ROAD TRIP! Solo Lolo: Day Four - August 10, 2011

WEDNESDAY: Last day in Oklahoma today.  Chelsea said goodbye as she was headed out the door for work, and shortly thereafter, I got up.  I went out to the truck to put things back together, and found the weather delightfully tolerable.  The storm from  last night must have cooled things off significantly, but it still smelled like Northern California to me, mmm.  I gathered my things and repacked stuff, stopped for a quick breakfast of shredded wheat and strawberries, and packed up the truck.  After saying goodbye to a sleeping Kyle, hugging Lizzie and Joe, and brushing my teeth, I hit the road... to Ada.  I had to get some postcards in the mail, and I needed stamps, too.  THEN I was on my way northward.

Thanks to my mom's desire to travel vicariously through me, she re-routed me away from interstates and onto two-lane highways.  With this routing, I had some interesting stops and scenic drives.  My first stop? Langston, Oklahoma - home of Langston University, the first historically black university in Oklahoma.  I stopped and took pictures of the post office and the football field at the university.  It's pretty small, so I was back on the road shortly afterwards.  I got into Kansas and quickly thereafter turned sharply to the west.  Heading that way on US Rt. 160, I got to go through the Red Hills - gorgeous!  Yet another very pleasant surprise on my journey.  I continued listening to Life of Pi on my way towards Colorado... what a story.  I stopped again in Dodge City, a town I recognized almost immediately once I saw the train depot.  I'd been here before on the California Zephyr as a kid!  I walked up and down front street and west towards Boot Hill.  Lots of things were closed, which was a bummer, but it was fun to check out briefly.  After filling up on gas and dinner, I got the heck out of Dodge.

I kept on heading westward US 50/400 and got to Garden City, Kansas, a town that supposedly has a bison refuge.  By the time I was in town, I'm almost positive it was closed, but I just wanted to see where it was, but I saw no signs for it, then got lost all the way into the next town before I got back on the right route towards Colorado.  Oh well, you can't see it all.  From there, I kept on through the most western parts on Kansas right on into Colorado, finally stopping for the night in Lamar, Colorado at a Super 8.  Grateful as I am to be able to see friends any way I can, it was nice to sleep in a bed again for one night.  And now I'm in Mountain Time!

Oh yeah... roadkill count for today: 9 armadillos, 3-4 turtles (so sad!), lots of UDOs (unidentified dead objects)

ROAD TRIP! Solo Lolo: Day Three - August 9, 2011

TUESDAY: This morning was pretty slow, but by 11, we woke up Kyle and Chelsea and we got ready for our day to the big(ger) city (cities, really).  We first went into town to pick up Chelsea's car from the shop, and I got a better view of the City of Ada.  Nice big post office they have.  After picking the car up, we headed back to the house to figure out the plan for the afternoon of adventure.  We'd still be taking my truck, but we would also take Lizzie and Joe's truck, too, and split the five of us between the vehicles so no one would get carsick or just plain hot and uncomfortable.  It was Liz and Chelsea in one truck and the boys and me in mine, and so we headed out.

Our first stop, at about 3, was Norman, Oklahoma where the University of Oklahoma is located.  We headed straight for this vegetarian restaurant that Chelsea had been to before called The Earth Natural Cafe & Deli.  Delicious!  I had a scrumptious blueberry-peach-strawberry smoothie, a 'Moonmaiden' grilled cheese (with tomato, avocado, and sprouts), and a salad, too.  So good, and so filling.  We walked around a bit and checked out a shoe store and a little boutique called Antique Garden.  They had a bunch of fun things, but also had Sorority hoo-hah all about the store too, like, 'Get your rush week dresses and attire here!'  I bought some earrings, but most everything else was either too expensive or too tiny.  I'm being a Goldilocks about it, but you know, I think the earrings were just right.  Anyhow, after that we decided to try to go to a winery east of town, and just as I thought we were getting lost, we arrived... but it was closed, so we headed into Oklahoma City, or OKC as it's affectionately known.

In Oklahoma City, we headed for Bricktown, a revitalized part of town that has the Bricktown Brewery (our first destination), a canal, the American Banjo Museum, and lots of other attractions.  Since Oklahoma's centennial was in 2007, there were lots of awesome murals around the city and a bunch of buffalo, too.  Not the real kind, but the fiberglass-decorated-by-artists kind.  There was one that I found particularly clever: a buffalo nickel, sponsored by BankOne.  (Pictures to come shortly.)  Bricktown Brewery seemed pretty busy, but we got our beer and drank it, and as I looked around, I found it very strange that at a local brewery people would dare order Bud Light, but there it was.  Crazy, in my mind.  After we left the brewery, we headed for the canal and walked around.  We stopped in to Put a Cork in It Winery for free wine samples, bought OK postcards, got frozen yogurt at Peachwave, wandered around the Red Dirt Emporium (where I got a cool ring made from a spoon), and then took a water taxi ride.  The water taxi ride was actually quite informative.  We heard about what the Bricktown area used to be like (abandoned warehouses, criminal activity, lots of homeless people), but we also learned about OKC history and history of the land rush as well.  It made me want to read up on it a bit more.  It still blows my mind that Oklahoma was the 46th state.  We live in a pretty young country as far as our government is concerned.

