Why not blog RIGHT NOW?

There are a million things I should be doing right now. Well, probably not a million, but at least 5 or 6 which is more than I can usually say for Spain. However, I'm full of energy right now and I don't feel as though I can successfully channel that energy into writing the oh-so-elusive perfect cover letter for a summer internship possibility or an error-free page of description in Spanish. I'm just not feeling it.

So instead, let me tell you that I've been busy. And I love it. Some of my more interesting (not too mention impressive sounding) adventures are the result of my Art History class. I've never taken Art History before and in fact once shuddered at the idea of looking a endless slides in a dark room for hours. However, I am in Madrid and all of my professors (seriously, even the grammar one) told me last semester that the city has, arguably, the finest collection of paintings in the Europe. We've got the Prado (maybe you've heard of it??), the Reina Sofia (modern Spanish Art), and the Thyssen Bornemisza (an incredible private collection of European paintings). Last semester I made it to each of these museums exactly once. And in the Reina Sofia I only looked at Picasso's El Guernica.

When I went to pick classes for this semester I decided that if I really wanted to have the full study abroad experience I had to take Art History. And so I did. I was doubtful the first class. The lights went down, the slides came up, and I almost fell asleep. But, little by little, the class has been growing on me. There are a few reasons for this:

1. We only spend one day a week in the dark. The other day we go to the museums and actually see the works en vivo. This is very, very cool. I thought perhaps it would be boring or tiring standing around staring at painted pieces of cloth, but it's not.

2. The professor, Linda, is fabulous. She looks just as you would imagine an Art History professor to look (yes, I am stereotyping) with red lipstick and outrageous earrings. Her knowledge of the works and their artists is vast and her passion for art impossible to ignore. With her as I my guide I am able to appreciate the works in a way I wouldn't be able to do on my own. Art can certainly be enjoyed without any background or technical knowledge, but I know I have a more rich, engaging experience with the class. Plus, now I know what to look for and will be able to use it in on other works in other museums. Linda is also fabulous because she gives us suggestions for what to do in Madrid. I have been to both a churreria (a shop that sell a fried dough that you dip in chocolate) and a jazz club she recommended. Finally, she reminds us to aprovechar - or take advantage - of the experience we're having right here, right now. This should be a no-brainer, but sometimes it gets hard or scary and it's good to have someone there to remind you.

3. We go on field trips! Sometimes, on Fridays, the whole class meets in the morning and we go to a different place to look at art. Last week we went to the Ermita de San Antonio de la Gloria. It's a church right near where I live and the ceilings inside were painted by Goya! It's a beautiful fresco and I probably never would have seen it if I hadn't taken Art History.

Alright, I might actually go try to write that cover letter now.

Madrid: Take 2

So, I'm really horrible about updating this blog, but I can say in my defense that, rather than stay in my room and write in English, I am trying to get out and do things this semester. I mean, I saw and did a lot last semester, but I want to keep the momentum going. And then there is the problem that when I do get some free time www.surfthechannel.com (a site that hosts American television) keeps calling out to me. It's a real problem...

Anyway, this is semester two and I just wanted to reflect (as much for myself as for whoever may be reading this) on what's different the second time around.

1. A totally new group of students. Last semester there were 35 students. This semester we've got 45 and only 7 of us are staying the year. It's a very different dynamic because while last semester groups seemed to form pretty quickly, this semester's groupings - even after a month - still feel pretty fluid. I certainly miss the new friends I made, but it is exciting to have so many friends from Hamilton here. Sometimes I still can't believe that the people I can only picture on the Hill are with me drinking cafes con leche and going to the discotecas. WEIRD, but cool.

2. My Spanish is better. A lot better. There was a time in the middle of the fall when I was certain my Spanish was exactly the same as the day I arrived. It's not that I never knew what was going on, but just that I didn't seem to be improving at all. There were still so many words I didn't know and so many grammar structures I understood in theory but couldn't use in everyday conversation. I'm no expert yet, but arrival of so many new Americans has made me realize that I learned quite a bit last semester. Often, when asked how to say a certain vocabulary word, I know the answer! For my literature class I can read the books and, while the subtleties still escape me, I always know what's going on. I’m even in the advanced grammar class this semester.

