Just touched down in Londontown...

So I have officially fallen in love...with London. This past weekend Kensey Wheeler, another Wofford student, and I set off for a weekend of site-seeing, fun, and ENGLISH! We arrived in London late Wednesday night after being delayed due to the air traffic control strike that is going on in France. In order to get from the airport we had to take the Southern Rail train to the bus stop, and from there the tube to the Picadilly Circus stop where our hostel was. Unfortunately we got in so late on Wednesday that the tube was already closed for the night and therefore we had to take one of the cutest taxis I have ever seen. Although it was around 12 am London was lit up! We passed Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the London Eye on the way to our hostel and I knew I was going to love London.

Our hostel was a little rough but I was so tired that any bed would have done the trick. Hostels are one thing that I will definitely NOT miss when I go home. Kensey and I quickly fell asleep and woke up before we knew it to start our long day. We began each morning at the Starbucks on beautiful Regent Street with a blueberry muffin and a coffee. From there we walked to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. Luckily we got there so early we were able to post up on the fence for one of the best views off all of the activities. The guards came in from one side on horseback and from the other side in a band procession. It was so neat to watch all of the processions from such a great location. They played fun songs like "that's the way uh huh uh huh I like it" and the Pink Panther and marched around creating such a fun atmosphere and a great place to experience English culture.

From Buckingham Palace, Kensey and I walked up to the square to find Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. It was the weirdest feeling turning the corner and finding Big Ben. That is the site one always sees when learning about London and England and to finally see it in person was a great experience. From the square we bought our ticket and entered Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey was stunning, to say the least. It was massive and beautiful. The high ceilings and beautiful stained glass mixed in with the Gothic architecture was unlike anything I had ever seen. Walking from room to room and seeing all of the burial sites mixed in with the coronation sites was so neat. We also got to witness a mass taking place in the other side of the church as well. My whole experience inside Westminster Abbey was great as it is such a beautiful place filled with some of the fullest history of England.

From Westminster Abbey we walked to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Kensey was disappointed because there weren't as many pigeons as she remembered, although it seemed like a lot to me. The views from Trafalgar Square and the porch of the National Gallery looking back on Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and Big Ben were beautiful as well. Inside the National Gallery I was able to see a lot of the Impressionist Art that I have been missing in The Prado Museum in Madrid. Painters like Monet and Renoir paint some of the most beautiful pictures of nature and scenery that I don't see in Madrid. I really enjoyed just walking from painting to painting and stopping when something caught my eye. From the National Gallery Kensey and I road the tube to the Notting Hill stop to look around where Notting Hill was filmed. It turned out to be the cutest part of town in our opinions. Notting Hill was filled with little side streets lined with shops of all different colors and had other little side streets made up of cute residences and apartments. We loved taking our time and walking in and out of little shops until we finally found the Travel Bookstore used in the movie Notting Hill, with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. After walking around Notting Hill, and deciding that that was where we would live in London, Kensey and I had to hurry back to the hostel and shower and get dinner before Phantom of the Opera. We ate fish and chips at this cute place near the theater called The Lyric and then continued on to the theater for the play Phantom of the Opera. This was my first true theater experience and I loved it! We had great seats and I loved the music. I have grown up listening to the Andrew Lloyd Weber cd's my mom kept in the pantry, so to hear the songs and see the play live was so fun! After the play Kensey and I were both worn out again so we went back to the hostel ready to go to sleep. Much to our dismay we had roommates, two 18 year olds from Spain. Unfortunately they were overly- friendly and loved to sit on our bed (usually when we wanted to get in it) and chat in broken English. After finally sending out many signals that we were tired they let us turn off the lights and pass out.