After the water taxi ride, Chelsea and Kyle headed homeward since Che had to work in the morning, and Liz, Joe, and I walked around some more.  We saw awesome mosaic murals by the new ballpark, took pictures with Flaming Lips Alley (who knew the were from OKC?), and generally wandered for a while.  We headed home a bit later, getting back to Ada around 1 and hitting the hay HARD. Oh yeah, and I fell asleep to a thunderstorm.  A big and bright one, and it was a lovely lullaby.

ROAD TRIP! Solo Lolo: Day Two - August 8, 2011

MONDAY: Slept on the couch last night, and woke up when my friend Chelsea had to get up for work and her dog Lilli (short for Lilliput) started investigating my face until I covered it with a sheet.  She settled into a little dog-ball in between my legs and I got up later, around 9.  After breakfast and messing around on the internet editing the Ada, Oklahoma Wikipedia page and such, we (Liz, Joe, Kyle, and I) went out to Wintersmith Park.  The park seems to be the one place in town that has a natural water source.  It's a nice big pond-lake, but clearly has been lacking the extra water that usually overflows from the lake and fills the little creeks in the other parts of the park.  Anyhow, we walked around the park, seeing the amphitheatre which was built during the Great Depression by members of the CCC, the llamas and deer in the animal enclosure, an old monkey cage that was abandoned years ago, and some wildlife, like a turtle and its baby and of course, geese.

After we left the park, (OH! I should mention we were in my truck, the four of us. Keep this in mind...) we went to pick up Chelsea from work.  We got there and got a tour of the library (Linscheid Library is the official name) from Chelsea, and she introduced us to the student workers and her co-workers.  After we left, we all (now 5 of us) crammed into the truck.  There are five seatbelts, but I think the front middle seat is meant for a very small child and we are five fully grown adults.  Anyhow, we managed it, blasting the A/C as it was about 1 o'clock, and it had hit 100 degrees but felt like 104.  We stopped at La Fiesta Mexican restaurant for lunch and promptly ordered a pitcher of strawberry margaritas.  Lunch was quite filling, and Chelsea's morning of work and our walk around the park made us realize we all needed a nap, so we went home and slept for about two hours.

When we got moving again, we talked about going to Oklahoma City or Norman for the evening, but decided to make that a trip for Tuesday.  Instead, we played You Don't Know Jack (a Wii trivia game), made/drank mojitos, and played Trivial Pursuit (the new, more complicated edition).  Around 9:30, we figured we should eat something, so we made lasagna, I made some salad, and we dined and talked and had a good time.  After dinner we watched some George Carlin stand-up and then ate angel food cake with strawberries and ice cream, and apparently, I fell asleep on the recliner.  End of Day Two!

As mentioned before, pictures coming soon...

ROAD TRIP! Solo Lolo: Day One - August 7, 2011

I think the SpanishDict Word of the Day example from Sunday sums up day one of my trip quite succinctly: "Fue una larga jornada. - It was a long day's journey."

I've been daydreaming about a road trip this summer since the early spring, and having spent much of Saturday prepping to get on the road early on Sunday - picking up road food, washing the truck, cleaning the inside of the truck, picking up audio books (AKA 'tapes on CD'), and finally packing my bags - the reality of the trip finally hit me.  I would be driving from little old Asheville, NC to even littler (but less old) Ada, OK in one day.  I'd thought I'd perhaps split the drive into two days, but since I was meeting up with my friends from St. Louis, Lizzie and Joe, at our friend Chelsea's place in Ada, and Chelsea had only Monday and Tuesday off work, it was imperative that I get there ASAP.  Fortunately I had worked out the timing of things so that the drive would fit within the hours of the day that I'm usually awake.  Google estimated that it was a 15.5 hour drive, so if I left at 8 AM from Asheville, thanks to the time change from eastern to central time, I would arrive in Ada around midnight or so.

Point A: Asheville, NC
SUNDAY: I got up earlier than usual (6:45... oof) to finish the packing of the truck, smooched the boyfriend, and got going a little after 8, stopping to grab a coffee and breakfast bagel from Bruegger's before I left town.  Leaving Asheville by 8:35ish, I was rolling westward on I-40.  I primarily listened to Weekend Edition Sunday until the signal went to crap, then listened to my new Adele CD for a bit until I could pick up radio signal once again.  NPR is so good for road trips, especially solo ones.  The content they choose to talk about in all their programming is so stimulating, fascinating, and fun at times, too.  Of course it's great to start conversations, too, but I'm driving alone, so that's not really an option, unless I call someone to talk.  And I did call folks, since that also helped with mental stimulation.  Driving long distances get me into a zone that is not far off from sleeping, it seems, so the phone calls helped to beat that feeling back.  I know it's not great to talk on the phone and drive (and in some states is illegal), but when it's that over being asleep at the wheel, I'll choose the former.  Singing along to music works that way a bit, too... except isn't illegal. 

Aside from stopping for gas or bathroom breaks, which I did my best to coincide, I was cruising down 40.  The book (on CD) I chose to start with was Yann Martel's Life of Pi, a book I've been meaning to read for years.  I had to break up the first few hours of listening since it was in the exposition (see plot diagram below) and not a great deal of action was happening, which kind of contributed to the zoned-out driving I mentioned earlier.  Anyhow, I got some great quotes from the start of the book, though: "The more you look, the more you see you are in zootown." Also, "Life goes on and you don't touch tigers."  Good life advice, don't you think?  By the end of my drive though, I was well into the rising action and I was on the edge of my seat, figuratively speaking, and very much awake and aware of my driving surroundings and those of Pi Patel, the main character in Life of Pi.

