MADRID

My trip to Madrid was a last minute decision amongst us roommates. We happened to be there the same weekend as many of our friends on our program, and some of my friends from high school! Madrid is the capital of Spain with a population of 3.3 million, and boy did it feel like it!

We began our journey to Madrid in the afternoon by taking the high-speed train from Sevilla. Being a little too juiced up from the night before, the train ride was not as enjoyable as everyone had told me.

Upon our arrival in Madrid, we went to our eighteen euro hostel, “No Name City” where we were lucky enough to get a room for all six of us to stay in. Despite the ruckus going on from our British neighbors, the hostel was absolutely amazing. We even got free breakfast!

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to begin our adventures in Madrid! We first went to La Plaza Mayor, which was conveniently located about five minutes from our five-star hotel. La Plaza Mayor was used as the place where Catholics executed the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. It is now just a major touristy area with markets, cafes and dressed up characters.

After leaving La Plaza Mayor, we headed to El Mercado de San Miguel. El Mercado de San Miguel is a beautiful two story market with the most amazing EVERYTHING! From fish to paella to desserts, El Mercado de San Miguel is always packed. Sadly we spent quite a long time salivating over each and every item. The pictures below cannot even do the food justice.

Next, we went to el Palacio Real de Madrid. El Palacio is the residence for the King of Spain, but he does not live there and it is instead used for tours of the palace and ceremonies. I only have pictures of the outside, because inside you are not able to, but the inside was even more magnificent than the outside, which is hard to believe. The palace is about 1.5 million square feet, making it the largest palace in Europe. Inside the palace, everything dated back to the sixteenth century. Every single room had a different theme, but they somehow connected and meshed together. The art seemed to be the most amazing part to me. There was art by Francisco de Goya and many other famous artists. There were so many rooms, including the royal library, which stuck out the most to me with the amazing art and high ceilings. I found myself planning which room I would want to get married in on several occasions.

After seeing the palace, I was feeling quite depressed about not being part of a royal family. I did what every girl does at that time, found dessert. Spain is known for its churros con chocolate, and we just happened to be a few minutes away from Madrid’s most famous churros place! YUMMMMY!

At the end of the night we went to El Prado, one of the most famous museums in the world. For students, free admission was from 7-9PM, which we though was perfect and gave us plenty of time to see everything. Boy were we wrong. We found ourselves speeding through and didn’t even get through half of the museum! What we saw was absolutely amazing. The museum holds over 7,000 paintings, 1,000 sculptures and more! It was very cool to see all the amazing pieces in which I have studied and read about over the past few years.

Unfortunately, we left rather early the next day, but we were able to walk through some of the parks in Madrid. Although a short trip, we made the most of every minute! I ate amazing food, saw unbelievable attractions, and most importantly, was in good company J

HerCampus!

Sorry I have not blogged in a while! I recently began a travel blog with Her Campus, an online magazine aimed towards college students! I hope you enjoy my first entry: if you would like to check out my travel blog...please go to http://www.hercampus.com/jessica-austin

The idea to study in Sevilla!

There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to study abroad in Spain, mainly because I was convinced that I spoke Spanish, something that I had to accept as completely false immediately upon my arrival. After going through the pros and cons of Madrid versus Barcelona versus Sevilla, the beautiful city of Sevilla won! Located in the south of Spain with a population over 1.5 million, the city of Sevilla is the perfect combination of peace and excitement.

The hardest part about studying abroad is the two-week time span before you leave. The mixed emotions running through your mind of extreme nerves, stress and anxiety do not go away until you land in the city you will be living in for the next four months. Nerves are a natural feeling that every person getting ready to study abroad goes through—it’s like freshman year of college all over again! The stress of packing came into play immediately when I weighed my first suitcase, realizing I was going to have to cut about half of my belongings and leave them at home. Every. Girls. Nightmare! On top of that, you becomes extremely anxious as you start to watch your friends leave and see the pictures on Facebook go up…jealousy begins to come into play, and you get a serious case of FOMO—fear of missing out!

I was lucky enough to travel from the United States to Spain with a friend, allowing myself to avoid the sad goodbye from my parents. Upon arrival in Sevilla, we wandered around aimlessly looking like the ultimate Americans. Everything our program director told us not to do, we did: walk in large groups, speak in English loudly, hold out our maps, we even went to McDonalds for ice cream—more than once…

I’ve lived in this beautiful for a few weeks, and this experience has been going by way too quickly. There are a few things since being here that I have noticed:

1.     No matter what you think, you do NOT speak Spanish. I was convinced I understood Spanish relatively well, but as soon as I encountered the man at the customs desk, I was put in my place. In America, we are taught Mexican Spanish, which is very different from Spain’s Spanish, and many times Spaniards do not understand Mexican Spanish. My friends and I have had many cultural situations in which the language barrier has offended Spaniards, confused them, but mostly made them laugh.

