León and part of Oviedo

       Coronation Day! Too bad we didn’t get to be in Madrid to see it. I would call that poor planning, but I guess it’s all good. In order to make it to school by 9:30 (our bus was leaving for León at that time), Katie and I would normally leave between 9 and 9:05, however we had been warned of the potential delays due to the coronation and the parade. Therefore, Katie and I left at 8:45. Despite having to walk a block or two out of our way (our street was closed off because the parade literally goes through Sol, which is where we live), we made it by 9:02. I will say that as a paranoid traveler, I was extremely happy to be there early and just sit on a bench and eat part of my bag lunch for breakfast. We also really did leave at the right time because the Metro stop at Sol had announced that it would be shutting down at 10 and other stops had already been closed.

        Alejandro was my bus buddy for the ride, which lasted about four hours. Plus some time because many people in this program seem to have never been properly potty trained and can’t go more than an hour without peeing. When we got to León, the first stop was our hotel. Nicolette was my randomly assigned roommate for the night and for some weird reason our bathroom had two showers. Not that those two things are at all related, but weird stuff. After dropping off our bags we headed to the first of four extremely large lunches with the entire class. This one was at a place called Latino, and the first incredible thing about it was the endless supply of both bread and wine. A beautiful thing for 24 Americans all under the age of 21 but legal in Europe. I had a cream of vegetable soup (think delicious baby food) and some lamb, it was yummy, but definitely not my favorite meal of the trip. Anyways, after lunch we took a walking tour of the city which included a tour of the cathedral in León as well as a walk-by of one of Gaudi's two architectural projects outside of Cataluña.

      After our tour I took an incredible two hour nap and then woke up to go out to dinner to eat. Lauren, Marina, Ashley, Nicolette and I found a little restaurant where we ate a three course meal for less than €10 as we watched some soccer. Upon finishing, I went back to the hotel and slept like a baby. It was wonderful. 

       On Friday we were up bright and early and on the road again, this time to Oviedo. Our first stop was some pre-Romanesque (architectural style) buildings, the first was called Santa María del Naranco and the second was San Miguel de Lillo. The first was bigger, had more windows, and overall more of an open feeling, however the windows were only opened once we went inside the building. I was also allowed to take photos inside. The second was a church that had very little light filtering in and I was not allowed to take pictures inside. Both buildings were constructed in the ninth century, pretty incredible. It was cool to learn about the pre-Romanesque style, which was basically the idea that the people feared their gods. That's why all of the buildings are much shorter, and much darker due to the lack of windows. This in comparison with Gothic architecture which has high arches, higher ceilings, and lots of light - ideas that come from the people wanting to be closer to the heavens, and the light signifying divine presence. 
       Anyway, after those buildings we headed to the hotel and then a delicious, typical Asturian lunch. When we first got to the restaurant (which sadly, I can't remember the name of), they weren't quite ready for us, so one of the waiters came outside to serve is sidre (hard cider). Sidre is an Asturian specialty, but you have to drink it in the traditional way. There were 27 of us (including guide and teachers) and we were brought approximately six glasses. To share. The waiter poured the sidre from above his head into a cup that he was holding below his waist (pictures below) and he poured about two or three shots worth in. Then he would hand you a glass and you had to take a giant gulp, but only one. That way there was a little bit of sidre left in the glass that you would dump out, making sure the remaining liquid passed over where your mouth had been on the glass in order to 'clean' it. I didn't actually like the sidre that much, but it was definitely cool to experience how it all worked!
       The actual lunch was easily the largest I have ever had in my entire life. For this meal I sat with two classmates (Daniel and Ashley) and then our teachers (Marcos and Pablo) and the guide (María). It was quite the meal, and honestly I have never felt so comfortable around teachers. Maybe it was the environment, or their personalities, or the fact that everyone was drinking together, but it was a really great time, and definitely something that you could never experience in the States. But back to the food. The first course was a huge chunk of bread with a ham plate for the table to share. I really don't know what I'm going to do when I get back to the United States and the good ham (the kind that isn't lunch meat and slimy) is super expensive. I'm too used to my one Euro bocadillos from Museo de Jamón. Anway, after that we had Fabada Asturiana. I think it is my favorite thing I have had in my entire time in Spain. It is a soup with white beans, blood sausage, and chorizo. So freaking delicious. Marcos told a story about how when he lived in Chicago (we had a lovely conversation about the Windy City) he would make it during the winter and all of his friends begged him for the recipe. Anyway, it was delicious and I had multiple servings, forgetting that the main course had yet to come. The main course was a piece of pork stuffed with bacon and pepper and all of it fried into one lovely piece. I couldn't finish it, but it was absolutely incredible. Then there was dessert, which was a caramelized crepe with rice pudding on the inside. It was really yummy, but not my most favorite. 
       I just realized my longest paragraphs are always about food. Not shocking I guess. Moving on, after lunch we went to another cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful and had a little courtyard attached and everything. Back to food, though.
       We had a three hour break (I watched the World Cup) and then I met up with a group of people in the hotel lobby and we went to dinner (nine of us) at a place called La Competencia. While everybody else had their sidre, I got my cava fix. Happiness is. I also got to split my meal with Lauren because neither of us was starving after our gigantic lunch, so we had a mixed salad (with tuna!!!) and a Margherita pizza. Classic. After dinner a majority of the group was tired, but a few of us stayed out to check out Oviedo a little bit more and we had a good time. No staying out too late though, because the next day was... horseback riding. Yay.