Speaking of driving surroundings, here are some highlights.  I'll start with the Hummer 3 I saw just inside the Tennessee border.  Its license plate made me laugh out loud: 4 SALE.  Clearly it's so unappealing as a vehicle that the desire to sell it is as permanent as the likelihood of someone wanting to buy it off the current owner.  Also, roadkill counts were intriguing, and sad at times, too.  Of course, there was plenty of unidentified bits of animals, but there were also a few cats, a small dog, and lots of armadillos.  At first, the first armadillo I saw looked like a fetus and an alien, but then I saw another and I was more certain of its animalian place on earth, though not near the highway. Who knew there were armadillos in Tennessee?  Not me.

Anyhow, the drive continued westward and I finally made it to Memphis, roughly half-way, and a heaved a sigh of relief.  It was only mid-afternoon!  Wahoo.  But then it hit me, half-way.  Oof.  However, by the time I made it to Little Rock, Arkansas (where I got a little turned around because I was talking on the phone) I was in I've-got-ten-hours-of-driving-under-my-belt...I'm-invincible! mode.  Anyhow, the rest of the drive went just fine, though I did get a little sleepy on the state routes getting into Ada.  But I made it!  And after stretching, hugging friends, and watching a little Wii being played, I hit the hay.

Point B: Ada, Oklahoma

 Oh yeah!  I discovered a pleasant surprise about Oklahoma... it smells like parts of Northern California, which was super comforting.  I think it might be because of the severe dryness and fire hazards, though.


Pictures to come soon!

Life Update

Halloween 2010: Me and my 'turt-o-lantern'

Greetings all! Perhaps you've been here before back when I blogged about my experience in Spain, or maybe you just got my hybrid graduation/moving announcement and wanted to know what I've been up to in the last year and a half or whenever it was I saw you last. So, what's new? Ha - that depends on a lot of factors, so I'll go with what registers as new for me. Having a place to live is the newest of the new right now, and I guess secondary to that new-ness is my new job -- Education Associate at North Carolina Stage Company (through AmeriCorps VISTA, my second year), and third, I suppose, is... the fact that I'm still in Asheville, NC.

As you may know, I spent a good deal of this spring applying to internships or apprenticeships with professional theatres all over the country. They all have really neat things going on so check them out! They might be in your neck of the woods...

*Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (DC) 

*American Conservatory Theatre (SF, CA) 

*McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, NJ)

Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC)

Berkeley Repertory Theatre (CA)

Huntington Theatre Company (Boston, MA)

* - designates those with which I had interviews! But they didn't materialize into actual internships... c'est la vie. I work in a theatre now! 

Bard-a-thon: Our 48 hours of Shakespeare fun(d)raiser

So what do I do these days? As 'Education Associate,' I work to get theatre teaching artists into Western North Carolina schools through communication with teachers and administrators, grant writing, and recruitment of teaching artists. I also help run the administrative end of our Acting Intensives (acting classes) that we just started this fall. I'm hoping to take the class in the spring to keep my creative juices flowing. Another aspect of my position is to update the theatre's blog to do informative/educational promotion about the work we're doing, like our recent production of Angels in America, Millennium Approaches. 

Able helping me in some street promotion for NC Stage.

I've been living in my 'new' apartment now for about two months, and I'm still settling in. Though I graduated from Warren Wilson in May 2009 and had my position as VISTA at the College's Service Learning office until mid-July of this year, my housing was paid for by the program, so this is the first time I've paid my own rent and utilities. New life experiences and responsibilities? Check. The housing search was a hell of a process, but right about when I had given up, we found a sweet little basement apartment on the cheap (relatively speaking) and they accepted our application the same day we turned it in. Quite a relief, especially since I could finally move the many, many boxes out of my car and into an actual form of shelter/living space. Anyhow, things are good and garage sales have helped to furnish the place pleasantly. We even have a neighborly cat that likes to hang out in our yard and on our little tiny porch... even while we were painting it (the porch) blue.

Look closely and you'll see a nice bit of blue on its tail.

So, what else? Friends are probably aware of this, but family might not be (and might be curious), so I guess I should mention/introduce the boyfriend. His name's Able, he's fantastic, a talented blacksmith, quite the contra dancer, and also a WWC grad, having majored in Political Science and History. He grew up much farther west in Western North Carolina -- in Brasstown, home of the John C. Campbell Folk School. He spent a semester abroad studying in the Sultanate of Oman in spring 2009, so he's always spouting Arabic phrases that I can't understand, but find intriguing. We like to go dancing, watch movies and live theatre, and see famous politicians who come to Asheville, like Steny Hoyer (not below) and Bill Clinton (see below). 

President Clinton, speaking in support of congressman Heath Shuler.

 In general, life is good. Tomorrow night I get to play the role of "Puck" in a collaboration piece between NC Stage and the Asheville Symphony for Mendelssohn's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream Suite.' I'm excited. As I crouched in my hiding place for the start of the show in a rehearsal last night, I realized how a symphony is truly surround sound, and it's awe-some. 

