HaNnAh!

I just wanted to let everyone who knows Hannah know that she's in Moscow now for a semester abroad. She got there on Friday morning our time and was supposed to move into her dorm room on Sunday. (Until then, she and her dad were going to be staying with a friend of her dad's who lives there).

If you want to see videos, pictures, and posts from the girl, she has a blog. There is a link to it off to the right on this main page (Under "Places I go", click on "Hannah's blog"). :0)

Getting unfrozen

If the name of the game was freezetag, I've been frozen for a while. I was "tagged" by Amy, in response to a tag by Tammi, a couple months ago. As Amy explained, to fulfill the requirements of being tagged, you have to tell 7 random facts about yourself. After plenty of time to think about it and hearty laughs at Amy's responses, here goes.

1. I like kneesocks. Like a lot. If they were in style, I'd wear them all the time. They're the reason I wouldn't mind wearing your traditional catholic school girl uniform. Are there any other lovers out there?

2. I have a dramatic flair. Not too sure where I got it from, but I'm awaiting the time when a group of friends runs up and announces that they want to put on a play. I'd gladly star in it.

3. I don't mix laundery detergents, but I too pick up a lot of the poor clothes that have fallen on the floors of stores I'm shopping in. If something's half on its hanger, I can hardly resist it either.

4. Similar to #3, I regularly return at least some of the items I've tried on in dressing rooms to their racks. This is usually because I've tried on SO many that I feel bad for the poor employees who have to refold, rehang, or simply go put them all back.

5. I once "rescued", with the help of my younger sister, a bunch of frogs from a water-filled pipe on our playground and brought them in the house so that we could play with them. Who knows how long we stayed with them that first day, and I don't remember leaving them there, but the poor guys were discovered (months??) later in a corner of my room, in the condition you would expect forgotten "pets" to be in.

6. I have a thing for making connections. Katie has started to tease me about it, because apparently she doesn't always see them. Where's her imagination? Sometimes the connections are in the form of someone looking like another person I know; and other times I make connections between people in a personality/circumstances/interests way. I like to think of people who should meet, talk, or who might gain something from getting to know each other.

7. I was a Hanson, Spice Girls, and Backstreet Boys lover. Mmmbop, doobadobopdombop, badibidabadombopbibidopbadooo. Oh yeah... Can ya tell me, Oh, yeah, what they're saying, 'cuz I don't know.

Goodnight!

I'm home!

After a long day of traveling, complete with lay-overs, talking to strangers on the airplane, and airline food, we made it back to Orlando at about 9:30 last night. The flight, which was 10 hours long, went by surprisingly quickly, thanks to having people to talk to, a movie to watch, etc. Today I'm starting to unpack, enjoying being home and getting used to this time zone again. I'm also going to start uploading pictures of the other places I visited in Spain, since I think I've only posted up to the 3rd trip.

Here are some from Madrid. In my environment and society class we had 3 excursions throughout the semester - one to Segovia, and two long walks through Madrid. These are from the first of our Madrid "excursions".

The Royal Palace

In front of the Palace looking toward the north of Madrid. Off to the left, where you see the trees, is the small, formal garden of the palace. Back behind the building is a larger garden with lots of paths through trees, park benches, flowers, a couple peacocks and other birds. It used to be exclusively for royalty, but now, especially since the palace is not lived in anymore, it is open to the public.

A street through the "casco antiguo" of Madrid. The casco antiguo is the part that was built during medieval times. Madrid was founded in the 9th century by Arabs, conquered by Christians in the 12th (I think), and remained about the same size until the capital was moved there in 1561. It wasn't until the 19th century, though, that a plan was developed to make the development of the city orderly. So in the original part of Madrid, the same characteristics as other medieval cities are seen. Its streets are narrow and lack organization; the buildings are relatively small and close to each other. There wasn't a lot of open space in the city then, and due to a lack of good hygienic practices, the casco antiguo was unsanitary, which led to health problems. And because of the poor medical treatments of the times, a lot of people died of simple colds or infections.

