Hello again, friends. I tried to keep it short(er) this time. Enjoy!
Santander
Like the excursion to Granada, we had a long bus ride to get to Santander, so we missed school this past Friday. On the way there, we stopped in Burgos for a lunch break and a bit of time to explore and we found the cathedral with about 30 minutes to spare, so we didn’t get to go inside to see all its features including the coffin of Mio Cid, the Medieval Poet (*correction: Warrior; there's a poem about him). That’ll have to go on my agenda for my next trip to Spain, which will include the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage through the mountain ranges in the north of Spain that spans almost the whole country, east to west. We got to Santander in the early afternoon, and our hotel was right on one of the seven beaches in the city. Amazing. The water in the Atlantic was really cold at first, but after being submerged in it, it felt pretty nice. The next day we went to some nearby smaller towns: Santillana del Mar, Comillas, and Altamira. We saw a really old (medieval times old) cathedral in SdM, a house (“El Capricho”) designed by Gaudí in Comillas, and the replica of the caves from 14,500 years ago before returning to the beach in Santander that afternoon. The next day, prior to our departure from the city, we went to the Palacio de Magdalena, a palace built for the royalty who helped to make Santander the summer attraction it is today, and the Faro de Cabo Mayor, the lighthouse on these beautiful cliffs that you can hike out on to. Amazing. After we finished there, we got back on the bus for a five hour trip home, just in time for the Spain – Italy game of the quarterfinals.
Futbol
SPAIN BEAT ITALY! SPAIN BEAT RUSSIA! SPAIN BEAT GERMANY! SPAIN WON THE EUROCUP 2008! All within one week, I got to experience the amazing and historic victories of “La Selección” from the quarterfinals to the semifinals to the finals. (I missed the two first games, one against Russia and the other against Sweden.) The first game I got to watch was the Spain-Italy game that was the night I came back from Santander. My host sisters had some friends over to watch it and so I got to hear the craziness and insults to the players firsthand. It was really quite fun. The Italy-Spain game was probably the most intense of all the games I watched as it was tied 0-0 through the whole game and into overtime, so they were forced to take penalty kicks. Spain: 4 of 5, Italy 2 of 5. It was exciting, especially since Spain hadn’t beat Italy in over 88 years. The next game was exciting too, but since we’d already beat Russia in an earlier game, it wasn’t much of surprise. (I also watched that game with my host sisters and their friends.) The finals were great, but the only downside was that I wasn’t in Madrid to celebrate. I was in Barcelona, but it was still pretty amazing. I simply had to multiply the celebration in BCN times four (or more) to imagine what it was like in Madrid. Anyway, that’s what’s been going on in Spain recently. It’s still making the main headlines here, and I’m sure it will for a while. (Consequently, the official jersey that I was hoping to buy is super freaking expensive — 65 Euros. Stupid exchange rate.) VIVA ESPAÑA!
Last Week of Classes Exams
The last week of classes flew by, as we technically only had three days of class then exams and no required attendance on Friday. Wednesday afternoon we had a free visit to the Reina Sofia Museum where we saw works of Miro, Dalí, and Picasso—including Guernica—among the works of many other modern artists. That night, I went to a play performed by the Centro Dramático Nacional. It was written by a modern Catalán playwright and its title was Catalán (Après Moi, Le Deluge) though the play was in Castellano, or what most of the rest of the world knows simply as Spanish. It was very interesting and well acted, but honestly I didn’t fully comprehend it all. (I’ll elaborate more on that in my blog.) The next day was my exam day. I felt pretty good about them, but when it came time to double-check one of them during the exam period, I started falling asleep. I finished it, but I was just wiped out. This whole summer school thing is new to me, and it definitely is tiring. Thursday night, ISA, my program, had a free goodbye dinner at a little buffet, but it didn’t really seem to be anything special. Not everyone showed up, not even all the ISA employees, but it was nice to hear what people’s post-program plans were and get goodbyes in. Afterwards, people went their separate ways to go watch the remainder Anyway, we had an optional little graduation and fiesta celebration on Friday at the other campus, so went to check out my grades and get free food. I passed everything with flying colors, but I didn’t get to graduate! I guess one of the administrators who was on the bus I was on forgot to highlight my name on the list, so they assumed I wasn’t there and as a result, I didn’t get to walk across the stage. Poo. However, I did get my diploma along with about 8-billion apologies afterwards, so everything turned out fine. Well, I take that back… the free lunch was salad with tuna and paella with all kinds of seafood, so I drank the free Sangria and ate a bunch of bread for my lunch instead. But in all seriousness, it was a nice little afternoon; the campus was beautiful and getting to hang out with my profesoras and friends from classes one more time was really nice.
And now? Now I’m in Valencia. I took a train this morning at 8.00 AM and got here about 11.45. I wandered around trying to find the tourist information stations that sold the passes for the city transport and discounts and I found them, then made an attempt (that failed) to get free wifi (pronounced wee-fee here), before walking to a hostel that I found in a brochure in the train station (and in my guidebook). So, that’s where I am now. In Valencia. About to find some adventure or other. From here, I plan to travel to Sevilla or Córdoba, then Lisbon (Portugal), possibly Salamanca, Pamplona, some little town in the Pyrenees where I can go whitewater rafting, and then back to Madrid to fly home. (Well, to New York, but the United States is home too.)
Sorry for the length. I have trouble eliminating details, and this, for me, isn’t too detail heavy, but so it goes. Until next time.
Be well, much love, and thanks.
Lauren
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