What's next? I'm hoping to travel more in the near future, and I'm considering the whole "going back to school" thing, but right now, I'm pretty happy, and I'll figure things out as they come along. 

Just a little show...

This is what I've been up to for the past 10 months or so... check it out!
-L

Long time, new post...

As it turns out, my last semester of college kind of filled up and left me with little time to blog. Here's a summary: my Senior Project - 4.48 Psychosis, filling final gen. ed. requirements, road-(and train-)tripping to and from Chicago over Spring Break, finding out about the opportunity of my current job (and getting it!), being cast in Montford Park Players' production of Cymbeline as Imogen, and then the whole graduating/winning college-thing. Then summer happened...lots of landscaping, play rehearsal, movies, teaching a friend to drive, and a tiny weeklong vacation before I started my new job.

Nowadays, I'm still at the college working as an AmeriCorps VISTA in our Service Learning Program. It's a different perspective being at Wilson in a non-student role. As familiar a place as it is, there's plenty newness around. I still get to participate in theatre productions, for which I am very grateful, and a little over a month ago, I took on the role of Hermione in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. It had a shorter rehearsal period than usual (about six weeks) and a tight-knit ensemble, most everyone playing more than one role. In short, a wonderful and challenging experience that left an impact.

Giny-Camilla, Lauren-Hermione (me), Sofia-Perdita, Rachel-Paulina

Since that time, among other things, I led a service trip in Asheville over Fall Break called "Artists Serving, Serving Artists." I created the whole trip from scratch working with arts non-profits in the area, many of which the school had never had "official" service relationships previously. Eight students went on the trip, and it was extremely successful. We worked with Asheville Mural Project, Asheville FM, Burton Street Center, Asheville Community Theatre, Just Home in the Mountains/Homeward Bound, NC Stage, Montford Community Center, puppeteer Hobey Ford, and Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre. Initially I was worried we wouldn't have enough to do during the week, but in actuality, it was packed to the brim, and still a lot of fun.

Last Day Group Shot at Moments Café

Then I got sick, turned 22, got into a bit of a head-fog-funk, went to a couple NC Campus Compact events, and went about my day-to-day business. I'll do my best to get some more posts up here regularly. Much love to all...

Lauren

Oh, and just for fun, take a peek at a couple shots from a mask workshop I was able to observe a couple weekends ago...amazing stuff.

Lauren in London

Actually I'm about to leave London, but look for lots of posts (or at least a couple) soon. Having seen a play, musical, or some other sort of performance nearly every night I've been here these past three weeks(ish), I have a lot to say, but being on an airport computer with limited time, I can't say it now. I'll be back in the U.S. in a matter of hours!
Be well,
Lauren

It's been a while...

Since I last posted, I went out to California and Oregon, returned home, got back to school to welcome new freshman and train for soccer, and started the new/last school year at college. With all my shit going on for this last year of school, I found myself too busy to realistically stay healthy and consequently took a break from soccer so I could maintain sanity. A lot of my time was invested in the theatre, as usual. I just got done with an amazing production of You Can't Take It With You in which I played the role of Penny. It was a huge and valuable experience - I learned a lot about ensemble work, comedy, life and myself. The night of our last dress rehearsal, we learned we got ourselves a new president. The play went up last weekend, coinciding with the 21st anniversary of my birth. My whole family was together for a family member's birthday for the first time in over five years. It was really nice to have them near, even just for a short while.
Currently I'm working more on my prep work for my senior project, Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis, which I'll be performing as a one-woman show in late February or early March 2009. I'll be working closely with some good friends and teachers experimenting with solo performance. Also, I'm doing some reading and research on happiness, suicide, mental illness, and creativity. It's an interesting process. Other goings-on in my life include: a small one-act called Post-Its going up in early December, classes in preparation for a trip to London late this December, thoughts on travel in France and Germany post-London, and general procrastination in various departments of my life. Oh, and I'm reading a good bit of Sartre right now.
I haven't done nearly as much photography, writing letters, baking, or napping as I would like to, but I anticipate those re-entering my life sometime in the near future. I watched The Shawshank Redemption tonight for the first time and was blown away. Great story, incredible movie - well written, well acted, everything well done.
This has evolved into a random assortment of rabble, but so it goes. I think I will go to bed. I took two long naps in the past two days and they felt wonderful, although a bit disorienting, so off I go to the land of sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all. Sleep well, be well.

