Come Fly With Me

Quiet Copenhagen

2010-02-21T15:40:00.002-05:00

Some non-traditional pictures from my Birthday weekend in Copenhagen

Turning 25 in Copenhagen [Day 2]

2010-02-15T18:17:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of the Copenhagen Birthday experience was spent wandering the streets with Jonas.

We walked to some famous cemetery to see HC Andersen's grave as well as that of Issac Bohr. No, I still don't know who Mr. Bohr is, but they insist that he is important.

here is a cold Jonas, and then a cold Liz

And for those of you that are interested, the tombstone, you can translate his epitaph if you like, I had it translated for me in the cemetery... don't remember what it said... Jonas was upset it didn't rhyme...

We then went to the weirdest place I have ever been in my entire life... Christiania

You just need to read the article for a decent explanation, but basically these guys built their own houses in the 70's and declared themselves a free state. They don't pay taxes [subject of controversy] and they allow the sale of hash [another subject of controversy]. You can't really take pictures because that would be proof of the drug trade, so they don't tolerate that. I took a picture of the sign on the way out....

Bizarre.

We then went to the state art museum where it was warm and hung out there until he passed the torch to Ben later that evening.

Saturday was the Danish version of Halloween [kinda] so we went to a costume party at one of Ben's friends house. You would have sworn you were in the US with how dressed up everyone was. It was pretty entertaining. Ben was a cop since she had her costume from the US, and I improvised a french outfit; stripes, beret, eiffel tower necklace, overall feeling of superiority.

Everyone seriously went all out. Awesome !

Turning 25 in Copenhagen [Day 1]

2010-02-15T17:30:00.001-05:00

I realize I haven't been very diligent in keeping up with the blog, and for that I apologize! This past weekend I went to visit my friends Jon, Benedikte and Jonas in Copenhagen [Denmark, mom] for my birthday!

I had a great time seeing everyone again, and it was the first time they had seen each other since we left Columbia in December.

I toured Copenhagen with Jon on Friday, Jonas on Saturday and with Ben on Sunday. It was great to see what each of them had to show me about their city.

First thing I noticed: I was the only person there that didn't have blue or green eyes
second thing: Bikes everywhere !!

It seems kinda silly to bike around when its below freezing outside, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you realize that a 10-clip card costs about $27 to use the public transportation. Each journey counts as a 'clip' and if you go outside the center journeys can cost 2, 3 or 4 clips. Biking is def cheaper!

The first monument we visited was the Rundetårn [round tower] which is in the middle of downtown and over looks the entire city.

We also visited a statue of Hans Christian Andersen, who is pretty much the only famous Danish person. Ever. Don't tell them I said that ....

And along the same lines.... the Little Mermaid Statue...

To Warm up and fuel up Jon and I had lunch at a traditional Danish Restaurant. You all know how food adventurous I am NOT, so it was definitely a challenge. Basically you choose your dishes from ones that are presented on a table. They are essentially cold and healthy tapas. A slice of dark, healthy bread topped with whatever you like; herring, roast beef, eggs, potato salad - you name it! You can also get a few things from a menu; Jon got steak tartar and I got Tartelette, which is like chicken pot pie in individual pastry crusts. It was pure deliciousness. On Sunday, while walking around with Ben, I snapped a photo of the place because I was tired of calling it "that traditional Danish place" because no one knew what I was talking about !!

Champs-Elysées

2010-01-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

I had a small chore this week. Turns out that all the limited edition Star Wars goods produced by Adidas are sold out all over the states. I ran across some here in Paris and told Nick... he proceeded to beg me to buy him a pair since he cant get a hold of any in the States. Since I'm such an excellent sister, before my class on Wednesday I went to the massive Adidas store on the Champs-Elysées to see if they have the shoes. Here are some photos i took while out and about... yes, they are all of the same thing; the Arc de Triomphe!

Organization à la Française

2010-01-25T05:26:00.002-05:00

The following is my interaction with one of the offices on campus while trying to pay my 200 euro social security fee. It went down in French, but it's in English for your reading pleasure

Friday Afternoon:

Liz: Hi, I need to sign up and pay for my social security

Man 1: [shrugs] end of the hall, on the left

Liz: Hi, I need to sign up and pay for my social security

Man 2: Back to the front, 1st desk when you enter on the left. But she's not here this afternoon

Liz: Hi again, they said its the woman that sits at the desk facing yours.

Man 1: She's not in today, try Monday

Monday morning:

Liz: Hi, Im back. [motions to desk] Is she in today?

Man: No, only the afternoon.

Liz: But she will be here this afternoon??

Man: [shrugs] I think so

Liz: I have class from 1:30-8pm, can I come tomorrow?

Man: She's only here Monday and Thursday, from 1-4:30

Liz: [i need to sign up for this job] Thanks....

So yeah, I cant pay my fees bc the woman is never in. What kind of system is this that only ONE person can handle things and that one person is never in? Welcome to FRANCE !!

Sunshine in Paris !!

2010-01-14T14:09:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day since I've been here that the sun has decided to grace the lovely city of Paris with its presence. I decided to dust off my camera and take a few pictures of the scenery:

Notre Dame de Paris

A little café on Ile de la cité

Le Pont Neuf

The Louvre

The Sales !!

Rue de Rivoli

Walking tour of Paris

2010-01-12T15:49:00.002-05:00

Today Nolen [my roommate] called me and asked me if I wanted to join his language school on a walking tour of Paris. I decided that it was probably a good idea since I should really know as much as possible about the city that's my home for the next 5 months. All I really can vouch for is that it's super cold out and makes me NOT want to walk around at ALL ! I met up w the group at 2pm and we headed to the Pont Neuf [New Bridge, which is actually the oldest bridge in Paris] for the beginning of the tour.

(photo not my own)

We walked through the Louvre courtyards, past the pyramid, around the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and through the Jardin Tulieries. We continued on to the Champs-Elysées were we stopped at a few flagship stores and toured an art exhibit above the Louis Vuitton store [after of course balking at the price of the leather goods on display]. While this all sounds short and sweet, we were zigzagging all over the place, popping in and out of hotels and various buildings, and didnt arrive at our final destination, the Arc de Triomphe, until around 6:30pm. It was informative, cold and exhausting. Which made it easy to come home, make dinner and veg out in front of the 8pm news.

Here's a map of our route. It was 5km, which is about 3.1miles... which should only take about an hour or so to walk... but we managed to draw it out to 4.5, with all the stopping and learning :)

Anciennes de Vincennes

2010-01-10T05:54:00.000-05:00

Today was the 10th Traversée de Paris [crossing of Paris] by this French car club. Basically if you have a car thats a classic and older than 1976 you can drive through the streets of Paris and show it off. I thought it sounded cool so Nolen and I left around 8am to get to the Arc de Triomph to see some old cars drive around the massive round about. We pretty much stood outside for 30 minutes and saw one car. I was expecting some sort of Parade, but I guess that wasn't the case. We decided to walk down to Trocadero, by the Eiffel Tower to see the endpoint, and maybe there would be some cars there... We trudged through the slush and about 20 min later made it to the endpoint, which was right in front of the Eiffel Tower. Picturesque. Except... where were the cars? We spotted one and there didn't seem to be any more showing up so we decided to call it a day and head home. I couldn't feel my toes and it seemed like we were on a wild goose chase. As we were leaving a FEW cars pulled up, so I snapped a few shots so the day wasn't a complete waste.

Back to France

2010-01-03T22:43:00.003-05:00

As you are well aware, I love France. I'm not really sure why, but I seem to end up over there every few years... in fact, this little trip to Paris will be my 6th visit since my first trip in 2002. While in Paris I will be attending ESCP Europe, a French Business school, from January till May 31st.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESCP_Europe

I will be living near the school in the 11th arrondissement in an apartment that belongs to a mutual friend. I.can.not.wait

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_arrondissement_of_Paris

More to come once I get to France !!

New Camera!

2009-06-18T22:42:00.001-04:00

So, since my computer crashed last fall and I lost all the pictures I had, I decided that I should take extra awesome pics this time I go to London. This necessitates a new camera. Yesterday I welcomed a lovely little Canon into my home. It's been raining all week, so I ventured out to take it for a lil spin this afternoon...

Geneva v. Zurich

2009-05-27T07:26:00.001-04:00

Jet d'eau, Geysers

Geneva's jet d'eau

Zurich's jet d'eau

Point: Geneva

Geneva 1, Zurich 0

Flower Clocks
Zurich's Flower Clock

Geneva's Flower Clock

And Geneva's Clock in Purple

Point: Geneva

Geneva 2, Zurich 0

I'm on a BOAT

Geneva Water Taxi
Zurich lake cruise

Point: Zurich

Geneva 2, Zurich 1

Mountains
Geneva's lake
Zurich's Lake

I dont know which one I prefer....

Where would you rather live?

Zurich

2009-05-27T07:16:00.001-04:00

Zurich, May 15- 17 2009

Forecast as of Tuesday May 12 2009: Rainy and cold. 60-70% chance of rain.

Actual weather: sunny and 80

Result: overheating and sunburn

We spent all day Saturday wandering around Zurich, which is situated in northern Switzerland, pretty close to Germany.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurich

They speak a funny language there, Suisse-allemand or Schweiz, which is an interesting sounding mix of German and Italian.

Zurich is larger than Geneva, but like Geneva, there isn’t really much to do or see. It’s a very pretty city on the lake with a river, so the scenery is gorgeous, but there really aren’t any ‘must see’ attractions. We mostly looked at churches and buildings and wandered around till our feet hurt.

Sunday we left the hotel and dropped our bags off in a locker in the train station. We decided to take a boat trip around the lake. For a mere 8 francs we spent 90 minutes aboard a boat in the sunshine. Well worth it. And the views were stunning. The lake is more developed than the lake of Geneva, the parks go up to the water and you can easily go swimming… in Geneva the lakeshore is big rocks and not really conducive to sunbathing or swimming.

we also decided that Zurich knocked off some of Geneva's attractions. There is a flower clock and a jet d'eau, though neither are as impressive as the Geneva Version!

Annecy

2009-04-30T05:20:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday Lisa and I went to Annecy to enjoy the picturesque little french town. We were accompanied by Canadian friend and photographer [you'll see what I mean later] Jesse. The day started off rough because the tram we were supposed to take was early, and we missed it. Our train to Annecy was due to leave at 8:02. Current time, 7:17. We decided to walk to the main train station... then a bit further, decided on a bus that came at 740, got to the stop at 750, didnt really know where the station was, so we kinda walked a bit, turned out we had to walk back and go the other way... so we ended up breaking into a jog and hurrying because at this point its like 755... we run up the street, round the corner and see the station. get to the station, walk through and get to the platform. THE platform, there's one... and the train wasnt there, sooo it was anticlimactic. we ran for nothing! but we made it!

It was a pretty ride, we changed trains... but not when we were supposed to, they changed it up on us. We ended up getting to Annecy 30 minutes early! It was a bit chilly, we walked around tryin to stay warm. We took a few jumping shots, because, well, thats what we do. And it helps you stay warm; the jumping, the laughing, the public humiliation. You know, the norm.

Saturday must have been flea market/antiques day because the sidewalks were clogged with ppl putting their wares on display. we saw everything from china to books, from stuffed animals to antique guns, furniture to hats. I was tempted to try and haggle for something i didnt need. my argument being "It's used, isn't it? I'm not paying full price. There's a newer model anyways." i didnt know if that would make them laugh or hate me. They are French you know... that's one heck of a grudge.

walked around the city, saw the castle on the hill. then decided we needed lunch. decided to get steak frites... oh man, what a lunch. first, they got our drinks wrong. we wanted demi-peche, which is beer w peach, and we just got peach water. lame. then our steaks came out and they were not at all cooked in the middle. like they had thrown them on a hot fire and cooked only the outside. the middle was rare and cold. so we sent them back. when they came out, one side was cooked, an done side was cold. it was so stupid. but the fries were really good!

Free Papers?

2009-04-19T08:31:00.001-04:00

So, only in Switzerland can you find newspaper stands that aren't locked...

There is a small slot on the side where you leave your money, and in return you lift the plastic covering and take your paper. It's an honor system... and it seems to work. There are always papers left by the end of the day, and everyone pays!

The Swiss also don't litter or stare at eachother on the bus...

Photos

2009-04-17T04:48:00.001-04:00

microscopic kitchen

entertainment corner!

big bed, down everything

massive bathroom for european standards

the dining room, livin room, front room

entrance to the Parc des Bastions

Jumbo Chess anyone?

Genevas Famous Jet d'eau... and a rainbow... awww

funny money

the famous flower clock... i'd never heard of it tho!

Lisa's Back

2009-04-17T04:47:00.001-04:00

Lisa's back so i'm not so so alone! We wandered around today hoping to score some sunshine... but every time we sat down the sun ducked behind some clouds and didn't come out until we got up to leave!

arc en ciel!

flower clock

our sleeping arrangement. ha.

hippo guarding his side of the bed!!

Geneva

2009-04-11T09:33:00.001-04:00

It’s been a while since my last post, apologies. Near the end of our sojourn in Clermont things were pretty hectic, and now that I’m in Geneva things are equally hectic as I figure out this city that will be my home for the next 4 months.
So far, Switzerland has been everything I love about France, and has lacked all the things that drive me crazy about France.
1. It’s not an uncommon site in any French supermarket, fast food place, or any service driven place in general to be highly understaffed at the register. Yes, only at the register. At a store there will be tons of workers milling about the aisles, but only 2 of the 6 registers are equipped with personnel that slowly serve the ever-lengthening line of customers. In Switzerland, the registers are stocked and the people are efficient…. I think they get that from the German side…
2. For those of you that speak French you are aware that the way of saying 70 [soixante-dix], 80 [quatre-vingts]and 90 [quatre-vingt-dix] is a game in arithmetic. The seventies are sixty-ten, sixty-eleven, sixty twelve and so on. The eighties are even worse with four-twenties, four twenties and 1, four-twenties and 2 etc, and the nineties borrow it from both; four twenties ten, four twenties eleven, four twenties twelve. You can imagine the trouble when it comes to handing out phone numbers…. Quatre vingt douze… is that 80.12 or 92? One may never know… but the ever savvy swiss have looked back to their Latin origins and have adopted the system of having a DIFFERENT WORD for each number, like every other romance language out there. Good-bye soixante-dix, quatre-vingt and quatre-vingt-dix ! Hello septante, huitante and nonante. I think it goes back to the efficiency thing...
3. In France dog crap is a part of life. The “crottes de chien” that decorate French towns and cities alike are an accepted part of la vie française. After spending months and months watching my feet when I walked as to avoid stepping in doggie do do I have come to love the fact that the swiss do not share this custom with their westernly neighbors. Instead, they offer free plastic bags everywhere and remind owners to clean up after their dogs… maybe this ‘trend’ will catch on one day in France.
4. They have good chocolate and cheese here too!
5. The French like to stare. It’s a part of their culture. I don’t know if its an innate curiosity or something that has been passed from parent to child, but I do know its irritating as ever when people stare at you without shame in public places. You get on the bus and everyone stares at you like you have 3 heads and are speaking in tongues…well, I guess English is strange enough for the French… but its not even like it’s a quick look… its at least a 60 second total evaluation. Weird. The swiss respect peoples’ private lives and personal space. They do not stare, they do not harass celebrities, and they do not even look in people’s apartment windows as they are passing. There is a sign on the bus that says ‘respect the privacy of others. Don’t look at the other passengers’. Maybe this is a bit much… but its definitely better than being stared at!!