3. I know Madrid. I can walk from the Prado to my house. I can quickly orient myself on a city map. There are places that I know and like and have frequented more than once. In fact, there is one bar I go to where the bouncer knows my name and I know his. (I really am not sure how this happened, since I’ve only been 3 times, but it’s still cool). My knowledge is, in fact, so extensive that when I met up with a friend not from Madrid I was able to take us to a hip neighborhood, find a “typical” restaurant, and order “typical” food for us to enjoy. I think, maybe, finally, I’m falling a little bit in love with the city.

4. I have a housemate! It’s thrilling. It would be awkward to write a lot about her since she could very well be reading this, but her name is Sarah and she goes to Bates. We go out and get coffee/coca-cola on a regular basis.

So, there you have it: my first thoughts on the second chapter of this epic adventure.

A Grecian Adventure

One of my very dearest friends, Emma, and I recently got back from Greece! Technically, the trip was a research project funded by Hamilton College. I wanted to investigate the way women in Ancient Greece were represented and understand their role in society. It was all very interesting stuff and I learned a lot. For instance, did you know that the ancient Greeks had an ideal depiction for both men and women? Yep, young men were idealized in the form of "kouros" or statues of naked boys who represented perpetual youthfulness, eternal beauty, and the bliss of life. The statues of young women, called

Emma in front of the Acropolis!

"korai," on the other hand, depicted a figure dressed modestly who represented grace and modesty. There's lots more to share (in case you can't guess, the Athenians are were not know for their equality) but I have to give a full report on my findings when I return to Hamilton and think it would be more fun if I shared some of the details that made the trip so memorable.

We arrived in Athens on January 30th and found our hostel with relative ease. Let me just take this moment to brag about my excellent map-reading/directional skills. I am NEVER the person who knows how to get from A to B. That job always falls to someone else, but, as it turns out, I am perfectly capable of navigating. Not that I never got lost, but I always had some idea of where we were and how to get to the next location. Emma repeatedly told me how impressed she was by my new-found talent (I was pretty impressed myself).
In Athens, we hit up all the major sites: The Acropolis, The New Acropolis Museum, the Archaeological Museum, Keramikos (a cemetery/city from Ancient times). We spent a lot of time looking at rocks, but I was super interested in it all. The Acropolis was right near our hostel and, perched way up above the modern city, it was an impressive site that you couldn’t help but notice, day or night.

Throughout the whole trip I was constantly referring to my Lonely Planet Greece guidebook as it had maps, restaurant suggestions, and lots of interesting historical tidbits. In LP I read that the Greeks are famous for their hospitality. Emma and I found this to be very true the first night we arrived. We were hungry and walked into almost the first restaurant we saw. Inside, a woman was playing Christmas carols on the piano and we immediately ordered wine (we had a drink with dinner every single night – how cultured, no?) and dinner. Although we paid for just the essentials we left with far more. There were a group of students from Milan having a great time and they got the whole restaurant involved in singing. It really was one of the most festive atmospheres I have ever experienced. As we neared the end of our meal, our waiter brought us a shot of ouzo (a famous Greek alcoholic drink), chestnuts (which we didn’t know how to crack so he had to come back and help us), chocolate, roses (bought from a vender who wandered inside off the street), and, my favorite, a great big kiss on the cheek. We definitely got our money’s worth!

