Beginning of Orientation!

Ok so Thursday was officially the beginning of my orientation. But it was a free day. All I had to do was check into the hotel at 12 and meet with Lesley, my advisor here.  So in the morning, my parents and I walked from my school to my house, the exact route I'm going to be taking so that I had a visual of the route. I think I can handle it. It takes about 17 minutes.  It was already really hot by that point and it was only 11 am. So I decided a shower was necessary to cool off. So I showered and then walked to the hotel I'm staying in for orientation (which coincidentally was around the corner from the apartment we were staying in). I met Lesley and Katie, one of the 2 girls I'll be in school with.  After we talked to Lesley for a few minutes about orientation and moving into our host families everyone else took their showers (at their respective locations) and my family met up with Katie at the hotel. We showed her around a little bit so she could have a general idea of where she was and such. We had a drink on the Plaza Mayor together, and an icecream from San Miguel's.  After that Katie needed a nap from traveling so while she did that, Mom, Carolyn and I went out shopping.  They bought all kinds of souvenirs and such to bring home, and I just was there for company.  After Katie woke up from her nap, she came over for a little bit and we had sangria, cheese and crackers. Then we went out to dinner at El Caulderon. They make these rice dishes in a cauldron.  Katie and I split a shrimp one, and it was soooo great. After Katie and I walked around for a bit and then went to the hotel, chatted a bit, then crashed.

I know I still have today to catch up on butttt I'm hunry. SO I will finish later :)

Part 2 of 2!

Continuing on my extension of the long post.

On Tuesday we packed ourselves into the car and headed to Valencia, which is about 3 hours away on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea!  Getting there was really easy and the scenery is great! Italy is not the only country with fields of sunflowers. :) The glitch: the GPS decided to take us to some industrial warehouse instead of our hotel. So we were kind of lost for a few minutes in Valencia, but we finally figured it out and checked into the hotel.  After we brought our bags up we went to the historic center of Valencia. We walked around a bit, kind of lost and confused since the map had lots of unmarked streets and some streets didn't have signs.  We walked through their mercado, and finally ended up having an ice cream on La Plaza de la Virgen.  There was a really cool fountain to Neptune there. After that, Mom and Dad went to the Cathedral but Carolyn and I were like, uhh no more churches please. We're not on the Catholic tour of Spain here. So we walked around the plaza where the cathedral de San Vicente was located. Apparently we missed a good one since Patty and Dave got to see: the entire forearm of Saint Vincent, the skull of some bishop, and THE HOLY GRAIL. No lies, they have pictures. Carolyn was mad after that, but I was like, oh well I'll come back.  We ate lunch after that off of their main plaza. I was complimented on my Spanish! Yay, I don't sound like a fool!!  We tried to go to the bullfighting ring after that but it was under construction so we couldn't go in.  So we hopped back into the car, went to the hotel, go changed and....went to the BEACH! So I can now officially say I've swam in the Mediterranean Sea. We went out for some authentic Valencian paella that night, and I wish I had brought my camera, because the restaurant was beautiful and the paella was delicious!

On Wednesday we woke up early, packed our bags, checked out of the hotel and drove to Buñol.  The goal of this was to participate in the Tomatina, the annual tomato throwing festival they have there. So we got there relatively early (by 930), and started to follow the people to where the fight was, bought a t-shirt on the way.  So picture this, this is a pretty small town, like less than 9,000 people I think it said.  On the days surrounding the Tomatina there are 30 to 50,000 people.  SO needless to say there were a buttload of people. Add in the fact that 99% of them a DRUNK and have been for a day or 2.  Add in the fact that it was about 95° out and we were with Patty and Dave, and I had an awful stomach ache.... it was not a good combo. We got down to where the festival happens (it was at least a mile and a half, maybe more downhill.....) and all I can think of is... if we go into this crowd we are NEVER getting out. And it wasn't something I wanted to have to deal with at that point.  So we didn't go into the crowd. We were going to watch. So we stood by the bridge, which marks the end point of the fight, and some local dude told us we'd be able to see the fight from our location. So sweet deal right? No. The gun went off right after 11 signaling the start of the fight, and the truck with all the tomatoes supposedly makes its way to the bridge within 15 minutes. So we waited. and waited. and waited. And then it was 1145 and nothing had happened. And by that point we had been standing on that spot for over an hour. And we were getting squished together by all the other people who didn't make it in. Patty and Dave were getting the grumps cuz it was so hot, and I was like omg I need water/food/to lie down, sooooo we left.  Carolyn was reallly disappointed, but honestly, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be like and it just wasn't worth it anymore. So against Carolyns' wishes we started to drive back to Madrid. We stopped along the way to get something to eat since we were starving at that point.  When we finally made it back to Madrid we all relaxed a bit. Since it was still about a million degrees out.  Mom and I went out to get a few things from El Corte Ingles that I needed for the semester. For dinner we went back to the same restaurant we went to on our first night, La Grotta.  It was really nice again and we enjoyed ourselves.

