Sunday, May 30, 2010

Photos


We had paella one of the nights mom was in town. It was the most amazing seafood paella I have ever had.

Mom and I in front of the cathedral in Murcia on a night out on the town with my friends.

The restaurant we ate dinner at in Granada. It was so beautiful.


In Granada with the Alhambra in the background.

39 days to go and a lot to do!

I haven't made a post in a long time because of Ibiza, mom's visit to spain and final school work. Next week is the final week of school. I have a presentation either on Monday or Tuesday for political systems and another presentation for graphic design on Thursday. The week after that I present my photojournalism project on Tuesday and give my oral exam for literature. It's very strange to think that time has flown by so quickly and it's already almost time for school to end and summer to begin (even though the temperature here makes it feel like summer everyday).

Ibiza
The second week of May, the ERASMUS (exchange program in Europe) organized a trip to the island of Ibiza for all exchange students studying in Spain, which ended up being +2,000 crazy students. Ibiza was a BEAUTIFUL island and it was a needed week-long vacation. They set us up in hotel rooms with kitchens, a pool and 5 minutes away from the beach. In Ibiza, they literally had a party organized every night at the clubs that hadn't even opened for the season. The first one was at a bar on the beach and that was probably my favorite one, just because I had never been to such a beachy event. The next one was a school party, where we all had to dress up as school kids. The one after that was a water party, where the club literally had a pool in the middle and at 4:30am, they started spraying water all over the place. The final party was a foam party. Let's just say one foam party in a lifetime is enough for me. My sandals still foam whenever it rains outside.
Although there were a lot of parties, Ibiza was simply beautiful for the beaches. The water was crystal clear and a little bit chilly, but very refreshing.

Mom's visit
The week after Ibiza, my mom came to visit me in Murcia. I ran from class to pick her up at the bus station and spotted her walking toward my apartment. It was such a good reunion! We went for a walk right away to show her my city and later that night booked a hostel to go to Granada for the weekend. The next Friday morning, we left for Granada. Overall, Granada has probably been my favorite city in Spain, even though I haven't visited very many. It was old and very hippy like. There was a little area that I referred to as "Little Morocco" because it was just like it and you felt like you weren't in Spain. The Alhambra was gorgeous and so was all the history. I wish we would've had more time in Granada, but Friday and Saturday were definitely not wasted and our poor legs were about to die. When we got back on Saturday night, we ordered a pizza for the traditional pizza and a movie Saturday. The next day, I took her for a walk around a quiet Sunday Murcia. Monday night we went to tapas with a small group of friends I've made here who also had some visitors from the States. Earlier that day, I had took her to a beach and it was absolutely perfect. On Tuesday, she went to Valencia to meet an old college friend and on Wednesday, we went to a bodega to get a wine tour. It was so interesting to see the process and to learn how to taste wine. On Thursday, I had her come with me to the campus outside of the city and then we came back to make homemade soup. At midnight, she took the bus to Madrid and that was the end of a very fun mother-daughter week. It was nice to be able to share Murcia with someone from back home, even if it was for a short amount of time.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Mud bath

This saturday, we went to a beach town near Murcia called Lo Pagan. We specifically chose this town because of its famous mud baths. It felt kind of disgusting at first, felt good as it dried, was hard to get off and smelled kind of bad. Overall, it left all of our skin soft and crystal-like for the bus ride back to Murcia. There were tourists but there were also people who took it so seriously, they had swim caps on and were completely covered in the mud from head to toe. Swimming in the mediterranean and playing volleyball with friends on the beach was also possibly one of the best things I could've done in the past few weeks. The link is to a site describing the mud. It's in Spanish because I couldn't find one in English.

http://www.terra.es/personal/alksoft/pueblos/sp/splodos/lodos.htm

My friend Erin and I letting the mud dry.

Isabella, Sam and I at Sam's 21st birthday party after our mud baths.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Euro Budget


These two photos are from my birthday weekend last week. There was a huge music festival (SOS 4.8) where we went with a big group of people. The festival was Friday and Saturday, so on Saturday morning we attempted a rooftop brunch until it started to downpour right as we started eating and it had to be moved inside. Overall, it was nice turning 21 in Europe because Europeans don't expect much of you on your 21st; however, I have a lot of American friends here and they are aware of what turning 21 means in the States.