After a few days in Athens, we decided to take a day trip. Actually, we were going to take two, one-day trips: the first to the Oracle at Delphi and the second to Ancient Mycenae. Delphi is several hours away from Athens and we had to wake up at 6AM, catch a local bus to the central bus station in order time to make the 7:30AM bus to Delphi. Just as we walked up to the bus stop, we saw the bus pull away. No big deal. It would come again soon and we still had an hour to make the bus. Turns out it was a big deal because the next bus didn’t come for another ½ hour. At 7:00AM we boarded the local bus and started to count stops. The hostel had told us the main bus station was 13 stops away. At 13, we went to get off the bus and realized we were in the middle of a rundown street in a fairly residential neighborhood. In broken English the bus driver explained that the bus station was four or five stops back. Since it was 7:28, there was no way we were going to make it to the Delphi bus in time. Plan B! Instead, we’d go to Mycenae. Thus began another adventure. We took the bus back to the main square, got on the metro to go to the train station, took the commuter train to a town an hour outside of Athens, boarded a bus to that city center, in the center switched buses to go to a different bus station, took a bus to another small town, where we then walked 2 ½ miles uphill in the sun to arrive at Mycenae. I have NEVER used so many different forms of public transportation in my whole life, and I hope to never again. Whew. It makes me tired and stressed just to think about it again. However, despite all of that traveling and shuffling, we had a great day. It was certainly memorable and everyone we met was just so nice to us. Bus drivers were always willing to tell us where to get off and where to go next. I certainly learned the value of asking for help, because I think we’d still be lost in rural Greece if we hadn’t. Also, if you’re traveling, no language beats English. We could always find someone who knew enough English to direct us on our way. Also, Ancient Mycenae was very, very cool. The ruins are at the top of a hill and significantly older than the Acropolis and what we had seen in Athens. We wandered around taking pictures and trying to imagine the people who had inhabited this fortress 3,000 years ago.

Beautiful Mycenae!

Of course the adventure couldn’t end there. We still had to get home! Don’t worry – we didn’t have to take all those forms of transportation in reverse. Turns out the last bus we had taken originated in Athens so we could just get on it going in the other direction and it would take us straight back. Wasn’t quite that easy, though. We had to buy tickets from this old woman in a café that must have been a front for some sort of illegal activity (I say this because the café had only a counter selling cigarettes, a single table with old men sitting around smoking, and the rest of the sizable room was empty. Oh, and we tried several cafes before finding the right one). After hearing our request, the woman hopped on her cell phone and started chatting in Greek. When she hung up, she told us (in very poor English) that we couldn’t get on the bus for another 2 hours because all the earlier ones were booked. We were bummed, but turns out it was a stroke of luck because we went to a café that had free internet(!) where I double checked out plane tickets to Crete and learned they were for the next day, not in two days as I had thought. Woops…

So, the next morning we boarded the plane to Crete. Crete wasn’t quite as fun as Athens, but that has more to do with the fact that the weather was sort of nasty than anything about the island itself. Also, I didn’t think about the fact that January 6th was a national holiday (Three Kings Day) and that the whole city would be shut down. Instead of sight-seeing Emma and I spent the whole day in cafes. Really. We slept late and went a delicious breakfast (some sort of pastry with cheese and honey) where we lingered over our coffee for a few hours. We then tried to find an open movie theater but failed and went to a second café where we once again lingered over our tea and hot chocolate for several hours. Finally, we relocated to a very tiny café where we lingered over snacks and dessert for nearly three hours. At last it was late enough to justify our trip to the airport and we walked back to the hotel to get our bags. When we passed the café ten minutes later with the bags, it had closed its doors and shut down for the night…
I wish I could say that our flight back to Madrid was smooth and trouble free, but naturally it was terribly windy on Crete and no flights could land. Ours got canceled and we were rebooked for one in the very early morning. With the new plans we were scheduled to get into Athens at 6:00AM, but we had a flight with a different airline to get back to Madrid at 6:30. The Olympic Air people were incredibly nice and found a way to check our bags all the way through to Madrid, despite the difference in airlines. The morning flight left on time and we walked into the boarding area for the second flight just as the airline attendant started inviting people to board. It actually worked out beautifully.

And then we were back in Madrid and I was starting my second semester abroad!