Now I have to update you on Thursday, and today. But I'll start another post since this one is a mini-novel.

Part 1 of 2 of the Long Update

Since I've been slacking (ie having no internet service, and extremely tired) I will update you on the events of the past 4 days in 2 parts to make it easier for you (and me).

On Sunday... we went to church again at 12.  Carolyn and I have decided, that out of the millions of churches we've seen on this trip (like it might as well be the Catholic tour of Spain) this one is one of the prettiest, and you don't have to pay to get into it.  I'm starting to understand more of what people are saying, so I got more out of the sermon than I did the first time we went to church.  After that we went to the Rastro flee market again, because Carolyn and Patty wanted to get some things.  Carolyn ended up getting a really pretty leather purse, made in Spain of course, and a bathing suit (for only 3€, and I'll explain why she needed one in part 2). We also ventured back to San Miguel Market again.  Whilst Patty and Dave dined on some caviar and champagne (it was their 23rd anniversary, yay Mom and Dad!), Carolyn and I split some delicious frozen yog. and strawberries. nomnom! Since it was about a billion degrees out, we didn't want a big lunch so we went back to the apartment and had sandwiches.  After that we hit up the only museum we had left in Madrid (not really, but it felt like it), the Thyssen-Bornemisza.  It had a pretty cool collection of art, from the crazy modern stuff that I don't really like, to Manets, Monets, Degas etc. And the museum is designed well too so no one is right on top of someone else while trying to view a painting.  For dinner, Patty and Dave had a reservation at the oldest restaurant EVER. Legit, it's in the Guinness Book of Records.  Carolyn and I were going to go shopping whilst they were at dinner, but we left too late and all the stores were closed. We ended up going to dinner at a restaurant right across the street from our apartment called Miranda's.  It was just okay. The Gelato afterwards made up for the ok meal though. :)

On Monday we ventured out of Madrid to Ávila.  Ávila is like an un-touristy Toledo.  The best part of Ávila though, is the medieval wall surrounding the city.  I think the Spain Bible (aka Rick Steves) said it was the best preserved one in all of Europe (at least Spain however).  It was phenomenal. You buy a ticket and you can basically walk on top of the wall 3/4 of the way around the city.  We did the wall walk first. Then we ate lunch in their main plaza, where the paving stones are all made of marble. Pretty schnazzy. The bocadillos (sandwiches) were cheap, HUGE, and delicious.  After lunch we went to the basilica. It was actually really nice, and even though there was no audio-guide, the pamphlet gave a good history.  The story behind it, as far as I can remember, is there were three siblings, (one of them was a saint, or all of them were...? I'll get back to you on that) and they had to run away for some reason or another, and they were captured, tortured, and killed on the grounds of the basilica.  Now, there was a Jew who didn't like that these three siblings were killed, and he repented and was told to go build the church, and he did! I think I got it all there.  Anyway, lots of gold and marble.  We then ventured on over to the Cathedral, butt Carolyn and I had called it quits on churches by then and said, we went to the basilica, lets ixnay the athedralcay. As we were making our way to the Convent of Saint Teresa we stopped at this little specialty shop.  It turned out to be quite advantageous since we bought: wine, honey, chocolate, and yemas to bring home (some as gifts, some to keep, and I better get to enjoy some!) After dropping all our goods off at the car we went to the convent of St. Teresa. (I know, Catholic tour of Spain.. oye). We got to walk around the little church attached to the convent, then go into the little relics showcase where we got to see.... St. Teresa's finger! No lies, it was actually her finger preserved in a little case. They also had one of her sandals, the rope she used to tie her nun robes, and the bone fragments of another saint (whose name escapes me at this time).  That being out last historical stop of the day, we hit up the delicious smelling bakery in the plaza and bought some goodies, which we ate later that night with our cheese and crackers!

Part 2: Adventures to Valencia, coming soon!