CASTLE TRIP

2009-03-04T11:24:00.001-05:00

Milano & Genève

2009-02-25T16:30:00.001-05:00

12/20
Goodbye Stockholm, Hello Milano. We got to Milan and caught yet another bus to the city center. We met up with Jen and her imaginary boyfriend Chad for dinner. After roaming around for at least 40minutes we decided the next place we saw would have to be good enough and wandered into some ristorante. It was perfect. 6-euro pizza, cheap wine, and damn good. After that we parted our ways and Lisa and I took a cab to our hotel.

12/21
Our only day in Milan we went to see the Duomo. We climbed the steps and got great views of the city. After that we tried to go see the last supper, but you have book in advance and there were no tickets left for that day. Oh well, maybe next time. We attempted shopping, but all Milano has to offer is Prada, Gucci and cheap crap. So, we enjoyed the aperativo [ you pay for a glass of wine, or beer, and you can eat as much food as you want; cold cuts, sandwiches, pastas etc] and then indulged in gelato.

12/22
8am, caught the train for Geneva. It was totally old school and a compartment train. We were with an old Italian man and a middle aged [Dutch?] man and his mother. The train wove in and out of the alps and along crystal clear lakes for about 5h before arriving in Geneva. I have never seen more beautiful scenery in my life. Too bad the windows were too dirty to take decent pictures.

We wandered around Geneva, spent 24 Swiss francs on McDonalds; the burger was microscopic but the fries were bottomless [almost]!

Back on the train to get to Lyon. They apparently sold more tickets than they had spaces on the train because we had people, bikes and suitcases in the aisles. It was absolutely ridiculous. At the next stop they added some additional cars, but there was no way we were making it the 3+ h to Lyon with people standing in the aisles!
We had an hour in Lyon, so we grabbed sandwiches to pass the time. Found our train, were practically the only ones in our car, and arrived in Clermont by about 11pm. Now, that’s a travel day!

Stockholm

2009-02-25T16:29:00.002-05:00

12/17
first day in Stockholm. We decided to invest in $20 unlimited T-bana passes since it was a bit too cold to wander around aimlessly. And Stockholm is situated on a couple islands and peninsulas so we figured it would just be a good idea to have the day passes. We wandered out to the Old town, Galma Stan, and immediately went back to the hostel for long underwear and tights. -6C was a bit more cold than we were used to. We treated Stockholm pretty much the same way we approached Prague. We basically wandered around and took pictures of things. Maybe not the most effective way to see a city, but it worked for us.

12/18
Second day in the city, dressed more warmly than the day before and headed out for more of the same. Got some beautiful pictures. That night we played poker with 2 English girls and a Dutch guy using pasta pieces to gamble.

12/19
since it was our last day we decided to go souvenir shopping for our wonderful families. We scored some good stuff and headed back to the hostel to try and pack it into our swollen carry on bags. One of my friends, Ben, from USC met up with us in Stockholm for dinner. He’s studying 45 min north in a small town called Uppsala and decided to hang with us cool kids for the night. After dinner we hung out at our hostel for a while before deciding to go to the Absolut IceBar. After shelling out 180SEK each we were allowed entry and one drink. We were pretty much the only ones in there and it was no where near as big as we were hoping, but it was definitely an experience!

Praha

2009-02-25T16:29:00.001-05:00

12/12
Depart Clermont Ferrand at 1:30pm… spent HOURS on the train on the way to Paris…
Of course, the train to Paris from Clermont is not direct. Nothing from Clermont is direct, efficient or effective… but that’s another story… so, we’re on the train and maybe 1/3 of the way there and these old people get on the train and start complaining. From what we understood they had trouble with their seats. 4 of them wanted to sit together but someone was in their seats… im not really sure, I think people over the age of 68 just like to complain. It’s universal.
So we have the quarreling French pensioners and then we make yet another stop. A woman aged about 75 gets on and the seat in front of me appears to be hers. She stops, takes off her coat, and allows a long line to accumulate behind her in the aisle. So I now have irritable French people at my side anxious to sit down and get this show on the road. The roadblock starts to lift her suitcase, its small, black and of the rolling carry-on variety. She starts to struggle as she lifts it to her shoulders in an attempt to get it to the overhead shelf, which is almost a full arms extension for me… She gets it to the threshold of the shelf, and as she wavers, decides the best bet is to slightly toss it…with an incredible follow through the suitcase is launched to her right… smack into the head of the woman in front of her who cries out… which you cant blamer her for since she just had a suitcase thrown at her…. The elderly woman is clearly distraught and apologizes profusely while the “injured” woman rubs her head and makes a pouty face. Now, my question is, why did none of the able bodied people around her not help this woman hoist up her suitcase? I was blocked by angry French people and was in no place to jump up and come to the rescue, but I’m sure someone could’ve had the heart to help… that’s how things get done in the south at least…

So, we make it to Paris about 5 hours later, get to the metro and try and buy a ticket for the RER to get to the stop where we can take the train to Orly [the airport]. So we find an automatic ticket machine, put down our bags and try and find exact change… we get the change and the machine we have chosen doesn’t do single use tickets, typical. So we get in line and wait our turn to use the ticket machines. Now, they are fairly simple, self explanatory, user-friendly touch screen operated distributers. The line moves slowly as all the non-Parisians fumble through the ticket options. Its almost our turn and one woman is taking a really long time. I peak out and she’s stabbing at the screen with her gloved fingers. Yes, gloves, the likely suspect. She keeps punching the same spot on the screen and is accomplishing nothing. Being the outspoken American I am, I shout “il faut enlever les gants!!”[you have to take your gloves off!] and she whips around and glares at the line growing behind her. I say something loudly to Lisa in English; of course the Americans cant speak French, absolved. So, the rocket scientist takes off her gloves and manages to get her ticket.

We get on the RER and continue to the stop for Orly. Looks like you need a different ticket to get to the airport. I ask the woman what kind of ticket you need and she asks to see the one I have, I show it to her, and a look of disgust crosses her face. She proceeds to tell me my ticket is no longer valid [too far outside the city] and if there had been a controller I would have been fined 25 euro. I blame it on being American and ask for 2 tickets to Orly. She hands them over and I fork over 15 euro.

Long story short we get to Orly, are allowed to carry on our bags and purses and proceed to our gate area. The flight was supposed leave at 8:10pm and we were supposed to board at 7:30. 7:30 rolls around and our gate is still not listed. Its not until after 8pm that our gate is finally listed. We weren’t really worried since everyone was checking the board and freaking out, so we figured it wasn’t leaving without us!

We got to Prague and tried to find the bus info. Well, everything at the airport in Prague shuts down before 10 apparently so we were outta luck as far as information booths were concerned. We go to where the bus info was and a man asked us if we wanted the bus. We said we did and proceeded to inform us “there is no more bus, it is closed, only metro. I drive taxi. I take you to center. 700 korona, 25 euro, good price, fixed price.” We looked at him in disbelief, and skeptical as we were, thanked him and walked away. As we walked away the price dropped to 600… I love fixed prices in the Czech republic! We get to the currency exchange guy and ask him if there was a bus, and he says its outside to the right, number 119. So we look for atms and spot them at the other end of the airport. Trek to the atms and withdraw money. Go to the bus stop and find the ticket machine… that only takes coins… so we go back inside and nicely ask the currency exchange guy if he can change one of our bills for coins for the bus. He says it costs 26 korona and hands Lisa some coins. We stare at them and fumble with them in our hands, trying to count. Only 50. We ask him again how much the bus costs and he, annoyed, says “26 and 26 is…??!!” and we both say “52. You gave us 50” and so he reaches in a drawer and gives us 20 and turns his chair back around. We walk out, get tickets, find the bus, get dropped off at the metro station, take the metro, get off the metro and then try and find our hostel in the dark… and we found it without a problem. 1 point lisa and liz.

12/13

Nowhere exciting as the travel day, Friday we just wandered around the city until Jen showed up that evening. We took pictures, jumped in front of stuff, and pretty much had a quiet day. Jen met us at our hostel around 6 and we went to dinner.

After dinner we got back to our hostel and immediately the German track calls. So we try and find them, and after wandering around the freezing cold for 20 minutes trying to find them. We finally asked a waitress where the place was and she sent us a roundabout way and we finally found them. We had a drink at the Brazilian restaurant and then went up to see their sweet apartment loft.

12/14
MY BIRTHDAY!! And that other holiday…
We were supposed to meet up with the German track at 10am… we suggested 10am French time, which is about 10:15. We get there at about 10:12 and the Germans are nowhere to be seen. So we call them and it turns out that they are going to be late… like 45 minutes late… so we walk around and take pictures for the half hour while waiting for them. We trekked across the Charles Bridge, found a festival, had some hot wine, and walked up the mountain to the Prague castle. After wandering around the top of the hill we walked into the first restaurant we saw and had lunch. After lunch we wandered around some more and then went home for a quick nap to recharge our batteries. We met up with the others that evening with the others and tried to find a place for dinner. We finally decided on a place, found directions on google and headed out. We found the building it was in but had a hard time locating the restaurant. We saw that it closed at 10 and looked at our watches… 9:40… probably closed. We wandered around the city for at least another 40 minutes before finding a place next door to our hostel. It was an Italian place and the pizza was phenomenal. Even Jen, who has had enough pizza in Milan to never want to have pizza again, said it was fabulous. After dinner they surprised me with a piece of honey cake with candles. Fabulous way to end my birthday.

12/15

Jen’s last day in Prague. We went to lunch at the Thai place that we had tried to go to dinner at the night before. It was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t want it to end! Since we loaded up on soup and spring rolls we had a lot of food left over for dinner! We made our way back to the hostel and helped Jen get all her stuff to the metro. We then decided to do a little bit of shopping and explore the parts of the city we hadn’t seen. We found this crazy building called Fred & Ginger. Pretty ugly, but pretty cool too. Went home, napped, and then had delicious Thai food for dinner!

12/16

Last day in Prague!

We packed our things and check out of the hostel. Left our bags in the luggage room and went out in search of lunch. Ended up at this place in Jen’s lonely planet guidebook called Bohemian Bagel. I had a bagel sandwich, and Lisa had a southern breakfast with biscuits and gravy, bacon, eggs, pancakes, a bagel and potatoes. The highlight of lunch was probably the fact that there was a beverage fountain and we could have AS MUCH SODA AS WE WANTED instead of paying $5 for 33cl of soda. We then went to the irish pub bc lisa really wanted strongbow… we ended up having strongbow, and in honor of our impending trip to Sweden, we had a couple kopparbergs.
We got our bags, hopped on the metro, found the bus and made it to the airport without incident. The kids on the plane behind us had clearly never been on a plane before and were taking pictures like crazy. So we took our own to commemorate our voyage!

We arrived in Stockholm, got bus tickets and boarded the bus for the 90min ride to Stockholm. We were so exhausted we slept for most of the trip. We got to the central station and tried to get tickets for the t-bana [metro] and the women said we could get tickets cheaper from the press stand across the way. We got 2 tickets… $6!! That’s just madness… I mean, we knew Stockholm was expensive, but $3 for each journey on the metro is a bit excessive.

We found our hostel and tried to ring reception to get in… turns out reception is only there from 9am to 9pm… we we called the emergency number and they gave us a code to get in. they said they sent us an email to tell them if we were getting in after 8pm… but I don’t think we ever got that email. Anyways, it was the most secure system ever! We punched in a 4 digit code, the door opened. We then found a lockbox with my name on it, punched in the code and inside found keys to the room. We got to the room and opened the locker to which we had the key and found 2 sets of sheets inside. Perfectly efficient.

going going gone

2009-02-11T13:47:00.000-05:00

i leave tomorrow at 1h39 local time for my birthday adventure!! hopefully i will have lots to say when i get back!

Winter Break [Version Finale]

2009-02-07T10:37:00.001-05:00

Ok, so we finally have EVERYTHING booked, well, almost everything. We lack a hotel in Milan and buses to and from airports. But that's not bad. The trip is as follows:

Thursday Feb 12th, Depart Clermont for PARIS via train
Arrive in PARIS, take RER to Orly and board plane to PRAGUE
Spend the 12th-16th in PRAGUE

Leave PRAGUE for STOCKHOLM

Spend 16-19th in STOCKHOLM

Depart STOCKHOLM for MILAN

Spent 19-21st in MILAN

Leave MILAN at 8am!! for GENEVA, via train

Arrive in GENEVA at 1pm

Depart GENEVA at 5pm for LYON via train

Arrive in LYON at 7:45pm

Depart LYON at 8:30pm and arrive in CLERMONT FERRAND at 11pm Saturday Feb 21st.

So our grand tour of Europe is: Paris - Prague - Stockholm - Milan - Geneva - Lyon

not bad for 10 days!

So, we were bored...

2009-01-31T18:59:00.000-05:00

Last night we decided that we needed to do something random and fun today. We decided to wander around Clermont and take pictures of the sights and then compile a video for your enjoyment....

we were soo exhausted. lisa is going to work on her photography skills because catching someone midair is clearly an art.

Since our feet hurt too bad to go out dancing, we decided to cook a nice dinner and then catch a movie in v.o. For dinner we had steak [real steak, not french hamburger steak] 2 kinds of fries, salad and vin rouge. mustard played a major role in bringing the meal together in that mustard was put on everything... its a very versatile condiment.

We looked to see what movies were playing and it was either Les Noces Rebelles [revolutionary road?] or Slumdog Millionaire. i love how translated movie titles often dont match... American films coming soon to a theater near me:

Walkyrie
L'Etrange histoire de Benjamin Button
Coeur d'encre
Sept Vies

Tomorrow we're going to Vichy since its not closed on sunday. strange, i know, but the desire to do something when everything is closed is quite compelling. does that even make sense? lets just say i miss being able to go to target when the mood strikes me. even the grocery store is closed sunday. blah.

and since you've watched the movie by now, here's some photos for your enjoyment :)

Im gonna miss...

