The end...finalmente!

Ok this was a long time coming, and even though I've been home for almost 3 weeks I feel like I still need to tie up loose ends on my blog.

For my last week in Valencia, I had a few things that I had been wanting to do but never got around to, so it was definitely time to actually do them. The main thing I wanted to do was make Paella, that traditional spanish rice dish that I've shown on here before I'm sure. According to my host brother Luis-Miguel, Lola, my madre, makes the best Paella in all of Spain, and I don't doubt it, so I got to learn from the master. It turned out really well-Lola said I was already a pro, but I'm not going to lie I had a lot of help from her. We'll see if I can make an OK paella in the US.

I also visited some of the sights around Valencia that I hadn't gotten a chance to see, such as the main tower in the city and a few churches. Exams were also tied into everything here, which made for a busy and stressful time, but they went smoothly I think.

On the night before our last day, Lola made us a "cena divertida" or a "fun dinner" which she kept talking about but never made and which involved a bunch of different things. The next day the whole group met at a restaurant and had a "comida de despedida" or a "goodbye lunch" where we ate paella (I finally got to compare Lola's to something else, and there was no comparison, she makes the best I've had). We also had the typical goodbye chats and said adios to all the professors and students, etc.

The whole week my roommate Zach had been planning a last meal we would have with Lola and Luis-Miguel, that we would cook and american style dinner. I have to admite, at first I was skeptical because finding american ingredients in Spain is not that easy, but we found everything we needed in the international section of "El corte inglés," minus something for cornbread, but we managed. The meal was awesome. We had chicken fried steak, fried green tomatoes, bean chili, cornbread, mashed potatoes and for dessert we had bread pudding. Lo and behold we even made sweet tea--this was the ultimate southern american meal. Lola was incredibly impressed and kept saying that had she known Zach could cook this well before then she would have made us make dinner all the time (Zach had the recipe for everything, I was just the sou-chef). It turned out to be a great night; Lola made a farewell speech and it was a fitting goodbye.



My flight the next morning left at 7, so I had to be at the airport by 5. My roommate's flight was at 6, so he had to be there by 4, so we came up with a brilliant plan to not go to sleep that night. Kind of a bad decision, because I couldn't sleep on my plane from Paris to Philadelphia, so I was incredibly tired when I got back. But, I was very happy to see my family at the airport waiting for me, and I was glad to be home.

Well, that's it for my Spain blog. I had an amazing 4 month experience in España and I hope you all enjoyed coming along with me for some of what I did. My madre Lola always says to never say "adios," just "hasta luego," or "see you later." You never know if I may come back to Spain, or anywhere else in the world, and make another blog, so here there is no adios from me, just an Hasta Luego.

Update! Corrida de Toros Video

I uploaded a video of the torero who got owned by bull because he was being a show off. He did get up and kill the bull later, though, so props to him. Here it is!

Sevilla y La Feria de Abril

This weekend Katie, Charlotte and I went to Sevilla for an amazing last trip in Spain. This week was the Feria de Abril, or the April Fair, where everything that is Andalusian comes to Sevilla for a big fiesta. To start off with, we had a hard time getting there in the first place. I tole Lola, my madre, that we were planning on going to Sevilla about 2 weeks before we left, and she said that if we didn't already have a hostel then there was no way we were going to be able to go! Nevertheless, we tried and after calling around 30 hostels, we finally found one with availability, what luck! My madre called it a 'milagro' (miracle). After that, we had to find a way to get there. After finding that the train was full, we headed to the bus station to get tickets on a night bus to Sevilla. It was a lot of work, but Lola kept saying 'vale la pena para ir a la feria de Sevilla' meaning that it was worth all of this trouble to get there.

Finally we left on Friday night, and it was one of the most uncomfortable 10 hours of my life. Riding on a bus in the Andulusian country side is not the most fun thing, as the bus kept turning through the hills and I really only slept a couple of hours. Nonetheless, I kept saying 'vale la pena' to get me through. It really was worth it. Aside from Sevilla being a great and beautiful city, the feria was nothing short of amazing.

The feria is set on fair grounds, of course, and a big arch leads the way. In the streets, all the men ride horseback, dressed in traditional caballero outfits. The women ride sidesaddle, and pretty much all of them are dressed in flamenco dresses, ready to dance the sevillana flamenco all day and all night.




