Images de Paris à l'automne

Versailles

French soldier under the Eiffel Tower

View from Eiffel Tower

Fall in Paris

Boat tour of the Seine

Paul!

Le Louvre

Notre-Dame

La belle Seine

Montmartre
Le Sacre Coeur

Champs-Elysees
L'arc de Triomphe

Antoine, moi, et Paul

Quick Update

So it's taken me about this long to recover but Madrid was really great. We did all of the required touristy things, including going to the Prado (so big and I'll be honest, a little repetative, I wish I appreciated art more), the Reina Sofia (awesome, awesome, awesome, we should go back here), the Palacio Real (also awesome, I was imaging what it would be like to live there when it housed actually royalty- I feel like they would have had to change their outfits to match the different rooms, that's how loud some of the decor was), and the Catedral (where Prince Felipe and his wife were married). The Moscow Ballet Company was performing Swan Lake at this beautiful theater and I wanted to go so so badly, I mean that would be amazing, but the tickets were about 80 euro so we kind of had to opt out.

I went to Starbucks for breakfast on Sunday, don't judge me, it was delicious and I was missing my fru-fru coffee. Saturday night a bunch of my friends went to this discoteco called Kapital- 5 stories high with a different theme on each floor. 20 euro to get in after 1:30, which is ridiculous and you would only find prices like that in Madrid, which is one of the most expensive cities I've been to. Other than the big pulls like the museums and the food, Madrid is basically just another big city. For a second, I felt like I could have been in Chicago, but then I looked up at the buildings and was amazed at how the most mundane-looking store fronts can actually be part of some of the most beautiful architecture. The facades were so intricate and it was really breathtaking. Anyway though, I didn't go to Kapital because I feel like I'm about to get a cold and I didn't want to speed up the process by drinking and staying up until 6 or 7, although I'm sure that would have been a lot of fun.

So Madrid was good, but I'm having a hard time gushing over it because in less than 48 hours,

I WILL BE IN PARIS.

There are no words for how excited I am. Paris. My whole life I've wanted to go to Paris, and on Friday...I'LL BE THERE!!! Paul sent me a list of things we're going to do and I literally got butterflies from excitement. This is incredible. In less than 48 hours I will be seeing things I've wanted to see my whole life and I will be surrounded by people speaking in beautiful, prefect,  fluent French and I'll be skipping around singing "Aux Champs-Elysees" (that's for you Bobby). Probably not the last part, but I can't wait to see Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe and the Moulin Rouge and Versailles and everything. Still deciding about the Louvre.. I'm going to take millions of pictures and when I get back I'll post them (along with the slightly less incredible and exciting pictures of Madrid). Wish me luck with the terrorist warning, and let's hope that there are no strikes and I can get back to Spain on Monday. Although, I'm going to be in Paris, so that wouldn't be the worst thing ever :)

Au revoir

Tengo muchisimas ganas para viajar a Madrid!

        Tomorrow we're going to Madrid! The bus leaves at like 9:30 in the morning so we'll get there around 2, and guess what our first activity is? A SCAVANGER HUNT! I'm so excited, if you couldn't tell :).

We’re going to be there for two nights, Friday and Saturday, and we get back pretty late Sunday night. I’m ridiculously excited, especially because it will be really nice to get away from here for a couple of days. I love it here, and I know when I leave for longer I’m going to miss it a ton, but I’m definitely ready for a break in the routine. Plus, we’re staying in a really, really nice hotel and we have plenty of free time to get to know the less museum-y party of the city.

            Which is not to say I’m not looking forward to the museums; our teachers have been getting us pumped this whole week to visit the Prado Museum. It’s supposed to be on the best museums in the world as far as paintings go, although that is the word of a Spaniard and they are extremely, sometimes blindingly, afraid of the culture (most of the time though, I can see where they’re coming from). So that’s the most exciting thing going on right now, we have a 5 hour bus ride so I’m looking forward to playing some games on the bus too (might have to teach everyone the animal game??) Also, Dad, if you read this in time, do you remember any of those riddles you used to tell us on car rides to games? Because my friend Nick and I were talking about them the other day—I was surprised to learn that other people had heard them—but neither one of us could remember the details and we wanted to tell them to everyone else.