Checking in from NYC

So yesterday I spent over fourteen hours in airplanes as I made my way back to the States. I arrived in New York at about 4.30 or 5 in the afternoon and loaded all my things on me like a hermit crab and took the subway to my aunt's apartment. Having woken up at 5 AM Spain time in order to catch a 5.30 shuttle to the Madrid airport, and going to bed around 11 PM EST, I spent approximately 24 hours awake, not counting the naps on the plane. I also read 120 pages of Junot Diaz's Drown, watched two movies, and did a sudoku puzzle or two. I thought I would be more surprised or something coming back to my home country, but it felt fairly normal. The only strange occurrence I had was trying to formulate questions in Spanish to ask officials before realizing it was okay to speak my native English. The only thing I lost going through customs was an apple I bought the day before. I told the guy I hoped he would enjoy it before he told me, "Nope, it's just heading to that yellow trashcan over there." Oh well.
I'm feeling pretty relaxed and rested having slept ten-and-a-half hours last night and another two hour nap shortly following breakfast this morning. I'll be seeing a few shows while I'm here, and I'm looking forward to that. I went out to dinner with my aunt last night and witnessed a crazy car accident right across the street. I'm currently sitting in the Starbucks (it's evil, but I needed Wifi [wee-fee]) that the Benz shot backwards into, breaking a few windows. Apparently, like NYC, Starbucks never sleeps. So it goes. I leave for Springfield on Sunday shortly before noon and don't have any real plans ahead of me for my time here in New York. I'll be home for a few days before heading out to California for the remainder of my summer, going on a river trip then working on building a house until early August when I head back to school. It's been a good summer so far and I look forward to the coming weeks. I'll be writing a post of the remainder of my travels shortly. It will comprise what I did in Barcelona, Valencia, Córdoba, Sevilla, Lisboa, and Segovia before I returned to Madrid in order to come home. In the meantime, I'm going to wander and explore New York City.
Until next time,
much love, be well, and thanks.
Lauren

Thoughts from Portugal

As I sit in the sunny room adjacent to the kitchen of Lisbon Central Hostel, I am thinking of the conclusion to this wonderful journey-experience of mine. Of course, I haven't been able to capture it all, but I feel grateful for that being the case because it justifies a return trip sometime in the future. Right now, I'm determining the next step in my travels. To Pamplona for San Fermines (the Running of the Bulls), or straight to northern Spain for a nice afternoon whitewater rafting trip in the Pyrenees? It almost feels wrong to have the privilege to have that be my main concern right now. Traveling solo has been a rollercoaster (or montaña rusa) of emotion, at times feeling incredibly at ease and at others, nearly breaking down crying (like when I was lost in Sevilla, trying to find my hostel at 11.45 at night). It would've been great to have found a travel buddy, but I think not having one has allowed me to do a lot of reflection, which I am grateful for. Since I have been traveling, I have felt more of a desire to go home, whereas when I was in more semi-permanent living circumstance with my host family in Madrid, I didn't want to leave at all. I didn't want that to be the case, or rather, didn't want to admit that, but I have to be honest with myself. Going home is an important element in the traveling cycle. I head back to the States early Thursday morning from Madrid, landing in New York City (or Nueva York) in the early afternoon that same day. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also a bit sad to leave the Iberian peninsula, my home for these past six weeks. I am certainly glad that I chose to stay within the peninsula and explore more of Spain instead of doing the standard "Eurotrip," jumping from big city to big city in different countries where only a phrasebook could help me instead of my own language capabilities. Anyway, I leave Portugal today at some point, returning to Spain. In my remaining days here, I will soak in as much as I can before my return home.
With gratefulness and love,
Lauren

be well.

FOUND: missing sub-sections from previous post

These two pieces are sub-sections of my previous post. I was having difficulty reformatting the huge font that it kept returning to. Anyway, to form a more complete picture of that last report, here you go.

-lauren

My Last Days in Madrid

Friday, as I mentioned above, was mainly consumed by the graduation celebration festivities, but it didn’t end there. We had an evaluation meeting for ISA that lasted longer than anticipated, one of the new girls for the month of July (Joquelyn) showed up to the house, Concha (my señora) made an awesome goodbye dinner, then most of the girls in the house (including myself) went out to meet up with some friends from school for a night on the town. At first we spent about a half hour walking in circles and getting a bit lost, but we finally found the group and hung out at a bar playing some 80s music and projecting some weird, old Spanish movie on the wall before going to a bar/club in Chueca. We ended up getting home at like 3 AM and my feet were torn up from a pair of shoes I borrowed from one of the girls in the house, but it was definitely a fun evening and a good way to spend my last night. The next day was primarily consumed with packing and goodbyes. I had hoped to have time and energy to go see the Orgullo Gay (Gay Pride) Celebration and Parade in Chueca, or go to El Diario de Ana Frank: El Canto de La Vida (The Diary of Anne Frank, the Musical), but I ended up passing out on the couch after finishing packing instead. The other new girl for July, Lauren (name stealer), showed up shortly after I awoke. My host sister Conchi finished her last bit of University in Pharmacy, so she, Concha, Cris and Santi (the other family members) got all dressed up to go to her graduation Saturday night. They left before I did, so I took a picture of them all jazzed up and said my goodbyes then. Afterwards, I went for a short walk around the neighborhood to get some (hot) fresh air and exercise before sitting on a train to Barcelona all night. I came home, ate dinner by myself, then took my bags and headed to the train station to leave the city that’s served as my home for a month. (But I’ll be back… at least to fly home, for sure.)

Post-Program Travels

So, as I said, I left Madrid. I took an overnight train to Barcelona and met up with some friends there. I saw Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, and Casa Batlló. (Batlló I only saw from the outside though. Weird hours.) The metro was very different from Madrid’s, but at least every train was air conditioned, which was a plus. The festivities after the Eurocup victory lasted, for me, until 2 or 2.30 AM, but for others, it went on much longer. Consequently, I didn’t wake up very early yesterday. I also missed out on seeing some cool features like Museu Picasso, the Olympic Stadium, and CaixaForum, a bank-foundation-building that features art exhibitions free to the public, partially because I didn’t realize certain places are not open on Mondays, but also because there’s only 24 hours in a day. It just means it’ll be on my itinerary for next time. However, I did go to the Museu de L’Erotica with some friends. It was very, very interesting and weird at the same time. All kinds of multi-cultural and historical forms of pleasure-seeking documented primarily in the form of drawings and sculpture. Afterwards, a group of us went to dinner and said our goodbyes as it would be the last time we’d see each other in our time here, but it wasn’t particularly sad because there’s talk of a reunion sometime in the future. And so I went home to the hotel room of my roommate Rachael and our friend Emily, where I crashed on the floor for the second night in a row.