2009-01-31T18:58:00.002-05:00

So, we've only been here a few months but there are definitely some things that I am going to have to figure out how to import or smuggle enough in my suitcase to hold me over. in no particular order:

1. Moutarde. French mustard is dirt cheap and is more amazing than grey poupon could ever be.
2. chocolate muesli w pepites de chocolat. its chocolate granola with chocolate flakes that leaves your milk chocolate. bet you wished your day started this awesome.
3. Sirop. concentrated flavors rangeing fron strawberry to lavender these delightful additions make any glass of water, beer or perrier all the more delightful. Lisa and i are currently enjoying pamplemousse, grenadine, cassis, pêche, fraise and framboise.
4. Cheese. Daily.
5. Saveur Moutarde Chips. Casino Brand. the french potato meets its most DELICIOUS flavor yet!
6. Good wine. For under 3 euro. ok, fine, any wine for under 3 euro.
7. French bread. le sigh.
8. Pain au chocolat.
9. The Instant Coffee Dispensers at school that give you that extra kick with a café vanille for only 0,40. perfect for when you are dragging after... well... we only have 3h of class a day...so, good for the morning?
10. 7,4 and 1. TOGETHER.

greve

2009-01-31T18:58:00.001-05:00

So, history check; when was the last time France had a huge, full scale grève [strike]? well, before Sarkozy was elected president in april 2006... which is exactly the time i was here last, jan-may 2006... and what is going to happen on thursday? full scale grève. all of the govn't workers are catching early morning busses and going to Paris to...to...hell, i dont know what they are trying to prove. the economy sucks, but it sucks for EVERYONE so there's really no need to strike. interestingly enough, france is not the nation most likely to go on strike. its the spanish who are more firey and willing to fill the streets for a just cause followed by the Italians. i think the french come in third... but they are waaay more organized so their strikes are more irritating bc they involve every sector of daily life. not just some bread factory outside madird or something.

anyways. maybe not going to spain this weekend after all. looks a weeee bit pricy. maybe switz or something like that. but cant take the train thursday bc of the strikes... so dont even get to benefit from my long weekend that starts at noon tomorrow. le sigh. les français.

mai

2009-01-31T18:57:00.001-05:00

So lisa and i went to a little vietnamese resto for dinner tonight. it was good. service took about 2 hours... for spring rolls and beef and broccoli... oh how the french like to take their sweet time. also, sping rolls [rouleau de printemps] arent what we consider to be spring rolls. interesting how this little nuance has played out across continents. i wonder what they're called in argentina...

we were going to go out... but no one wanted to, and the usually happening bar was dead... so we decided to double back and head home. we are now planning the trip to San Sebastiàn with much more fervor than before!

Diner Chez David Marker

2009-01-13T17:14:00.001-05:00

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to David Markers house for dinner last night. David is our American connection at ESC. He is a professor of management at ESC. he has been living in clermont for about 6? years now with his wife and 2 kids. so, we got to eat french food in an American environment... it was kinda like going to the embassy...i would imagine.

we had boeuf au vin, which is beef in a red wine sauce with mushrooms and those little baby onions. our side was green beans and almonds, and it was awesome. def my favorite thing i had that night... and then there was the cheese...

lisa is in HEAVEN. all the cheese...

we had at least 8 different kinds of cheese. soft cheese, blue cheese, goat cheese, hard cheese. it was awesome. the entire time we were eating we were like 'save room for the cheese !' my favorite of the cheeses was a small very very very strong cheese that had garlic and black pepper in it. not really for everyday consumption since its kinda powerful... but darn good. another good one was one of the hard cheeses that tasted like a cross between cheddar and pecorino romano. it was also pretty delicious.

after the cheese we had the galette de roi, which is traditionally had after the Epiphany, which is jan 6. its like a king cake from new orleans, but much less gaudy. we had 2 and leslie and emily got the feves. the feve is a little trinket and can be just about anything. it can be a little jar of jam, a stormtrooper, wiseman; you name it. i think the ones we got were wisemen...

after our delicious meal and hours of talking we crammed into davids honda supermini van and headed into town. lisa was connor and erins baby for the evening, smashed btwn the two of them. what a lucky girl....

TRAM!

2009-01-13T17:12:00.002-05:00

Today it was bitterly cold again, like yesterday... actually, it wasnt quite as cold, maybe we are getting used to this; i hope not! we decided to wake up 'early' and hit up day 2 of the soldes. headed out just before 11 and made our way to G. LaFayette [to check on my longchamp bag] and then to Zara. we each got a couple things at zara, but it was such madness we were forced to leave.

we decided to take the tram to this place the Fnac lady told us about the other day. in search of a curling iron we went to Fnac, which has SOME appliances, and were told to take the tram and go to "ocean". so we got to the tram, and got our money out to buy a carnet [book of 10] tickets, 10,40. well damn, the machine doesnt take bills. so we scramble to find 10euro of change as the tram is coming. it stops we get our tickets and then try to cram on, but its obvious that we BOTH arent going to make it. so we decided to just wait for the next one.

we made it to our destination and discovered "Auchan" the french wal mart. they had everything you could ever want. so we made only a few purchases since we didnt have our bags with us. i got hangers, dish soap, sponges, detergent and chips for 5,53! wooop wooop

and lisa got her curling iron. on sale.

the end

ITS COLD

2009-01-13T17:12:00.001-05:00

Yes, it is snowing and COLD here in Clermont... Maybe we should've done Portuguese or Spanish... it looks warm there...

Clermont, Day 1

2009-01-13T17:11:00.003-05:00

long story short we made it to our train moments before it pulled away from the station, although im convinced that if we missed it we could have chased after it since it was going soooo slowwww... lisa and i were seated next to eachother in a row of 3 facing 3 strangers with a tiny table to separate us. the guy across from lisa kept staring at her, and the kid next to me had a black eye and more scars on his hands than i could count. needless to say, if there was an altercation, we wanted him on our side.

we arrived in clermont, and, like paris, it was freezing cold. we shuttled our luggage down the stairs under the tracks and then back up. made our way to our hotel and called it a night.

the next morning [monday] we were supposed to move into our residence and then go to school, but at 9am we received a call from Gaetan telling us we were to leave our luggage at the hotel and go to school and we would move into our residence at 4pm.

we had our tour of the city, which we covered in under an hour on foot, and then talked about classes. we had a mini class on advertising which wasnt really interesting enough to keep my mind off the fact that i didnt really have a home yet and had been living out of a suitcase for over a week at that point. we excused ourselves at 4pm and raced to the hotel to get our things and wait for gaetan.

he arrived, punctually french, and about 10 minutes late. we loaded our suitcases into his tiny car and the car of his friend and drove around the corner to our residence. we then walked through about 3 buildings such that the back door of the residence was across the street from were we had just left... they should us to our rooms and then we signed our names and wrotr "lu et approuvé" at least 12 times. apparently the french like to have you sign the original and the copy, not make a copy with your signature. oh well.

6pm, we have finished paperwork and now need food and other room essentials: sheets, pillow, towels, comforter, blankets etc. we head out into the city only knowing the name of a cheap store and generally where it is... we managed to find it and i bought a comforter and pillow which i had to lug all around town and to the grocery store to buy staples for the next 24h.

did i mention clermont is situated on an old volcano with the cathedral at the top and everything else around it... this means that to go anywhere you have to go up the hill and then to get home you must climb the hill again... with all your purchases. quite tiring to say the least.

made it home, tucked into bed, plugged into the internet and good to go by 10pm. and that was only the 1st day....

2009-01-13T17:11:00.001-05:00

After an uneventful new years we attacked the city full...half force. each day started about noon and we were in bed by 11pm, after an hour of interneting. on our travels we visited the Louvre for free [lisa, 6euros], dined on kebabs [again] in the latin quarter, enjoyed a fine meal at Moliere by les halles and witnessed a 21,000 person demonstration that turned violent!

the top of the Galeries LaFayette is a terrace that gives a beautiful view of the city. it is not to well known so its not completely clogged with tourists. while atop this famous 'grand magasin' we heard chanting and loud voices.
we looked over the edge and saw what looked like a march. thinking nothing of it we continued to take pictures of the city and then went down to the cafe below to enjoy an overpriced coffee while gazing at the sunset out the window.

at about 6pm we decided to get back to our hostel, but when we got outside we realized the march was blocking our route home... we braved the masses and pretended not to notice the israeli flags with the star of david replaced with swastikas...

we made it to our hostel safely and did some more interneting before packing our bags for clermont. the next morning we checked out at 930am but stayed around to play online until calling a cab at 11 to take us to gare de lyon to catch our train. whilst perusing the news lisa discovered that there had in fact been a march the night before and at 6pm 500 youths turned violent burning cars and smashing store windows. what fun.

we then got our cab [read; minibus for luggage] and headed to the train station. we got there and waited for the other 2 students to join us, but the line was kinda long so we figured we should just get our tickets and they would do the same.

Paris

2009-01-13T17:10:00.001-05:00

The city of lights on new years... one would expect a better fireworks display than what was provided... i thought they were kids in the park behind the eiffel tower shooting off roman candles... oh well, we can teach the french a thing or two.

lisa and i basically froze to death waiting for midnight. we indulged in 6,90 pizzas and a pitcher of tap water for our new years meal. we looked all over for a supermarket to buy champagne but failed to find one. on the metro to Champs de Mars, where the eiffel tower is, we saw one and when we exited we made our way back to the tiny store. after paying waaay too much for champagne and beer we headed to the tower. we werent sure if it was ok to drink in public, but after we saw the Gendarmerie [police] hassling people with champagne we decided it had to be a covert operation.

we went in search of cups since there was a mini fair going on, and the best we could find was 2 euro cups of tea which we swigged and promptly used the cups for champagne. we found a bit of land near some english speaking folks and set up shop. not dressed for the bitter cold we huddled and sipped champagne to stay warm. it was nice having your beer not get warm...

the stars on the eiffel tower were a countdown to midnight, which was kinda cool. so we shouted bonne annee with all the locals then headed back on the [free] metro to find a kebab joint in the latin quarter. staggering home we passed some old church and posed for photos and then promptly returned to our hostel at about 3:30am. no wonder we didnt wake up until at least 12 the next day...

Posted by Liz at 1:13 PM 0 comments
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Address

2009-01-05T17:19:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth Grabenstein
STUDEA Clermont 1
Appt 5.3 C
25 Rue Delarbre
63000 Clermont-Ferrand FRANCE

2009-01-05T16:46:00.004-05:00

my little home for the next three months... it will encourage me to get out and do things instead of being all alone!!

New Year, New Adventure

2008-12-22T00:41:00.002-05:00

it seems like it was not too long ago that i was enjoying spanish siestas and london at christmas time... but a year has already flown by... the Core has been more challenging than i would like to admit, but its done, over, and its all downhill from here.

dec 27th i will be flying to London to spend a few days with James before heading to Paris on the 31st where i will ring in the new year as an official start to my 8month stint in france. jan 4th i will be traveling to clermont ferrand which will be my home for the next 3 months. after that i will intern for 4 months. where has yet to be decided... any offers?

CHICAGO ..... land area

2008-05-25T21:00:00.001-04:00

So while most people spend their Saturdays sleeping in or working in their gardens my mother and I spent the entire day working in Grandma’s yard. Did I mention we first drove 700 miles to get there? An hour and 15 minutes to Tremont in the Smokey Mountains, pick up mom, then drive another 10 hours to outside Chicago to see Grandma.

Saturday started with breakfast at the Super 8 Motel, which, back in the day cost, you
guessed it, 8 dollars… lets just say we’re not in Kansas anymore. After Raisin Bran and doughnuts we made our way to the Hardware store to see what the mulch situation looked like. About 8:30 we picked up Grandma, who had been eating breakfast since we called her at 7:50 and was not yet ready to go. Threw her in the back of the car and headed to the Ottawa Greenhouse. But, alas, Grandma spotted a yard sale on the way and insisted that we stop. She scored 2 wine glasses and a mattress pad all for $2. I wasn’t aware that Grandma drank wine or that she was unsatisfied with her current level of mattress comfort. Oh well. We continued on to the greenhouse, that was an
experience. For the second time in Ottawa they didn’t have a credit card machine and they had to hand write the receipt as well as run the card through one of those antique metal things that makes a carbon copy of the face of the card. Wow.

After the greenhouse we headed to grandmas house to drop off the flowers. Then we loaded back in the car to go to the hardware store. We got a bag of peat moss and 6 bags of mulch. Back to grandmas to unload. Each of the bags of mulch probably weighed 40-50lbs. Grandma procured the necessary tools for the yard work, which many of them mom recognized from her childhood. Good thing my tetanus shots are up to date. One of the rusty rakes became detached from its rotting handle and the same fate unfortunately befell a trowel and hoe. Our troops severely crippled we decided to proceed with the operations as planned.

We started working on tidying up the front yard when grandma’s new neighbors came home. They came over and grandma introduced us to them and they had the opportunity to meet “my daughter the medical doctor and her daughter”. We’re so famous. We talked to them about the 6’ wide stretch of land between the two houses. When mom discovered we had similar visions our task-load doubled and she decided we were going to fix the two trenches that grandma had dug between the two houses to deal with rainwater.

Back to the hardware store, this time for 6 bags of dirt. Mom is now on a first name basis with the lady who worked the register, who also lacked a credit card machine and had one of those old carbon copy things.

Back to Grandmas, dig dig dig, rake rake rake. We dug up the entire side of her house and poured down about 6 bags of dirt to try and level it out. We ran out of supplies and mom headed back to the hardware store. They greet her by name.

Back at the house. It’s about lunch time. I asked Grandma “Grandma, does the oven work?” “NO! Why?” “ I was going to heat up the pizza from last night” “Oh, I’ll be right up.” So, Grandma lied to me about the status of the oven. She shuffled up from the basement and proceeded to unload the oven. It seems to have become a makeshift bookcase housing cookbooks, newspapers and oven mitts. Did I mention we found a gas leak while working in the yard? And that the hot water heater was leaking gas as well? So with an exterior and interior gas leak, Grandma still finds it handy to store flammables in the oven. I guess we should have taken her matches away too.

We had our leftover pizza, grandma had swiss cheese and bread. The same swiss and bread she had promised us for dinner Friday night but we talked into going out for pizza instead. So we eat, we drink, we get back to work. Grandma takes an “over 65 break” to read the paper. Break from what!? I’d say supervising, but she was MIA pretty much all morning. Oh well, mom and I are up for humanitarian awards or something.

Out of dirt, back to the hardware store. Some blonde is blocking the entrance and the staff shoo her out of the way. How dare she block their best customer? Mom loads up on dirt and other yard goods. The lady carbon copies her card and declares “you’re makin’ me rich today.” On dirt that’s $1 a bag, hardly.
We’re working hard in the yard. Grandma announces that she is taking another break. It must be a break from reading the paper or something. Who knows.