End of Year Re-Cap

So, like the rest of the world I got a little overwhelmed at the end of the year and this poor little blog fell by the wayside. No matter. Here are the highlights:

THANKSGIVING. I was so, so sad to be away from home on this special holiday and that sadness was only accentuated by the thought that there would be no turkey or stuffing for me this year. The Spanish, in case you didn't know, don't really eat turkey. They look at you in fascination if you talk about buying a whole bird to roast. However, several other kids in my program and I decided to order a full-on Thanksgiving dinner from a local chef. He's a friend (an American one) of one of the women who works for the program and runs his own catering business. Normally, he caters to Spaniards, but he spends the last Thursday of every November cooking up a delicious Thanksgiving feast for anyone willing to pay. My friends and I went in together, so it wasn't a bad deal. Three of us went across the city in the rain to pick it up and it was quite an experience to ride the metro with boxes of turkey, broccoli casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. Lots of Spaniards know what Thanksgiving is and as we trekked by them with our mouth-watering cargo, they wished up a happy holiday. Later, eating the dinner in the basement of our center I really couldn't imagine a better Thanksgiving in Spain.

MY BIRTHDAY. Also sad to be away from home on my birthday, but my family and friends in the US made me feel loved despite the thousands of miles and 6 hour time difference. I received a delightful package from my mom and skyped with all my friends. In Spain, my host mom made me a special comida (complete with champagne, cake, and a beautiful gray scarf) and some friends and I went out for tapas and wine. Yes, it was a little staid for a 21st birthday celebration in the US, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And don't worry; I had spent the previous Friday night clubbing until the wee hours of the morning as a way to kick-off my birthday week. I'm just not hard-core enough to go to class with a hangover. Judge me if you must.

FINALS. They were not fun, obviously, but they were better than if I had been at Hamilton. It got so, so cold here and my host mom just about had a fit about the craziness of the weather, but we survived. I spent one full day ensconced in my room writing a 8-10 page paper that I had foolishly left until the last minute. Still not sure how well I did, but I got it done and didn't have to pull any all-nighters. Sounds like a success to me. It was sad to say goodbye to all the friends that I had made this semester because the majority are not returning for the spring semester. What with facebook and skype and all now, however, I'm confident that I'll stay in touch with at least some of them.

CHRISTMAS. I went home! I'm sure everyone reading this already knows that I went home, and it was wonderful. I spent the (very short) nine days fighting jetlag, eating American food, and enjoying my friends and family. It's been years since I've had such a nice Christmas. On December 27th I got back on a plane for Spain! Now you'll just have to wait for the next entry to hear about my trip to Greece with my good friend Emma.

Free to Look

Shopping is fun, and I will admit that I almost every trip I take contains some shopping component, but Marrakesh took the shopping experience to a whole new level. In the souks, or local markets, shopping is an interactive, high-inducing, emotional roller-coster. Really, I have never done anything like it. First, you have to be able to picture the scene: narrow back alleys that refuse to go in a straight line. Lines of small shops filled to the brim with bright colors and air wafting the exotic scent of incense while people, motorcycles, and donkey-draw carts fight for space in the narrow streets. The people around speak Arabic, French, Spanish, English, German, and surely more. As you walk by the shop owners call out greetings in all languages in the hopes of catching your eye and ushering you into their shop. This madness goes on indefinitely and a foreigner could wander the twisting streets for hours without ever emerging. It is truly other world.

Friday afternoon I got my first taste of the souks and Saturday afternoon two friends and I plunged into an unknown alley to begin our shopping earnest. There are several different types of shops. There are the shoes shops that sell the Aladdin-like pointy-toed slippers as well as some many other leather slippers and sandals. Then there are the wooden-goods stores with jewelry boxes, small figurines, and beautiful bowls. Jewelry was also very popular. Some was delicate silver earrings and bracelets while other shops featured heavier, stone necklaces that the shop keepers said were from the Berber tribes of Africa. My favorite were the textile shops - endless amounts of pashmina scarves, bedspread, kaftan shirts, and more. The colors were incredible.

