Pretzels and beer gardens

Yesterday we started off the morning intending to see the glockenspiel
and then meet up with the free bike tour. While at the very overrated
glockenspiel we started listening in on this free tour that made good
fun of it (for example, it looks really old and so the very minimal
technology seems accepptable, but air planes were invented four years
before this was built) We ended up following this tour and realy
enjoyed it. Our guide was really enthusiastic about making Munich come
alive and she took us to all the places we were planing on spearing
out over the few days.

After we went to get a cheap beer and all you can eat stew with people
from the tour. I have now learned that even though I'm in Germany, a
beer with lunch is not a good idea. Between the facts that beers here
are half liter, we had just been walking for three hours, sleeping on
the floor was not very successful the night before and I'm used to an
hour and a half siesta after lunch, I needed a nap.

We went back to our hostel to take care of some things before heading
back to the city to do a pub crawl. There were 12 people in the group
from all over the place and we had a great time together. My favorite
convo was explaining to the very curious British girl what the deal is
with Greek life (she watches Greek haha).

In true northwestern fashion we ended the night at BK. (kevan was
hungry and it was the only thing open and near the tram stop). Like
mcdonald's they have different things in each country!

And the adventure begins!

Hey!
We made it to Munich!

Kevan came into alicante last night and we had a great last dinner
with my family. I stayed up way too late but I'll hopefully make up
for that with a slow day today.

It was sad saying bye to my amazing host family but is was hard not to
be excited about going backpacking. The trip from alicante to Munich
was easy and it was exciting negociating our way to out awesome hotel.
We are staying at thos place called the tent and it is hard to
describe (check it out online) we are sleeping on mats in huge tent
and there are a whole bunch of students from all over hanging out
around picknick tables and fire pit. I'm so pumped!

Last day in Spain!

I just took my last final and I'm done! Despite having to study, I had a nice weekend with my familly. We went to the alicante museum which happened to have the famos Greek guy throwing a discus statue. The permanent collection was not that exciting but the presentation was outstanding! This weekend I also learned to make Ali oli and crochets.

Kevan is coming today and going to spend the night with my host familly. Tomorrow we are heading off to Munich! I can't belive this is ACTUALLY happening! After 6 years of talking about it, Kevan and I are finaly going backpacking in Europe!

I'll try to keep this updated as best as I can and now that I figured out how to post from my iPod hopefully it won't be too hard.

Hangn' with the fam

Lately i have gotten to do some fun stuff with my host family (mostly b/c i gt a handle on how to deal with classes and kicked butt in the midterms). The other day my host mom taught me how to make tortilla (basically an omelet with potato) ad it turned out great (though it is hard to mess up). She was pretty impressed by my pan flipping skills i gained from all those years of making fried matzah (which was hard to explain in Spanish but i think she got it)

That night we (my host mom, brother, and host brother's girlfriend and friend) stayed but late (for a school night) playing a great card game called "contonental". I really liked this game and am excited to teach people in the US!

Yesterday they took me to Benedorm which is a really pretty beach that is FULL of tourist. We walked around and saw the veiws, peeked in some shops and ate diner before heading home.

Tomorrow I'm going to learn to make crochets and go to the Alicante Museum, both of which I am pumped for.

I can't believe how quick this program went and that it is almost already over! (but I'm looking forward to my adventures with Kevan!)

Exams and Barcelona

Last week was rough because I was studying nonstop for my 2 midterms from Sunday morning until Thursday morning. My classes are hard but I felt pretty confident coming out of the test. (And I defiantly felt better about it than other people) I got one back today and got a 90 so my studying totally paid off! Finals are only a week away and because there won’t be as much to study for that, the worst is over!