The Plaza Mayor

In medieval times, it was located on the outside of the city wall and served as a place for those who lived in the country to come to sell their products without having to pay to enter the city. Later as the city grew, it was incorporated into the city and served as a meeting and entertainment place for people. For example, there were bullfights and soccer games held inside, a market set up along the edges... It was used as a parking lot for a while, and now there are little restaurants along the sides, the city hall is located in the different colored area you can see in the picture, and there are appartments in the other higher-up rooms.

This is a more modern part of the city, but you can see that the buildings here are still pretty old - I think from the 19th century or so.

The same area from the roof of a nearby arts center. You can see how the architecture of the buildings in this area is generally pretty. This picture also gives you a feel for the size of Madrid, even though this is only looking in one direction.

My "Environment and Society" teachers loved to talk about this stuff. :0)

Sharin' the love. right now.

Well blog fans, it's that time again. Time for another update. It's actually so far past time that its time for me to come home. So... I plan to update this blog once I get home with pictures from other trips and details about how the rest of the semester went.

For now, here are a couple pictures from when my parents came to visit. They're from a day-trip we took to a closeby medieval city, Ávila. (There are a lot of them in Spain). :0)

It was pretty cold that day.

They are up on the wall that goes around the city. Man, was it hard to get up and down it.

In front of Avila's cathedral.

I have one more exam tomorrow and a paper to turn in on Friday and then the "cuatrimestre" (short semester) here will be over! Then I'll have some time to say goodbye to friends, our resident director, and Carmina, and see a little bit more of Madrid before my flight home. I should be back in Florida by Sunday night. :0)

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and getting caught up.

<} Sarah <}

French Onion Soup or Dancing in the Metro

Don't you love how in the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons they give the segments two names? The two parts of this post have nothing to do with each other, but I want to talk about both.

At the beginning of October, Katie (who is my roommate at Stetson) and I went to Paris for the weekend. We had a really nice time. It was cold but great to go through the city at our own pace - we didn't rush around trying to see everything but actually were able to see a good amount.

We got in to Paris on Friday afternoon, took a bus to a train/metro station, and found our way to our "hotel". Being in Paris on our own made me realize, once again, how significant the "language barrier" is. Between the two of us we knew maybe 5 phrases, which is not enough to talk to anyone about anything really. Fortunately, a lot of the people we needed to talk to knew at least a little bit of English.

The hotel room and view



We checked into our hotel, collapsed on the beds, and decided that we wanted to change our plans for the evening. We were too tired (and it was too cold for us Florida girls) to go out to the city center that night so we decided to go look for a place to eat dinner. We found a restaurant that served a variety of good French food and I had...

French onion soup!


After dinner we walked up the street and then up almost 200 stairs to a beautiful cathedral that was close to where we stayed - the Sacre-Couer.



Its name (sacred heart) signifies the sacred heart of Jesus. It was different than other cathedrals I've visited since being in Spain because of the way they lifted up Jesus above all other saints and Mary. We went inside and there were a lot of people there. As we walked around the center we heard singing begin. There were two nuns seated in the center (where the alter and choir area is) who had such beautiful, clear voices.


We decided to stay for a little while and after the two of them stopped singing, a mass began. It all was in French, so we couldn't understand much, but it was so cool to be there while people from various nations, many of them probably tourists like us, were there to pray, sing, listen or watch together. It was really peaceful.


The next morning we headed to Versailles, a town that is only a train ride away where there is a beautiful palace. We didn't get to see the inside because there was a huge line and we had to be back in the center of Paris later that afternoon. So we decided to use the time we had to see what we could of the palace - its outside and gardens. We weren't disappointed. The surroundings look like they have come straight out of the 18th century - the palace is surrounded by mostly undeveloped land, has two big fields in the area off to the sides of it, and has an enormous well-cared-for garden.