Santa María del Naranco

Inside of Santa María del Naranco

Preparing to pour the sidre

Sidre pouring

Organ in cathedral

Hallway in Cathedral

Courtyard in Cathedral

Pretty view at night in Oviedo

Strawberries, Boats, and Soccer

       Monday's class was a tour of some of the major sites where 15-M protests and other social movement gatherings happened. This meant that our class met in Puerta del Sol, which meant I got out of bed 15 minutes before we all had to be there. It was beautiful. The three places we stopped were: Puerta del Sol, outside of the Congress building, and in Lavapies. I had been to two out of the three. Obviously Sol, but also to outside of the Congress building because the plaza that allows you to see the entirety of it is actually the plaza of the Hotel Villa Real (where I stayed with my mom, BB, and Aunt Kait). Lavapies was the only unknown place, but the only thing that really stood out to me about it was the diversity. Lavapies is the most gentrified part of Madrid that I have been to, from the people walking around to the types of restaurants lining the streets.
       After Lavapies we actually had a fourth stop, which was a place called "Esta es una Plaza." I highly recommend you look it up if you find yourself bored an unsure of what to do, but basically it is a 'solar' (an abandoned construction site) that some local Madrileños decided to use. The people living in the surrounding buildings decided to convert the site into a plaza to be used by all of them. Within the plaza they have a cabin type thing that holds all sorts of children's books and toys, a thriving garden, swings, tables and chairs made out of recycled materials, etc. It is absolutely incredible what they have done with the place, especially given that the city has no control. This means that while the locals get to use it, it is also their responsibility to clean and maintain it. My class was lucky enough to get to eat lunch and hang out there for a little. However, Katie and I forgot to ask Cristina for a bag lunch so we looked on and attempted to ignore our hunger. Classic Katie and Carolyn.
       Once people were finished eating their lunches, we got Nicolette, Christine, Bri, and Jordan to go back to Sol with us to visit.... Museo de Jamón! We are addicted. Anyways, Jordan left shortly after but the five girls continued the early afternoon with a visit to a place called 'I'm Fruit!' It was really cute and the premise is that there are a wide variety of frozen fruits and you get to choose the form you want to eat it in: freshly cut, juiced, or turned into ice cream. Not really sure how the last one works, but the machine literally just mashes the fruit into an ice cream like consistency. Naturally all of us chose to get the ice cream. Being the intelligent human being that I am, and one who is extremely allergic to strawberries, I opted to wait until after other people had ordered and had their ice creams prepared before ordering my own. I also chose to not ask the lady working to clean the machine. Obviously the person who ordered before me (Katie) had gotten strawberries in hers, and of course they were the last item to be mashed, so it only makes sense that there was strawberry residue in the machine. The point of this story is that I had a really bad allergic reaction, Katie and I speed-walked home with a stop to buy a two liter water bottle for me to chug, and I began to take the miracle pill that is Benadryl. The rest of the day is kind of a blur, but I did make it out alive, thanks to some lovely medical assistance from my mom via FaceTime and Katie via her drugs. I did wake up to watch the US game though, a big win over Ghana!
       On Tuesday I decided to take it easy after class, despite feeling much better when I woke up in the morning. Due to my allergic reaction I missed an event called "Fucking Monday" (sorry for swearing, Mom) that many of my classmates attended, basically it is a big party at some discoteca. Kind of bummed, but at least I got about 14 hours of sleep! Anyway, the rest of Tuesday was spent doing homework, watching soccer, and eating.
       Wednesday was the last day of school for the week, and class had yet another presentation about 15-M. Not that it's a recurring theme or anything. After class, Katie, Lauren and I walked to Sol where we went to a famous bakery called La Mallorquina, where we met Lauren's parents who were visiting. Katie and I hung out long enough to have a conversation and a tasty treat and then left Lauren to her family while we went home for lunch. After lunch, Katie and I met Jordan in Sol and the three of us went to.... Museo de Jamón!! We took our bocadillos to go and headed to El Retiro where we met up with Thomas, and that is when I spent the best €1,40 of the entire six weeks. The four of us split the cost of renting a row boat and then took it out on the lake in El Retiro. We had far too much fun and it took the four of us far too long to figure out how to move the boat in the direction we wanted to. It was perfect weather and overall just a really good time.
       Once our 45 minutes on the boat was up we headed over to our usual spot in the park and found Nicolette, Lauren and Marina there. It was a lovely surprise. The seven of us had a great time playing stupid games like Green Glass Door, One up One down, and other pattern games. As time passed the group dwindled down to Katie, Nicolette, Jordan, and myself and we took the Metro to over by the Bernabéu (the Real Madrid stadium). Nicolette went home for dinner while Jordan, Katie, and I watched the first half of the Spain vs Chile game in a restaurant as we ate. During halftime, Nicolette returned and the four of us went over to the stadium to watch the second half with all of the Spanish fans. As disappointing as the outcome of the game was, we had an absolute blast. We stayed out until about 1 and then caught the last Metro home (thank God) since we had to be up around 8 to meet at school as we were leaving for the long weekend!
     