The streets are lined with hundreds and hundreds of 'casetas' or large tents, which are decorated for the fiesta, and people eat, drink and dance flamenco for hours on end.

I was also very surprised to see that the fair is also actually a fair like we would define it in the US, with fair rides, games, cotton candy, etc. Katie and I went on one ride, called 'La Cárcel' or 'The Jail'. And that it was, as we were locked in a cage and sent round and round, feeling some zero gravity at the top and floating. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't the safest thing I've ever done in my life, because there were no straps or seat belts, we just stood in a cage and were slammed around for a few minutes. It was fun, though.


Most of the tents were private, but we found a public one for the Triana neighboorhood, which happens to be where my sister lived when she studied in Sevilla. We sat in wonder as we watched the Sevillanos dance the sevillana flamenco for hours and hours on end; literally they just keep going and going.

Also, in one of the tents I was very surprised to see a certain prize that someone won at a game...

...the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Nascar! Who knew I would see this while in Spain...since the brand is already here, maybe I should open a shop in Madrid?!?
The weekend was far from over. On Sunday we walked around the city, toured the Cathedral and the Fortress.



In that last picture you can see the Plaza de Toros, or the Bullfight arena, which brings me to my next activity...
Una Corrida de Toros! We were lucky to get tickets, I think, because the Feria de Abril is Sevilla's main bullfight season.

*WARNING* I'm posting these pictures for those who want to see them, but some people understandably do not want to see the blood and gore of a Matador slowly killing a bull, so if you would rather not, this is the last part of the post and you don't have to scroll down.

In fact, neither my madre nor my spanish brother have ever seen a bullfight, and many spaniards these days don't agree with it. But, I have no problem with it because the bull is raised very healthily and has a good life before his fight, in contrast to bulls who are raised solely for meat, and the bull is also sold for food after the fight. Plus, I couldn't miss out on this very entertaining part of Spanish culture.

In a bullfight, there are 3 matadors and 6 bulls, and each bull is taunted and stabbed for a while before the matador tires him out before delivering the final blow, a sword straight through the neck. The bull then wobbles around for a bit and then falls over to the cheers of the crowd and the matador then kills it for sure, and horses then drag the dead bull out of the arena. If the bull was particularly brave, they take it around the arena before leaving so the crowd can give its cheers and thanks. Our bullfight was particularly exciting, as one horses was knocked over, and one matador was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. He got down on his knees before the bull came out, like so...

The bull comes out and slams right into him becuase he started to move too late, he gets thrown into the air, everyone panics and thinks he's dead, but he was actually OK and continued with the fight. The crowd loved it. After a good fight they wave white handerchiefs and they definitely did that after this fight. Here are more pictures:



Ok that wasn't so gory after all, but I have some good videos that you can see when I get back. After the bullfight, we had some good tapas and then headed back to the feria for one last taste of the sevillana, and the next morning got on a train to head back to Valencia!

Speaking of heading back, I leave in 4 very short days. That means I'll probably only have one more post, so stay tuned. Sorry this was such a long post, but I couldn't leave anything out of the great weekend. I hope you enjoyed! ¡Hasta luego!

Paris

Bonjour! Sorry it took me a while to finally get this post up, but things are very busy around here with only a few days left. To continue the spring break tour of Europe...

We arrived in Paris very late at night and got to our hostel only to just go to bed. However, the next day was nothing short of amazing. We went to the Notre Dame cathedral, probably the most famous in Europe, and toured around before eating some crepes at a street side cafe.



Next we took a tour around the Latin Quarter and looked around the street side bookshops, but then the most amazing idea ocurred to us...why not go to the Palace of Versaille? Versaille is about 30 minutes outside of Paris, and we took a train. Versaille is the most amazing site I have been to in Europe, and after the year I've had that is saying something. Here are pictures.




After that one breathtaking site, we decided to go to another: The Eiffle Tower. After hanging around the base, we went up top to see a great night view of Paris, and when they turn the lights on it's pretty amazing. Here are pictures and also later pictures from when we went to see the view late at night.



Later we decided to take a boat tour on the Seine. Very relaxing and pretty cool.

That day was very packed, and we still had a lot of sights left in Paris. The next day Michael and I went to the Louvre, the most famous museum in the world that happens to hold the most famous painting in the world, The Mona Lisa by DaVinci. We saw it, it was cool, and then toured a little more of the museum. It's impossible to do the whole museum because it's way too big.