We went back to the Eiffel Tower later that afternoon, and managed to squeeze in visiting Notre Dame cathedral, the gardens of the Louvre, and a walk around the center of Paris before dinner.

The picture is a little deceiving. There were actually a lot of people inside (on the sides and in the back). They had the center part closed off for a concert later that night, which I think made it more crowded than usual in the parts where we could walk.

The next morning we, and TONS of other people, spent some time at the Louvre museum, which houses many important works of art (like the Mona Lisa, for example). It is massive, so we were able to see art from different periods in the couple hours we had before it was time to leave Paris.




Finally, dancing in the metro, a thought that came to me today. I was riding the metro home from school and there was a guy sitting about 15 feet away from me who was playing music. Not with instruments or anything; he must have had an ipod with speakers. The music was really good dancing music. And today, for some reason, I wanted to dance. I didn't... Don't worry. But I started thinking, why not? Why don't people just play good music in the Metros sometimes? Then the people riding could have a little dance party and hop off the Metro a few minutes later, probably never to see those who were watching them dance again. Are you with me or am I crazy?

Salamanca

This trip was really nice. We went with our whole Stetson/Marist group, our resident director and her brother (who are both in their twenties). They have lived in Madrid for most of their lives and usually have been to the places we travel to before, so they can tell us about what we are seeing. I have definitely preferred traveling with people who can tell me about the place I'm in. I get so much more out of it.

We took the train to Salamanca and got to spend the night there. It's about two and a half hours away from Madrid. It was so nice to get to do that because we were able to see a lot of the city in a more relaxed way than is possible when you only have a few hours. So we got there around noon, checked in to our hotel, and walked around the city before lunch.

We saw this Roman bridge on our way to the spot where we ate - a little park with a neat old church on the property and cats. I can't emphasize the cats part. When we got there we all sat down, got our food out, and started to eat. Then somebody pointed out a cute little kitten who was innocently wandering toward us. "Don't feed it," someone said, but who can resist a meowing kitten eyeing their lunch? After we fed the first one, others appear - probably through some high-pitched communication we were oblivious to. Soon, cute little Figaro's brother, mother, cousin, twin.... I'm not kidding, a LOT of other cats show up too. And when we stopped feeding them they got a little aggressive. Eventually someone threw food in the direction they had come from and we left before they came back for more.

There are many old, beautful buildings in Salamanca. The city is known for its university which, like most of the other buildings here, is made out of limestone. This a gargoyle I thought was cool and in the background you can see the cathedral of the University. The actual city has its own cathedral.

The Plaza Mayor.

It looks very similar to the Plaza Mayor of Madrid. These areas were built in the center of old cities and used to be an area where markets were held. Now there are cafes and restaurants around the perimeters of them and they provide a nice spot for people to meet up. In Madrid, there are appartments in some of the upper floors; and in Salamanca, in the fancier part you can see in the picture, the Plaza Mayor houses the city hall.

A few more from Segovia

This is Segovia's castle, the "Alcazar".
I think a lot of cities in Spain have their own alcazar; and I believe that Cinderella's castle got its design from this one.






































It definitely has the traditional castle look.

This little guy greeted us at the door.

The throne





































What a view, huh? This sight is very typical of central Spain. You can interpret it in a number of ways - fields that are dry and dead from lack of rain or that are golden and austere, as Spanish authors who loved their country saw it.

































The view from the roof is awesome too.
That's the cathedral in the background.

If you arrive in Madrid, get off the Metro, and walk towards my house, this is what you'll see. (This is what I see on my walk home from school).

The apartment complex I live in. The center of Madrid is directly to the north of me. You can usually see some buildings from the center if you look in that direction. It takes about 30 minutes on the bus or train to get there.






My room. Small, but comfortable.
The window opens up to the center of the apartment complex. It reminds me of an Alfred Hitchkock movie I saw last year. I can't remember the name of it.

Bed and armoir










In Segovia. The big picture above is from here as well.