            Going back to what I just said about Spanish culture being awesome—it is. However, I’m having a pretty difficult time with one aspect of it, something that surprises me a lot because it’s not something I would’ve foreseen being a problem. Spain has a very old-fashioned view of gender equality. When I say old-fashioned I mean compared to the United States because I know that there are so many places which are a million times worse than here, I’m just saying, it really surprises me. There are women with high-paying jobs and jobs that are rather high up in authority, but they are the anomaly, and that traditionalism carries down through the entire social hierarchy. For example, women here are always, always very feminine. Any girl who doesn’t have her hair perfectly set or have a pound of make-up on and a perfectly arranged outfit stands out here. Beyond that, when my friend Rachel and I go running, we are among the only women doing any sort of exercise. Not that I’m surprised because the amount of cat-calling and staring that we attract is almost beyond withstanding. I asked my madre about this and she said that most of the women exercise inside, in gyms or especially in classes like Pilates or yoga or spinning, which are mostly made up solely of women. I understand that it’s their culture, and I am trying to assimilate into the culture, but that is one aspect that I will not be accepting of. Women here are objectified, and I’ve never been prouder of the United States than I am when I think of how Americans would respond to that sort of behavior. I know we still have a million problems and were nowhere near perfect when it comes to gender equality, but we’re working toward it at least, and I’m proud of us J. Sorry, just had to vent for a bit about that.

            I’m looking Spain though. When Rachel and I are far enough away from the busier streets and are in the campo—where there aren’t as many people (read: sexist men) we can appreciate how awesome it is that we are running in Spain. In Spain! We’re in Spain! It’s truly beautiful, and we always end up talking about how lucky we are to be in such a wonderful place with all of the many opportunities it has to offer.

            Rachel thinks she’s hitting the bottom of her W curve right now, so I’m a little nervous that my time is going to be coming up soon too. Before our run yesterday she said she had been close to tears the whole day and just wanted to go to sleep or watch a movie in bed by herself. During our nighttime run though, we talked about everrrryything that we we’re both experiencing and did a little (okay, kind of a lot) of complaining, but afterward we both felt a million times better and she said she was really glad we went, even though she was dreading. So maybe we’ve found the cure for the W curve: endorphins! I love psychology!

            I’ll take lots of pictures in Madrid and I’ll tell you all about it when I get back! Mom- you we’re in my dream last night, you came to visit and you were mad at me because you thought I didn’t remember you. Don’t worry though, we worked it out haha.

            Miss you guys!

p.s. Mark, I know YOU weren’t a dork. My parents on the other hand…J

I live in Spain.

¡Buenos días!

Ciao a tutti!

 Sorry it's been so long, it's just that nothing super exciting has happened recently; I've just been settling into my routine of classes and homework and hanging out with the other people in the program.
   I know you guys have talked about this before, but I can't remember if you said you were friends with everyone in your program before you left or if there were some people you were meeting and getting to know after you got to Germany. For me, its basically all the latter (with one or two exceptions) because even the couple of people I did know bfore coming here, I only got to know at the very end of spring quarter so I still don't know them very well and vice versa. The point of that rambling is that it's been really fun getting to know peope on the trip, expeially because we probably never would have become friends back at K. Also, it's funny to realize that every single one of us is actually just a huge dork--I mean, we all go to Kalamazoo College!
   My host sister gave birth about a week and a half ago (she doesn't live with us) and I got to meet him for the first time last night! So beautiful and tiny! I can't remember if I told you about all of the people living here right now for the occasion, including an 11mo. year old baby girl and a 5 yr. old boy but they've been here with their parents (my other host sister and her husband) for about 2 weeks. They're very nice and the kids are very cute, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly relieved that they're leaving tomorrow. It's just pretty chaotic, and they're all sick and I'm pretty sure I've caught whatever it is they have, so I've just been sleeping a lot recently.
   As far as my Spanish goes, I think it's improving, but right now I'm just a little frustrated with it because there are always words that I forget, or things that I want to say but am too nervous to or don't remember how to conjugate the verb. It is better than when I got here though, so at least there's some improvement! My Engish is getting worse though I think haha.
 Big news! There is this thing called National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place in November and the goal is to write a novel (first draft, no editing) of 50,000 words over the course of 30 days. Sounds impossible, I know, and I might not finish it, but my friend Nick and I are going to try it! So I'll keep you updated on how thats going! Also, if you're wondering, I'm going to be writing it in English :)
  I'm also realizing how hard it is to keep in touch with everyone who isn't here. I'm going to try to pick a specific day a week to write and e-mail and update pictures for everyone, but it's hard to find the perfect time to do it each week. I'll do my best though!
  Love and miss you all very much!

