Dangerous Riots in the Neighborhood!

Today (Thursday) was the last day of my fourth week! To recap, I went to SIMO which is an information technology networking convention at the ifema expo center here in Madrid for my International Marketing class, I wore my new rain jacket for the first time, saw my first soccer game, getting used to the fact that the weather is a little cooler, I actually have homework in my classes now, and I’m leaving TOMORROW for the weekend to Navarra, Spain with my Spanish Culture and Civilization class. There is one really BIG event that I left out, and I neglected to put it into this list on purpose because it exceeds the level of excitement tremendously. We all know the world is not at peace because that is far too much to ask for. People are unable to trust each other and as a result, some resort to violence. In the past week or so I received TWO e-mails from the study abroad counselor at SJU (one forwarded from the US Embassy), an e-mail from student life here at SLU Madrid, and a text message from my dad all warning me to be cautious about where I go in Spain because of the political protests going on. Before today I just thought to myself, obviously I’ll be careful and not approach any kind of congregations in the city. BUT my friend Rita posted a video on our small group Facebook page saying, “This was in Madrid last night, careful where you go!” with the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDCRgqspmyU&feature=youtu.be&t=3m56s . Since I haven’t seen any of the commotion going on myself, I didn’t think anything of the riots going on. This educated me about how fast these attacks break out and how they can happen to people who are just minding their own business waiting for the train in the metro station (which you can see towards the end of the clip). I was SHOCKED when I finished watching this video because the majority of it takes place in locations I’ve been to at night since I first arrived in Spain. Lucky for me I live quite a bit away from the center of Madrid which is where all of these protests are taking place. Now I know exactly what SJU, the US Embassy, SLU Madrid, and my dad are all talking about when they say stay away from group demonstrations. I’m happy I get to leave the city for two consecutive weekends in a row for mandatory class trips. Hopefully the riots will be a little calmer by the time I return.

First.Ever.Soccer.Game.

 Wednesday night (last night) I attended my first ever professional soccer game and had the privilege of watching one of the top teams in the WORLD, Real Madrid. Our seats were extremely cheap at 12 euros a piece, but of course we were sitting all the way at the top. I didn’t mind this view because it allowed us to see the whole field at one glance. Real Madrid played against Colombia Millonarios which I guess isn’t a great team hence the prices of the tickets. Madrid scored right off the bat and actually kept scoring which made the game quite boring honestly. The fact that we all got free wifi on our mobile devices helped cure the feeling of being bored at a, what is supposed to be, exciting soccer game. We didn’t even sit in our assigned seats! The atmosphere of the game was pretty fun. The fans on the bottom level started the wave and sent it all the way around the stadium. Doing the wave once at a Real Madrid game wasn’t enough, sooo they started another one! This time after going all the way around, the fans sent it back the way they came. This was probably one of the best parts of the night! The one part I did not like at all was the fact that people are allowed to smoke in the stadium right in their seats. I guess it would be more than appropriate to call the stadium a life-sized ashtray. Oh, and the bathroom stalls had toilet paper outside of them instead of inside, which took all of us ladies by surprise. All in all the game was fun and definitely something worth going back to! Real Madrid easily beat Colombia 8-0, so hopefully next time there is a little more competition and the first string players actually play! 