Souk shopping is exciting because you have to bargain for what you want. To not bargain is an insult. Now, I have never bargained before and I was more than a little nervous about it, but I had read a lot on the Lonely Planet message boards and was armed with some useful tips. In case you're headed to Morocco anytime soon, here they are: 1. Since you're a foreigner, seller inflate prices ridiculously. Begin bargaining with 1/3 of the asking price. 2. Don't get angry and be rude. Bargaining is part of the buying process and shop keepers take kindly to those who seem to be having fun. 3. Never offer a price if you're not willing to buy at that price. It's incredibly bad etiquette to name a price and then decide you don't really want it. 4. The sellers will never go below a price they are willing to pay, so if they're not budging just walk away.

It took me a little while to warm up, but pretty soon I was bargaining all over the place. I am SURE I got cheated, but everything was still pretty cheap and I honestly cannot remember an afternoon that was more fun. As my friends and I walked past the different shops, the men tried all sorts of tactics to make us try and stop. My personal favorite was the one who yelled "ugly girl, ugly girl - look over here!" Needless to say, I didn't look. Another good one was "free to look." The shop owners would come up to us in the middle of the street and remind us that it was free to look, wouldn't we just take a peek to make them happy? When I was interested I would wander into a shop, answer the owner's greeting, and insist I didn't want help (smiling the whole time). The men were not so easily persuaded, however, and if they saw me eyeing a shirt they would pull it off the hanger and try to put it on me. The first time this happened, I vehemently said no and skedaddled, but after a few stores I realized this was just the way it worked and did try on a few things. I always tried to ask how much something cost before trying it on, but the men would just say that it was a "democratic price" and ignore me. After I tried it on and decided I liked it, they would finally, finally list a price. Of course, it was ridiculously high. I would laugh and give a ridiculously low price. (At least, I thought it was ridiculously low - I never was quite sure of the value of anything). I'd go up a little and then just keep saying that price. They'd come down a little, I'd go up a little more (I always ended up giving in before they did) and then if they still didn't like it I'd begin to walk away. That's when they would call after me, I'd return and we'd settle on something we were both happy with. The whole thing really was a rush, although, like I said, I'm sure they still cheated me.

There were some negative experiences (one guy got really, really angry and wouldn't let me friend go when she decided she didn't want something) but there were also some really positive ones. We went around a corner and these three guys thought it would be really funny to wrap scarves around us in the Berber style. At first we were terrified, but I think they meant well and it was all in good fun (nothing got stolen and they didn't make us buy anything). There was also a guy who wrote our names in Arabic and another who professed his love for us. By the end of the day I was exhausted and my wallet was a lot lighter, but it was an awesome afternoon.

Marrakesh, Morocco!

Today's story is that of last weekend's journey to Marrakesh, Morocco! I realize that this blog is supposed to be about Madrid and I have, in fact, rarely talked about the beautiful city I live in, but I promise to do better after this post. It's just that my travels are so exciting that I can't help but talk about them. It will be easier to do better in the future because I don't have any more trips planned until I head to Greece (woo-hoo!) at the end of December...

Ok, first of all, Morocco was exciting because it was AFRICA. Of course, it's not at all like sub-Saharan Africa, but it still counts. That means I have now been on three different continents! My flight left ridiculously early in the morning (6:25). In order to save myself the (financial) pain of taking a taxi by myself to the airport, my friend AJ stayed the night in my house and we split the cab at 4:30 AM. Oh the joys of budget travel. The flight was uneventful, but when we landed in Marrakesh it was clear we were no longer in Europe. It was HOT. Every day the temperature was well about 80 and it was a bit of a shock to my system after the mildness (we're still hovering around 50 and 60) of Madrid. It turned out to be more of a process than expected to get through customs. Since we were Americans (oh yeah, the "we" mentioned periodically is me and the 15 other people I traveled with. Everyone was scared to go to Africa without a big group, but it turns out we needn't have worried) we had to get some weird extra stamp - I think it stated that we were healthy and fever free. They knew this because we had to walk by a heat-detecting machine! Cool, huh? Then we had to go through customs itself. There was another form and another stamp and then we were through! I was pretty excited about the new stamp in my passport! The next step was to exchange our money. Morocco uses the dirham (which some of my friends insisted on calling "dinghys" all weekend). 10 dirham is roughly equal to 1 Euro (and 1 Euro is equal to 1.5 dollars). My mind spent the whole weekend translating dirham to Euros to dollars so that I could actually figure out what I was paying for something and I kept getting so confused. It's really startling when someone asks you for 200 dirham because first you think that's outrageous and then you think "oh, that's not bad, it's only 20 bucks" and then you have to correct yourself and say "oh, no, it's $30". By then end, I was happy to return to just making one conversion in my head.