More or less my second half of my adventure...

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.

[The section from here is being re-posted due to technical difficulties. Check the next post.]

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

Full First Report (Even More Details)

Pardon the delay on getting this posted. I promised in my email that there would be more information here but I had not yet posted it. So here goes... my travels with a few more details than the email. Enjoy.

Airports
My journey began on last, last Thursday, May 29 in New York City. When I arrived in the city in Penn Station the day before, I found myself surrounded by thousands of fast-moving New Yorkers and for the first time I realized I would be in a very similar (slightly overwhelming) situation in Madrid within 48 hours, but the people would not be speaking my native language. [And I was right… more on that in the Madrid section.] After grasping that, I made my way to my aunt's apartment to get some rest before my journey the next day. Thursday morning, I bought a digital camera (my first one ever) and finished my last repacking job before heading to the West Side YMCA to catch my 2.30 shuttle for my 7 PM flight. I waited for an airport shuttle for a good hour and a half before riding it around for another hour and a half in crazy NYC traffic to get to JFK for my flight to Barcelona.
It was a new experience for me because a) I've never been on a transatlantic flight, and b) the instructions on my flight were in both Spanish and English, and my seatmate/rowmate spoke his native Spanish in a very deep and raspy voice, and c) being given breakfast to eat at 2 AM was quite different as well. Of course, with the six-hour difference, 2 AM Eastern Standard Time was 8 AM in Spain. I landed fine in the sunshine at the Barcelona airport, wandered around a bit and napped in strange positions a couple times before catching my next flight to Madrid. I slept that entire flight, though I worried that if I slept too soundly, I would fly all the way to Havana, which was my plane's final destination. However, I woke up and arrived in Madrid a little sleepy, but alive and well, baggage claimed and all.

Homestay

When I first landed, it was still sunny outside, but when I finally built up the confidence to go get a taxi from the airport to my host family's house, it was raining outside. (Since I've been here it has rained off and on a lot more frequently than what is normal Madrid summer weather.) I got to my host family's home mid-afternoon and right away, my host mother, Concha (short for Concepción), offered me food about four times. Of course, I accepted, and it was exponentially better than airplane and airport food.

Concha showed me the house and introduced me to a girl living in the house, Michelle, whose semester with ISA (the program with which I'm studying abroad) had just finished, and she showed me more things around the house and the city. Later in the day, I met other girls who were being hosted in the house, Ali who had been here for four months, and her sister, Andrea, who had come to visit for a few weeks, as well as Concha's two daughters, Conchi (short for Conchita which is short for Concepción as well) and Cristina (Cris). I didn't meet Concha's husband, Santi (short for Santiago), until a few days later because he doesn't live in the house. In fact, neither does Concha. The daughters are the only full time residents of the house, and there are three other small rooms which have two beds in them a piece. At our peak, when people were in traveling limbo, we had 9 girls living in the house, but now it's just me, my roommate Rachael, two other girls being hosted, Esther and Cat, and Cris and Conchi.

Concha, my señora, is an amazing cook, and since I'm a vegetarian, she always offers me more food because she feels bad that I can't eat the meat she prepares. She doesn't mind making meat-free recipes because she's hosted other vegetarians in the past, and I'm surprisingly less of a picky eater than some of the omnivores she's hosted, including some of my current housemates. I probably have the biggest appetite of the group, and with the food/eating-driven culture in Spain, Concha loves having me in the house. Though I like the food, it’s pretty bread and egg heavy, so I’ve welcomed the occasional big salad in place of a bocadillo for lunch. Something I hadn’t anticipated being surprised by was the fact that I don’t have to do laundry. I knew it was included in the Homestay contract, but the thing is, it’s been a long time since I didn’t have to do my own laundry… try seven years, más o menos. In short, life in a homestay is great. I would wager a bet that food and laundry would be my main expenses if I were to be renting a flat or living in a residencia, but since those are taken care of, I can worry about other things like helado (ice cream) and post-travel plans. And dinner table conversation with my host sisters and the other girls is always entertaining, learning new words and conversing in Spanish.

Madrid (a.k.a. MAD CITY)

My first day here, I was shown the Metro and a few key sights/meeting places in the city. Since that day I’ve been to a number of places in the city, including:

- Sol (or rather, La Plaza de la Puerta del Sol): You know the saying “all roads lead to Rome”? Well, that’s pretty much the case with this plaza; in Madrid, “all roads lead to Sol,” more or less. It is almost always packed with people, making it obvious that Madrid has a population of over three million inhabitants.

- Gran Vía, a major shopping avenue, with restaurants as well, is somewhat similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago, and very crowed.

- La Plaza Mayor, described by one of my guidebooks as “one image that [is] unmistakably Madrid,” and honestly, I don’t know how to describe it better.