After the Louvre we met up with my friends at the Arc de Triomphe, strolled the Champs-Elysees (a big street) and then headed to Napoleon's Tomb, which is way over the top. Unfortunately I ran out of pictures here, but I'm going to get some from my friends. That sums up the last leg of our European Tour. Hope you enjoyed! Tonight I'm leaving for Sevilla, and it's going to be an amazing time because I'm going during the Feria de Abril, a huge festival. After that I only have one week left, which is sad but I can't wait to get back home and see everyone!

Tour of Europe

Finally my spring break had arrived! I picked up my brother Michael, who visited me for his spring break, at the airport on Saturday. We had a paella that Lola made on Saturday afternoon, and after a little bit of rest we were ready to head out on Sunday. Our first stop: Amsterdam. I've never been to such a quaint city. The canals were beautiful, and the weather was perfect. Our first day we met up with some friends of mine who were there for a few more hours and walked around the city and here are the results!:


This is Michael and I in front of a government building in the main square.

The next day we went to a bike rental place and rode around for the morning! Everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam, so it was a good way to experience the culture and see the city.


Here is a cool sign in the musuem district.

We also went to the Van Gogh musuem and the Anne Frank house, which were both awesome (Anne Frank sad of course), but no pictures allowed. So you'll just have to visit Amsterdam yourself!

Next stop: London! We saw Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westmister Abby (tombs of royalty), and many other things. Here are pictures!


This is Downing Street, the White House of the UK, where Tony Blaire lives.

Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, there was no changing of the guard while we were there.

This is the famous platform nine and three-quarters, from the Harry Potter books. This kid looks excited to be going to Hogwarts!

Shakespeare's Globe

Michael and I in front of the Tower Bridge.

That's all for London, and we also went to Paris, but I don't have time to post that yet, it will have to wait until Monday. Thanks for being patient with my posting, and don't forget to check out Barcelona below, which is also new!

Barça...en un día

Before my spring break, I was waiting for my brother to arrive in Valencia while everyone else in the program left for their vacations. I was in Valencia with not that much to do, and everyone else had already been to Barcelona, so I decided to go alone for one day! However, doing Barcelona in 1 day is like doing Rome in 2 days. You really need 6 days in Rome and 3 days in Barcelona. But, being the expert traveler that I am, I managed to do everything I wanted to and get back to my train for Valencia (really it was Rick Steeves who helped me through it). Before pictures, an interesting note about the region of Catalunya: they don't really speak Spanish. Most of the people do know how to speak Spanish, but the official and common language is Catalan. It's the same where I live in Valencia, the people speak Valenciano, but the influence isn't as strong as it is in Catalunya. Anyway, here is a picture summary of my day:

This is me on the train, that left very early in the morning and took about 4 hours to get there.


This is Plaza de Catalunya.


This is Las Ramblas, a busy street that leads to the port. You can also see a large monument to Chrisopher Columbus, which is odd because he really didn't have anything special to do with Barcelona, only Spain in general.


This is the famous Sagrada Familia, which is incredibly large and beautiful, and the thing is, it isn't even finished yet! It was begun by architecht Gaudí in the early 20th century, but he died and then the Spanish Civil War happened and then the dictator Franco, so not much progress was made until recently. When it is finished, it will have 3 facades, respectively dedicated to the Nativity, the Passion, and the Resurrection. Also, the last tower will be 3 times bigger than the ones that are up there now.


Inside the Sagrada Familia, you can see Gaudí's inspiration from nature. He believed that God had already created perfection in nature and that all that man could do was try and imitate. Turns out it was a pretty good idea, because the church is beautiful. you can also see that it's incomplete, and probably won't be even in my lifetime.



This is in Parque Gruell, another of Gaudí. The park is on a very large hill, so I was very tired, but it was also really beautiful. At first it seems strange, but then walking around it begins to look like nature. He wanted his park to blend in with the surrounding nature, and it does.

This is me sitting in one of the benches at the park, with Rick Steeves, of course.

To end the day, I went to Casa Milá, another work of Gaudí. These used to be apartments, and again you can see how Gaudí was inspired by nature.


Between all of this, I also went to the Picasso Museum and two cathedrals, but I couldn't pictures so you'll just have to trust that they were cool as well. After Barcelona my feet were asking my why I had done what I did, but I still had the whole spring break ahead of me, so I had to rest up!