After the money nonsense we headed by bus to the hostel. The hostel is not really accessible by car (!) so we got off the bus on the edge of the medina, or main square. At 8 in morning it wasn't very busy but tons of dried fruit stands and orange juice stands were already in business. The snake charmers and men with performing monkeys were also getting going! I actually couldn't believe the directions to our hostel. They said things like: at the big open space, take a left. Follow the alley until the blue door and then turn right...Surprisingly enough, we made it without a problem although there was a very persistent Moroccan man who wanted to take us there (and then get tipped) and we had to actually yell at him and he still followed us to hostel. The hostel was beautiful, though. In Morocco if you don't stay in a really nice hotel you'll probably stay in a converted Moroccan home. Ours had a pretty tiled courtyard and rooms with pointed arches and pillows on the floor. Plus, the free breakfast on the rooftop terrace was delicious!

After dropping our stuff, we hit the ground running and got back on the bus to go for camel rides. It was really, really cool even though it was completely touristy. The bus dropped us off on the side of the highway and there were men waiting with camels. We bargained the price down to 60 dirham (it started somewhere in the 300s) and the men had the camels kneel down and then helped us climb aboard. It was two people to a camel and we were on a boxey saddle that had a big metal loop in front that we could hold for balance. Although some people were hesitant at first (camels really are very large), in the end everyone decided to give it a try. My favorite part was when the camel stood up because there was this tremendous lurch and then you were several feet off the ground! The men running the organization were really nice and kept asking for our cameras. At first we were hesitant, but they just really, really loved to take pictures and I have some nice documentation of my time on a camel thanks to them. I also have to mention the baby camel who was possibly the cutest animal I have ever seen. Its feet were hobbled so it couldn't run away, but as we began our trek around the "park" (aka wasteland) it hobbled after the group in the most adorable manner imaginable. It clearly did not want mama to get too far away. We rode for about 20 minutes and then had the exciting lurch back to the ground. It was agreed all around that camels had been an excellent idea (and I have to admit I had been more than a little hesitant at first).

After that was lunch and then our first journey in the souks. I'm getting tired so I will write more fully about the souks in the next post (whoops, so much for the whole no-more-out-of-Madrid promise). What matters here is the dinner we had Friday night. We went to this really touristy and pretty expensive (the source of some tension, but we did get through it) restaurant. If you've ever eaten in "Morocco" in Disney's Epcot, you've basically been to this restaurant. All the walls were tiled, there were candles and rose petals on the table, and half of the chairs were couches. As we dined our way through an incredible five course meal we were treated to traditional Moroccan music, singing, and dancing. The dinner lasted well over 2 hours and it was an experience. We had this "salad" that was really a bunch of different cooked vegetables (no eating raw veggies because the water there can make you sick), fresh sweet bread, couscous, a chicken tangine (a stew-like dish), mint tea (a Moroccan specialty made with endless amounts of sugar), and dessert. I'm really glad we went, but it was sort of poor timing on our part because we had gotten up at 4AM to get to Morocco and the dinner didn't end until almost 11 so most of us were fading at the end. I believe a few people actually fell asleep on the couches, but, hey, what can you do? And all this was only the first day!

A weekend of culture!

