Barcelona part 2

The previous post on Barcelona was more or less entirely on Gaudi, but there is a lot more to Barcelona than just Gaudi's buildings.

So I am here to talk a little more about my trip to Barcelona in detail. :)

London

Oops, I completely forgot that I forgot to write about the beautiful and WONDERFUL London.  If I had the chance, I would go live in London in a heart beat. I couldn't say the same about Paris, though...

Anywhoo, I took the Eurostar (a little gift to myself) from Paris to London on Thursday and was there until that Sunday.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad I had the chance to visit Paris, but I wouldn't have minded one bit if I had to spend the entire week there.

Barcelona part 1

(Sorry for the late post!!!!)

Barcelona was one of the cities in Spain I really wanted to visit while I was studying abroad.  But for different reasons, I never had a chance to go to Barcelona with my friends, and I started to think Barcelona would never happen.

Soon or later, the friends I used to travel with went back to the States, and I found myself itching to go to one more place before I had to return to the States.  After pondering this issue a little bit, I thought it would be really awesome to have the experience of traveling alone, and Barcelona would be easy enough of a place to be traveling by myself for the first time.

So I booked myself a flight on Vueling (probably the smallest amount of leg room EVER) and hopped on over to Barcelona. And boy, was I glad I did.

Segovia

I am officially back home in Nashville! :) Since I have more time on my hands, I'll be posting steadily about my trips and the final portion of my semester in Madrid. I don't want to get into the sentimental things quite yet, so I'll share about our program's final group trip to Segovia. :)

As always, a visual:

I'm not going to write too much about it, but it's old and is the home to the Roman aqueducts, a living testimony to the greatness of the Roman Empire...

It is also home to cochinillo, or the suckling pig, and this soup...

...and this pastry.

And there are rumors that Disney's castle was based off the castle here in Segovia. However, most say that the Disney castle is based off a castle somewhere in Germany.

Segovia is surround by these beautiful snow capped mountains. They say the contour of the mountain range is like a woman laying on her back. The legend says, during the Spanish influenza outbreak, there was a woman with two children, who were very sick and surely about to die. The mother prayed that they take her own life in place of her children's and the very next day, the children were healed from this deadly disease, yet their mother was found dead. So the legend says that the mountains are the mother who had sacrificed her life for her children, and the children come and kiss her on the cheek in the form of clouds.

It was so cold that day, it was a little hard to enjoy the excursion, but glad I got to go see it. :)

Hello, world!

I made it back in one piece from a solo trip to Barcelona! Wahoo! Angela is a big girl now!

Updates on Segovia, Barcelona, London, and Madrid coming your way! But first, I have to write a ridiculous essay on Spanish literature that I haven't started. Sigh, school work first, I guess.

Anyways, stayed tuned!

Just a random picture of the underbelly of 

the Eiffel Tower. :)

Granada

The weekend after my Spring Break, I with two other friends headed to the south of Spain to the wondrous city of Granada. (I have an exam tomorrow that I should be studying for but I lack motivation. And, it's bloody hot in Madrid.)

As always, a map reference:

One down

One exam done, three papers, two exams, and a final project until the end of my junior year!

It was supposed to be a positive thing, but now it kind of puts me in a "I'm drowning in a sea of work" kind of mood. Shucks.

A little compile of random things in my life currently:

A lot of my program friends are headed back to the States tomorrow. :( Makes me sad! One friend is graduating this semester, so I actually don't know when I'll see her next.

The exam today actually (knock on wood) went pretty well! BUT, I did mix English and Spanish together when writing the answers because there was just no way I could talk about how I could decrease the weight of the public debt in relation to the GDP all in Spanish. Nope. (The professor said it was fine.)

The weather in Madrid has been FANTASTIC!

But a strange thing. So as you can see, it's in the upper 80's here. In my mind (and most other Americans' mindset), this weather calls for shorts and dresses.  Or at least, it's perfectly acceptable to wear shorts and dresses.  Yet, the past two days I've worn shorts, and I keep on getting funny looks from the Spaniards! I see people still in their boots and coats! (Plus tights, plus scarves.) Holy cow! How are you not dying from the heat? Some things I will never understand.

