Futbol...GOOOLLL!!!

On Sunday I was up bright and early because we were finally going on that tour of Madrid that I have been anxiously waiting for because I really wanted to get to know the city a little bit before exploring it on my own. I took the train in, which is great the trains and metros are so easy to use in Spain. Once we got into the city Maria Jose took us on a walking tour of the historic area. Originally we were suppose to take a bus tour but because it was nice we decided to walk. A group of us might go back to Madrid this weekend to do the bus tour since we will be able to see the other neighborhoods. During the tour we got to see were all the museums were and I found out that we are going to go to the Prado Museum as a group, which will be good because that way I will have a guide to explain everything.

Post Office

All the buildings in Madrid are so beautiful and every time I turned the corner there would be a building that made me feel like I went back in time. Even the post office was amazing. We also visited Plaza Mayor, which is the main plaza in the city, which has this amazing painted wall that is incredible. After the Plaza we quickly walked through the Mercado de San Micuel. This is a huge market, which is currently inside because of the winter, that is open every day and has every type of food imaginable. Maria Jose told us that it was extremely busy because on Sundays a lot of Spaniards will go there for drinks and tapas before going out to a late lunch. Hopefully, next time I visit it won't be as crowed so I can walk around and taste all the delicious food. After the market we went to the last stop on the tour, which was the royal palace but don't worry the royal family wanted to move into a smaller palace so they moved to the suburbs...see Mom even the royal family of Spain likes the suburbs better then the city. The palace was unbelievable I don't think I would ever be able to find my way out once I walked through the front door.

Royal Palace

After the palace we were done with our tour but we were given 20 euro for lunch. A group of us found this restaurant that had a menu al dia (menu of the day) for 15 euro so we thought we would check it out. For lunch I got bread, paella, fish, dessert, and wine for only 15 euro and everything was delicious. The entire group planned on going to a Real Madrid game that night so we had a couple of hours to kill before the game so we went shopping and just walked around. We even managed to find a Starbucks, which was great because I was starting to miss my latte even though the coffee was great.

When we arrived at the stadium the atmosphere was already insane. The Spainards really take soccer seriously. Clearly since I am a poor college student we bought the cheapest seats in the house and even though the seat were really high up we got to see the entire field. Real Madrid ended up winning again Malaga with the score being 2-0. At one point during the game the fans got mad at the referee and started shouting. It was so loud that I couldn't even hear my friend sitting next to me. We left the game a couple minutes early to attempt to avoid the massive rush of people leaving the stadium. Even though by the time I got home I was exhausted I had an amazing day and each day I come to love Espana more.

Santiago Bernabeu Stadium

Una noche larga...

So I know I just posted one big entire but now I am trying to actually blog reguraly so I decieded to do a separate post about last night. Just a heads up I am going to make all the titles of my entries in Spanish that way you can learn Spanish along the way. Last night was a really hectic night. We were all planning on going out since we could sleep in on Saturday. We went over the boys room before heading out and were just hanging out. Some Spaniards knocked on the door looking for ice and someone invited them in because we were trying to befriend the other university students. Long story short somehow they broke back into the boys room and stole some ipods and camera. Don't worry no one got hurt but everyone was just shaken up. Our director, Maria Jose, drove from Madrid to the residencias to handle the situation and now everything seems to be alright. But since we did not realize stuff was taken until 3 am we were all up until 6am figuring out everything. I actually slept over my friend Caitlin's room because they needed to change the locks on my apartment because one of my roommate's key was stolen. Now don't get the wrong idea about Spaniards because up until now everyone I have met is really nice and friendly.

Tomorrow we are going into Madrid to finally get that tour since the first time we tired to go it was canceled because of the snow. I am going to go to bed soon because apparetly Maria Jose's tours are like a marathoen so I am going to need all my energy. After the tour we are planning on getting a late lunch an then we all have tickets for a Real Madrid game. Even though I am not a avid socceer fan I have heard that the games are insane so I am excited to go. The game is Real Madrid versus Malaga! We got the cheapest tickets available so our seats probably won't be that great but I am excited to be there and experience it all.