The next morning we started off at Starbucks again and then rode the tube to the Tower of London stop. We bought tickets to enter the Tower of London and walked down by the River Thames to enjoy the great views of London Bridge. Luckily the blue skies were trying to peek through the clouds so London Bridge was even more beautiful than normal. We then went inside the massive stone building, the Tower of London. The building was made up of many towers and rooms containing lots of history. Places like the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror, the Beauchamp Tower that had preserved carvings and graffiti in the wall from prisoners, Bloody Tower, named after the legend that the princes were killed there, and the room with the Crown Jewels. My favorite part, of course, was the Crown Jewels. All of the scepters, crowns, and jewelry from the royal families were on display. The amount of money on display and the colors of the jewels was fascinating. After finally making our way around the giant fortress we headed to the High Kensington Street tube stop en route to find Mom's old apartment building when she studied abroad for a summer in London. We stopped along the way for lunch at a little quaint Italian place and, of course, both had fish and chips. We mostly enjoyed getting out of the wind and cold for a short break and regaining feeling in our fingers and toes. After lunch we finally found Mom's apartment building, just as she had described it. It was a residence building on the campus of a beautiful assumption and located right by the tube track. That was one of my favorite parts of the weekend because I felt like I was connected through experience to my Mom. It was so weird to think of how I am at the same point in my life as she was then and going through many of the same things. Of course I had to take a picture!

We left Kensington Court area and walked along Kensington High Street, dodging in and out of stores due to the cold and wind and our inability to turn down the desire to enter American stores we had been missing like Anthropologie, Banana Republic, and Urban Outfitters. We also stumbled upon an English bookstore in which we almost went out of control. I bought 3 books on special for the price of 2 and picked out the thickest ones I could find, 2 Twilight books and The Da Vinci Code. It was so so exciting to find books written in English so we both spent a lot of time in that store. We continued down Kensington High Street until arrived at Kensington Palace and Gardens. Kensington Palace has been the home of the British Royal Family since the 17th century and was once the home of Princess Diana, which was cool enough for me. It was a beautiful brick home situated among greenery and gardens and the gateway to Kensington and Hyde Park. Kensey and I walked through both parks attempting not to get blown away or frostbitten. We reflected on how much we missed our dogs as we saw so many happy dogs running around and playing. We tried to find the Princess Diana Memorial fountain but failed due to our lack in effort caused by the cold and wind. We finally decided to take refuge in...HARRODS, my new favorite place in the world.

Finally turning the corner and seeing Harrods was amazing. The place was lit up and I just knew there was heaven inside of the building. What other place in the world has my favorite shoes and clothes AND chocolate and pastries? I got to see all of my favorite designers in one place and then cry over the prices. Luckily there were chocolate cookies for sale downstairs so I was able to cure my pain. Harrods was great! I loved walking through every floor admiring the jewelry, clothes, shoes, and food. Unfortunately Harrods almost caused a stress attack due to my inability to buy anything but it was such a cool place! After Harrods Kensey and I took the tube back to Piccadilly Circus, our stop, and made our way to an Irish Pub. We finally found hummus AND salads, two things that are very hard to find in Madrid. We enjoyed the exciting atmosphere as we chowed down and enjoyed some drinks. After dinner we discovered a whole foods store around the corner from our hostel and picked up dessert and fresh cut-up fruit, which was amazing. We quickly hit the bed again and read some of our new English books before passing out at around 10:30. Unfortunately our roommates did not have the same plans and were continually in and out of the room to get ready for their night out. Finally they decided they looked nice enough and we were able to get some sleep before our 4:45 am wake-up to catch our plane. Everything went smoothly back to the airport and we ended up barely making our plane after my face wash was thought to have a bomb in it when I went through security.

I absolutely loved London! The royal city is filled with so much culture and so many beautiful sites. We fit everything into two days but had the best time and truly fell in love with the city of London!

Weekend in Salamanca

So I have been a little slack on this blog lately. I realized that my amount of free time has decreased rapidly as school is in full swing and I am starting to plan all of my upcoming weekend trips. This past week has been so busy as I have been so busy with classes, starting the Teaching Assistant program through my program, and had to make time to see friends that are visiting Madrid. The weather here has been a little gloomy as it has been so windy, rainy, cold, and even snowy but this weekend made up for it for sure!

Friday morning the whole IES program set out for Salamanca, a beautiful University city about two hours west of Madrid. After unpacking and getting settled in our hotels we headed to the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca for a paseo ("walk") through Salamanca.
The paseo lead us through a tour of Cathedrals and Universities, the main things Salamanca is known for. Salamanca's university was founded in 1218 and is the oldest university in Spain and is the fifth oldest western university. The paseo was a little rough as it was much colder and windier than in Madrid. Just as the rain started to fall we were able to have some free time in which a group of girls and I went and got paninis at a cheap place called Cafe& Te. After free time we actually had the opportunity of going into the Cathedral and up in the Torre Jeronimus, the tower above the city overlooking some of the most beautiful views of Salamanca.
Inside the beautiful Cathedral Salamanca.

