The Family Arrives in Madrid!!

Sunday marked the big day: the arrival of my family! After a short night’s sleep, I woke up bright and early to meet my parents and sister at Madrid’s international airport. The timing was great. I waited at the “lounge” doorway they exited through. I snagged a spot front and center so they could not miss me. In fact my friend Jaclyn from high school had her parents visiting her too! Except she did not come to the airport. Her mom walked through the door and says, “Julianne!” Not paying attention, I looked up in surprise to see Mrs. Gerson. She told me Jaclyn wasn’t meeting up with them at the airport and proceeded on to her limo driver. After seeing a few happy reunions (which made me tear up), I finally was reunited with my own family. I made them a sign that said “iMom, Dad, and Laura, bienvenido a Madrid! Which means welcome to Madrid in Spanish. Instead of taking an expensive taxi ride to their hotel, I introduced my family to the Metro System here in Madrid. They commented on how clean it was especially compared to NYC subways. Once they were settled in the hotel, we headed right to the market, “El Rastro”. This place was mobbed with people, most likely because we did not go first thing in the morning when you probably should go because there would have been less people.

El rastro

 I didn’t even get close to any booths/tables to see merchandise nor did I feel comfortable going into my purse for money. I’ll have to go another time first thing in the morning to even see what’s really good and not good! After we had enough of the markets, I escorted my family to Plaza Mayor to get a glimpse at a cool site but a huge piece of history. The plaza was setting up the Christmas market which looked awesome. I’ll have to go check it out now since it just opened a few days ago! Nap time rolled around and my family was ready to crash after being on the move for almost 24 straight hours. I went back to my senora’s house to do homework. Eventually it was dinner time, so we went to this Italian chain called Gino’s which was PHENOMENAL. I had never been there before and would really like to go back! I had Rigatoni Alfredo. But the funniest part is that I was the only one with the English menu and did not realize it until my mom and Laura kept asking questions about certain plates. I finally said to them, “Why are you asking so many questions? The menu is in English”. It’s pretty ironic that I, the only Spanish speaker, was handed the English menu while the rest got the Spanish menu.  The food was great and everyone was happy with their meals including the dessert. This was SUCH a delicious way to end the first night spending time with my family in Spain.

Gabriel's 1st Birthday!

Last Saturday marked my senora’s grandson’s first birthday! Soooo to celebrate the special occasion, everyone flocked to her vacation home out in the country on the lake. Gloria and I actually left on Friday with her sister, Carrie, who drove us there. The home is beautiful and newly renovated. She also keeps the place spotless and extremely clean which I loved! I had my own room while she and Carrie shared a room and her daughter, Glo, and her husband had a room to themselves too. We spent Friday cleaning up a bit, cooking and getting situated for the party the next night (Saturday night). The weather was SO amazing, Gloria her sister and I had lunch outside on the patio. No jackets needed here! After lunch I sat down and got some homework done. Sure enough, Gloria’s daughter and son-in-law showed up with Gabriel, the birthday boy! He is adorable and has the curliest blonde hair out of anyone else in Spain. Later that night, Gloria, Carrie and I watched the second twilight movie in complete Spanish with no English subtitles because the remote was broken. 

About fifteen minutes into the move we all fell asleep including Bastet (the cat) who was sitting on my lap. At the same time we all woke up laughing because of what had happened and decided to just go to bed. It was actually pretty early too, maybe 11:15pm or 11:30. The next day was fiesta day! This was the real day of preparation. In order to have a good start we sat down and had a complete family breakfast Spanish style with tortilla (Egg omelet with potatoes essentially). I even was spoiled and had real cow milk instead of soy milk! Anyways, I did more homework after that and Skyped with my parents because they were arriving in Madrid the very next day. Once that was over, some people started to arrive (Gloria’s other sister and Alex, her one and a half year old grandson). Alex knows Spanish and English, but to keep teaching him English, his grandma only talked to him in English. I thought this was cool and a smart thing to do at such a young age. Alex is the third child out of four boys who are ALL bilingual in Spanish and English. While Alex and Gabriel were playing in the ball pit, the rest of us cleaned up and continued getting ready. 