Drinking and Partying

Okay so the botellón on Thursday was so much fun. Apparently Thursday is the night that everyone goes out here because no one has classes on Fridays (except me, I’m taking Italian). Sorry to disappoint you guys but I actually didn’t partake in any drinking on Thursday because I had class and I’m pretty sure everyone else I was with made up for it because a lot of people were pretty drunk. But I met some students from England who were very cool, made friends with some Spanish girls I have a class with and then met this Italian girl who couldn’t really speak Spanish or English so the English guy I met was translating for us because he can speak Italian. So the point I’m making is that it was really cool because there were people from all over all hanging out and having a good time.

My Italian class on Friday was awesome, the professor is a little crazy but I really like him. He speaks in Italian for the whole class but most of it is so much like Spanish that I can’t really tell the difference, I’m hoping that’s a good thing haha. We’ve been having a lot of down time so I was getting a little restless yesterday from just being in the house all day so I went with a couple of the girls down to the Plaza Mayor to look in the shops and stuff which was really fun. I’m becoming friends with this girl Colleen who I’d literally never seen before coming here but she is so cool and we get along really well.

Last night there was another botellon and we bought wine and fanta, because everyone here mixes them together and says it tastes like sangria. Not sure if I buy that but it definitely does taste good so I’m okay with it. There were a lot less people than on Thursday but it was still really fun. One of the girls in our group though was really drunk and it was kind of an uncomfortable situation because she’s not really good friends with anyone so we sort of all ended up taking care of here which was fine, but I think she’s pretty embarrassed about it today. So after the botellon, we took the bus back to the Plaza and walked a ways to this club that everyone likes (mostly because its free to get in). We were there for awhile (probably until about 3 or 3:30) and then we all walked each other home. It was a lot of fun and I really like the weekends, but I’m also very excited for the first full week of classes to start tomorrow! Colleen and I are going to go walk up the mountain maybe, even though its raining and kind of chilly (good thing I have a great great raincoat!)

Luego J

First day of University class

I placed into the level 2 Spanish class (out of 3 levels, if you’re wondering) and we had out first class at 9:00 this morning. I had planned on getting up at 7:15 because I have to leave my house at 8:25 to catch this autobus and my madre worries if I wake up with less than an hour to get ready. Needless to say, the whole getting up at 7:15 thing didn’t work out very well, I woke up at 7:35 or something. But, you guys will be so proud, I was showered and dressed at 7:45. iQue bueno! Getting on the bus this morning was crazzzy because there were soo many people. I think a lot of students have classes at 9:00 so I’m going to have to wake up earlier next time to catch a bus closer to my house.

Anyway, class this morning was good; I think I’m really going to like my teacher and I know she’s def going to challenge us which is good because at this point I feel like I’ve hit a wall as far as improving my Spanish goes. Mostly because we’ve been doing so many things as a group before classes started and we always talk in English to each other obviously so the only time I’m forced to speak Spanish is with my host family. It is getting a lot easier for me to understand them when they talk to each other though. Oh yeah, my madre’s youngest daughter came home like a week ago and she’s here until mid November I guess. She’s 28, has a novio named Serge and she’s very nice. Its hilarious to watch her interact with her mom because they get along really well but she rolls her eyes and makes faces sometimes, like when Mati (my madre) tries to give me more food after I said I was full, Elena (hermana) will always be like “iQue nooo mama! iTe dije que esta llena!” and rolls her eyes at me. I like both of them a lot.

Tonight we’re going to a Botellón, which is a kind of fiesta that students go to basically to drink. Its not legal to have drinks in the street I guess, so the students go to a place that’s basically a fairgrounds outside of the city. Its also a lot cheaper because buying alcohol at the store (Eroski) is a lot a lot cheaper than in bars. Sounds like a lot of fun, right? At first when I was hearing about this it sounded like it could go pretty wrong (and totally would never be allowed to happen in the US) but the city has buses running to and from the Ferrial (fairgrounds) all night for like 50 centidos each direction. Also, the Spanish concept of drinking is waaay different than the American way. Even for students. No one gets like drunk, most people will just have a few drinks, but its way more about the socializing than the drinking. So I’m excited for that.