I am so behind! I always mean to post about everything, but then somehow two weeks disappear and I have no idea where the time went. Ah well. The story today is that of Barcelona! I went with the program (which was wonderful because everything was already paid for) over Halloween weekend. We get every Friday off here so we left Friday morning and our directors randomly let us take Monday off so we returned Monday night. It was a fantastic trip and I loved Barcelona. Madrid feels more down to earth and I'm happy to be living here, but Barcelona is a fantastic place to visit.

Part of the reason I enjoyed Barcelona so much was because it made me feel cultured and sophisticated. Through my romps across Spain with Americans from all corners of the country, I have learned that I'm a little lacking on the culture front. My knowledge of art is almost non-existent, I have little to say about music, and when it comes to ordering at a classy restaurant, I usually guess and hope for the best. Though I'd love to believe this is part of my charm, I'm also excited to say that my knowledge on all fronts is improving. Barcelona was particularly helpful in the arts department!

So one of the first things I learned in Spain is that there is this really famous Catalan (from Cataluna, the autonomous community encompassing and surrounding Barcelona) architect named Gaudi and people all over love him for his whimsical and captivating buildings that helped revolutionize architecture. I was particularly fond of his use of the parabola-shaped arch. Anyway, Guadi has a ton of buildings in Barcelona and I think I saw almost all of them. First was Casa Batllo. This house was comissioned by some rich family and Gaudi took his inspiration from the sea. There were tons of blues and greens and all sorts of details that made me think of waves and bubbles and other underwater touches. Next, I saw La Sagrada Familia (aka the Sacred Family). It's Gaudi's cathedral and, although it was started over 100 years ago, it's yet to be finished. Apparently Gaudi went a little crazy towards the end of his life and lived in the construction site that was the church until he died. He'd become such a recluse at the time of his death that no one even realized he was no longer alive until days later. The cathedral was really neat and my friend and I took an elevator way up to the higher levels and got to look out at the city. Then we had to climb this dark, narrow spiral staircase all the way back down. The walk down stressed me out, but the view from the top was worth it. After that (remember this was spread over four days) I went with some friends to La Pedrera, an apartment building Gaudi designed. The coolest thing here was the terrace (fancy rooftop) because there were crazy turrets and designed and, again, the view was incredible. Finally, I went to Park Guell which, as you might guess, is a park designed by Gaudi. My favorite part was the really over-the-top fountain with mosaic chameleon that gaurds the entrance. All in all, I can safely say I left Barcelona Gaudi fan.

Barcelona is not only great for building art, but museum art as well. I visited the Picasso museum (I guess there are a lot, but this has a ton of his stuff). The museum focuses on showing Picasso's development as an artist so it doesn't have so many of his super famous paintings, but a lot of stuff from his early years and all the things he worked on before he got to cubism. I particularly liked his blue and pink periods! See, that just makes me sound cool to be able to say things like that. Weird side note: in the Picasso museum we ran into two girls from Hamilton who aren't in the program, but who just happened to be studying abroad in Europe and in Barcelona for the weekend. So random! I also visted the Salvador Dali museum in Figueras (about 2 hours away from Barcelona). Before visiting the museum I didn't think I was a big fan of Dali, but it turns out he is super cool. The only painting I'd know of his were all the melting clocks, but Dali has some really beautiful paintings of his wife, Gala, that I loved. They're still surrealist, but not quite so random. The museum was probably the neatest museum I've ever been to because it was a converted theater and was filled not only with Dali's painting, but with all his many types of art. If I understood out guide correctly, surrealists take everyday objects and turn them into art. This means that the museum was filled with things like cars that rained and a portrait of Mae Wes made out of furniture. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before, but if you're headed to Barcelona, it's worth making the trip to see this museum!

My weekend of culture finished up with a Spanish Guitar concert in the Palau de Musica. An incredible building (unfortunately not designed by Gaudi), it was filled with mosaic-tiled pillars and lots of color. The guitarrist was increidble and I'm so glad my friends and I waited in line for the 1/2 it took to get tickets.

I can't really think of any kind of clever closing (not that I ever do), but I'll just reiterate that my weekend in Barcelona made me so happy to be in Europe and not in the cold countryside of Hamilton!