Alex (Left) & Gabriel (Right)

A Spanish birthday party is very different from a birthday party in the U.S. Gabriel’s birthday party was only a cake/dessert party with opening gifts. We literally had about 7 cakes and pies. The amount was INSANE, but it made sense because there were a lot of people there. In fact I talked to almost all of them and kept getting compliments on my Spanish!! Some of them thought I was a cousin or related to Gabriel in some way, shape, or form, but nope. I am just the exchange student. Another interesting thing is that they do not sing happy birthday. They sing two other songs which are in Spanish but I have never heard before. Anyways, we all had an excellent time celebrating Gabriel’s first birthday. Instead of handing out “goodie bags” to the kids, everyone received a big square plate to fill up with the various cakes to bring home. This is the Spanish form of goodie bags and such an interesting concept.  Gloria even made a special cake with the sole purpose to be taken home. Overall, I had an excellent time, met some really nice family members and got to practice my Spanish!

First Official Visitors!

This past weekend, my friends in Florence came and visited me after I visited them the previous weekend. I gave them the typical walking route tour of basically all the famous hotspots in Madrid for example, Retiro Park (rowed boats), Banco de España, Puerta de Sol, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Palacio Real, Catedral, Templo Debod and other places as well. One surprise for me was the wall of flowers in honor of the Virgin Mary. I'm not quite sure of the full meaning but it was quite the site. There is always something new going on in Madrid which is one of things I love most about living here. You never know what you're going to find around the corner! We made extremely good timing considering we did all of this plus lunch in the middle in just a little over half a day.  We ate lunch at 100 Montanditos which is easily the cheapest place to eat any meal in Madrid. These franchises are located EVERYWHERE and their 100 variety small sandwiches do not exceed 3 euros in price. That night my señora cooked a HUGE delicious dinner for everyone and set up the table in a fancy manner with her crystal wine glasses and china plates. My friends were all extremely impressed with her performance and the food. Once again it was a meal that I had never had before since she never repeats a meal twice (unless my roommate and I really like a meal and ask her to do so!).  As far as nightlife goes, Zach and I tried to take them all to Teatro Kapital (7 stories high club in Madrid) but we got there too late. The line was so long and if you get in before 1am you do not have to pay. Since we clearly were not making it in by 1am we left and went and did some other fun spontaneous activities! They had chocolate and churros for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed them. The next day was shopping day for them!! In Italy the clothing is apparently so much more expensive so Mary, Alex and Lucia went crazy shopping because Spain clothing is the cheapest I’ve actually seen in all of Europe so far. I bought one shirt and a few little gifts but nothing like they did. My favorite store is Lefties. Frankly, I could buy the entire store. Good thing my parents are coming this weekend which will enable me to deposit a lot of my clothes in their suitcases instead of mine! But actually I do not have that many clothes. Rather, I have very little compared to almost everyone else abroad. If you want me to get you something from Spain let me know!!! I do not mind it at all!

Florence, Italy

There’s a first for everything and this trip marked my first time traveling to Italy!! And better yet, a large portion of my friends are studying abroad there this semester, which enabled me to visit with them too! This weekend was one of two 4-day weekends I have this semester. I seized the opportunity because the timing was perfect. Everyone is always traveling every weekend, but this weekend we were all free allowing me to come! My time in Italy was well spent. Before coming, Mary told me that her friend, Bri had two girls visiting her this same weekend and were most likely on my flight. Guess what? They both go to SLU with me in MADRID! Ironically, we met up in the Pisa airport after we landed just by chance. I was waiting behind them at the information desk and asked if they were going into Pisa to visit the leaning tower. Sure enough, they were and one of the girls said, “I think we were supposed to meet you!” So, the three of us traveled to the tower together and then into the city of Florence. Pisa had so many tourists especially people taking the touristy pictures pretending to touch the tower or push it up including myself. 

Pisa

We didn’t stay here long at all. I actually thought it was a little boring. Back in Florence, Mary showed me around her apartment and then brought me to see Deanna and Lauren in the apartment downstairs. After everyone said hello and we were all showered, the group went out to dinner to celebrate Mary and Trevor’s’ 20^th birthdays (no they are not twins). This whole dinner experience was pretty poor. Megan and I did not get our food until everyone was finished with theirs even though we ordered the same meal as some people. After what seemed like forever, the two of us finally received our food. The chicken was delicious and dinner was fun! The next day on their actual birthdays, we did a family dinner at home. The girls had one and then the boys had their own. We had lasagna, which I am normally not a fan of, but this tasted good and was homemade by Alex. Before that some of us walked around Florence and went sightseeing. I had my first real Italian pizza for lunch from Gusta Pizza, which in fact was delicious. Who says you’re too big to ride a carousel?   