Who knew a craving of South Dakota food would put a damper on my euro budget. As it gets warmer, I can't help but think about South Dakota sweet corn. Since coming to Spain, I've gotten canned sweet corn to mix in soups, but the other day I finally purchased corn on the cob. I'm not sure if it's because it isn't popular here, but the only corn on the cob you can find is a package in the vegetable section with two, already cooked, corn on the cobs. The package even says sweet corn.
The only major problem with this sweet corn is the simple thought of paying 1.65 euros (that's about $2) for only two. I wish I could walk up to a cart full of sweet corn on any given day or to the farmer's market and have to clean them off. Although it was expensive, they were good...but not as good as South Dakota's.

Next week I'm going on a trip to Ibiza and Formentera with all the students studying in Spain this semester from all over the world. During the trip, we'll be staying in apartments with 2 other people until Sunday. It should be a fun time and I'm very excited to be taking boats all over the place.
After Ibiza, there will only be two weeks until I have to hand most of my projects in (May 31-June 3). That week I have to give a presentation on Uruguay with my American partner, hand in my photojournalism project and my graphic design project. In between all that, my beautiful mom will be visiting for a week from May 20-May 28. The only actual final test I have is on June 10th and it's for literature class. We've had to read 5 short stories from 10 different books this semester and have had to analyze all the stories in a journal. The day of the test, he'll look through our journal and pick one of the stories. Then, we'll have to talk to him about it for 10 minutes or less.
On June 11th, Uruguay plays against France for the world cup and Mexico against South Africa, so a bunch of people (French, Mexican and myself included) are going to get together to watch the games.
The final trip of this semester is going to be a long one, but to the last places I was hoping to be able to see during my stay in Europe. From June 15th to June 18th, I'll be visiting Lisbon with my friend Isabella. From June 18th to June 22nd, we'll move on to Barcelona. Carmela, Isabella, Barcelona. After Barcelona, we'll then go to Greece until June 29th. After Greece, I'll be back in Murcia for a final weekend and then possibly go to Madrid on July 4th with some friends to wait for my flight on July 8th to the states and their flights on the 7th.
Once in the states, I'll be visiting my brother and his wife until the 13th in New York and will finally land on Midwestern ground on July 13th, just in time to celebrate Amanda's birthday on the 14th and the Sioux Falls Jazz Festival from the 15th-17th.



¡Feliz primavera!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Ireland

This past weekend, two other friend and I took a short trip to Ireland. After the eruption of the volcano, our flight left the day they started letting flights leave. It was kind of frightening to be flying in the sky after all these particles had been floating around in the air.
We spent the first two nights in Dublin. Dublin was such a beautiful city with a lot of old and new mixed in together. One thing we definitely noticed was the nightlife in Dublin. At 6 p.m., people were already in the pubs singing along to live bands and yelling out of windows.
On the second day in Dublin, we took a tour to the country side in a very small tour bus with 3 other girls. We visited all the typical fields of Ireland, the part of land where Mel Gibson died in "Braveheart", the bridge where Gerard Butler and Hillary Swank meet in P.S. "I Love You" and a lot of other beautiful places.
We also visited the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. There, we learned a lot about the process of making beer and how to pour your own pint. The museum did an amazing job showing the whole process in a creative way without getting too pouring. Seeing all of that definitely makes you appreciate beer more and the people brewing it.
The next day, we took a bus to Belfast. On the bus, we met a lady who was originally from Germany but had been living and being a tour guide in Ireland for 26 years. While Megan and I slept on the bus, Erin talked to her and got a lot of useful information about Belfast. She also did a conversion from Euros into Pounds for us since we didn't have any British Pounds.
In Belfast, we took a long day tour to the north coast and Londonderry because our hostel offered the free tour if you booked two nights in a row. The tour was very VERY well worth it and other than being poured on by rain for 5 minutes in the middle of the cliffs, it was the most beautiful scenery I have seen in a long time.
Londonderry was a very sad town because they're divided between the Ireland side and the British side. There are still bombings and conflict to this day, so being there was very eery and sad.
Coming back to Spain after this short vacation was definitely bitter sweet. Every place I've travelled to that hasn't been on my plans to visit (Ireland, Germany) has become one of my favorite places. I guess it's all about taking a leap and going, even if you don't know much about the place you're going to. It's so easy to fall in love with everything you see around you, the people, the food...all of it!

As of yesterday, the SOS 4.8 Music Festival has started in Murcia and we went last night and are going tonight too. At midnight yesterday, right before Franz Ferdinand started playing, my group of friends started singing happy birthday in Spanish to me and overall, it was an amazing way to ring in another birthday.

The next post will be Ireland photos.