We finally finish the yard functionality and beautification process just before 5 and pile in the car so we can go to Cattails, the store mom likes that has pretty yard stuff. We arrive at 5:02. Of course they closed at 5, this story doesn’t have a happy ending.

Take grandma home. Go to the Super 8 to shower, pop a few pills, and drink to make the evening more tolerable. Just kidding about the pills and booze part. And to the Super 8’s credit it was the only place we encountered in Ottawa that had a real credit card machine. And it had free wireless.

Pick up grandma. Head to the new Mexican place in town that she wants to try out. The chips n salsa were horrible, the chips weren’t good and the salsa was waaay too spicy. The food was subpar and a pitiful portion size that would make other Mexican restaurants laugh. Oh yeah, our ‘server’ was a blonde and probably doesn’t know the first thing about Mexican food or Culture, and promised that nothing was spicy.

To top off our day of labor we were in for a little evening excitement. Grandma won tickets to some concert in Streator, this little town about 20 minutes away. We pile back into the car and head to Streator. Apparently this ‘concert’ is at the local high school to benefit the local firefighters. The opening act was terrible. I put my headphones out to try and drown out the noise. Then they had some girl sing that came in the top 3 at some local singing thing. Again, pretty awful.

thats grandma taking a picture of the band...

Then the headliners, Emerson Drive, some Nashville recording artists came on stage. I’m not a huge fan of country. Everyone who knows me is well aware of this. In their defense they were very entertaining. Lots of energy and crowd interaction. And the singer had a great voice. After the first song grandma tells me “We can go when your mother is ready,” because she was soo enthralled with the bad bands that the one was entertaining slipped under the radar. We stayed for a few more songs then headed out around 11, which is 12 our time, and took grandma home. On the way out Grandma announced “I can take my earplugs out now”. It’s just too much for one person to deal with.

THE END!!!

2008-03-11T23:45:00.001-04:00

Dear Elizabeth,

Congratulations! The Moore School of Business has recommended that you be fully admitted to the IMBA program to the University of South Carolina’s Graduate School.

... now i can stop stressing out about grad school...

Catch up

2008-02-20T19:50:00.002-05:00

Many of you have tuned in to read about my adventures in Spain and England. Unfortunately these travels have come to an end. I have met several of you who have confessed to reading my blog on a regular basis. I figure that I might as well indulge you and let you know what I've been up to at the moment. I'm currently working at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in Turkey Creek. It's pretty swank. I can't even afford to eat there! My mornings are spent at the Family Doctors of Oak Ridge three days a week spending quality time with my parents since I dont get to see them at night because I work! I have applied to, and interviewed, for the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. I am hoping to attend their IMBA program there and study International Business with a focus in French. I havent heard anything from them just yet... but I remain hopeful :) Hope that keeps everyone up to date with what is happening here in exciting Tennessee... it's not Spain, but its the best i can do at the moment.

London, again

2008-01-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

It seems like my sojourn in Europe is coming close to an end. I am going home on Monday, unless the airport strikes go into effect or it snows… but all things considered I should be home just after dinner on Monday night. These past few weeks have been both ends of the spectrum; from crazy and hectic to doing nothing all day. The pre Christmas hustle and bustle of Oxford Street was a mix of magic and madness. Lights lined the streets and the shops were all decorated to appease the hungry hoards. We braved the city once or twice before Christmas but instead found ourselves enjoying the quiet haven of the little house in Barking.

Putting up the Christmas tree was a comedy as well. It somehow seemed to be custom to raise the tree, in its white plastic netting, before cutting the netting free as well as trimming the bit off the top. Oh well. By the time the tree was up and the ornaments in place it was Christmas Eve. We had a quiet evening with a nice meal. Come Christmas day we went to church then went round to family friends for a while. After visiting we came back home and had a lovely dinner. A few things were different than an American Christmas, but other than that it was pretty much the same. They have these nifty things called Christmas crackers that we definitely have to start getting back in the US of A. its like pulling a wishbone, but it’s a little cardboard tube and you pull it and the person with the bigger end gets the prize that’s inside. There is also a paper crown that you have to wear while telling the terrible joke that is written on a slip of paper inside the cracker. They are probably about the quality of Laffy Taffy jokes and quite terrible at that. We got around to opening presents at about 9pm, which is about 12 hours longer than I usually wait to open presents. When in Rome…

James got a Spain jersey from his brother Nick. James’ favorite soccer player from his favorite team (Arsenal) is Cesc Fabregas, a Spanish player, so naturally Nick had his name put on the back of the jersey. I got a lovely leather jewelry box from James’ parents and I gave them a plaque with their name on it from Granada.

The day after Christmas, which is a holiday in England known as Boxing Day. We basically sat around all day and then went to Uncle Peters for an Indian curry. There’s nothing more English than a curry…We braved the streets on Dec 27 and it was less than an intelligent idea. Talk about crowds. I insisted to James that he had never taken me to Harrods, so after a few quick exchanges on Oxford Street we headed to Knightsbridge and headed to the department store where they claim they can get your anything. Even an elephant. If you can pay for it, they can get it for you. We walked in, past of the line of people waiting to get in to the Gucci shop to get their bags half price and made our way to the Room of Luxury I. It was the biggest department store I had ever been to in my entire life. There was a room devoted to maps. Ancient maps. Average ticket price of a framed ancient map was about 9,000 pounds. Also saw some nice vintage original movie posters that were going for about 3-4grand, framed. But, unfortunately the obnoxious bargain hunters, their babies in strollers and their prehistoric grandmothers were just too much for me to handle. We made a quick exit into the pouring rain and decided to get a coffee and wait out the rush hour rush.

For New Years we decided that we would go up to London and watch the fireworks. We then got a phone call from one of our mutual friends from SC who is from a town just north of London and he said he was going to be in London and asked if we wanted to meet up. We decided it was a good idea and agreed to meet up with him on New Years Eve. We went up to London at about 5 or 6pm to get Italian at a nice little place we discovered when I was here in September. After that we headed to meet Ed at his friends place on Baker Street. I learned that Baker Street is one of the oldest streets in London, the home of the legendary Sherlock Homes, as well as the street where the London fire started. Lots of history packed into one little tube stop eh?

We spent a while at Ed’s then at my urging we finally left to get on the tube to get to where they were going to be shooting off the fireworks. It was fairly crowded on the train but we all managed to get on. 10 minutes and 100 degrees later we arrived at the station. Us and the rest of the people on vacation in London. We were forced out of the cars, funneled to the exit and when we reached an area we were surrounded by hundreds of other people trying to get above ground, just like us. the problem was that there were only 3 escalators, one on the left that wasn’t working that people we walking up, one in the middle that no one was allowed to walk up, and a third on the right that was working and about 2-3 people were coming down.

It was absolute chaos. People were pushing and screaming and there was the casual idiot here and there that decided to bring their infant in its baby stroller or their 93 year old mother who needs a crutch to walk. Finally they decided to fix the malfunction and allow all 3 escalators to go up. Ours wasn’t working, but we hiked up the endless flight of stairs, which is essentially what an out-of-order escalator becomes: stairs.

We made it to the top, exited the station and tried to make our way to Trafalgar Square then to Embankment to see the fireworks, we had just made it to the square when people started cheering and we could hear explosions. We tried to get closer but found that all the roads had been cut off and it was not possible to get to the fireworks. Oh well. We tried to walk around and get to the embankment, but the crowds were horrible and there was already a line around the corner to get into the station. We walked to Covent Garden and had a drink on a rooftop bar. After our drink we realized we had to get home because the trains were only running until 430 and it was going to take a long time to even get to a station. We walked for at least an hour and a half before finding a station that was possibly to enter. We squeezed on a train and made our way home. It was a bit of an anticlimactical night, if that’s even a word, but it was alright. I think James was the only Londoner that was in town as well. We rarely heard English being spoken, and if we did, it wasn’t spoken with a London accent. What a lovely vacation; crowds, overpriced transportation and rain.

Its now Jan 2 and we just got around to opening the last of the Christmas presents tonight. I got some Bailey’s and a matching glass, a box of chocolates, some Christmas socks from Kevin as well as a lovely pair of earrings from James’ Uncle Peter. James scored a cheeky little check and another book or two. Heaven. He also scored a soccer ball pump and some extra needles from his lovely girlfriend. Classy. Tonight means unwinding with a mug of hot chocolate and a movie. I cant believe I’m going home Monday…

London Town

2007-12-22T15:05:00.000-05:00

So, there haven’t been any updates to the blog in quite a while and I apologize. I’m back in London again after a quick trip to Canterbury. Being in London has made me realize how much I’ve missed the hustle and bustle of a city at Christmas. There are lights everywhere, Christmas music on the radio and everyone seems to be in the holiday spirit. That being said, there are also a lot of idiots out there making it miserable for the rest of us and transportation in London can be unreliable at best, but nevertheless, great Christmas vibes.

I’ve been up to London maybe 4 or 5 times now and every time it gets better. The lights and decorations are great, and last night it was 0°C, which means it is going to snow any day now.

I went to see the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, which is a yearly gift from Norway in thanks for their friendship during the war. I’m assuming the war is WWII, and I didn’t realize that Norway was involved, but it’s a nice gesture nonetheless.

Also making a photo op are the decorations on Carnaby Street. I absolutely loved the chain links that run down the street connecting the buildings.

Canterbury

2007-12-12T14:57:00.000-05:00

i apologize for the lack of posts. i havent had access to the internet the last few days and i wont have regular access again until sunday. i have finished my sojourn in spain and will be retuning to the land of the free and the home of the brave on jan 7. mark your calendars! spain was lovely and warm. england is cold. luckily it hasnt been wet and cold, just cold!

Un día normal…

2007-11-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had a very random day. Class was from 10-1, which is half the hours that I have had since I’ve been here since I am the only person in class. Individual lessons are half the amount of time than normal ones, so 2.5 hours instead of 5. Lovely. So I came home from class and enjoyed a hot meal with my roommates, which never happens because they eat around 2pm and I don’t get home till just before three. So, not only do I not get to enjoy their company but the food is not warm either. After lunch we all started packing. Adam and Andrew head back to Boston on Saturday. They have to meet their group at 3am…lucky them. Phil is hanging around for a few more weeks then going traveling with a friend of his. I decided I would try and pack just to see how bad the situation actually is. Well folks, it ain’t lookin’ pretty. I have far more stuff than I have space for. I blame that on my shopping habits and the fact that vacuums do not seem to exist in Spain, so it’s not entirely my fault. I packed very well using Space Bags; removing the air and reducing the side of the bag by at least half. So, without any air sucking device I am left with normal, regular packing. We’ll see how this pans out.

So after a depressing packing session I decided to indulge in a siesta. Partially because I was tired and partially because “When in Rome…” I was awakened from my siesta at 5pm by a friend of mine, Christian, who beckoned me to come to his house asap because we were to go on an ‘adventure’. Now, my parents are probably laughing because they think I’m not the adventurous type. This is true, in the traditional sense of the word. No, slashing around through a jungle with mud up to my knees and insects feasting on my sweating body is not my idea of a good time. My parents seem fond of this ‘hiking’ nonsense whereas I would rather read a book. Outside if I must. But, in a different sense, I am usually up for an adventure. Move to Spain for three months with little knowledge of the language. Live in France for a year and hitchhike to school when the public transportation goes on strike. Its not for everyone, but this niche of ‘adventure’ I am quite fond of.

So, I dragged myself out of my uncomfortable bed and put some shoes on and headed for Christian’s apartment. We met up with our friend, Michal, and embarked on our adventure. The adventure was still a surprise for me. Then we got to the bus station and He had to tell us what we were in for. Christian has been looking for jobs teaching English in Granada the past week or so and apparently he dropped his CV off at this school in the middle of nowhere, a suburb of Granada if you will. And on the way to this school the bus ‘went uphill’ to quote him, and he decided that it was in his naturally inquisitive nature to see what was at the end of the line. Michal and I were the lucky ones chosen to accompany him on this quest. We boarded the bus, got off the bus, dropped off the CV, boarded the bus [again] and road the bus for a little longer. Then the bus made a U turn and pulled off to the side of the road onto a paved bit in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Everyone else got off the bus, and then the bus driver turned the bus off. We decided we should get off there as well and did so.

We were in the middle of nowhere. The street we had been on led to a village looking place, and looking back from where we came there were some houses on the side of the road a ways up. But we were, as far as we could tell, in the middle of nowhere. Next to an enormous fence that was clearly built to keep its habitants in or keep us out. I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to find out if it was the former or the latter of the two. We decided to walk to the ‘town’ where Christian had dropped off his CV and catch a bus there. Since we had been going uphill for quite a ways the return walk was all downhill and the view of Granada was spectacular. The sun had set and the sky was dark with a few hints of color here and there. So, when life gives you lemons… take pictures of the city and make the best of your predicament.

We made it to a bus stop about 15 minutes down the hill. Got on the next bus and headed back to civiliza- Granada. On the bus Michal got a phone call. A friend of ours had extra tickets for wine tasting and wanted to know if we wanted to join them. We decided that it was not a bad idea and continued to the center of the city. We met up with the group in front of some swank 5 star hotel. Turns out the wine tasting was in the hotel, so we entered, and started to follow the signs when the receptionist arrogantly asked us what we were doing there and if he could help us. We waved the tickets and he reluctantly pointed us in the right direction.

Our motley crew sported everything from unkempt facial hair to beanies [winter hats], sneakers to boots. We were in no way shape or form dressed for wine tasting in a 5 star establishment. We entered the room and were, once again, stopped by someone who worked there and once again they begrudgingly allowed us to enter. I am a fan of red wine, and this was some of the best wine I have ever tasted in my life. They had everything, from fruity to dry, from earthy to berry. It was phenomenal. We spent over an hour getting dirty looks and draining wine from our crystal glasses.
Occasionally we would encounter someone who was a good sport and wanted to share his love of wine with is. We learned about the aging process and that the wood the barrel is made of is just as important as the grapes. For it to be a Spanish wine the grapes can come from Spain, but the wood the import from France or Ireland or wherever else they please. Also, they can take barrels that have been used to age whiskey or scotch or other liquors and use them later to age wine to give it a different flavor. Interesting.