Classic Katie not fitting in the Metro station. 

The best picture I have of "Esta es una Plaza"

 The dessert that almost killed me

Katie and yours truly in El Retiro

Our view from the boat

Katie, Thomas, myself, Jordan

The Bernabéu

Roommates taking to the streets after a tough loss

Córdoba, El Rastro, La Plaza de Toros

       On Friday we took our class trip to Córdoba, Spain. It was a horrifically early train ride, I had to be up before 7, and most of you probably know from firsthand experience that I am most definitely not a morning person. Regardless, Katie and I made it to the train station on time and an hour and a half later, we were safely in Córdoba, courtesy of the Ave. Córdoba is infamous for its summer weather, to put it another way, it was 100 degrees (at least) the entire time we were there. We walked from the train station, which is in more of the modern area of the city to the older part of the city. The architecture is beautiful, and we walked across a bridge so that we could get a better view of all of it. The pictures are below! After that we took a trip to the mosque/cathedral. It is an absolutely incredible building. It started off as a giant mosque and then part of it was converted into a cathedral. It seems to me that a common theme of all of our school trips is visiting all of the religious places, or at least the key three in each city which include some sort of reference to the Christians, the Jews, and then the Arabs - as our tour guide Carmen put it. Anyways, the inside of the mosque was spacious with pillars placed strategically and almost so that it formed a forest of them as you walked through. It was very interesting to see the two architectural styles mixed together of the Arabs and the Christians.
       After the mosque, we had some free time for lunch. One of my favorite things about these excursions is that you end up eating with and hanging out with everybody in the class, even as it splits into groups. I had lunch with Katie, Danielle, Ashley, Jordan and Thomas at a little restaurant called "Rincón de Carmen". One of the things on the menu was fried eggplant with honey, so naturally Katie and I had to order that and share it, and I also had a delicious grilled chicken with a olive oil and salsa verde topping. A bonus was that the restaurant had wifi so I got to text with Jen before she had her last day of sophomore year! How exciting and extremely frightening that she is halfway done with high school. After lunch we stopped for some gelato, and it has never tasted so good, mainly because of the extreme heat. Next stop was a Jewish Museum where we learned all about the history of the Sephardic Jews in Spain and heard some traditional music. The problem is that the museum was not air conditioned, so the entire time everyone was worried about passing out. Alexis came to my rescue and lent me her fan.
       On the train ride back I got to sit with Alejandro, who spent the entire ride freaking out because he was missing Mexico's first game in this World Cup. It was pretty funny to watch him ask everyone in the class who had data on their phones to check the score routinely. Luckily for him, Mexico ended up winning. Unfortunately, the Spanish, who played in the next game, were not so lucky. They took a beat down and lost 5-1 and I swear all of Madrid was silent for a moment. And then everyone started drinking their sorrows away, which always bodes well for some American college students looking to go out. We ended up going to El Kapital again, the seven story discoteca, and thus I did not get home until the lovely time of 6:48 AM. When in Spain...
       On Saturday we slept until lunch, which is served at 3 PM. After we had eaten, Katie and I went and met up with Will, who was playing his guitar and singing in front of the Reina Sofia and making money doing it. The three of us walked to El Retiro (the park) where we met up with Nicolette and Nicole and we played some card games and had a cherry seed spitting contest. Kind of. I failed epically. Clearly spending time in Northern Michigan has taught me nothing. People from class came and went, and eventually Katie and I headed home where we ate dinner and then went to bed early.