Bienvenidos a Espana

Hola from Espana! So I know I have been here for about 2 weeks now but my friend started blogging about the trip so far and she inspired me. Ok so after a 7 hour flight, which i hardly slept on because we had individual tvs with great movie selections so we all just got distracted. So once we got off the airplane and got our luggage (thank god no one lost their luggage or anything) we got picked up by buses and taken to the dorms, or residencias. The apartments are huge. There is a common area, eat-in kitchen, and then two double bedrooms downstairs and then upstairs there are four single rooms. I am in one of the single rooms but I share a bathroom with my friend Callie, which is great. We basically only had time to drop off our luggage and then we were being picked up to go out to our first lunch, which was at 2pm since that is what the Spaniards do. Our lunch was just a taste of everything so we could get accustomed to Spanish food but everything was amazing. After lunch we just came back, unpacked, and then everyone went straight to bed because we had a early morning.

On the second day we had a brief orientation of Alcala. Maria Jose, who is our director in Spain, took us around the town and showed us where all our classes were and everything. The town is so pretty. There is a main plaza that is known as the Plaza de Cervantes who is named after the man who wrote Don Quixote. All around it are tons of stores and then there are two main streets: Calle Mayor and Calle Liberos that also have more shops and everything. In order for us to get to the Plaza we take a 10 min bus ride from the doors. The public transportation is really nice and a lot more reliable then transportation in NYC. We are suppose to go to Madrid tomorrow but there is a threat of snow so we are not going because snow is a HUGE deal here because they hardly ever get any snow. So tonight I think we are going out somewhere but the nightlife here is completely different because people do not go anywhere till around 2am in the morning.

Ok so I know this is a long post but we were suppose to start classes today, Monday Jan 11th, but because it snowed like literally 1/4in classes were canceled. Instead we still had to wake up to go to an orientaion at CIFF, which is the school we take our English classes at and then our professors took us out for sangria and tapas...we are becoming so Spanish. The professors seem really nice and it is really formal to shake hands but instead they do the double kiss on the cheek so that is something I am going to have to get used to. We also took our Spanish placement exams, which I did okay on but I did well enough to place into the history class that I needed to take. I hope that the Spanish classes will help me improve my Spanish. At night it was one of the guys in our groups birthday so all 38 got together in one of the rooms to sing happy birthday and have cake.

After about a week in Alcala I am beginning to feel like I have been here forever yet we just got here. My Spanish classes are going well so far and I really like all my professors. I am still adjusting to the fact that everything closes mid afternoon and then opens again at like 6pm. Around this time the entire town comes alive and everyone is walking around and out in the plaza until around 8pm. It took awhile but everyone has finally figured out all their classes and everything so hopefully everything will work out now. I am taking 3 spanish classes which means I am going to be in language classes everyday from 1:45 till 6:30 and 2 days a week I also have class in the morning from 10:30 to 1:30. Even though it is bad now after March 17th my Spanish classes end so I will only have 2 classes, which will be perfect for traveling.

I know this is jumping around a bit but on Sat, Jan 16th we went into Madrid to go see a Flamenco show. In order to get into Madrid we took a train, which took about 40 minutes. Once we walked through a lot of the city on our way to Teatros de Canal where the flamenco show was held. We saw some familiar places, such as Starbucks, which was funny! The show we saw was a modern flamenco entitled "Fedra," which is actually based on a Greek tragedy play. It was really exciting and not too difficult to follow because of the acting and dancing. After the show a group of us went to this place called Pasta Nostra. It was a really good Italian restaurant and was nice because it was a little taste of home. After dinner we took the bus home from Madrid, which was good because now we know how to use both the train and bus to get into Madrid.

The next week was pretty uneventful. I had got a nice routine going with all my classes and cooking dinner and everything. I am actually starting to learn to cook but Mom don't get too excited because any cooking skills I learn in Spain will be staying here when I come home. Lately we have been going to this bar called Media Pinta, which is right in town because past Loyola groups have become really close with the son's owner, Javier, and they have free wi-fi so it is a great place to skype and just hang out. Hopefully this post has given you a brief look at my time in Alcala so far and I will try to now update regularly.