Piazza Republica

Not any of us because in fact we all did just that in the Piazza Republica. Just around the corner was a Ferrari store so of course I had to go inside and check it out. They had Ferrari everything! (t-shirts, notebooks, golf balls, hats, etc.) The prices were as expected and out of my budget. 

On to the next place! Or should I say places? We were on a mission to get to our destination but passed a handful of other important places in Florence that everyone pointed out to me. Some of the hot spots include the Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Florence with nothing but jewelry shops), the Santa Croche (church where Michelangelo is buried), and the Duomo (where I attended church on Saturday night). We reached our main destination: The Boboli Gardens (pronounced “bubbly”). 

View from the top of the Boboli Gardens

Beginning of the Boboli Gardens

 I almost had to pay for a ticket which would have cost me 25euro but my group of friends is sneaky and Deanna used her free access card at a different window to get another free ticket for me.  Inside the garden, we climbed multiple gates and steps until we reached the top. The views were pretty cool.  The real views were at the Piazza Di Michelangelo. I climbed this “mountain” on Sunday and saw the most spectacular view of Florence. The weather wasn’t awesome, but then again the weather could have been worse. Another thing I got to experience in Italy was the central markets and the leather markets. Florence is famous for its leather making.  I bought a few presents at the markets, which I will not name in case someone I purchased something for reads this! Italy overall treated me well. It was weird seeing how much English is used and how little Italian is actually used. I didn’t even really feel like I was in Italy (language wise). The city is small and my friends do not even use public transportation to travel anywhere. It’s all done by foot. I even picked up the hang of things after walking the same streets about 3 times. In fact, Mary and Lauren made me find my way home one time without any help from them! Sure enough, I found their apartment with no problem. I also got to experience a real cannoli which was DELICIOUS along with a fruit ice pop dipped in chocolate made to order. The ice pop was phenomenal. Easily my favorite thing I tried in Italy. My short and sweet visit with so many of my friends had to come to a close. However, I was not THAT sad because they were coming to Madrid the very next weekend. Before I end this blog post, I must mention how I was sitting by the gate at the airport waiting for my flight when all of a sudden a guy wearing his dirt biking gear sits down next to me. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. Obviously he was getting on a Ryanair flight because he wore his biggest and heaviest clothing/equipment! People will do the silliest things these days just to save some money!

My two favorite pictures of the trip

My two favorite pictures of the trip

The U.S. Embassy in Spain

On Friday, October 26th, I went with my roommate, Gaytri, and her boyfriend, Parth, to the U.S. Embassy to drop off my vote for the 2012 election. We figured out the route a head of time and hopped on the bus around 12:30pm. I called the embassy prior to arriving to ask them if i can come and the women said yes, she would tell the GUARDS that I am coming. I thought this was pretty cool until we arrived outside the embassy. The security men were legit holding HUGE guns. I wanted to take a picture, but I am not sure if that was allowed so I refrained. However, I did take pictures sneakily of the voting drop-box and inside the embassy itself. I also took a picture of the Hummer police vehicles stationed outside the building. The U.S. Embassy would have Hummer police cars while the rest of Madrid has girly little sedan police cars. The security guys were extremely nice to us and hardly anyone was in the actual embassy besides us. I didn’t have to leave my purse with security for some strange reason, but my roommate Gaytri did. I think this might be because she is Indian? who knows. Once inside, we found our way to the voting window.  There were two tellers and two other people inside besides us. One of the persons I traveled to Lagos with a few weeks prior! What a small world. He actually needed me to sign his ballad as a “witness” which I was fine with doing because I talked to him in Portugal and he remembered me. The waiting area was set up with lots of pictures of U.S. related things such as Washington, D.C. and the Philadelphia Phillies. Out of all the sports teams in the country, I think it is pretty funny they picked the Phillies in the same city I go to school in. I waited for Gaytri and Parth to finish their applications, and shortly after, that concluded our adventure to the U.S. Embassy in Spain. May the best contender win! (Pictures are coming soon)