2.     Euros are NOT fake money. The European Union, which consists of most of the countries in Europe, all uses the same currency—Euro. The idea of a Euro seems much like monopoly money, until you check your bank statement.

3.     There is no studying in a study abroad program. No matter what school you attend, the study abroad program will not be nearly as difficult as your university. Many abroad programs focus on immersion to the culture of the city you are studying in rather than focusing on the classes themselves.

4.     Survival of the fittest. No matter where you choose to study abroad, drinking is a big part of it because it is a big part of European culture. A bottle of wine normally costa less than a bottle of water. And if you go to a restaurant for lunch and ask for water, you will automatically be categorized as an American. Spaniards are known for being extremely social and go out for drinks and discotecas until 6 or 7AM. But remember, being too juiced up from the night before is rarely an excuse to miss your 9:30AM class—trust me, I’ve tried!

5.     Siesta. I love sleep. At home, when doctors recommend 8-10 hours of sleep, I often get 12, but living in Spain, with the late lifestyle (dinner at 11PM, home from the night at 6AM) many of times you do not get more than four hours of sleep. Spaniards came up with the idea of the siesta, a midday nap, which I have learned to incorporate in my everyday lifestyle—just another way I am trying to immerse myself in this culture.

When all is said and done, I do not consider myself a Sevillana at all, but I pretend. As time goes on, I have tried to adapt to the lifestyle since I am living here for the semester. With laughs from some of the locals about my poor pronunciation, I try my best since this is really a once in a lifetime experience—and as Drake would say…you only live once, that’s the motto, YOLO. 

Actividades

Keeping a straight face. Flamenco is a type of dance that originated from Andalusia. It is highly expressive, and the people in Sevilla tend to get really into this type of dance. Flamenco contains a lot of stomping and clapping. The professional dancers, known as bailaores and bailaroras, create a passionate story. To be honest, after seeing an "authentic Flamenco show" I didn't quite follow the passion, and was rather bothered by the length of the mans hair and how he was was keeping a straight face. 

Needless to say, I felt that I was not being fair to this type of dance. If I am living in Sevilla, I figured not only do I need to learn to appreciate watching it, but learn it! So, after seeing the Flamenco show this Saturday evening, my friends and I figured that it was only natural to take a class of our own! Ava, our tour guide on the second day of being in Sevilla told us that she offers a free Flamenco class for students once a month. Obviously, Maddie and I nailed it. 

Pepper the size of my head! On our adventures of finding food around Sevilla, we have found many markets that have fresh fruit and vegetables. Needless to say, not sure how natural this pepper is!

I found pizza in a hopeless place. Thin crust pizza! It is a really good thing I got away from pizza, but I had gone exactly five weeks with NO PIZZA! We went to a restaurant where I decided to "go for the gold" and order it...I'm not sorry about it either. 

El Centro

"El Centro" refers to the area of Sevilla which has a number of historical buildings and structures. It is actually the largest of any European city--fun fact, and it is right where I live!

Today, my roommates and I decided to walk around El Centro and go for tapas. We wanted to do the touristy thing to get a real feel of the land.

"Peter, is that you?" We found a market which sells fresh of every type of animal you could imagine--including rabbit!

Overcoming fear of heights. We climbed, actually we took the elevator, up to the top of las setas because we were told that for 1 euro we could see the entire city of Sevilla...it was in fact true. The pictures I took cannot even caption how breathtaking the sight was.

We have a Campus Candy. It is not actually called Campus Candy, but actually Wonkandy. It has so many types of candy, but no fro-yo :( Should I work there is the real question?

That picture everyone has... This is me in front of the cathedral.

The apron. We figured this would be a good purchase for the apartment...

9 things about Sevilla...

A few things I've noticed since living in Spain:

1. People don't say sorry. Example: I've had about eight people in the past week walk straight into me, and nobody says sorry. But worse, if I say sorry, they think it is weird.

2. Time means nothing. If you want to meet at 3PM, meeting at 4PM is totally acceptable with no apology. (We showed up an hour and a half late on our bike tour, expecting nobody to be there and they acted like it was no big deal.) Also, when getting served at restaurants, unlike in America where they serve you as quickly as you can so that they can get you out of the restaurants, you can expect to be at a restaurant for hours!

3. They don't pick up dog poop. You literally have to look down in certain areas of Spain to watch out for dog poop--and sometimes horse poop...eww.

4. They let their kids run free. We always see little kids running around the streets and walking without their parents...so un-American.

5. Their are many bikers. Bikers in Sevilla do not stop for pedestrians, I will not be surprised if I get hit by a biker...Also, they have bike stands everywhere around the city and you can rent them!