       Sunday morning we woke up early (9 AM) so that we could take a trip to El Rastro, which is basically a giant market where people set up stands and sell everything you could ever imagine - except food. Katie and I got some good gift-shopping in for about two hours, but by 11:30, the streets were so crowded that we could barely move. We were very happy to have gotten there early enough to experience it the right way! On the way home we made a few stops: the first was for some Bubble Tea, the second was at a Museo de Jamón where I got the most delicious bocadillo (sandwich) with ham and cheese and a Coca-Cola for less than five Euros, AKA I'm in love with this place. The third stop was a gift shop, and fourth was Futbol Mania. Lots of good shopping. Then we went home for a real meal which was two fried eggs, a sausage, and some rice each. Surprisingly delicious. Something about Spain has turned me into a human capable of eating eggs. Who knew?
       After lunch, Katie and I headed to El Retiro where we were supposed to meet Jordan, but he bailed on us. I hope he reads this and continues to feel bad for not showing up. Anyway, we ended up taking a short nap in the park and then taking the Metro to Plaza de Toros where we met Nicolette, Christine and Briana. Daniel and Alejandro joined the group shortly after, and we bought our six euro tickets to watch a bullfight. Even after learning about them for years in my Spanish classes, nothing could have fully prepared me for seeing one live. First of all, trust me when I say I am definitely not an animal rights activists, but even I thought that what was going on was cruel. The show was pretty cool, the matadors who try to confuse the bull were hilarious as they jumped around waving their capes and then sprinted for cover as soon as the bull started charging them. Other than that, it was pretty gruesome. To put it simply, even from the fourth floor, I could see the blood on the animal's body. It is horrible how the matadors taunt the animal purely for entertainment's sake before murdering it. I will say, though, that I do not regret going. It is a Spanish tradition that I am happy I had the opportunity of experiencing. However, we stayed for only two bulls (there were six in total) and I know that I never need to go back to see another bullfight.
       In this paragraph I'm going to describe exactly how the bullfight worked, so if you get queasy or really really love animals, don't read this part. Basically what happens is that a bull is released into the circular arena. There are about 6 matadors hiding in little passages that jump out and wave their capes around (the bulls are attracted to the movement) so that the bull will charge at them, the idea is to confuse the bull. Once the bull is pretty confused, two matadors enter on horseback, and it is their job to stab the bull in an area right around the 'shoulder blade' area of the bull. Once that cut is deep enough, three new matadors come out, each with a set of little pokey things (obviously not the correct terminology) and stab them into the wound created previously. After this, the final matador enters with his red cape and sword and it is his job to kill the bull. The first bull that we saw die was killed immediately as the sword entered it. The second bull refused to die... It was honestly really sad because another matador came out to try to provoke the bull into standing and fighting again once it had been stuck with a sword the first time. What the helping matador did was stab the bulls forehead area approximately 17 times. It was absolutely excruciating to watch, and the crowd was going insane yelling at the bull to stand. I watched in amazement as the bull did try to stand, but finally one of the stabs did him in and he too keeled over. Sorry for the graphic-ness, but that is indeed what happened.
       As I said before, we left after only two bulls because none of us felt the need to see any more bulls die. On the way home we all stopped at a Museo de Jamón. Yes, it was the second time Katie and I had been that day. Yes, I ordered the same thing. No, I do not regret it. All in all it was a pretty fun-filled weekend! We also had the sad realization that our time here in Spain really is dwindling.
       