After our wine tasting we were quite hungry so we went out for tapas. Who would have thought that a [failed] adventure to the end of Bus Line 9 would have resulted in wine tasting at a 5 star hotel?
A day in the life…always an adventure…

My Presentation to the Granada Rotary Club

2007-11-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

My apologies for the lack of posting as of late… I haven’t done anything particularly interesting so I haven’t really felt compelled to post. And after that whirlwind week with mom here I was quite exhausted of the typing and sick of my computer, in all honesty. Well, the moment that all you Rotarians have been waiting for has arrived. Well, maybe it’s not the moment you have all been waiting for, but its something I’m sure you have been curious about. Last night I gave my presentation to the Granada Rotary Club. The presentation consisted of about 25 slides about Oak Ridge, OR Rotary and my family. I wish I could say that it was in intelligible Spanish, but the moment I stepped to the front of the room in front of all 10 people that were in attendance every word of Spanish that I have learned in these past few months simply vanished from my memory and replaced itself with some weird mix of French and English. Ha! I resorted to reading the slides after a bit and then tried to go back to ‘make it up as you go’ Spanish, but it was about as unsuccessful as the time before. Luckily the slides were correct [thanks to my teacher!] and made sense. They also talked to me after the meeting when my nerves has subsided and realized that I can actually speak Spanish, contrary to what my presentation would have one believe!

They were very very interested in Oak Ridge and its bizarre history. I did a bit of research myself, thanks Wikipedia, before putting it all together and found out some interesting facts myself. For example, I didn’t know that some crazy mystic named John Hendrix had ‘visions’ of Oak Ridge some time in the early 1900’s about 42 years before OR actually came into existence. Cool.

I also thought it would be entertaining to make the presentation interactive, i.e. ask questions and see who knew the answers. I figure if I have to embarrass myself because I don’t speak Spanish then they can embarrass themselves for not knowing everything about American geography, right? I opened the presentation with an easy enough question, a color-coded map of the US with each region labeled; northwest, southwest, southeast, and northeast. To their credit they guessed SOUTH, but when that was not a choice, quickly recovered and said ‘southeast’. The next question was significantly harder. A map of the 7 or so states that make up the “southeast” and they had to identify Tennessee. First guess? Georgia. Then Kentucky then Florida then North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama. Then Mississippi. Then they gave up. No prize given out that round.

For those of you that are laughing, there will be a quiz later about Spain, so don’t go getting all cocky because you know where Tennessee is! Mom, your quiz will just be to show me Spain on a map of the Worl- … Europe. But I jest. Mom did a great job navigating all of Andalucía.

They also really seemed to enjoy all the goodies : city of Oak Ridge pins as well as the four way test coins. They all put the pins on and admired the coins, even though they were in English. Actually, quite a few members speak English, which i didnt find out until later. They were holding out on us!!! the Four Way Test in Spanish is La Preuba Cuadruple. Just in case you needed to know!

I had Felicity, a 6 month scholar from California play photographer for my presentation. but the internet connection at the house is too slow to upload anything. i'll try again later. At the end of the meeting I did a banner exchange with not only the Granada Club, but also a Rotarian who is visiting from her newly founded club in Fermoy, Ireland [that’s on the quiz now too!]. They were founded this past summer, and unlike the Granada Club, they have more women than men! I’m not sure if that’s allowed but since she has come to the past two meetings and was really excited about exchanging banners I figured it would have been rude not to. It’s quite interesting to see how different the banners are from each country. The ones from Ferwoy and Canterbury are quite similar, and my banner looked a lot like Rebecca’s banner from California. The Granada one doesn’t look like any of them… maybe it’s a Spanish thing!

But, for those of you that don’t know, I only have 2 weeks left here in Spain. As of Dec 3 I will be traveling to London and that Friday [7] I plan on visiting Ines, a friend of mine from my semester in Grenoble at her home in Vienna. I’m going to look into speaking at a Club in Vienna, but seeing as my German consists of Halo, sheisse, bitte and danke, I don’t think I will get very far… I’m banking on the fact that someone, or most of them speak English. To save money, I will be flying to Bratislava. Mom, Jill, Bratislava is where the film “Hostal” supposedly took place, not Croatia. And for you people out there that simply accumulate random facts Bratislava and Vienna are only about an hour away in car [I’m not sure about the exact mileage], making them the closest capitals in the world. See, you learn something every day, even you Nick, even you.

Well it’s getting late and I have 5 hours of class tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. You see what I did there? I HAVE CLASS ON THANKSGIVING. No Kathryn, I don’t get Thanksgiving Break. Nor did I benefit from Labor Day. I’m thinking I might have to take my own Thanksgiving break since I am not allotted one by the school…

2007-11-13T09:03:00.000-05:00

Friday November 9

Today was pretty much a lazy day. We had a leisurely breakfast then checked out of the hotel and headed to the beach so that mom could say she set foot in the Mediterranean. I opted out because it was a bit cold and sandy and I wasn’t in the mood to ruin my only pair of shoes for the trip.

After our stroll we still had a few hours to kill before our flight to Rome so we drove around and found IKEA. Now, mom has never been to IKEA, but I have had the opportunity to go when I was in France. It’s a great story for those of you that were there, for those of you that weren’t, you kinda had to be there. So, after being ushered by one of the 20+ parking attendants we parked about a half-kilometer from the store where parking was easy with our big banged up car.

For those of you who have never been to IKEA, it’s a furniture and home store that is set up like you would a house, with a certain path to follow. So a walk through of the entire store can take over an hour if you try and see it all. We made it through and I think mom was genuinely disappointed that she couldn’t buy some things because they would require pricy shipping. After seeing the goods we decided to have a coffee and muffin at the cafeteria. It was pretty good for being 0,80 cent coffee, even mom said so. I don’t think we bought anything from the main store but we got some goodies and sweets from the Swedish store by the exit.

After our shopping extravaganza it was time to head to the airport to catch our flight, returning the car was quicker than we had anticipated and when we got to the counter they hadn’t even begun ticketing for our flight. So we lolly gagged around the airport for a bit and then checked our bags and headed to the gate, after checking out the duty free goods.

The flight was 2.5 hours, longer than I would have thought, but not too bad. The kids behind us were miserable though. They were loud and kept banging on the seat and were old enough to know better. I would have gauged them at 9-11 years old, which is old enough to keep your voice down and not yell on an airplane.

We arrived in Rome and found Ilaria there waiting for us. Her mom had gone to park the car, so we waited mere moments for her to arrive. Getting the car was another story. Italian drivers are crazy. I cant even begin to explain the backing up and cutting off and parking everywhere that took place in the 10 minutes that we waited for Ilarias mom to bring the car around. The ride to Pollenza was equally interesting. At one point we missed our exit and actually stopped on the interstate, backed up, and took the exit. Im still amazed we made it out alive. But in all honesty her mom is a fantastic driver. She handled curvy roads at 11pm in the dark and snow without a problem. I cant say that I would have been as calm, speedy or successful as she was.

About halfway we stopped to get pizza in this little town called Spoleto. The pizza was fabulous. Then we loaded back in the car and finally made it to Pollenza at about midnight.

Saturday November 10

Today was our only full day in Pollenza. We walked around the city and then went to Ilaria’s school and Macerata. Later we went to the seaside to see the Adriatic. We had lunch at a nice little restaurant and mom cut her spaghetti. There was a woman at the table facing ours and apparently her face contorted in such a way that her disapproval was known by all around her as soon as she saw mom drag her knife across her plate of noodles. There was also a young man whose eyes made him bear a striking resemblance to John Travolta. I unsuccessfully attempted to get a photo with my cell phone, but apparently even when my phone is on silent it still makes a noise when it snaps a photo. Awesome. His girlfriend wasn’t too happy about the attention he was getting from our table either. Whoops.

Gibraltar, Thursday November 8

2007-11-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

Against the advice of our chatting hotel receptionist we headed for Gibraltar after a lovely breakfast of CEREAL, which I haven’t eaten in over 2 months and I am very much looking forward to again tomorrow ☺

We asked how to get on the interstate from the hotel, seeing as we found it completely by chance the other night, and we got pretty good directions. As I was walking out the door he called out “You have your passports, right?!”, and of course, I didn’t. I hade made mental note after mental note, but remembering my passport seems to be the hardest thing for me so far on this trip.

We found the interstate without any problems and continued to Gibraltar. We went through the classy town of Marbella, but weren’t close enough to the water to see any of the really swank yachts. When were about 30km from Gibraltar you could just barely see the rock looming in the distance. We figured how to drive through customs and were then promptly discouraged from trying to find a place to park in the city and that we were better parking in Spain. Back into Spain we went. We then set off for Gib on foot with our passports in hand. Basically all we had to do was show them that we had a passport and they were ok with that. No drams.

We walked to the city center and found the tourism office. We decided against a taxi tour as that would have been about 16 pound each, or $60 in total. We opted for taking the cable car up to the top and possibly stopping off at the Apes den. We walked through the center of the city and peeked in and out of all the English shops; Bhs, Marks&Spenser, Topshop and many more. Too bad that the prices for everything were in pounds, that just makes it more expensive for us Americans!

The cable car station was a bit farther than we had anticipated, but we managed to find it without too much trouble. We took the cable car up to the top of the rock and as soon as we got off we were greeted by the lovely tailless apes that inhabit the rock. We snapped a few cute ape photos then went to the viewing platforms to see the strait, Africa and the Mediterranean. The view was quite impressive and it was a fairly clear day as far as the top of the rock goes.

Ronda, Tuesday November 6

2007-11-12T09:16:00.000-05:00

We were supposed to go to Ronda on the way to Málaga, but we couldn’t get Alhambra tickets for Tuesday so we switched the days for the Alhambra and Ronda. Basically all that means is a lot more driving.

Ronda is where mom really wanted to go. She really wanted to see the “Puente Nuevo”. It was only until a few days after our trip to Ronda that she revealed to me that the architect of the bridge fell to his death while inspecting the bridge and that they used to hurl people off of the bridge during the Spanish Civil War. Now that makes it much more interesting.
So we went to Ronda the wrong way. You are supposed to approach from the south for the most spectacular view, but alas, we came from Granada, from the north. At first, its an unimpressive city. Larger than the pueblos we had visited Sunday but smaller than Granada. A walk to the historical district is what it takes to realize the full extent of the city’s charm.

One side of the city is just a cliff. Buildings go right up to the edge and look as if they are going to topple over to the rocks below. Moving further along to the old Moorish quarter, the architecture gets ‘older’ and we caught a glimpse of the Puente Nuevo. Its not a very long bridge, but it is incredibly tall. We weren’t even able to see how far down the bridge went because the view is obscured by the gorge the bridge is spanning.

Besides the bridge and the ancient Moorish quarter there isn’t really much to see. We walked past the Plaza de Toros and made a quick stop at the post office where we proceeded to buy all of the stamps the guy had left. Not really, but we probably used over 30…

We got back to Granada and were pretty exhausted. We ran a few errands around the town and settled down for some tapas. After a few bites we remembered to take a picture of some traditional tapas to show everyone ☺

Malaga

2007-11-08T17:45:00.001-05:00

in Malaga now, to italy tomorrow. no time left to post pictures or write a post!

Alhambra... and more

2007-11-08T17:05:00.001-05:00

¡Dios Mio!

Today we went to the Alhambra. Simple enough one would think, right? Well, it also involved checking out of our hotel at 730am, going to get our car which was parked by my apartment and me going to get my passport…since I forgot it… and its kind of important for going to Gibraltar and Italy… so we made it out of the hotel, to the car and successfully retrieved the passport, then it was on to the Alhambra. We got directions from the hotel and had a go. Luckily, we found it without one problem, parked the car and were on our way.

Our ticket time for the Nasrid Palace was 9-9:30am, since there can only be 350 ppl there at a time. So we go to the Palace of Carlos V, thinking it’s the Nasrid Palace because we didn’t do our homework and mom goes “this is it?!” it was pretty unimpressive. The exterior was a square and the interior was a circle. Tricky. So we head over to this Alzcaba place, which is one of the three parts of the Alhambra and the guy taking tickets turns us away and tells us to go to the Palace, I try and tell him that we already went, but he assured us we hadn’t and that we could come back once we had gone to the palace. So we made our way back to the “palace” and only then realized that we had actually skipped the Nasrid Palace, the most impressive part of the Alhambra, because we thought it was just the one room that was the palace of Carlos V. So, lesson learned; do your homework before you visit the Alhambra, or get a map or something!

An entire tour of the Alhambra takes about 3 hours. About an hour in each part: Generalife, which is the gardens and patios, Alzcaba, which is the old fortress part, and the Nasrid Palace, which is self explanatory and has some of the most intricate designs I have ever seen in my life. I don’t even think the Vatican can compare to the detailed carvings of the columns. Unfortunately, one of the most famous rooms, the Salon des Leones, was under restoration, so we did not get to see the fountain of the 12 lions. The basin was there beings restored but the lions had been taken elsewhere to be restored.

The large reflecting pools are incredible. Mom says they built them to reflect light, whatever the reason, they are absolutely gorgeous and since they are perfectly calm they are as smooth as glass and the reflection is as accurate as the original. Alzcaba was less interesting. Climbing the towers offered incredible views of the Granada but other than that it didn’t have much to offer. The Gardens of Generalife were quite beautiful, and its November. I can’t even imagine how beautiful they are in the spring and summer; but then again the hoards of tourists probably ruin it. After our 3 hour tour we returned to the car, and were luckily not stuck on some island…

We decided to take the scenic route to Málaga instead of the quicker route. The coastal route took us past Salobreña, where I was lucky enough to go to the beach earlier in October. After miles of scenic coastline, white towns tucked away on the sides of mountains and curvy roads we opted to take the more main highway the rest of the way. This is where it got interesting. Up until this point mom had printed directions and a map to every place imaginable, in every combination possible. I say up until this point because while I was looking for directions to our hotel outside Málaga I came up a bit shorthanded… there was no map and there were no directions.

Our hotel was in some little touristy town called Torremolinos that my school director, Pilar, described as “horrible”. Not off to a good start. It was chosen for its proximity to the airport and not its likeness to Myrtle Beach, who would have known. So, the daring adventuresses we are we set off to Torremolinos without the slightest idea of where we were going. We drove and drove, went through tons of round abouts, all in search of the tourism office where we might find a map. Finally, we see some signs and follow them. After a few twist and turns there are no more signs and mom is convinced that we have missed the Office. We park the car with the intention of hiking up the hill to ask for directions at one of the nicer hotels we are NOT staying at. As I’m getting the reservation information together mom yells “Elizabeth, look out!” and I see a HUGE tour bus coming down the hill, right towards my open car door. Instinct tells me to slam the door and get out of the way. Unfortuanately my purse didn’t make it all the way out of the car and is now shut in the door. I figure it’ll be ok there, until it decides to go limp and turn upside down, spilling EVERYTHING into the middle of the road. The bus is now parked, in the middle of the road as I scramble back to the car to pick up my cell phone, camera, ipod, and other valuables that are now strewn across the street. The bus driver is laughing as I finally get everything BACK in the bag. As he passes he said something, which I assume was humorous, to me in Spanish and drove off…followed by at least six to seven cars as I had managed to cause a mini traffic jam. Excellent.