6. Nothing is open on Sunday. We decided to go grocery shopping for everything in our apartment this past Sunday, and realized the grocery store across the street was not open. We then proceeded to go to the big market about six blocks away, and it was not opened either. After walking around for quite some time and looking like the ultimate Americans, we realized all of the stores are closed!

7. People do not tip. Because they are not getting tipped, they don't ask how your day is, or if you need anything, rather you have to flag them down. Also, expect about thirty minutes after  you ask for the check for them to give it to you.

8. Kids drink at a young age. We have been to restaurants and seen kids who are about twelve or thirteen ordering sangria and drinks. My Communications&Global Competence teacher was telling us that binge drinking is becoming a serious problem in Spain. He explained that there are little stores which sell "party packs"--bottle of vodka, bottle of soda, and a few plastic cups...I thought it was too early in the semester to ask him where I could purchase said "party pack".

9. Absolut Vodka is cheap. Eleven Euros...enough said.

First couple of days!

I've been a few days behind in blogging, so tonight I'm going to write about our apartment and a few of the places we have been.


We were lucky enough to have our apartment just a few blocks away from "El Centro" which is where their are many shops, cafes, bars, etc. Our apartment was just renovated and everything is white. We have two bedrooms, gigantic closets, a balcony, washing machine and a flat screen television! Our kitchen has brand new appliances, a dinner table, the only thing we are missing is an oven--although I was still able to make frozen pizza a few nights ago. Below is a picture of one of the bedrooms. There is also a patio in this room and two desks.

We also have other girls in in the apartment right above us, so it was easy to make new friends! Our program has people from everywhere and we've met local Spaniards as well! We expected the nightlife to be wild, but we have not gone to sleep before 7AM since we have been here! It is definitely something that we will not be able to do all the time, but since class starts tomorrow, we are taking it easy. 

The picture below is of "Las Setas de la Encarnacion." Las setas translates into the mushrooms, which is what the structure looks like. The structure took six years to make and is the worlds largest wooden structure! It is not the size that amazed me, but rather the beauty. The picture cannot caption how amazing it is. For 1 euro, you can go to the top and see the entire view of the city of Seville!  

Las setas, for short, are about three minutes from my apartment, and right next to a lot of the shops and cafes. We went to a cafe which has amazing coffee, milkshakes, etc. Below is a picture of the tasty dessert. They also have an amazing banana milkshake with chocolate sauce and whipped cream! 

Before I came, I was told the city has an abundant of oranges, but every tree is either an orange tree or palm tree! On our walk to class, there is a street which has orange tree after orange tree.

Unfortunately the day of the bike tour around the entire city of Seville, I forgot my camera, but below are some pictures I have taken from exploring the city!

Meet my roommates..

Madelyn Gubernick: This is my roommate Maddie. Maddie enjoys talking. She also enjoys playing Jewish Geography--finding out that she went to camp/attended the same bar mitzvah/etc.

Meghan Sweeney: This is Sweeney, Sweeney enjoys Hello Kitty and  cooking. We are lucky to have her to open the wine bottle at every meal.

Lauren Intrater: This is Lauren. Lauren enjoys to fight me, physically, when under the influence.







ARE WE NOT THE GREATEST CREW YOU HAVE EVER MET!

The Great Schlep!

Flight from Miami International Airport to Madrid-Barajas Airport, taxi from Madrid-Barajas Airport to Madrid Atotcha Train Station, train from Madrid Atotcha to Seville Santa Justa Train Station, and finally taxi to el hotel! Luckily, I had a partner, or "companion" as my grandfather called her--Lauren! The bad news is that together we had seven bags, four of them over fifty pounds...

So although MSN rated Miami worst city in America to live in, my travels from MIA to Madrid were smooth. The flight boarded only 40 minutes late and we sat on the runway for about an hour. I was really excited to see that Lauren and I were seated in "preferred" seating on the plane! What that meant--NOTHING. We were not first class or business class like we thought, nor were we able to board early...still confused. But, thanks to the little pink ambien pill, I slept for a majority of the flight--believing that the flight was the best flight I had ever taken. 

It wasn't until I had reached Madrid, when I realized that my Spanish vocabulary was really only strong for three words: gracias, perdon, and Señor. Luckily, the people in Spain feel very strongly that they do not need to slow down when speaking Spanish to Americans, so that helped. 

All in all, the trip was smooth and easy! I'm here, and I'm safe! 

...I caved

I decided to finally make a blog, mostly to keep my fans (my parents) updated on my adventures roaming around Europe!

I love to talk and hence thought creating a blog would be right up my alley! I am spending the next four months in Sevilla, Spain, where I plan on embracing the Spanish culture--specifically the food and wine! I am eager to share photographs and stories of this amazing adventure with you all!

TOMORROW IS THE DAY! Seville, here I come. The real question: can Spain handle me?