago. After we got our stuff in our room we went to the American Bar down town, had a drink and bought out tickets for the Super Bowl party. I am so excited. All you can eat and I get to watch the super bowl on big screen. It's a great bar too.
Kyle and I think we have a place. It's a 4 person place, and so far it's only us two, so we need another 2 people or else it's a little too expensive. But we got a place, that's the important thing. We left the bar after we got our tickets and then just started walking. We walked through the garden that goes through the middle of town, and all I have to say is AMAZING!!! Then we came across the City of Sciences. Again, AMAZING!!! I would post pictures, but I'm in a cafe and I forgot my cord for my camera in my room. They will be up shortly. Somebody had quite a bit of money to spend, an architect had a lot of fun, and some engineer had a lot of work to do. I will leave it at that. Definitely worth seeing at night. This city is amazing. We have just been walking around today and it is really cool. Can't wait to figure out all the transportation around here. Although, it really isn't that far to walk across the city. Things really aren't that far, and if we have a bike, we could get around really fast. Well, until next time.

God bless,
John

Last days in Gandia

So we have been here in Gandia for the past two weeks taking spanish classes. We just finished taking our finals, which were really easy, at least for me they were. Tomorrow we find out if we passed and then we have a going away party tomorrow night.
As of right now neither of us have a place to stay when we go to Valencia, but that is OK because we will figure it out. We might end up in some hostels for a while until we find a place, but that's OK too. That's all I got right now, I will post again when we arrive in Valencia.

God Bless,
John