4th Week of Classes

bike made from hp technology systems

I can’t believe I’m already on my fourth week of classes! My schedule is all finalized and I’m happy with the classes I’m currently enrolled in. As a matter of fact, I go on my first class trip this coming weekend to El Camino de Santiago. Yesterday was the second day of golf, and I hit like a whole different person (but in a good way). There were not as many of us, so we each had the opportunity of hitting a bucket of balls each. Zach was having problems with his swing so I watched then corrected him. He kept moving his front leg inward and leaning back so I told him to just stand completely still and only swing your arms. Sure enough, it worked like a charm! He was ecstatic and joked by saying, “Jeez now I can go play with Tiger woods!”  The next few consecutive hits he kept hitting well and commenting about how my advice really helped. This made me feel gooooood. Anyways, the weather has been quite cool here. Doesn’t feel like the middle of summer anymore but I’m hoping the warmer weather comes back.  We’ll have to see as the week goes on! Today I went to ifema, which is a global convention center for various worldwide expos such as gifts, fashion, bikes, etc. You name it. I was required to do this for class so I went to the information technology expo called SIMO because a) it’s free,  b) business intelligence is bringing the world together and c) to get a feel for what IT companies have to offer as far as products go. I went with Jen who is in my class and we were by far the youngest people at the convention. HP Intel was the most interesting.  They had a mock science lab set up on one of the tables showing viewers how their ink does not run if it were to come in contact with water. They dissected every piece as to how something like this can be prevented. Then they brought us over to this HP programmed bike which was pretty awesome because it's ranked 2nd in the world as far as moto racing goes. We also entered a raffle to win a new HP laptop! I really hope I win considering they have four different drawings a day. I’ll let you all know if I win or lose. Later tonight I’m going to a Real Madrid soccer game with a bunch of people. Never been to a major league or national league soccer game so this should be fun! Real Madrid is the richest (or worth the most) sports enterprise in the world. Come back to see how the game goes!

Backpacking pt. 3 - Avila

Main square in Avila

St. Theresa Avila Statue

Our third and final stop was Avila. Upon arriving, the two of us had no idea what was in Avila nor did we know what to do once we got there. Emily knew the general direction of where some of the historical places are, so we walked from the bus stop in that exact direction until we ran into history. The first thing we saw was the basilica. It didn’t really look like a place to go inside so we kept walking towards the stone wall. Once we figured out where we were, we looked for a place to eat breakfast and stumbled upon a pastry shop. These pastries were so cheap and delicious at the same time! I ate five little baked goods and probably could have eaten another five. Once we finished that, we went to climb the city walls that surrounded the town. The medieval city walls were built in the Romanesque style. Avila is also one of the cities with the highest number of Romanesque churches, Gothic churches and catering establishments in relation to the number of its inhabitants (wiki).  This walk was pretty tough because the winds were blowing hard and the air was a little chilly. Some of the steps were double steps and we needed to literally hold on to the next step or the wall to make sure we wouldn’t fall trying to reach that next step. Oh, I can’t forget to mention that we were carrying our backpacks the entire time! This made us official backpackers. We walked around the entire wall, uphill and downhill (but mostly uphill). We passed St. Theresa of Avila’s church on our walk. St. Theresa is from Avila, Spain, hence the name. For lunch we had ham and cheese crepes which were tasty but not as delicious as the Nutella one from Salamanca. I also tried some of Emily’s Yemas which are a famous treat found all over Avila. I did not like this much. The taste was hard to grasp too. By the time we finished our day, we had two and a half hours before our bus left. So, what did we do? Nothing. No shops were open at all. Avila seemed like a ghost town. We sat in the sketchy bus stop for the duration of the leftover time. After three days of exploring and a 2 hour bus ride back to Madrid in the rain we finally made it home!

Backpacking pt. 2 - Segovia

Alcazar de Salamanca (Castle)