After we finished with the tours of the Cathedral and viewing the city from the Torre Jeronimus we walked back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel a group of about ten of us IES students almost met our death as a truck pulled up a tiny road we were walking on and we were forced up against a wall. We tried desperately to make ourselves as thin as possible as the truck came inches from our faces. It was definitely a nice bonding moment as I came closer than I wanted with a certain person as I was squished up on him against the wall, but we all survived nonetheless. At our hotel IES provided us with a more formal dinner consisting of some delicious meat and vegetable dishes. The first course was a mixture of grilled vegetables with a warm cheese sauce drizzled over the top and served with warm bread (my favorite Spanish specialty). The plate of meat came next as Salamanca is known for their great cuts of meat. There was a mixture of pork and ham wrapped around warm brie and potatoes. Ending the meal was a delicious unidentified dessert that was a mix between a custard and creme brulee with cocoa powder on top. The meal was definitely a hit and it gave us time to all dress up in more formal clothes and socialize!
After dinner we participated in a little hotel partying and then went out to some bars and clubs. Salamanca is known for being a university town so there were plenty of hot spots to check out!

The next day we woke up and had another wonderful, free meal at the hotel. After breakfast we went on another guided "paseo" of the University Salamanca and down to the River Tormes, the river in Salamanca that is featured in Lazarillo de Tormes, a popular Spanish novel set during the time of the Inquisition. The University was beautiful and a great representation of what you would imagine an old university looking like.On the front of the University there are beautiful and intricate carvings in the stone. It is an old belief that if you cannot find the tiny frog carving on the front of the building then you will not pass your exams. Luckily I ended up finding the frog (or had it pointed out to me) which looked more like a little bump on top of a skull than a frog. We walked around the University for a while and saw the library and classrooms which were antique- looking and absolutely beautiful! After seeing the University, the group headed down to the River Tormes which has a pretty Roman bridge over it and overlooks beautiful scenes of the city.
Unfortunately down near the river it was much more windy and cold so we were definitely ready for our free time to escape to a heated place. A group of five of us girls decided to go to a cute little cafe and have croissants and cafe. This turned out to be my favorite part of the trip as we sat in the cafe for over two hours and talked over warm croissants and coffee for only 2.20 euros! Two of the girls were from Texas, one was from Chicago, and Patterson of course is from Charlotte with me. It was great conversation and it was like we finally found a group of us who could relate to each other and have so much fun together! The warm croissants with jelly, the American music playing over the intercom, the heat, and the coffee only made things better. After our time at the cafe and shopping around Salamanca for the remainder of our free time we returned home to Madrid around 6:30.

To make my day better, after dinner I rode the metro a couple of stops up on my line to meet one of my good friends from my club volleyball team from high school, Devon Applegate who is studying abroad in Tours, France. She was on winter break and staying in an apartment of one of her friends studying abroad in Madrid. It was so so nice to hang out in our sweatpants, eat ice cream, watch movies, and catch up! It is always so nice to see a friendly face from home but I had the best time hanging out with her and getting a little break from being in the apartment.

Also another highlight of my week was receiving two packages in the mail. My mom sent me the BEST valentines package filled with candy, magazines, and odds and ends that I needed from home. I absolutely loved it and it made the weeks until my family comes that much more bearable! Also Mrs. Howard, my best friend Kelli Howard's mother, sent me a sweet card with an ITunes gift card and a Dean& Deluca Valentines cookie. One of the biggest impacts of being abroad is that you realize how much your family and friends mean to you and are reminded constantly that the things you might have taken for granted before are not things that should be treated that way. I am so so thankful for everything that I have at home and am reminded everyday how lucky I truly am! I love you all so very much!

I am heading to London on Wednesday until Saturday with Kensey Wheeler, another girl from Wofford, and I am so excited to see my mother's old stomping grounds from when she traveled abroad and all of the sights London has to offer. I will be updating everyone on my London adventures on Sunday so until then, Adios!

Barcelona Weekend

So I am finally writing about my wonderful weekend in Barcelona!