- a coffee shop in the quaint and chic gay district called Chueca

- some bars, including one called HAMLET, in the barrios of Huertas and La Latina

- El Parque de Buen Retiro, the huge park that has several features including a rose garden and a pond/lake where you can rent rowboats (which I did with Emily, my friend and teammate from WWC who is backpacking through Europe)

- El Templo de Debod, a temple given to Spain from Egypt in the 1960s as a thank-you to the Spanish archeologists, brought to Spain piece by piece

- La Plaza de España, where there's a big statue of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza and some stores and such

- El Corte Inglés, the huge department store that sponsors equipos de futbol (soccer teams) and other endeavors

- El Rastro, the outdoor flea market in La Latina on Sunday mornings

- El Museo del Prado, where I saw the works of El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya; I’ve been twice

- and a walking tour with ISA of some main buildings in Madrid, like El Teatro Real (the Royal Theater) which houses the national opera, and El Palacio Real (the Royal Palace), which was built in an attempt to emulate Versailles.

There's so much to see and do here, it's incredible. The street performers are quite talented and creative. I've seen a string quintet playing just down the street from a mime in a bright orange unitard. There are several stationary figures as well. There are some other characters I see pretty often like the windblown man, whose jacket and tie have wires in them and his umbrella is turned inside out. Other characters include a cowboy dressed all in black, a Terminator-type robot, a fisherman dressed and painted all in black, a man and his guitar completely covered in mud, and many, many more.

The graffiti here is, well, everywhere. Surprisingly though, I find some of it very interesting and thought-provoking, like the map of the world that had been spray painted over on the U.S. with the four letter word: IRAK. Other graffiti I've seen is very different, like the piece I saw only a few blocks away, which said MAD CITY. Of course, MAD stands for Madrid, but I think it also meant "mad" as in crazy or awesome, which are words I wouldn't mind using to describe this city I'm living in.

I have several more things on my to-do/to-see list, and I am gradually crossing them off. It's a great city that's pretty easy to navigate despite the lack of rectangular blocks that I’m used to in the states. The Metro is reliable the majority of the time, and I think it's well-kept, like most of the city. Unlike many big cities, you see the effort el ayuntamiento (the city hall) is putting in to keep the city clean with workers in flourescent suits patrolling the streets and metro at all hours pushing their trash carts to keep up with the three million + inhabitants and tourists.

School

The university where I am taking classes is a private one called Universidad de Antonio de Nebrija, or just Nebrija for short. My first day of school, I took the placement exam, during which I nearly fell asleep because I had to get up at 6:45 AM to get ready and eat before taking the Metro for about 30-45 minutes to get to school. I placed into the middle of the intermediate level classes (there are five intermediate level classes), which has worked out fine because I wanted to brush up on my Spanish, not drown in my ignorance of the language in a level much too high for me. However, that means that I’m not taking the Twentieth Century Spanish Theater course I had hoped to be able to take. Instead, I’m taking Conversación y Cultura (Conversation and Culture) and Lengua Española (Spanish Language, basically, a grammar class), and my profesoras for classes are very helpful and friendly. We get to call them by their first names, so it’s pretty informal and friendly, much like Wilson. My teachers’ names are Ester and María José, and they’re great. My first week was a bit difficult because I was still getting over my jetlag and was not taking advantage of the siesta, so staying awake was a challenge, but last week I was much more awake and engaged in class. Last Monday, I had one of my midterms, which I felt pretty good about, and I had another the next day, which I wasn’t too worried about. I did pretty well on both of them, so I was pleased. It is definitely an “intensive month” — we have three classes a day, starting at 8:30 AM and ending at 1:00 PM, so getting up at 6:45 AM is still part of the whole routine, as it was my first day. Consequently, I’ve picked up the habit of drinking a small “café con leche” before my first class each morning. The time has flown by, but I’ve been learning a great deal.

Toledo

My first weekend after the first week of classes, I went on the ISA excursion to Toledo. We went on a walking tour of Toletum(Latin name)/Tule/Tula(Arabic name)/Toledo(Spanish name), which somehow seemed to be uphill in every direction. We saw the main cathedral, the old synagogue (which only has one star of David remaining in the entire building), and an old mosque that is currently being excavated. The overlap of the three religions in the city makes a lasting impression as to when they were living in harmony and when Catholicism sort of went into power-trip mode. The shops that sold souvenirs had not only a lot of “religions in harmony” items, but also Don Quijote paraphernalia because the city is in the state of Castilla-La Mancha, and Don Quijote is: The Man of La Mancha. We stayed in the new part of the city, meaning we were outside the city walls, but we had a nice hotel with a big pool and fun neighbors: a high-school-aged soccer team from Brasil. It was certainly a cross-cultural experience trying to interpret their Portuguese, but we communicated relatively well and talked about futbol, school, and dance. They showed us a very strange dance to a song one of them had on their phone. Apparently it’s really popular in the clubs in Brasil, but it just looked really funny to the rest of us, even after they showed us how to do it. It was a long, but informational and fun day.