Córdoba

One of many statues of San Rafael

The view from across the bridge

Truer words have never been spoken

Inside the mosque

Mix of mosque and cathedral

Cathedral

Cathedral

Pringles: World Cup Style

El Rastro

Plaza Mayor

Museo de Jamón

Plaza de Toros

View from the fourth floor of Plaza de Toros

The arena

Christine, me, Daniel, Briana, Katie, Nicolette

The beginning ceremony

The first set of matadors

Dead bull being dragged out

Past Halfway

       Monday in class I had a presentation to give with Katie, Christine and Briana. It was on 15-M (again, see a theme here?), but specifically on how social media played a huge role in spreading it. I got to lead a cool activity where everyone in the class had a partner and they had to come up with a creative tweet about the movement. It sounds kind of boring out of context, but I think the class had fun because their tweets were judged by our professors who had to decide whether or not they wanted to delete, favorite, or retweet whatever each pair had come up with. Anyway, after lunch Katie and I headed to the Retiro where we met up with Lauren and Nicolette to try to do some homework. Naturally none got done and we had to do it later that evening, but we did get to enjoy the nice weather in the park!
       On Tuesday in class we watched a movie about saving a portrait of Francisco de Goya during the Spanish Civil War. It was really depressing, and my favorite character (a 6-year-old boy named Pepito) died, so that wasn't too fun. After lunch at home, Katie and I headed to McDonald's to meet some people from class to do some homework. Once we were all at least partly finished, a few of us headed to the 'usual' eggplant and sangria spot (me, Katie, Lauren, Nicolette, and Will). We had a great time, in fact such a great time that we didn't realize how much money we had spent until it was time for us to pay the check. I guess if we are only here once like this, then we might as well take advantage of it!
       Wednesday's class went by pretty quickly and we discussed a book we had read called Democracia. After class, Katie, Nicolette and I all bought fanny packs at a stand just outside of our school building. Possibly five of the greatest Euros I will ever spend. After lunch I finished my homework quickly because some people from class had decided that we were going out. Luckily for Katie and myself, most of the places that people want to go out to are very close to where we live, which means everything is in walking distance. Most of the time that isn't a problem for other people in the class because there are always taxis, it just gets rather expensive. However, on Wednesday all of the taxi drivers were on strike against Uber, so that caused a few problems later on with some people trying to get home, but it all worked out in the end. We also met a bunch of guys from the University of Pennsylvania program that are studying here in Madrid, and it was hilarious because two of them are in Fiji at Penn (shoutout to your fraternity Matt) and one of those two guys is actually the 'little' of a guy I went to high school with AND he went to high school with my friend Safiya! Small world!
       Thursday's class involved looking at lots of 'art'. I use that term loosely because a large portion of class was dedicated to learning about Tapies, who is famous for hanging clothes on a wall, tying a knot in each of the four corners, and then painting it all a solid color. How that is art, I will never understand. And it is times like these that make me happy that I am a computer science major and not an art history one. When we got home from class, Cristina's (my host mom) daughter was here! Her name is Carolina - what a great one. She was really really nice and wanted to know all about us and our classes. After lunch was over and Carolina had left, it was a very relaxed afternoon. I watched the movie 'That Awkward Moment' (very highly recommend it) and then went to meet Lauren, Marina, Megan, and Audra in Sol to go to La Mallorquina (I think that's what it's called) for some tasty treats. I got a Pepito de Crema and it was delicious. My evening ended with watching the first game of the World Cup - Brazil vs Croatia and then forcing Katie to watch 'That Awkward Moment.'
       All in all, it was a pretty relaxed week! The weekend was slightly busier :)

Sometimes the translations from the menu are a bit off...

