itravel
Hola Todos!
I have the travel bug!!! I want to travel the world 3 times!! I love TRAVEL. I know I have not posted in a while but I am going to try to post once a week for the next 6 weeks. I have had a really fun few weeks. Basically all of Europe has spring break during Holy Week or Semana Santa so that was technically our second spring break. My friends and I went to Italy!! We went to Rome for a couple of days and then went to Sorrento for a couple of days! It was the best trip I have ever taken!! Italy is such an amazing place. My motto on the trip was “Gelato: everyday twice a day.” If they spoke spanish I definitely would have studied there. Rome is not as clean as Madrid, and I thought the people were a lot more down to earth and nice. Rome is much more touristy then Madrid, for example, the metro said the stops in both italian and english. The food was out of this world. I had pizza or pasta for every meal. We went to Palm Sunday mass AT THE VATICAN. That is right folks…I saw Pope Francisco!! Seeing the Pope and going to Palm Sunday mass was the greatest experience of my life. I can not even describe how happy I was that Sunday. He rode around in the Pope mobil after the mass and we were so close to him! Seriously the best experience of my life, just indescribably wonderful. In Sorrento we rode motor scooters for a day. It was the most exciting and fun thing I have ever done. The Amifi Coast is just beautiful and Sorrento was such a quaint little town, riding bikes was definitely the icing on the cake for my Italian adventure!
When I returned from Italy my mom, dad and sister came to Madrid! It was not until my parents came that I realized that there is not that much to do here. Walking, sleeping, and drinking is the spanish way of life. We walked through the parks and walked around the center a bit, but for the most part we ate and drank the whole time! It was a very relaxing vacation for them. I was really glad my to see all of them and to hang out together as a family in a foreign country. I showed them my all of my favorite restaurants, took them to churros con chocolate, and we went to dinner with my host mother which was pretty cool. All in all it was a very fun second Spring break.
My host mom has started teaching me how to cook spanish food!!! I love cooking and it has been sad not being able to cook here so I am really glad she is teaching me how to make things!! I am going to be a worldly chef before I leave!
I have decided that I am going to start going out more and taking advantage of the drinking age 😉 I went to el tigre, a nice little bar last night with a group of friends and it was a lot of fun. In my final blog I am going to list all of the places I recommend going for drinks, tapas, dessert, and more if any of you, my readers, decide to go to Madrid in the future!
In school we are almost done with our 3rd class out of 4 and the work load is getting pretty intense. We have to write compositions once a week and they have to be 350 words…all in spanish. Our final for this class in next Thursday. I realized that I need to speak more spanish, I can understand spaniards really well, but when it is my turn to speak I get my verbs confused so I just end up saying “vale” which means “okay.” So, for the next six weeks I am going to speak as much spanish as possible so I can be as fluent as I can when I return to the States.
Alright now here are some things that I have noticed:
PDA is OKAY here. People of all different ages make out everywhere. On the metro, in the park, in restaurants, on the street, just everywhere. I am not talking pecks or just a little make out session, OH NO it gets pretty intense, and they do not care who is watching.
In my last blog I said I would find out what the center of their lives are because it definitely is not their job, well it is just living. They live. Hanging out with their friends, going for walks, traveling, whatever makes them happy, that is what they do. It is a really cool and interesting way to live your life.
Old people are everywhere. Their old people are not like our old people. Their old people ride the metro, they take the bus, they walk around, they sit on benches and stare or talk to friends, they are out and about all day long! I do not know where they are going or why it is so important to get out of the house, but these old folks are always out of the house. This city is covered in old folks.
They are in a crisis right now. There are a lot of strikes and marches that go on every weekend. Well two weeks ago there was a metro strike so there was not a lot of people to drive the metros. This was a problem. The metro normally runs every 3-5 minutes in the mornings but that week it was every 12-15 minutes. This means that all of those people are waiting for a long time and by the time the train comes it is packed and there are a million people trying trying to get on the train with the million people who are already on the train. Getting to school was rough! I have to transfer trains once but some of my friends have to transfer twice to get to school.
It is not getting warmer 🙁
Everyone smokes
Being on time is an option. If someone is running late, they do not call and give you an explanation they simply show up late. And what do you do while you are waiting for them? Nothing, look up and enjoy the trees or the beautiful buildings and enjoy life. It is strange but also very cool, no hurry and no rush.
Most cell phones are pre-paid or pay as you go so they do not use there phones like we do and text all day long. The younger generation uses a texting app to text each other called Whatsapp. So if you come to Spain and you think a guy is hitting on you do not be alarmed if they ask for your “whatsapp.”
Okay that is all for now!! Stay tuned 🙂
Bianca, Matt, Me, and Jordan in Sorrento!
Papa Francisco!!
My sister, Kennedy, and I having (non alcoholic) drinks 🙂
Besos everyone!!