The other part of the excursion that weekend was to El Escorial. Originally built as a monastery, church, and school (with an amazing library), this building has served as the King’s residence as well as his resting place. The tombs of all of the Kings and Queens (with the exception of two or three, I think) since Felipe II (in the 16^th century) along with numerous members of the royal families are in the most elaborately decorated part of the entire building: the basement. There are rooms off to the side of the main Regents’ tomb-room in which the more recently dead royalty are waiting. “Waiting for what?” our guide asked us, reading some of our minds, “to rot,” she said, “They are waiting to rot.” Apparently they have to be in the waiting room from somewhere between 35-50 years before their bones are placed in the royal casket room. When the three who are dead and rotting (quite pleasant, right?) right now take their places in the room, it will be full, so when Rey Juan Carlos and Reina Sofía pass away, they’ll have to be placed somewhere else. I’ve never been somewhere with so much history before. It’s really surprising.

Of course, then there’s Franco. Since he was not a king and not of the royal family, he could not be buried in El Escorial, so he chose to have his own elaborate burial place and basilica built for him by political prisoners from the Spanish Civil War. This memorial is called La Valle de los Caídos, or The Valley of the Fallen. There’s a tiny part of the memorial dedicated to those who died in the Spanish Civil War, but the main feature of this dark cave of a basilica is Franco’s grave. It’s pretty creepy, but outside, there’s a beautiful overlook of the Valley/City below.

Granada/Málaga

In order to get to Granada and have time to really see what it had to offer us, we had to skip classes this past Friday to ride a bus for five hours to Granada. That afternoon/evening, we went to the most famous attraction in Granada: La Alhmabra. This palace in the south of Spain was the last stronghold of the Muslim rulers of Spain that had held power for over seven centuries. The architecture there is beautiful and the gardens are amazing. If I could live in a house made entirely of fountains from the Alhambra and Granada, I would, but I’m afraid I’d get too pruny. One of the sections of the palace, called la Plaza de las Leones, where the king’s twelve concubines lived with their children, was being renovated at the time, which was too bad, but the postcards I bought certainly gave a good sense of what it looked like originally.

The next day, we took a short bus ride to the Mediterranean coast to the city of Málaga where we spent our afternoon at the beach. It’s beautiful there, and the water is so clear, but since it’s constantly moving, you often miss sharp pointy things known as “herizos de mar,” or in English, sea urchins. I currently still have some of their spikes in my hand. Quite an effective defense mechanism, I must say. Anyway, that didn’t deter me from swimming, just trying to climb onto some bigger rocks farther out in the water. I guess I also really wanted to emulate the sea creatures there because when I left, I was a lobster. I’m currently recovering from it with oodles of aloe and post-solar lotion, but it was really fun nevertheless.

When we got back to Granada, we took a bit of a walking tour/jaunt up to a little cave/bar/place to watch a flamenco show. Amazing. The room was about half the size of the off-Broadway theatre in which I saw STOMP (meaning it was about 12 feet wide), and it was probably just as loud, and I was sitting in the very front row. They didn’t use castanets, but their hands and feet and legs to make the sounds and music. Each session (we saw two), there was a singer, a guitarist and four dancers. I’ll post a video from the show along with pictures. It’s too difficult to describe besides saying that it was amazing. After that was over, we were free for the rest of the evening, so some friends and I went searching for some dinner in a primarily Arabic barrio. While some of our friends went into a fancier and more expensive Arabic restaurant, my roommate Rachael, our friend Dale, and I decided to go cheap, and we found a Schuarma and Falafel place run by a father and son from Saudi Arabia. The son was fair skinned with freckles and short red hair, something new for sure… I’ve never seen a red headed Saudi before, and his brother, who had just moved to Granada only a couple weeks before, walked in as we were ordering, and he looked almost exactly the same, except with slightly darker hair, but still fair skinned and freckled. As we ate our food, we talked to them in both English and Spanish because one of the brothers had studied in England at Cambridge for a couple years but knew very little Spanish whereas the other brother knew Spanish and Saudi, but very little English. It was a delicious and interesting experience. After leaving there, we found the best heladería in Spain, in my personal opinion. (It was so good, in fact, that I got another before we left the next day.)

The next morning, we went to the cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabel are entombed. It was surprising less regal than I imagined, but there was an exhibit that had several artifacts from their rule, including the queen’s crown and chest of jewels that she gave to Cristóbal Colón to fund his journey on which he “discovered” the “new world.” Neat stuff. My favorite part about their tombs is the fact that their lying-down statues are very similar, but Isabel’s head is heavier on the pillow because she had more intelligence than her partner Ferdinand. A nice touch by the sculptor, I must say. After departing the cathedral, we took a little walk/hike up to an overlook of the city where you can see the majority of Granada, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Alhambra all at once. It’s unbelievable, and only nine of the forty or so people went with us to the top. They missed out, for sure. After some free time in the street markets on the side streets near the cathedral, we made our way back to our hotel and got on the bus to head back to the MAD CITY.

And that’s what I’ve been up to these past couple weeks (and a few days). If you’ve been to Spain and have suggestions, or if you haven’t but have heard about somewhere I should check out, let me know. I have about a week and a half or so after my program is done that is completely open for some adventures, and I would love suggestions. Hope all is well and you are happy and healthy.

Much love to you all,

Lauren
aka Lolo, lo-funk, etc.

Let's start at the very beginning...

So, it has begun. In an effort to avoid inundating family and friends with ridiculously long emails, I started this blog so that people who wish to know more of my experiences, particularly those in Spain, as that is what I was sending out email updates about, can read more in-depth stories and descriptions of what is currently going on in my life. Thanks for reading.