As I'm thinking about going back home (less than two weeks everyone!), I'm mustering up all the different things I want to do when I'm home. There's a couple of staples such as taking a bath, watching a movie on my couch, FOODNETWORK, baking cookies, making guacamole, and eating lots, and lots of Korean food.  But aside from that, this desire to beautify my family's home is bubbling out. More like spewing out.  Hopefully I'll be able to get somethings accomplished. :)

And LASTLY (before I head off to write my paper), I've booked my final trip of this semester to Barcelona!!! This indeed is going to be a solo trip. Eeeep! I booked my flight, and just booked a B&B through Airbnb.com (which is a first for me), so let's see how things turn out! 

(Shout out to Jen. If you're reading this, which you may not be, forgive me for not sending an update email yet!)

Procrastination

I really don't want to study for my finals which are in approximately four days. So here I am on blogger, writing a short post. Heh heh.

I'm thinking I might be adventuring solo to Barcelona after my exams for 3 days 2 nights. (Or 4 days 3 nights.) I think I should be okay, but am I being a silly Asian-American girl who doesn't know what's she talking about?

Well, I've got the idea into my head, and I can't get it out. Plus, I have decided I must to go Barcelona no matter what. :P

Now back to Behavioral Economics.

Funny happening in Paris

The Tuesday after my perfect day in Paris was quite a fail.

I had woken up later than I intended to, and by the time I arrived at my destination (Musee d'Orsay), there was a horrendous line to get inside the museum.

I had waited in line for about 45 minutes, but even so, I had not reached the official roped-off line. At this rate, I realized I would have a maximum of an hour and a half inside the actual museum, and I decided that was not a sufficient amount of time to do the museum justice. So I left the line and started to wander around Paris.

I was getting a little hungry, so I headed to the Latin Quarter where there is this AM-AZ-ING falafel place for a really good price.  I ate my lunch with leisure, but even still I had about an hour left before I had to meet Jo*.  So I wandered even more.

I walked by the river, walked past Pont Neuf, and just as I was crossing the bridge, my body sent a really unwanted signal.  Just FYI, the rest of the story may be more information than you care to know about me, so you can stop reading here if you'd like.

Truth

I came to Madrid knowing I wasn't fluent in Spanish.  However, I had high hopes to becoming more or less fluent by the end of the semester.  At one point during this semester, I thought I was pretty darn close. (What made me think this, I do not know.)

I have almost exactly a month before I return to the States, and I shall elaborate on my sentiments on this matter at a later date, but for now, I will stick with my original train of thought.

Like I was saying, I have almost exactly a month before I return to the States, and in recent days, I have had multiple elongated periods of time hanging out and talking with Spaniards.  And the more I hang out with them, the more I realize, HOLY CRAP I AM NO WHERE NEAR BEING FLUENT.

People back home who have had their elementary classes in Spanish may think otherwise, but let me tell you, when I'm talking with my Spanish friends, half the time my mind just goes, "??????????????????????!" When it is my turn to respond in the conversation, my mind goes, "....!!!!?!??..??!!????!......?!?!?!? :'("

Sigh, this truth burns a deep hole in my heart and my ego.

Maybe I should start writing my blog posts in Spanish to practice....Nahhhh, who are we kidding? That would make my blog not only incomprehensible to English speakers, but also Spanish speakers as well. So no.

All I can do is take it one step at a time.

P.S. Speaking of Spanish friends. Two friends (they're not technically Spanish. They're Mexican) are leaving Spain on Monday and I have to say bye to them tomorrow.  Makes me really sad, especially because I felt like we were just now getting to know each other and the probability that I will see them again on Earth is very, very, very slim. :( Wahh!

My perfect day in Paris

Remember how I said Sunday (the Sunday before Easter AKA Palm Sunday) was the most perfect day anyone could have asked for?

Well, I am here to elaborate.

Spring Break Overview

I'm finally getting around to writing about my Spring Break!