Brittany and me in front of the Roman aqueduct in Segovia. It's huge!

Catching up

Hi everybody.

Here's a little summary of what I've been up to since I've been here. (I realize I need to get this blog current!)

Week 1 (August 31st - Sept. 6th): Orientation with our Stetson/Marist College group

• Met the 7 girls and 1 guy from Marist, walked around the city, learned how to use the Metro and buses, went with our Resident Director to the Prado Museum, Retiro Park, and El Rastro (a popular street market that is held each week). Explored Madrid a little bit and took a tour of the University we're studying at here, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M). Saw a movie in Spanish; could follow the plot but couldn't understand a lot of the words.
• On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, two of the language professors from the University gave us a "Spanish Crash Course" - teaching us a little about culture, grammar, and practical vocabulary and giving us a chance to get to know them. One of them is my language teacher now.

Week 2:

• Orientation week at UC3M - We all took placement tests to determine what level language class we should be in and what group (A or B) we should be in for our other classes. For example, I am in a language class with about 15 other people who are at about the same Spanish level as me. I am in literature and history with people whose Spanish is either the same, a little lower, or a little higher than mine. And I am in Cine (film) and Environment and Society with people of all different language levels.
• On Friday, Katie, 3 other girls from Marist, and I went to Toledo for the day. We packed our lunches, got on a bus, and got there in about an hour. The city is small, up on a hill, and has narrow streets. It is marked with remnants from various cultures and times - churches, temples, and a mosque; centuries-old architecture, and paintings by El Greco (who lived in Toledo).

Week 3:

• Classes began at school
• I am taking Spanish literature of the 20th century, History of the Present, Language, Spanish Film, and Environment and Society. I've been learning a lot about Spain (and about the subjects themselves) and the classes are definitely complementing each other.
• On Friday or Saturday, about 12 of us went to Segovia for the day.

Week 4:

• 2nd week of classes
• Orientation week with a group that gives students studying abroad a chance to teach English while they're here. I went for two days and decided that the program was not for me. :0)
• On Saturday and Sunday, our whole group went with our Resident Director to Salamanca.
• We took the train since Salamanca is farther away and got to travel through some mountains and open country. (A welcome sight when you are used to living with open space around you and you have been in a city for a while). We stayed in Salamanca for the weekend.

I have to go soon, so why don't I finish up for now with some pictures from Madrid and our second day trip to Segovia.

Happy Birthday Katie!

H·A·P·P·Y B·I·R·T·H·D·A·Y to you! Here´s a blog, in your honor...

Well, about three months ago I got here. Oh, I mean three weeks ago. Pheww... I was gonna say, being here three months and not writing a thing! I feel a little better now that I remember it´s only been three weeks.

First some basic info:

• The time difference between Madrid and EST (Florida, NY, etc.) is 6 hours. (Madrid is 6 hours ahead of Florida).
• I have a Skype account, but don´t have internet access at the house where I´m living, so that makes using Skype at hours that are convenient for most everyone in the US difficult.
• The apostrophe´s in this blog look different because keyboards in Spain have different spots for symbols and additional letters. Check out these: ñ ¿ Ç ª. Where our apostrophes are, this little guy ( ´) is located and apostrophes ( ' ) are next to the number zero.
• Pretty much every electronic device I brought with me has broken or not been working in the 3 weeks I´ve been here (laptop, camera, cell phone). This is my excuse for not posting pictures yet and this being my first blog.
• My cell phone was replaced so easily, the camera is working now, and my laptop is close to working. When I tried to plug it in to a new adapter last night there were chispas (sparks), so I'm trying to make sure the adapter I got is the right kind.

Now, onto more interesting things. The lady I am living with is named Carmina and she is in her 60s. She is kind, loves to talk, and loves animals (she and another neighbor take care of some nearby stray kittens). A while ago she retired from being a modista (dressmaker) for a designer who was quite popular in Spain.

I have to switch over to a different computer. Hopefully I'll be back soon.