So we hiked up the hill and went into some swish hotel to ask where the tourism office is and the man at the desk curtly replied something to the effect of “baja la calle y a la derecha” which means “down the street, on the right” so we set off back down the hill, about halfway mom decides she’ll walk back up to get the car, I’ll continue walking. So I make it almost to the bottom of the hill and mom shows up, I hop in and we drive to the tourism office, which was a good 2-3 minutes away in the car. Thank you nice hotel man for telling us that it would have been kind of far on foot. I walk up to the office while mom parks illegally on the side of the road and it says the office closes at 14:30. WHO CLOSES AT 14:30?? I look at my watch 2:50, we missed it by a mere 20 minutes. Which, after all the driving and wrong turns and bag spilling seems like mere seconds. I locate our hotel on a sun-bleached map hanging in the window and decide that we can make it, damn it, we can make it. Back in the car we go and on our way to our hotel, which better be some luxury resort at this rate.

We make it about as far as we can go on the road, and turn up a street that looks to be fairly residential. Mom makes a U turn and then I see the street name and it sounds familiar, as in that it’s the street our street is off of. We make another Uturn and continue up the road. I see our hotel in the distance as well as our road Sistema Iberica, so we turn. NOT. It’s a one way road. Reverse, back on the main road wondering how to get to the elusive mecca on the other side of the houses. So we take a turn or two and end up in front of the hotel. Then we park down the road a bit and walk to the hotel. At this point we are laughing so hard because it has been so terrible finding the stupid place that it better be a nice place. We walk up to reception, we are greeted in Spanish. Mom asks a question in English and BAM, the receptionist is British. Saves the day. About 1,374 questions and inquires later and we are unloading bags and heading to our room, which is, if I may say, pretty nice. Its no Ritz or Four Seasons, but it will do the trick. The gregarious receptionist suggested that we tour downtown Málaga, and since that wasn’t one of the ‘already planned days’ we headed into the city via the train since the station is about a 3 minute walk from the hotel.

Once in the city we found some old church, and then some other old building. And something else old that was falling apart, and then there was MANGO and ZARA and more shopping! Hooray! Málaga has shopping, because it is a CITY, not a town, like the ones we have been visiting all week. To be fair, yes we did go see the cathedral and other educational things. The Cathedral was started in 1528 but never finished, and in 1765 they decided to restart construction, much like La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona… except that they ran out of money and just left it, so one of the bell towers is completed and the other is cut off about mid-column. This is why it is affectionately known as “La Manquita”, The One-Armed One. Interesting. After the 3 hours of walking around the Alhambra early this morning, the stress from not being able to find the hotel and the hunger from not having eaten all day we found ourselves pretty exhausted so we headed back to the hotel at about 6 to catch dinner at 7.

What was supposed to be a quiet traveling day turned out to be a very hectic day indeed. And tomorrow promises to be just as interesting as we cross the boarder and head to Gibraltar. Hopefully I will remember my passport ☺

Pueblos- Lanjaron, Pampaneira, Bubion + Capileira

2007-11-06T16:15:00.001-05:00

Day two of the motherly invasion left us in a car for an endless number of hours exploring numerous unpronounceable pueblos to the south east of Granada. As I did not study these pueblos in my history class I cannot give you a brief and thorough synopsis of their history, but for those of you who thirst for knowledge I shall supply you with names, fear not. The first pueblo we went through was Lanjarón which is famous for the bottled water that shares its name. Unlike Evian, it does not cost a fortune and is only about 0,47 cents for a 1.5 liter bottle of refreshing deliciousness. The second pueblo we passed but did not visit was Cañar, followed by Bayacas, Soportújar and Carataunas. We then followed the signs towards the pueblos turisticas and continued our climb up the mountain. Did I mention that these pueblos are all nestled in the Sierra Nevadas, the mountains that fringe Granada?

The first pueblo that we visited was called Pampaneira. Small, white house and shops tucked away into the side of the mountain. A few kilometers up the mountain we ran into Bubión. And just after Bubión we made it to Capileira, the highest and largest of the three towns. From Capileira there is nowhere to go but turn around and go back down the mountain. We had the option of then going to Trevélez, the highest town in all of Spain, but it looked to be two hours away on curvy roads and I understood moms desire to not drive at night. Hairpin turns and sharp curves paired with dangerous drop offs didn’t seem like much fun after sunset to me either.

We made it back to Granada by about 4:30pm and I decided that we should go up to the Albaicín and catch a glimpse of the Alhambra. The entire way there was me looking at a map and trying to figure out the horrible maze of streets and where we were and where we were trying to go. We finally made it to the Mirador St. Nicolas, which is the Plaza that looks out over the city and is a perfect place to snap a couple touristy photos of the Alhambra, or in my mom’s case, 37. Yes, there are SOME good ones out of that batch.

So not as much history as yesterday (yesss!!) but just as many lovely pictures (yesss). And, yes, I am aware that there are currently NO pictures, but, remain calm, they will be posted eventually.

Cordoba

2007-11-05T03:40:00.000-05:00

Our day began a little behind schedule, with me waking up at about 9:58am and going, hmm, aren’t we supposed to be up by now. Casually I nudged mom and asked her if it was go time. We got ready for the day and were out the door within the hour. The first thing on our never-ending list of things to do was eat breakfast. A chore harder than one might imagine on a Sunday in Spain. Everything is closed, even the hotel cafeteria! So we wandered down the street to my favorite coffee shop El Tren (I’m not even going to translate that) and luckily it was open so we had a couple croissants and a cup of café con leche between the two of us. We walked back to the hotel and managed to maneuver the car out of the hotel parking garage. It was so miserable parking the night before that we were doubtful if we would be able to park down there again. After successfully not scratching the sides of the brand new rental car (Citroen C4) we made our way out of the city, which is not so easy with its narrow one-way streets and lack of stop signs.

Our first stop was Córdoba, a city that dates back to the Romans, over 2,000 years ago. It reached the height of its power when it was the former capital of Andalucia, when it was known as Al-Andalus and under Moorish rule. Rivaling Baghdad in power and wealth it is home to The Mezquita, an enormous mosque built in the 8th century. Córdoba, where Jews and Christians worked alongside Muslims, was captured in 1236 by the Catholic Monarch Ferdinand and used as a strategic position for the Catholic Monarch’s siege of Granada in 1492. Don’t quote me on this, its just what I remember from history class…

Córdoba is much warmer than Granada, that was the first thing I noticed, also its ancient center is much more secluded than that of Granada. You walk through the gates at the Puerta de Almodóvar and immediately you step back in time. Narrow streets with whitewashed houses line the streets. Pebble and cobblestone streets make thin-soled shoes a bad idea and the blazing sun makes one feel like they are on the Mediterranean, not three hours from a beach. We walked through the streets and made our way to the Mezquita. Walking into the Orange gardens was absolutely spectacular, I didn’t realize that there was more to see. After shelling out some euros we made our way into the mosque and its vastness overwhelmed me. Its just a huge expanse of space broken up by red and white striped arches. We roamed around in semi darkness and snapped several, well, probably more than several, photos of the mosque and the arches. For me, the most impressive thing wasn’t the craftsmanship, but the sheer size of the mosque. We seemed to walk for ages and all we could see were arches and more arches.

After the mosque we tried to find the tourism office, but settled for the Palacio de Congresos and some toilets instead. For lunch we grabbed some ice cream and continued our tour around the city. Seeing as we only had a few hours of daylight left we made our way through the ancient Jewish Quarter and then back to the car. You pay for parking your car by inserting the card you receive upon entering into an automatic machine on the -1 floor. You then pay what it tells you, it spits the card back out, and you drive off. When you get to the gate you insert the already paid for card and continue on your way. For an American, who is used to paying at the gate, you can see how this had the possibility of being quite a tricky situation, especially since we were parked on -2 and didn’t have auto pay machine thingys on our level.

We left Córdoba and headed for Úbeda, some little town about 2 hours away that has really nice 16th century architecture. Needless to say, on the way it was starting to get dark and by the time we got there it was pitch black out and we could barely read street signs, let alone see the sights. We stopped at some old looking building, which turned out to be a former hospital now turned in to their Palacio de Congresos and Exposiciones. Lots of Palacios today. We took some pretty bad night shots and piled back in the car with the intention of just heading back to Granada. A few one-way streets later we were committed. We ended up driving the old city, unless the new part of the city has a huge rustic wall surrounding it, and passing an overlook that I can only imagine is the most beautiful view during the day. Mom pulled over and I hopped out to snap a nighttime shot, but when I saw things moving down the mountain, somewhere not to far from where I was standing, I decided I was better off in the car.

We continued on the curvy dark road that had a drop off the side of the mountain and miraculously made it back to civilization and back to the interstate! Decided to skip Baeza because it would have been too dark to see anything anyways and headed back to Granada, which was about 2 hours. By the time we got home it was about 9pm and we were STARVING. But, as it was still Sunday, lots of places were closed. We parked the car on the street by my apartment rather than deal with the hotel lot again. We wandered to my favorite tapas bar, but it was closed so we walked one street over to see if we could find anything lucky. Found a tiny Italian bar/café/restaurant and feasted on pizza after a day of quasi-fasting. And by feasted I mean we each had our own pizza. Delicious. Cant wait to wake up tomorrow and do it all again!

From the driver’s perspective
"The paved roads of Andalusia Spain are very nice and easy to navigate. The cobblestone ones are a completely different story. I have never needed to back up to make a turn before, but then again I’ve never been in Spain before either.
My day consisted of saying” what’s that, take a picture.” So I have some pictures that have no name but are very beautiful. Liz doesn’t like my date stamp on the photos, so tomorrow I’ll have to figure out how to turn that off. "

Canterbury Rotary

2007-10-18T05:52:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the lack of blog activity this past week. I was in Canterbury, England visiting James on a surprise visit. That is why I couldn’t mention it on the blog, but now you know and now he knows. My visit to Canterbury was two fold, see James as well as visit the Canterbury Rotary Club. This past Tuesday I enjoyed lunch with the club and exchanged banners with their president. Note; he wears a large crest that says “President”, maybe the ORBRC should invest in one… Also, a lot of the other members had ties with the Rotary emblem as well as a smaller one below it which might be the sign for England or Kent, I’m not sure. Their large wooden wheel that can be seen in the pictures bears this same crest. Anyways, I got there a bit early since I had to walk there and I wasn’t exactly sure how long it would take. Everyone I asked said “up this road, a ways…” which wasn’t very encouraging. James came most of the way with me, but his hairline fracture held him back the last bit. I figured it was a straight shot and I could handle it by myself. When I got to the meeting place, which was the Kent County Cricket grounds, there were several buildings so I asked at the main office where in fact the meeting was to be held. They directed me to the correct room and there I met two very energetic and nice Rotarians, one of them being the vice president. I spoke with them and got an apple juice from the bar. Everyone gathered in the room at about 12:30 and we were seated for lunch at 1pm. We were served minted lamb with mashed potatoes and veggies. Mint is not something I would thing to put on meat, so it was a bit weird at first, but then my palate got used to it and it was alright. Didn’t add any extra mint sauce though, that was a bit much as far as I was concerned. After lunch we had dessert and as my table was the last to be served our meals we were the last to finish and the last to get dessert. I had a bowl of fruit, which was quite a luxury after living in a college apartment for a few days where fruit is quite scarce and ramen noodles and pasta in abundance.

The club has about 60 members, and it seemed like not everyone was in attendance. As I learned, it was the first time they had ever met in this particular room and its possible that some others showed up at the wrong room and saw no one was there and decided it was a holiday. The room was quite nice, overlooked the cricket greens. Doesn’t hold a candle to Melton Lake, but it was nice nonetheless, and it wasn’t raining, which I was afraid of. At the end of the meeting a nice Rotarian, whom I had not met during the course of the meeting offered to drive me back, which was quite generous of him. So that was that and I was on my way. Their club functioned much more like ORBRC than the club here in Granada… maybe that’s just because I could understand what was going on…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIMMY!!

2007-10-11T04:18:00.000-04:00

yesterday, 10/10 was my little brother Timmy's 12th birthday. Just thought I would share some pictures with everyone. And maybe you can convince him to get a haircut! He looks like he really enjoys the iPod nano we go for him when we got mom's computer over the summer. Sneaky us, he had no idea!

Rainland....err...England

2007-10-11T04:13:00.000-04:00

As some of you may already know, I planned a surprise trip to Canterbury to see James. He didnt know i was coming and was very VERY surprised when i just showed up at his apartment. He was probably more upset that he was the only person that didnt know I was coming and acted as if they had all pulled a prank rather than a surprise. boys. But, while I am here, I do not really have access to internet, so there probably won't be any posts until i get back to Spain next week. Also, i will be visiting the Kent Rotary Club on tuesday, so that should be interesting. All i can say is i miss that Tennessee weather. Spain has good weather as well, but here, all it does is rain...

Salobrena

2007-10-07T07:16:00.001-04:00

Saturday October 6

Today we went to the BEACH. The weather had been so good Friday that we decided it was in order to take a one day excursion to the beach before it got too cold. We met up in front of the school at about 7:15am to take a bus to the bus station. I should probably explain who “we” is. “We” is all the students learning Spanish at the Sociedad Hispano Mundial so; Myself, Rebecca, Felicity, Daniel and Ilona. Rebecca is a 3 month scholar from California and Felicity is a 6 month Rotary Scholar from Cali as well. Daniel is from Plymouth, in Southern England, and Ilona is from Holland. From the bus station we got a bus to the nearest beach, Salobreña. If you were to draw a line from Granada directly south to the Mediterranean you would end up in Salobreña, a quiet coastal beach town on the Costa Tropical, just a bit east of the Costa del Sol.

We arrived at the beach by about 10am and it was a little bit chilly and cloudy, but still nice. As the day wore on it got warmer and much more pleasant and a few daring souls tested the Mediterranean. It took me a while, but I took my dip, even if it was only once. The water was crystal clear, you could see the pebbles and your feet along the bottom. Felicity and Dan decided to swim out to the buoys that marked the limit that was safe to swim to.

When they got back they informed us that they saw a 4-5ft long eel. Well that about did it for me, no more water! Like I said, the water was so clear that you could see anything, even a creepy water dwelling creature. Personally, I’m most recently used to the muddy Atlantic, where you cant even see your own feet in water that’s 6 inches deep. The water was colder than the Atlantic during the summer, but it was much less salty. It wasn’t painful to go underwater and then open your eyes like the Atlantic is.