Patterson and I booked our flights together on Vueling Airlines and set off to test the waters flying out of Barajas Airport in Madrid. Little did I know it is so much easier than flying out of Charlotte. The metro connects directly to the airport terminal and the whole trip door to terminal only takes about 45 minutes. Everything went smoothly, with the exception of me getting felt up by the security lady, and we took off around 8:30. Upon arriving in Barcelona we met up with our friend Amy from Brussels who also flew in for the weekend. A total of 8 girls flew in from places like Brussels, London, and Milan for our friend Mimi's 21st birthday and a lovely weekend in Barcelona.

After we left the airport and road the AeroBus to Las Ramblas, a famous tourist attraction near our hostel, we wandered around until we finally found our hostel, Kabul. The hostel experience was very interesting to me since sleeping in the same room as a 30 year old man from France would never been that normal to me (thankfully). We had 8 beds in one room and lockers for our stuff, the bare minimum. For those of you that know me you can only imagine the look on my face as I checked out the sheets and blanket on my bed, I know places NEVER wash blankets and I will try to forget that I used it. We left the hostel and met up with all of the Wofford people in beautiful Plaza Catalunya.
After our great moment of finally reuniting we ventured on to a Mexican restaurant which had a great deal of a 9 euro meal that included chicken fajitas, wine, and dessert, and no Dad it was not Taco Bell. After lunch we split up into little groups to do some sightseeing. Mimi, Molly, Amy, Patterson, Grace Perry, and I went to see the Arc De Triumph in Barcelona. It was beautiful as it was late in the afternoon and the weather was perfect.


Directly behind Arc de Triumph was a beautiful park, Park de la Ciutadella, complete with fountains, walking paths, and lakes. We loved walking around and exploring the beauty as the sun was setting.
We continued our long walk back to the hostel and got ready for a fun night out for Mimi's 21st birthday. We decided to get dinner separately and eat together outside. Somehow I ended up at McDonalds, yes mom you were right about me loving some Mickey Dee's over here. We ate at a table outside and drank some wine and then went to a bar called Ryan's which was a lot of fun. We stayed there and had a lot of fun because the bar wasn't too crowded and was completely overrun with Wofford people, a perfect description of the row. Unfortunately I didn't last long as I got tired from the travel and walking and had to go to bed before the group went to the club. Luckily for me I missed getting robbed at the club like my friend Molly and harassed by a Spaniard and getting spit in the face like my friends Kensley and Amy. I am guessing that since we were staying in such a tourist area that we were targets for crimes like these.

The next morning we woke up relatively early to start our day full of sight-seeing! Ironically I began my day at where else...McDonald's. We then walked through Las Ramblas, a long road of markets and stands, until we found the beach. We started at port Vell and continued to walk next to the water until we were on the actual sand. One of the coolest things about Barcelona is that you can be standing in the beach sand next to the water and stare at the picturesque mountains in the opposite direction. We were so lucky and had beautiful weather, hot enough for me to have been in a bathing suit.
We went and got gelato and sat on the beach and took in the fresh air. Sometimes being in such a huge city makes you feel like you can't breathe so the fresh, salty beach air was all we needed. After the beach we headed to the metro en route to Park Guell, a park designed by Gaudi on top of a mountain that overlooks the city of Barcelona. We turned up a huge hill, in which escalators helped us part of the way, and hiked up to the top to find one of the best views of the city one can find. We were able to see Guadi's unfinished, famous church La Sagrada Familia, the ocean to one direction, and the mountains to the other.
The park was really neat as Guadi's architecture is really one of a kind and looks like it is fresh out of a Dr. Seuss book. We enjoyed hanging out and sitting on the famous wall that is found in a lot of pictures of Barcelona. The wind started to pick up and the sun started to go down so we decided to return to the hostel and get ready for the night. That night Amy, Mimi, Patterson, Molly, and I went to a restaurant on the walk on the way to Dow Jones Bar, the bar we had picked as our destination for the night. In the restaurant we were able to watch the FC Barcelona soccer game, an intense tradition in any Spanish city, as we snacked on our king size Lunchable style pizzas. After our bland dinner we continued to the Dow Jones Bar, one of the coolest places I have ever been. Dad, it was right up your ally. The concept of the bar is based on the stock market. Drink prices rise and fall based on sales and when sales reach a certain point an alarm goes off signaling a "stock market crash" in which drink prices are cut in half or more. It was my kind of atmosphere as all of us girls were able to get a table and talk over drinks. I found the mojitos were delicious but once again I was so tired from such a long day!
The next day we got up ate lunch, at a place called Pans (bread) and company, caught our flight and returned back home to Madrid. Barcelona was such a beautiful city complete with breathtaking scenery and a picturesque beach. The language usage was fascinating as Catalan was used first, a mix between French and Spanish that I could not understand, then English next, and then Spanish, followed lastly by French. Barcelona was an international city as all languages could be heard, very different from the Spanish dominated Madrid. Barcelona had so many attractions to offer and the nightlife was great. Most of all it was so great to see friendly faces from Wofford! I loved being with my friends for a weekend and comparing notes on the abroad experience. I had such a great weekend and would recommend Barcelona to anyone! Lucky for me the Barcelona people, Grace Perry, Molly, Mimi, and Sarah, are coming to visit Madrid this weekend and I am so excited to show them around!