It's a tough task to write about my ten-day trip, so I have decided to break it up in different ways to ease the writing, as well as the reading. :)

First post: a trip overview!

Lisboa, Portugal [Part 2]

DAY 3 (SUNDAY): destination: Belem. 

(Forgot to include a map in the last post...)

I also forgot to write...

Lisboa, Portugal [part 1]

Ahh! So much to fill you all on! This is because of procrastination.

It's going to be a little less prosaic than my other posts (mainly because I want to cover the Portugal trip quickly and tell you guys about my Spring Break.)

Happy Easter Monday?

I'm back in Madrid everyone! :)

Spring break was so much fun (and burned that big of a hole in my bank account >.<), and I think overall, it was just nice to be with familiar faces.  Updates on my trip will have to happen at a later date, but hope everyone had a great Easter!!

A random note though, here in Europe, they celebrate Easter Monday. What is this?  Almost everyone has the day off, but never in my life have I heard Easter Monday being observed...

Angela will be slightly MIA

Hello all! 

I'm leaving for Paris today (well, hopefully I can get to the airport with the strike going on and such!), so I'll be even more MIA on the internet world.  But I do have a couple of small posts that are scheduled to post--I'm not leaving completely leaving you all hangin'. 

And maybe, just maybe, I'll write a post while in Paris and/or London.  

Random: 

• I just cut my finger nails, and I think I cut one of them too short. I'm nervously waiting for the pain.
• I still have to write an essay about Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein before embarking on this journey. HAH. Let's see how that goes.
• The flight I'm taking is letting me check a bag for this flight (what a LUXURY!!)! So naturally I got excited, and I think I may have overpacked. (So much for packing light!)  Also, I think I'm feeling slightly pressured to look awesome at all times since I'm going to the fashion capital! (Sadly, this is almost an unfeasible goal since my wardrobe is severely limited.
• I just heard a lot of chanting outside my window. HUELLLGAAA!

Happy (early) Semana Santa everyone! 

<3 

El País Vasco part 2

Next day, we went on a day trip to the famous San Sebastian! Hands down the #1 tourist stop in the Basque Country.

Very famous for their crescent moon beach, La Concha, everyone I talked to about this trip gushed about how wonderful San Sebastian is.

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that we went to San Sebastian, and got to touch the Atlantic Ocean from this part of the world, but it was not as great as people hyped it up to be.  But to be fair, we did go during the off season when you can't enjoy the lovely beach.

My friends and I took a bus to San Sebastian, which ended up being near 13€ round trip.  We mainly just walked, and walked, and walked.  We walked the entire beach twice, walked up and down the streets in the Old Town, walked from and to the bus station, etc. etc.  Probably the most exciting thing we did was go up tram to Monte Igueldo.  At the very top, there are remnants of a theme park, but it's so run-down and out of date that it almost feels eery.

(Going up the Monte Igueldo)

(La Concha from above)

El País Vasco, part 1

Bilbao (point B) and San Sebastian (point C) are here in relation to Madrid (point A):

The trip was off to a rough start.

I woke up at 5:45, hopped on the first metro at 6:20, and finally made it to the gate by 7:15 for my 7:55 flight.  And what do you know. They wouldn't let me board.

Sevilla part 2

Sevilla continued...

Saturday morning we were greeted by a FANTASTIC breakfast at the hotel.  Spaniards usually only eat crackers with café con leche, so we were delighted to have bacon, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, croissants, toast, coffee, juice, etc. Yum. :)

Sevilla: part 1

Sorry that this post took to so long! (This post is a little different in the sense that it's all words in the beginning, followed by an array of pictures.)

I went down to Sevilla with my program two weekends ago on an one-night-two-days trip.

Here is Sevilla in relation to Madrid:

 

[Some historical background: Sevilla was the perfect port for colonizers and conquistadores becuase it was accessible by boat from the sea, but far enough inland to protect the jewels and gold acquired from the New World from pirates.  Sevilla is heavily influenced by Islamic culture (as well as Jewish, but the Muslim aspects are much more prevalent.) And they are known for their heavy "zetha" accent (the stereotypical Spanish lisp.)]