While we were soaking up sun we noticed a parade of some sort that was passing by the beach. It seems to be the season of festivals in Spain and we decided it was a festival to honor their patron saint. The horses also made their way on to the beach which was interesting and terrifying at the same time since some of them didn’t seem to want to obey the person on their back…

We stayed on the beach until about 4:45 when Daniel, Felicity and Ilona decided to take a hike, and I mean HIKE up to the top of a hill to see some castle. I could see the castle pretty well from the beach and I wasn’t exactly wearing good walking shoes. Rebecca and I decided to head back to the bus station and find a little café there to have some tapas. After a wrong turn and a 45 minute detour and a walk in the correct direction we finally found the supermarket we had visited that morning and bought some water and potato chips. The potato chips were probably not the best option seeing as we were already salty, but man, they were good.

We met up with the other three at the bus stop and then headed to a café to have some food and a coffee. We mulled around there for a bit and caught the last bus to Granada. Happy and sunburned we slept the entire way home. I’m not sure what’s in store for tonight, but I think its flamenco dancing. Not to be confused with flamingo dancing, MOM.

2007-10-02T14:11:00.000-04:00

Reunión Rotaria

2007-10-02T14:00:00.000-04:00

Last night I went with Felicity to the Rotary meeting. It was pretty much the same as last week. But, this week, unlike last week, I was able to take some photos and even snuck in some video footage.

Procesión Nuestra Señora de Las Angustias

2007-09-30T15:45:00.000-04:00

Holiday in Spain

2007-09-30T15:37:00.000-04:00

All weekend has been somewhat of a celebration in Granada. I’ve asked around and I’ve gotten several different answers. Some say that there is a pueblo near Granada and it’s a festival for their patron saint. Others say that it’s the patron saint of Granada and that’s why there are celebrations. All I know is there is a mini carnival across the river and one of the main routes through town has lots of tents set up with people selling chestnuts and fruits. I guess that’s why they are a healthier nation than us. Instead of funnel cake, beer, ice cream and fried Oreos they are selling fruits and nuts. America, take note.

Needless to say, I found online that the Procesión Nuestra Señora de Las Angustias was going to start at 18h00. I decided to head into town just after 6 and catch a glimpse of the parade. After about 30 minutes a band marched past so I figured that the main event would soon follow. Another 30-45 minutes later another band passed. 15 minutes after the second band a procession of women wearing black suits, white shirts and purple cords filled the streets, after them a group of men wearing the same. Finally at about 7:30, an hour and a half later, I saw what everyone was waiting around for. A large representation of the Virgin Mother and Jesus that is glided in gold was carried though the streets by about 20-30 men. They stopped every 30 ft to rest and allow the public to snap photos. I got a few, as well as some video. I hope it works.

Since Everyone Likes Photos

2007-09-27T13:46:00.000-04:00

Here are a few photos from here in Granada.

Say WHAT??

2007-09-27T12:29:00.000-04:00

The latest happenings regarding English misunderstandings have recently taken place within the Sociedad Hispano Mundial itself. Felicity, another Rotary scholar, also from California, came into our class to tell Rebecca and myself that they were planning to go to the Albaycín to view the Alhambra. We chatted briefly then Rebecca told her to ‘peace out’ as she was leaving. The look on our teachers face when she said that was of absolute horror. “How can you say something like that?” she asked us. Rebecca and I looked at each other and tried to figure out what we had done wrong. After a moment of silence I figured out the misunderstanding, explained it, and we all had a good laugh.
English is the only language I have studied that pronounces the letter ‘I’ with a short vowel sound, like in the word ‘if” the rest of the world pronounces it with a long vowel sound “eye”, like in the word “fight”. So, phonetically, the word ‘Peace’ for a non native English speaker, especially a Spanish one would be spelled “Piss”. Having lived in London for a year, our professor, Ana, has become quite accustomed to hearing angry English people yell at other people to “piss off” and consequently assumed that is what we were telling Felicity to do whilst actually telling her to ‘peace out’.
We explained that we meant ‘paz’ (peace in Spanish) and then had a quick lesson in English phonetics and she decided that we really do have a difficult language to learn!

Is it English??

2007-09-25T15:40:00.000-04:00

English is very popular here in Spain. You can find it on shirts, signs and bumper stickers. The only problem is that sometimes it doesn't really make sense. My Señora's grandson was sporting a shirt last week that said "It's time of yoga" and it pretty much drove me crazy. I wanted to get out a needle and thread, fashion a 'r' and rearrange the offending letters.

The most recent offense was spotted in a Tapas bar last night. I guess if you translate it directly it makes grammatical sense to the untrained Spanish eye, but in English it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I didnt notice a sign, but an adament Englishman from Manchester pointed it out to me and made sure we all realized how much it irritated him. Last night was the 'despedida' of one of the girls who has been studying here since february. It's like a going away party, but its not a party, we just went out for tapas because, here in Granada, tapas are 'gratis'. You buy a drink, wine, beer, juice, coke; and they bring you tapas. Sometimes there is a choice, sometimes you get what they feel like giving you. But hey, its free food.

Mi Apartamento

2007-09-24T11:27:00.000-04:00

a quick look at my apartment here in granada. A word of caution to the motion sick...

Esta Lloviendo

2007-09-21T09:40:00.000-04:00

For the first time since ive been here, its raining :( It's quite depressing actually. Unlike London, which is accustomed to rain and bad weather, Granada is a city that prides itself on its beautiful weather and almost shuts down during a storm, which i discovered today.

I have class from 9:30-2:30 at the Sociedad Hispano Mundial and we get a quick break at about 11:50 for 15-20 minutes. Usually this means a quick run to the grocery store for a pastry and a bottle of water. Water is not a small fortune here like in the US, a 1.5 liter bottle costs about 0,21 cents. Take THAT Aquafina! Today it was a bit dreary, but we made the 2 block trip nonetheless. when we got there it was packed! I have never seen that many people in line, and by that many i mean about 7, but only one register. So we got our sweets and as we were waiting it started to pour. After our 5 min in line we ran back to school and showed up soaking wet. the teachers, natually, thought it was hilarous and took the opportunity to teach us the word for wet/damp, which i have already forgotten.

It is Friday, which means i dont have to get up for anything the next 2 days and that in itself is comforting. With all this rain all i want to do is curl up with a cup of hot cocoa and watch a good movie...

Tuesday September 18th

2007-09-18T11:57:00.001-04:00

I went to the Rotary meeting here in Granada last night and, much like last time, it is conducted in a much different manner than in the US. From what I understood, we rose and the president spoke briefly, everyone sat down and then they went over the minutes from the week before. After that they talked about creating committees and what their project would be. They argued about kinds of projects and whether they could do one that they would be able to maintain or if they should just do something more on a one time basis.

After this they talked about the ’beca’ [scholarship]. They talked about how many students have come to Granada on scholarships and yet they have not been able to send any student here to the US or somewhere else in Europe. They also talked about how it was not a well known scholarship in Spain and what they could do to find applicants. They cited that last week I mentioned I found out about the program from the scholarship office at my school and that they really pushed students to apply for Rotary scholarships. They then discussed the reality of having a scholar in Granada, if they would be able to afford it or not. I’m not sure if they know exactly where the money comes from but since there are only about 16 of them it would be quite expensive.

Then they talked about something else and closed with arguing about the schedule. Some wanted to move the meeting from 9pm to 8:30pm and others argued that 8:30 was too early. I chuckled and thought of my club that meets at 7:15…in the morning! The meeting was over at about 10:30 then they all went to the bar downstairs to socialize after the meeting.

Needless to say its much more informal than in the US; cell phones rang and people answered them during the meeting, the 9pm start time was quite flexible, and talking to one another didn’t seem to be a problem, nor is smoking.

The Rotary meeting is just another example of the laid back lifestyle enjoyed in this country. I know that I enjoy my siesta as much as any person but it frustrates me to know end that the stores and everything else are closed from 1:30 to about 6pm.

El Albaycín

2007-09-14T11:17:00.000-04:00

So the last two posts are out of order, whoops.I had forgotten that I had typed something up on Wednesday and never got around to posting it. whoops.After school on Wednesday i went to the Albaycín with my 'class'. It was an educational walking tour of the oldest and Moorish part of Granada. we climbed a mountain and from there we had an amazing view of the Alhambra, which is the former Nasrid Palace of Andalucia

here is a link, you have to cut and paste though :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra

also a bit about paella, for those of you, cough DIANE cough, who have no idea what it is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella

The Burro Taxi is for you James. Notice how there aren't actually any burros, just the sign...

Wednesday 9.12.07

2007-09-14T11:13:00.000-04:00

Today was my third day of class and I have to say, so far so good. Since there are only two of us its much more informal than if it were a proper class with homework and grades. We go over grammar which usually leads to a discussion about something which then leads to something else and before I know it we’ve gone from talking about food items to passport control and customs in the US and Spain. At any rate, I like the laid back nature of it all.

Today I opened my bank account at Caja Granada so before long I should have a nice Spanish bank account and debit card and Bank of American can stop charging me for withdrawls.

Last night I was asked by the Germans “If you are wanting to come with us to have a drink or eat some food if you want.” So I decided to go out with them and meet their ‘colleagues’. The other students were, naturally, German so I got to hang out with a bunch of Germans in a bar in Spain. It reminded me of when I was in Grenoble and I was hanging out with a bunch of Latin Americans in France…I suppose if I go to Germany I will find a bunch of Russians to hang out with or something.

The weather here has been pretty darn good, I can’t complain. It’s a bit cloudy today, but I’ll take cloudy over scorching heat any time!

Im really getting used to this siesta thing. If you stay up late you really do need a nap come 2 or 3pm. I can see this being a habit that is difficult to break…

End of my first week in Granada

2007-09-14T11:09:00.000-04:00

My first week in Granada has been interesting. The siesta is the greatest invention of all time. I love coming home from school and taking a nap until about 4 or 5pm. The only thing is, if you don’t feel like taking a nap there isn’t much else to do since most of the stores and supermarkets are closed. Most cafes are open but that’s about it.

Most things here are relatively inexpensive. I got 2 pairs of shoes for about 6 euro each, not bad at all. Clothes are about the same price as in the US, but shoes are all on sale, some as cheap as 3 euro.

The culinary experience has been mostly positive, besides the tuna incidents I have only had one other unfortunate experience with seafood. My Señora made paella for lunch and I get home after everyone else has left for school, so it’s just the two of us. Paella is a typical Spanish dish consisting of rice, some veggies, meat and usually some sort of seafood. I scanned the dish and it was mostly carne, or meat. Then I saw these things that looked like onion rings that had been stripped of their breading so I assumed that they were onions. As I was serving myself she said there were a few ‘gambas’ and some ‘calamar’. I then proceeded too discover not only the shrimp but those innocent looking onion rings weren’t veggies at all, rather SQUID !! So, trying not to gag I served myself the meat and proceed to eat. The meat was alright, but with the first bite of rice I was overwhelmed with the taste of seafood. I almost gagged at the table. I quickly ate some bread and drank some water. I know I should be open to trying new things and all, but I just cant stomach seafood! I picked out the rest of the meat and left the rice, it had absorbed too much squid juice for me to handle for one day.

Last night I went out with Di Deustchen that I live with and we met up with some more Germans and an Austrian and a Pollock. Basically Andrew, one of the Americans I live with, and I were minorities in that we do not speak German. We went to a cafeteria for some tapas and then headed to an Arabic tea bar where we spent most of the night. I didn’t know there were that many kinds of tea. The English would not be able to handle it, is all I can say. Plain black tea is NOT an option!

My Spanish is coming along relatively well, it’s starting to slow down a little bit, but its still quite fast. When we listen to recordings in class I am usually completely lost! But its getting better.

The last Rotary meeting on Monday was interesting and I would like to go this coming week if I can. I’m not sure what they talk about, but it was interesting because it was conducted in such a different manner than ours in Oak Ridge. All of the men at the meeting were genuinely interested in having us there and wanted to know about where we came from and how we liked Spain and Granada. Hopefully within the next two weeks my Spanish will be good enough to speak for a while at the meeting. Vamos a ver!

Pizza con atún

2007-09-11T11:42:00.000-04:00

9.10.07

Yesterday was my first day of school. I met with Pilár, with whom I had been in contact via email, at about 9:30 in the morning and I took my placement test. It consisted of two parts, the first was correctly identifying articles and the second was 2 paragraphs of fill in the blank with the correct past tense. HA! Like I remember the past tense, I can’t even think in the present most days. Oh well. They placed me in the ‘group’ with the other girl who is here on a Rotary Scholarship. Her name is Rebecca and she’s from Cali. I use the term ‘group’ loosely, it’s the two of us and our teacher. Cozy. Class went from 9:30 in the morning until about 2:30 in the afternoon.

After class I thought I would get a jump on things and go shopping for a SIM card. Wrong. Nothing was open so basically I wandered around aimlessly for a few hours instead of sleeping. How stupid of me. At about 6pm I went back to school to use the Internet. Rebecca was there and we decided to go for tapas before the Rotary meeting at 8:30. I went home to tell Sra. Ruiz that I wasn’t going to be home for dinner then I went to the Mirabra to meet Rebecca. Tapas are a very traditional dish in Spain, its basically finger food. A slice of bread with some meat and potato chips or maybe some bread and potato salad. In Granada, however, tapas are gratis, or FREE! You buy a drink and you get the tapas at no additional cost. I ordered ‘una copa de vino tinto’ and I got a slice of bread with a savory piece of turkey and some potato chips and olives and carrots. Rebecca got cerveza, but I was content with my red wine.

A few minutes later Pilár joined us at the bar to wait with us until 8:30 when we would meet José, one José of about 4 in the Granada Rotary Club. José showed up, had a drink and we piled into his car and headed for the meeting. We arrived in good Spanish time, that is to say a bit late due to traffic. When we got there there were about 5 men sitting around a table. José introduced us and we gave a quick schpiel about ourselves and our host club. 30 minutes into the ‘meeting’ another Rotarian arrived, and in 15 minutes another arrived, and not to be outdone a final member arrived an additional 15 minutes later. Time seems to be much more flexible here than at my lovely breakfast club where they sound the gong at 7:15 and everyone is at attention. The meeting consisted of, what seemed to be, a bit of arguing over location as well as how they were going to delegate work and which projects they wanted to pursue. Don’t quote me on it though, it was basically just a low whirr that moved at a million miles an hour.

I did meet my host Rotarian, he was tardy member #2 but was quite enthusiastic about meeting us and said that his kids couldn’t wait to meet me. Aww. So I have to set up a date to meet with him in the near future. After the meeting we all met downstairs for finger food and cerveza y vino. I think I could get used to this.