First week of classes

So I have been a little preoccupied this week and unable to blog because classes finally started! Everything went pretty smoothly except for the fact that I had to figure out how to have the drop/add conversation in Spanish. It is a little bit of a struggle having 9:00 a.m. classes every morning when you have a 45 minute commute and a very different sleep schedule but I am slowly adjusting with the help of a morning cup of coffee (I know, I am now a coffee drinker).

My first class on Monday and Wednesday mornings is a Spanish Language for Business class that compares and contrasts business structures of Spain to those of the United States and covers the vocabulary needed for the business world. After that I go to my Grammar class that I was placed into based on an oral interview and a composition. It is weird to be back in a Spanish grammar class because I haven't had a language class solely based on grammar since high school. After that I have a break until 4:00 and then make the commute again for my History of Spanish Painting class. The class sounds so interesting and on Wednesdays the class meets in the Prado Museum. It isn't everyday you can say that you have class in a place like the Prado. Each of my classes are an hour and twenty minutes long which can make for a long day with back to back classes! I guess I will quickly learn the beauty of the siesta tradition (time of day when Spain basically shuts down for nap time).

My schedule for Tuesday and Thursday starts with a History of Madrid class which also looks to be very interesting. My teacher is very good about using powerpoint pictures to go along with her lecture. It is so interesting to be learning the history of all of the sites that I pass by everyday! I then go to Grammar class again which is the only class that I have to take everyday so I better be GREAT at Spanish when I return. Lastly I have Management of Cultural Heritage which covers the heritage of Spain through site visits and museum visits, along with lectures. It sounds like the class could be really good since my teacher is very familiar with the United States and therefore makes a lot of comparisons and contrasts that creates a different perspective. She also has an archeology degree that puts a different spin on history as well. As you can see most of my classes, with the exception of the Spanish for Business class, have nothing to do with my major at Wofford. Since I am not receiving class credit I decided to take classes I would never have another opportunity to take and those that sounded the most interesting. I am very excited about starting the semester and getting into a routine.

This week I also joined a gym to keep up my routine. I attended my first spin class ever Monday night which also happened to be led by a guy in full yellow spandex, waving a towel, and bumping along to Celine Dion. I am pretty sure I was the only one that couldn't control my laughter so this must not be so out of the ordinary??? I really enjoyed the spin class and got a great workout which I desperately needed after two weeks of high stress levels. I also joined a Teaching Assistant program through my IES program in which I will volunteer for a public school every Tuesday afternoon. I will serve as a Teacher's Assistant in a class of 6-12 year olds and help the kids to learn English. I decided this would be the best way to interact in Spanish in a very non- judgmental environment and be around kids! Things are starting to fall into place and I am really excited about some of the things I am beginning to do. This weekend I am taking my first trip...BARCELONA! Almost all of the Wofford girls studying abroad in Europe are coming into Barcelona for the weekend and celebrating one of our friends' 21st birthdays. Needless to say I am more than excited to be around some southern twang and people from home! I am praying everything goes well figuring out how to travel tomorrow and I will definitely be blogging about Barcelona when I get back!