3 out of the 4 classes had an exam on Thursday and we did not have class on Friday, so there was an excursion planed by the program to snorkel in Tabarca (and island near by). There was not actually anything to see snorkeling, but we were on a Catamaran so the boat ride and swimming was fun. We had a lot of fun jumping off the boat (and taking pictures of this)

The next morning we got up early to get on a train to Barcelona. The ride there was fun because for the first half I read my Rick Steve’s Guidebook and made a plan for the weekend, and for the second half I chatted with the people around me. (Other kids on the program have endearingly nicknamed me “guidebook”)

We stayed in a Marriott by the airport instead of somewhere near the city because one if my friend’s dad could get a free room with accumulated point, and another friends mom works for Marriott so we got a good rate. It took us for ever to get to our hotel the first time and I was kind of upset it was so far away, but that changed when we got to the 5 star hotel and found out we had 24 hour access to free food and drinks in the “elite zone”.

Once settling in at the hotel we went back into the city and went to the Picasso Museum. He is my favorite artist so this made me really happy ☺. Afterwards we found a place to eat and had a really fun dinner because we made friends with our waiter. Next we went to the fountains at Moutjuic (Mt Jew literally though we can’t figure out why it is called that). It was like the Ballagio but 100 times better because it was all around one fountain and you were not so separate from it. For the second show Ben and I went right up to the edge of the fountain to watch. We got soaked but it was an epic view.

The next morning Beatrice and I got up super early to meet Lee and start our Gaudi day at Sagrada Familla at 9 (when it opens) and I’m so glad we did because it was great being there with out so many other people. The elevator often has a 1-2 hour wait but when we got there we though it was closed b/c there was not line but really there was just no one in front of us! Like the Picasso museum, it made me so happy to be around the work of such an ingenious artist. Next we got some food to eat as a picnic at Gaudi’s Parc Güell. After exploring this we went to the block of discord (a block with a Gaudi house and others of the style) and walked all the way down through Las Ramblas (the main drag in Barcelona with lots of mimes/ street performers, pet shop stands, and flower stands.

The next day we started off early again and wend to the Gothic neighborhood. On Sundays at new they do traditional Catalonian dancing in front of the cathedral so we watched for a little and then I joined in. We did not get to see the entire cathedral because there was mass going on but because it was Sunday we got to go into the very elaborate city hall. We grabbed a quick bit before heading back to the train station.

It was an extremely successful trip and it gave me confidence for traveling after. Now I know I will be able to put together good itineraries and make them happen (except for the fact that I won’t know the language in those countries…)

oops...Epic fail

So I have totally failed at updating my blog so I'm just going to to a quick catch up and go from here:

After 1 more day in Greece I met up with my study abroad program in Madrid. We spent two days in Madrid before going to Alicante but I did not get to see much aside from the Prado Art Museum and a night tour of the city. We arrived in Alicante on Thursday evening and met up with our host families. By request, I have the same host family that David did when he did this program. They are wonderful!

On Friday we had a fake first day of school with half hour classes and a tour of the University of Alicante Campus. On Monday we actually started classes. I'm in two Spanish History classes both taught entirely in Spanish. One is really interesting but moves very fast and has a lot of hard reading (that I have given up on). The other one is not so hard but less interesting and going to be a lot of memorization. I was not expecting to have as much work as I do! I think I have finally figure out how to manage it and have fun.

The other students are the trip are pretty fun. We are having a good time. The first weekend we pretty much spent at the beach (though on Sunday I stayed in all day trying to do one of the readings..mistake) On Friday and Saturday we went to see the fire works in the city (there was a fireworks competition so every night for 5 days it was a different show)

The second weekend we (but mainly this kid named Lee) planed a trip to Toledo. 19 of us went together and it was a great group dynamic of sticking together and breaking off appropriately. 4th of July was the day we were there but we successful at eating McDonald's and finding some Americans to celebrate with (including a Kappa Delta!) In Toledo we saw the Cathedral and took a tourist tram ride, but the best part was just getting lost in the winding streets.

I just got back from a trip to Granada that was planned by the program. (It was mandatory to prevent any of us from going to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona) Although we were barely there for 24hours, we managed to fit in a lot: the cathedral and royal chapel, watching someone make the classic woodwork, a night tour and a flamingo dance show, obviously the Alhambra, and walking around to get a feel of the city.

This week I have midterms in both my classes and I have a lot of material to review. We don't have class this Friday so we are planning a trip to Barcelona. Now that this is caught up, i;ll try to be better at maintaining it :)