I came home about 10:45 and Sra. Ruiz had saved some dinner for me. One dish looked like a sort of potato salad, which I wasn’t crazy about, but decided to try because ‘that’s the polite thing to do’ and the second dish looked like pizza with ham and some other sort of meat. All I have to say is WHO PUTS TUNA ON A PIZZA?! SERIOUSLY!? And if that wasn’t bad enough there was also tuna in the mayonnaise-based potato, pea, onion and carrot mix that I had already helped myself to. Needless to say I persevered and managed to get most of the tuna off the pizza and just left the potato salad alone. And I KNOW we talked about this yesterday, how I don’t like fish, because the Swiss girl, Ines doesn’t like any kind of seafood either. Neither does Rebecca. So you can all leave me alone and stop picking on me because I wont eat fish!

una caña de chocolate. these are AMAZING

this is my street

All in all it was an interesting day. I need to figure out some sort of routine other wise I am going to bore myself to death. Class from 930-230 then no other obligations for the rest of the day… I cant even shop…I just have to go to sleep, wake up and pretend to be productive then eat dinner at about 9 and find something to entertain myself with in the evenings. Anyone want to come visit?

my first day of school

2007-09-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

so today was my first day of school. i have class from 9:30-2:30 with another girl from california who is also here on a Rotary scholarship. it was basically grammar and a bit about life in spain and how its different than life in the US. other than thati dont really have any exciting news or photos unfortunately. i think im going to the Rotary meeting tonight at 9pm, but im not sure. still have to work that out. one thing i love about spain: the siesta!

Mi vida en Espana!

2007-09-09T12:55:00.000-04:00

9.9.07

Sunday, my first full day in Spain. I got up at about 9:30 for breakfast. I heard voices and figured I had better get up and eat rather than miss out on the first meal of the day. If not, I would have to wait until about 2:30/3 for lunch. After breakfast I headed into the city in search of the office of Tourism in hopes of finding a nice little map of the city. Sebastian, one of the German guys went with me because he wanted to see the Cathedral in the city and it’s on the way to the office of Tourism. We got to the cathedral and he handed me his map and we went our separate ways. I found the office and got a few maps as well as the name and location of an Internet café. Unfortunately I didn’t have my laptop so I didn’t have enough time or energy to write a complete post, but hopefully this will do.

After the café I went to the cathedral and ran into Sebastian. We walked around the city a bit and decided to get some cañas de chocolate and sit in the park. The cañas are basically a chocolate filled pastry that’s much crisper, flakier, longer and sweeter than a pain au chocolat. They were messy but delicious. Since Sebastian is from just outside Berlin and has never been to America he was full of questions about Americans and the US and what we think about Europeans and Europe in general. After a few minutes he decided that Americans were much like Europeans in that there is really no generalization. As a country we possess a spectrum of opinions and ideals and there is really no generalization at the moment because we are quite a polarized nation.

In between the cultural lessons I also provided grammar lessons. He’s not too confident with his English and had a lot of questions about tenses and how we say things. I know I shouldn’t be speaking English, but he really doesn’t speak or understand Spanish so for the sake of conversation I lapsed into English.

Now, after having a late lunch I am about to partake in a Spanish ritual that I am very excited about; the siesta. What could be better than a mid-day nap? I think I could get used to this…

Hasta Mañana

Mi vida en España 9.8.07

Today I arrived in Spain. I got off the plane in Granada and I was on a tarmac surrounded by dusty hills and towering mountains. Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas Granada is strategically 30 minutes from surf or ski. The weather was quite hot, not at all like the chilly mornings and evenings in London. Quite the opposite, it reminded me of South Carolina; nothing but sunshine and smiling people.

I was greeted at the airport by José, who works at the school and is also a Rotarian. He invited me to the Rotary meeting on Monday to meet everyone. I asked him what time it was going to be at and he told me 9, so I clarified if that meant am or pm and he laughed. Why would anyone meet at 9am? I then told him that my host club met at 7:15am and he laughed and said “Not in Spain, we meet later”. Good news, I don’t have to wake up early!

José showed me my school building and how close it is to where I am living. We brought my things to my apartment and I met Sra. Ana Ruiz with whom I am going to be living these next few months. I am not alone in the house, there are 2 American boys who go to UMass Amherst, 2 German guys from Berlin and a girl from Switzerland who arrived shortly after I did. The Germans and the Swiss girl are going to be staying until the end of the week, but the Americans, like myself, will be here until December.

I talked with Sra. Ruiz then came back to my room to unpack. After that I took a shower and by about that time Ines, the Swiss girl, had shown up. We chatted for a while then I wandered back to my room and fell asleep. Dinner was ready at about 9pm and the American boys; Adam and Andrew came in. Adam left as quickly as he had come and Andrew joined us at the dinner table. He left and as we were finishing our meal Christophe came in have spent the entire day at the beach, then later Sebastian, the other German came in. The four of us talked for a bit, the boys left to go out and Ines and I decided we needed to get some sleep.

So my first day in Spain was not too entirely overwhelming. I was up at about 6:15am London time and I’m completely exhausted. Part of that is probably due to the events of last night…

9.7.07
As a going-away present James’ mom and dad treated us to a night of theater. Not just any theater; Shakespearian Theater. We had ground level tickets for the presentation of The Merchant of Venice at the Globe. I say ground level tickets and not seats because we did not sit, we stood, like the commoners did in Shakespeare’s day…for almost 3 hours. After an exhausting, but highly entertaining performance we headed to London Bridge and got on the underground and headed home. I cannot imagine a more perfect, or more fitting way to end a trip in London. The weather was wonderful for the 10 days that I was there and last night was no exception. The open-air venue that is the Globe was perfect. It was definitely ‘going out with a bang’. A fitting end to a lovely two weeks and a great way to start the next chapter in this adventure.

espana!

2007-09-09T06:33:00.000-04:00

im here in spain, finally. i dont have internet at my house and i´m at a cafe at the moment. i will post tomorrow about what i have done since ive been here. i think i will have internet at school so i´ll bring my laptop and post from there. so i´ll leave you knowing that im safe and sound in southern spain...la buena vida.

House of Wax

2007-09-07T06:57:00.000-04:00

After a marathon session of Prison Break we all slept in a bit longer than we expected on Thursday morning. We left the house, since it was a beautiful day, and headed to Regent’s Park. Took a stroll and tried to see what was playing at the outdoor theater in the park. Unfortunately, we missed Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox by a week and opted not to spend 35 pounds on some show we had never heard of called The Boyfriend. We got ice cream instead and sat by the pond with the Canadian geese.

After our stroll in the park we decided to visit Madame Tussard’s Wax Museum. I have to say, it was pretty amazing. I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

After the museum we walked to SoHo and Greek Street and had dinner at a lovely little Italian Restaurant.

Catch Up

2007-09-07T06:13:00.000-04:00

Monday September 3

I wrote the post for Monday but never got around to saving and posting it, so it has since been lost. Oh well. I’ll try my best to remember what went down, but I didn’t do anything especially spectacular.

James and I went to Brick lane in the late afternoon to have a look around. Brick Lane is a very Indian part of East London so he was determined that we come back that evening for a ‘proper curry’, one of his favorite dishes. After walking up and down Brick Lane we wandered around London a bit more and made our way to St. Paul’s Cathedral. After a bit more wandering we headed to see the Muffin Man. I don’t know if you know him or not, but he definitely does not live on Drury Lane. Hungry and muffinless we went back to Brick Lane for our curry.

A delicious meal later we decided to brave the crowds and head home. Did I mention that the London Underground workers decided to go on strike? Yes, the unhappy metronet workers decided to make life just a little more difficult for the 11 million or so people who live in the greater London area. We headed to the station and watched as train after train passed by and 2-3 people crammed themselves onto the already overcrowded trains. Talk about miserable.

After a sweaty and uncomfortable ride we finally made it home and popped in our trusty Prison Break DVD and watched an episode or four.

Tuesday September 4th

Due to the underground strike we decided that it would be unwise to venture into London. Instead we decided to watch about 7 episodes of Prison Break and make and make a fruitless journey to the mall to get the rest of season 1. What a lovely lazy day.

Wednesday September 5th

With the strike over, but nothing resolved, we headed back to London in an attempt to see Temple church. For those of you that have read the DaVinci code you are well aware of the importance of Temple church. For those of you have not, or simply don’t remember, it’s a quick read. Have a go.

After Temple church we walked to Westminster to see Parliament and Buckingham Palace. That’s pretty much all we did. Walked around, saw the sights and took a million pictures because it was a sunny day in Londontown.

Ticket to Ride

2007-09-01T14:20:00.000-04:00

After two jam packed days of touring London we decided to have a quiet day on Friday. The weather was a bit cloudy Thursday, so we didn’t go to the London Eye as James had planned, so we decided to go on Friday evening. The day started out cloudy [typical London] but by about 3pm the clouds broke up and the sun started shining through. Deciding it was a good sign, we got ready and headed out to the Eye.

Arriving at a station downtown James’ dad called so we left the station and we sat with him over a cup of coffee. Then we headed back to the Underground and made our way to the Eye. When we exited at Embankment [the station] James decided to show me the South Bank, a neat little strip along the river with galleries, restaurants and a nifty skate park.

Just after 6pm we went finally went to the Eye. Me, being paranoid about lines, thought we would have to wait in line [queue up] for hours, but it was about a 3-minute wait and we walked right on. Now, I know at least one of you out there doesn’t know what the London Eye is, cough, mom, cough. It’s a huge observation wheel that was opened in 2000. Basically a revolving Ferris wheel with pods that overlooks the city of London. Supposedly 3.5 million people ride on it a year. It’s a calm ride that takes about 30-40 minutes for one rotation. Since it was a great view of London, we took quite a lot of pictures, so enjoy!

and here is one of the little Italian trattoria we went to Thursday night:

Life in the Fast Lane

2007-08-31T08:11:00.000-04:00

just a quick note: the cars in this country are amazing. walking around by Abbey Road we passed a [gated] driveway with a Range Rover, Ferrari and Aston Martin in the Driveway. Love it.

Spent another day in London, unfortunately it was not as sunny as it was the day before. Went to Notting Hill and walked along Kensington High Street. Saw a Pub for mom:

Took a bus [per my nagging] so that we could 'sightsee' while getting where we needed to go. We went to the Savoy to see the American Bar where James [occasionaly] works and then had dinner at a little Italian Bistro. After dinner we walked along the river and snapped a few photos with the London Eye.. which we plan to go on tonight :)

Here Comes the Sun

2007-08-30T06:48:00.000-04:00

After an exhausting day of travel I made it to London. The best way to sum up the trip is to put it in the captains own words “ there seems to be a bit of traffic on the runway… we’re ttttth-irtyith…” So while we are all waiting for him to say third. He gently breaks it to us that it will be another 45+ minutes on the runway. Needless to say I slept well after arriving in London.

Today we did quite the tour of London. I think it was an attempt to make up for the fact that I was in London for at least 6 days last December and I didn’t see any ‘touristy’ things except for a few monuments at night…and nighttime photography leaves a bit to be desired.

We started the day with a trip to the Tower of London. Saw St. Katherine’s docks; lots of flowers, made me think about mom… and then crossed the Tower Bridge.

There was an interesting exhibit by city hall; guitars designed by artists and signed by various music artists that were on display that will later be sold to benefit a charity of some sort.

In the music mood we took the underground to see Abbey Road. I could have spent a good part of the afternoon watching all the idiots, like myself, dash in front of cars in a vain attempt to get the perfect shot. A few of the passing cars didn’t take too kindly to the tourists and let it be known by an angry horn blast, but for the most part the locals seemed to humor us.

Then we took the underground to Kings Cross to see Platform 9 æ. Yes, James humored me enough to take me to a random metro station to see a sign on a wall erected for a fictional child’s book. What a sport.

Next on the list was a walk to Camden Market. After a bit of construction and detours we made it to the Camden High Street. What an interesting place. We had a bit of dinner and enjoyed the atmosphere along the canal.

As if we hadn’t done enough already, we headed back towards the river to see Covent Garden and find a friend of ours that is working in London. Met up with a few of James’ friends and then walked to see where he works, at the Savoy, a swank hotel downtown. Lured by the lights of Big Ben we walked down to the river to see Parliament and passed 10 Downing Street. For all of you out there that don’t know what that is, like I didn’t, I will save you the embarrassment of asking someone; 10 Downing Street is the UK equivalent of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and to spare my mother from having to ask her children: Its where their Prime Minister lives.

Quite an exhausting day altogether. Enjoy the photos, I may post more later. Tomorrow we have a ride on the London Eye and dinner at little Italian place. Yes mom, James made plans. No, I can’t believe it either.

Two Days Till Take-off

2007-08-25T10:27:00.001-04:00

It's Saturday and I leave on Monday, I cannot wait! It's mom's birthday today so that will keep me pretty busy, that and the shopping list of things i have to do for her before I leave. It was great going to SC this past week and seeing everyone at the beach and everyone at USC. It was weird not having class and not moving in and not being a part of the school vibe in general. I guess instead of football games I will attend a bull fight or something.

since everyone likes pictures... here's some from Boston:

what a lovely picture of siblings 1 & 2. yes, i am standing on a curb...

and Boston at night

and Nick and I being our best pirates in Plymouth... yes, i know, the Mayflower was not a pirate vessel...

Maybe I'll post some from SC in a while, but that's doubtful...

My next 2 weeks

2007-08-13T18:51:00.000-04:00

It seems like this summer is coming quickly to a close. I'm going to be fairly busy these next few days, so I've decided to let everyone know where I'm going to be so we can meet up, if need be, before I leave.

Tues 8/14- Working at Flatwater from 4pm onward
Wed- Rotary Meeting 7:15am @ Inspiration Point, Work 4pm-close
Thurs- Oak Ridge in the morning then off to Columbia in the afternoon
Friday-Columbia, SC in the morning off to Myrtle Beach by evening
Saturday- THE BEACH, then Spud's
Sunday- Working at Spud's all day in Murrell's Inlet, SC
Monday 8/20- Probably working at Spuds
Tuesday- maybe Spuds, Maybe Columbia
Wednesday- USC!! Then the usual; Delaney's!!
Thursday- 5pts
Friday- Back in Oak Ridge by the late afternoon
Saturday- Celebrating my mothers birthday in OR
Sunday- last minute errands in TN
Monday 8/27- Tyson McGhee airport :)

So, if you need me that should be a rough table that shows what state I'll be in and when. Time to show my mom how to work her computer...

2007-08-12T23:20:00.000-04:00

trying to get a photo in my profile, we'll see how successful this little endeavor is...

Two Weeks Till Take-off

2007-08-11T23:15:00.000-04:00

In about two weeks I will be leaving the lovely city of Oak Ridge for my adventure in Spain. I'm nothing but excited. A little worried that im going to have overpacked, but thats to be expected. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on what's happening once I arrive on foreign soil.