Aqueduct

Day 2 of my backpacking excursion through Spain landed me in Segovia! But wait, we almost landed ourselves in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Our bus tickets had a different Segovia station that consisted of a patch of dust on the side of the road. The bus drive was like, “okay time to get out this is your stop”. I spoke to him in Spanish and said this isn’t where we intended on getting dropped off. The only bus stop available was the one we had. He let us stay on the bus till we got to the actual city of Segovia. If he made us get off I don’t know how we would have gotten back to civilization. Anyways, this time we were able to check into our hostel right away which made things SO much easier. Our first stop in Segovia was a visit to the Alcazar of Segovia (which literally means Segovia Castle). This castle is one of the most distinctive castle-palaces in Spain because of its shape.  Another fun fact about this place is that it is one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle. While in the castle, Emily and I asked a group of middle aged ladies if they wanted a picture taken of the entire group so no one was left out. After that they asked us if we wanted one so of course we said yes! We got into a little conversation in Spanish and actually followed them all the way to the top. While we were climbing up, one of the ladies asked me if we were from FRANCE! I said no, the United States, and then she proceeded to compliment how good my Spanish was! This feeling was awesome. Once we finished exploring the castle we headed down to the main square where the Aqueduct is. The Aqueduct is one of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula. It was originally meant to transport water and boats. While we were there, a 100k marathon from Madrid to Segovia was taking place. We saw the first guy finish at about 2pm. This guy must have broken world records or something because he was the only one to finish that early and he had a fan club wearing the same shirt he was wearing with sponsors on it. We hung around to see if anyone else was going to finish. While we were waiting, a baby stroller flipped over. I thought it was the wind or maybe some packages weighed it down. Sure enough adults started running over to pick it up. The baby (about 11months old) was inside of it sleeping. The best part is, HE NEVER WOKE UP! This kid must be a heavy sleeper. I was dying at how hilarious this was. Some other things we did that afternoon included exploring another cathedral (this one we snuck in for free), watching a little portion of a historical play, seeing a bride and groom take wedding pictures by the arches,  and seeing a muscle car show all of which was totally unplanned. That night, all the other runners finally started arriving at the finish line from earlier. We stuck around and watched this which was cute because all the dads would grab their children or wives or buddies and cross the finish line with them. Sometimes the best trips are the spontaneous ones, and that is how we navigated through the weekend.

Backpacking pt. 1 - Salamanca

            Salamanca, Spain, was my first destination out of three to take place on backpacking journey to historical locations within a reasonable distance. It is a city in western Spain known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment. Salamanca is also the most important University City in Spain and supplies 16% of Spain’s market for the teaching of the Spanish language (according to wiki). This was my first real weekend of traveling! I left Friday morning with my friend Emily. We met at the metro in haste because only 42% of the metro system was working due to a week-long strike. Luckily we met up at perfect timing and got on the metro without having to wait half an hour like some people did.  Our bus is classified as “Express” which at the time we thought it just meant that it did not make additional stops. Turns out an express bus is basically a first class bus. The seats were HUGE and pure leather- A real luxury coach if you ask me.  

                We arrived in Salamanca at 11:30am which meant we had a few hours to kill before checking in at our hostel around 1pm. We found a McDonalds nearby and sat there using the free wifi. While we were engulfed in our technological devices, we looked out the window and saw a procession of army men. Curious to see what it was, we ventured outside to watch. Every branch of the Spanish military was there suited up: army, navy, civil guard, air force etc. This was a great surprise. Apparently this kind of procession/congregation in La Plaza Mayor is just normal so we did not learn too much about it.

View from top of Univ. Salamanca

                Check-in time rolled around and we got settled in our cute hostel. This was my first hostel experience and I can honestly say everything went well! The only tricky part was getting the lights to work. We had trouble because the hostel was EXTREMELY eco-friendly and you can only get the lights to work if you put your room key in a slot. Of course everyone is paranoid about bedbugs so I packed all my clothes in sealable bags and slept on top of the sheets with a towel on top of the pillow that was even in a clean pillowcase. No bedbugs here! The only thing we had to deal with was Tallston, our German roommate studying physics in Spain at the University of Salamanca. 

mariachi band

Nutella and banana crepe

       The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218, is the oldest in Spain, and the third oldest western university. Emily and I went over to the University and actually climbed two of the bell towers. We were literally the only ones up there. I’m not sure if this is because of the climb or just because not many people knew about it, but we had a plethora of fun running around like little children. The day passed pretty fast. By nighttime we were all cleaned up and ready to explore the Salamanca nightlife. This place is definitely a night oriented town. We started off with none other than 100 Mondatitos. After that we pressed on to a family owned bar that had a deal 3 tapas and a drink for 4 euro. We had a potato ball, mushrooms and eggs, and some fried cheese with jam on toast thing. It was absolutely DELCIOUS. We went to a few other places and ended with a stop at a crepe restaurant. Emily and I share a Nutella and banana crepe with vanilla ice cream (by far best crepe I’ve ever had). After that we cut through the plaza only to find mariachi bands in every spot. These men were dressed in costume with string instruments singing songs while they drank and smoked. These guys stayed out all night. We even saw them the next morning at 7am as we left for Segovia!!