Right now I’m planning a trip to Ireland with some of the people in the group because we have a long weekend (5 days, really more like a week) at the beginning of December and a lot of people were talking about going to Amsterdam, which would be cool, but I was thinking I’d rather go somewhere I’d never been. Then someone suggested Ireland and so now we’re going to Dublin! We found roundtrip flights from Madrid to Dublin for 40 euro! I’m pumped J

That’s all for now, folks.

Day Trip to Merida, Spain

Roman "acueductos" in Merida, Spain

Roman theater, also in Merida, it was in such good condition! (slightly restored, but for the most part it was all original)



Seats at the Roman theater



More Details!

Sorry it's been a few days but we've been really busy and when were not doing things as a group I'd rather be sleeping or talking with my madre than spending too much time on the internet, but I need to catch you up!
Okay so first, I would write in Spanish, and maybe a little later I will, but for now it's still pretty overwhelming having to speak and listen and understand everything.
My madre (host mom) is so nice and like I said before, she is so patient with me its wonderful. She has been hosting for 10 years so that 10 students before me so I'm sure she learned the best ways to communicate through practice. She literally does everything for me, and I know you're probably thinking "Maggie would love that!" but I sorta feel bad. I offer to help with things but she always says esta bien, esta bien. Its just her and me because all of her daughters (3) have moved out and two are married and one is living with her boyfriend, I'm pretty sure they're all in their late twenties-early thirties. One of her daughters and her husband came over for lunch (the big meal) on Sunday. She is very pregnant, only two more weeks until the baby is due! She said "vas a concocer Samuel" which means that I'm going to get to know him! 
I really like all of the people in our group, a  lot of whom I'd never tlked to once before we got here. At first I was spending a lot of time with the 3 peope I was sort of friends with before we got here, but I don't want to spend al mytie with only them, which I think they would be okay with. Plus the girl, Katie, is pretty annoying and whiney, not agood travel companion. So last night, Pooja and I asked everyone if they would wnt to go out for a drink and some tapas and we were pleasantly surprised when everyone said yes (except Katie and Pat and Fernando, my friends from before) so we went to a cafe and pushed a bunch of tables together outside and got a few bottles of wine and sat around talking and getting to know each other better. It was really fun, but I felt a little bad for the waiter because there are I think 20 of us.
We start our regular classes with the rest of the university students next wednesday so we have been getting to know the city and we have a lot of organized group activities, but this morning we had our spanish placement test :/ to see which level we would be placed in. I'm really not sure how I did, because it was pretty har, but everyone had about the same reaction, so I guess we'll see!
I love love love the city, it is so beautiful and it has been really warm and sunny so I have been walking everywhere, I have pretty bad blisters on my heels. Tomorrow morning were going to an open air market which im pretty excited for, and I'm going to try to go running before because I haven't had a good time to yet.
I'll give you more details later but for now here is a list of things that surprised me:
1. Everyone dresses really well. I knew this already but the Spanish women have a way of putting together the most impossible seeming outfits that would look ridiculous on anyone else but they make it look so much better than you would have thought! They are so much cooler haha
2. We eat all the time. All the time. This is me saying that so you have to appreciate how true it must be for me to say it. ALL THE TIME. If I don't go running soon you guys won't even recognize me because I'll have gained 100 lbs.
3. Speaking Spanish is really hard and frustrating. I know it will get better but for now, its hard.
4. Im suprised at how much I love the siesta, and how badly I need it. We eat at like 230 and by 330 I am usually asleep in my bed.
5. Everyone stays up so late! On Saturday, we left the discoteca at 4:30 and there were still people there, most people stay until 6 in the morning, sometimes later!

That's all for now!

Day One

So, I'm here! Everything is great so far, (except my spanish) my host mom is super nice and very patient with me when I can't think of how to say something. She speaks almost no english which I'm looking at as a good thing since I'm sort of forced to think of ways to ask her stuff. She has two small dogs, one of which barks everytime someone stands up but she is very nice and loves to be pet so its still a huge upgrade from rusty. I have internet access at my house which is nice, too. I'm so tired though, I took a nap earlier and woke up feeling much better, but its still not enough really. Tomorrow we're all meeting up and the resident directors are taking us on a walking tour of the city which I'm very excited for. Its raining right now and thundering a littl, and my madre just told me that there was a pretty bad storm here last night and some of the streets were flooding and were like waterfalls!
I'll keep you updated!
p.s. leave comments so I know you're reading this, otherwise I'll probably stop writing!