Part of the crew! Note the fanny packs...

Katie's snapchat masterpiece from class

Mi Pepito de Crema!

Field Trip to Cataluña

On Friday morning we were up at 6:45 so that we could leave by 7 for the metro in order to get to the train to Barcelona. We took the Ave, or the high speed train here that goes up to 215 kilometers per hour. It was pretty neat, but I just journaled and slept for the two hour ride. When we got to Barcelona we met our guide, whose name was Cristina. We boarded a coach bus and began a tour of the city. We saw all the main spots including the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic village, the port, the parliament district, the palace, and a beautiful view. After the drive we went to the hotel to check in and then had about two hours to take a break and eat lunch. For lunch I ate two tapas: a Spanish tortilla and a plate of sautéed mushrooms. Very yummy. Then we headed back to the bus and went to my favorite place, I think ever, the Sagrada Familia.

The Sagrada Familia is an extremely famous church designed by the architect Antonio Gaudi. He worked on the design for over 43 years, it was both his first and last project. The building has been being constructed for over 100 years at this point and it is only about 65% complete. It is extremely different from any other church in Europe because in most churches, the biblical story is portrayed in ornate designs on the inside of the church, but Gaudi decided to put it on the outside. The church takes up an entire block, and everything that pertains to it has some sort of significance. For example, the eastern side of the building, the side the sun rises on, tells the story of the birth of Jesus, while the western side portrays his death. The front of the church has the glory and the passion of Jesus. There are 18 towers total: the tallest with the cross on top is for Jesus, the one directly behind it is for the Virgin Mary, and the four surrounding it are for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The other 12 towers are for each of the disciples. While the outside is spectacular in its splendor, the inside is more incredible than anything I can put into words in its simplicity. The inside is so spacious, the ceilings are so high, and the only things on the ground floor are columns. But the columns go all the way to the ceiling, they are like tree trunks that open up into the ceiling giving a feeling of openness and nature. All of the windows are stained glass, meaning that all of the night that filters in comes in in a variety of different colors, so the color then is perceived as natural. There is no choral box like in all of the famous cathedrals all over the rest of Europe, instead there are balconies all over so that the choirs could sing from above, and it would be like the music would be coming from the heavens and nobody would have an obstructed view. The way to get to the balconies is by spiral staircase, aka straight out of Harry Potter. Sorry, had to throw that reference in there, but seriously it was genius because they took up so little space and kept up the theme of simplicity. The altar is literally a table, nothing fantastic, just simple, again. Also, in all of the other churches and cathedrals I had seen when traveling, there were little side chapels that the rich paid for so that their sins would be paid off and they could get to heaven faster. Nothing makes me feel less religious/spiritual than that. But in this case, the church’s construction is paid for partially in taxes, but mostly in donations. And ever since Barcelona hosted the 1992 summer Olympics, tourism has taken off and the speed that the church is built at has increased exponentially. I also really enjoyed comparing it to what I remembered from when I had visited 6 years ago. The coolest part was that last time I was there, the inside was not finished, and this time it was. The church is supposed to finished by 2026, and I have promised myself that I will return at that time, if not before then again as well.

After the Sagrada Familia, we went to the Picasso museum. I had always just associated his work with cubism, but he was a very talented artist. The things he was painting at age 12 are more intricate than anything I could even imagine. My favorite painting was his interpretation of Las Meninas, it was really interesting, especially after having seen the original painting! Afterwards we found a random place on the street to eat our dinner, and I had some pasta, some fresh salmon, and some vanilla ice cream. We walked back to the hotel along Las Ramblas, the big main street in Barcelona. It was really fun because everybody was walking around on the streets, and I recognized the hotel that I had stayed at 6 years ago! On Friday night I decided to stay in with Katie, Lauren, Ashley, and Thomas and the five of us watched funny YouTube videos and Bridesmaids and ate some ice cream and popcorn. It was lovely.

Saturday morning we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel, which included a Caprese salad and some chocolate cake. All of the nutrients. We left shortly after for Gerona, which is a beautiful city on a river and we got to see an old Jewish synagogue. We heard some legends about the city, and overall it was a beautiful place, but I really would have preferred to have spent more time in Barcelona. However, lunch was delicious. Lauren and I split everything and between the two of us we polished off four dishes, with a little help from Ashley and Danielle. We shared: a Caprese salad (with black olives, actually delicious!), a four cheese risotto, a funghi pizza (mozzarella, tomato, mushroom), and a fettuccini with salmon and spinach. So delicious.

After lunch we boarded the bus and headed to Figueres, home of the Salvador Dalí museum. It was my second favorite place I have been while in Spain (behind the Sagrada Familia, which I kind of liked if you couldn’t tell). Dalí was a very interesting artist and we got to see stuff ranging from statues, to paintings, to jewelry designed and created by him. As a person, I’m not a big fan of him because he seemed to do everything for the financial gain, but his artwork really is pretty cool. My two favorite things were an image that was an optical illusion, it was both Abraham Lincoln’s face and a naked woman’s back, and a room designed to look like a painting when you look from a certain position. In that room, it is supposed to make a face. So the eyes are two paintings, the fireplace is a nose with each nostril as an opening, and the mouth is a sofa shaped like lips. Very cool and creative.

After the museum we loaded ourselves back onto the bus and headed to Puerto de la Selva, which is where our hotel was for the second evening. It was a huge surprise to find that it was on the beach! The water was absolutely pristine and the clearest water I have ever had the pleasure of swimming in. The mountains rose around the little inlet, and all of the houses on them were white. It was literally the most perfect place I have ever seen. Another interesting thing about the province of Cataluña as a whole is the whole idea of potential secession. There are flags everywhere. The flag that just has the red and yellow stripes represents the support of Cataluña as a province of Spain, while the flag with the stripes as well as the blue triangle and white star is in support of the secession of Cataluña from Spain in order to become its own country. While we were in Gerona, we actually saw a bar that was only for people who wanted to go in and talk about the politics and who were in support of the secession. Pretty interesting.

Anyways, dinner in Puerta de la Selva was absolutely delicious. We went with the entire program, teachers included. The first course was a mixed salad, and then they brought out the second course… Muscles. I decided to be a ‘big girl’ and try them, especially since I could see the water they had been taken from only about 200 feet away from me. To my surprise, I actually kind of enjoyed them! I ended up eating 7. No promises that happens in the future… After that we had our main course of paella. I ended up having two helpings, but mine was a vegetable version because the little shrimp heads and squids freaked me out. The dish was sooo yummy though.

Today (Sunday) was a great morning when I first woke up because I woke up to the news that Jen’s soccer team won the state championship!! The rest of the day was spent mostly on buses because we got lost at one point. But we had a lovely lunch where I bonded with some people in the program I hadn’t previously bonded with, so that was good! Then we finally made the trip back to Madrid, and now it is time for me to do some homework and stop procrastinating with blog posts.

View from the Ave (bullet train) to Barcelona

Olympic Stadium

View of the port

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Bar to discuss secession of Cataluña

River in Girona

Girona

Bath in the synagogue in Girona

The two different flags side by side

Girona

Outside of Dalí Museum

Dalí Museum

Dalí Museum: Abraham Lincoln's face or a naked woman?

Dalí Museum

Dalí Museum

Dalí Museum

Coke tastes better out of a glass bottle

Beach in Puerta de la Selva

Muscles that I ate! Proof!

Vegetable Paella

Cadaqués

Cadaqués

Cadaqués

Lunch of champions: tapas

Dalí Museum

For some reason the pictures got out of order, but I think they are all there!