Viaje a Andalucia

Playing some serious catchup... this is about my trip to Andalucia (southern Spain) from the end of October!

We had a long weekend because of a holiday here in Spain, so I decided to go on an "Erasmus" trip to Andalucia. Erasmus is a program for European students to study at other schools in Europe, so they typically refer to all international students as "Erasmus". We started off with an 8 hour bus ride (starting at 1am) to Jaen, which was absolutely beautiful. I had no clue that Andalucia would be so gorgeous and have so many mountains. We only stated a few hours in Jaen, but we saw the Castillo de Santa Catlina at the top of a hill that looks over the city, visited the Cathedral, and had tapas in town. 

While we were at the tapas restaurant, I ran into ANOTHER UT STUDENT who I knew! Sooo crazy... He is studying in Barcelona for the semester, and several "Erasmus" groups from different Spanish cities came on the trip. But neither of us had any idea the other would be on the trip. Sooo strange. 

That afternoon we drove to Granada which, so far, has been my favorite place I've visited in Europe. It was an Arabic town around the 5th century BC so the architecture still has a lot of Arabic influence... Which is one of my favorite kinds of architecture. Lots of colorful geometric tiles contrasted with white walls, ornate arabesque arches, and overall just an incredible amount of detail. We went to see the Alhambra, which  I've seen a thousand times in pictures in my "History of Architecture" courses, so seeing it in person was a really amazing experience. The complex and the gardens are stunning and have a breathtaking view of the surrounding landscape!

We also had a guided tour of the city and stopped at the Plaza de San Nicolas where there were a bunch of local artisans selling their work and some guys playing guitar. Combined with the view of the Alhambra across the valley, it was such a nice spot! I think I could've stayed there all afternoon. 

Friday we drove to Sevilla, the Capitol of Andalucia and the origin of Flamenco! We saw a flamenco show in town that night and it was SO COOL!

We also visited Plaza de España with another tour guide. The plaza was built in 1928 and was a spot for all of the regions of Spain to come together. Each of the 50 provinces is represented in the plaza. 

On Sunday morning, we headed to Cordoba for an extremely short visit. We had a tour of the city with a guide, but unfortunately it was pouring rain almost the entire time. Also, since it was Sunday, the Great Mosque of Cordoba was closed for mass (it was converted into a church in 1236) and so we didn't get to go inside :( Note to self - no more "organized" Erasmus trips for me... because they are in fact, not very organized at all! 

Overall, I met some really fun people from all over the world (France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, etc...) and really, really loved Andalucia. I definitely hope to visit again someday!

Hola, Madrid!

Okay, I promise I'll try to do a better job of shorter, more frequent updates. A couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend in Madrid with my friends Aldo and Mat (Aldo is one of my 3 roomies!). They were going to a concert and crashing with a friend there, and they invited me to tag along and explore the city with them :) 

If I were to compare Madrid and Valencia, I would say Madrid is the Dallas of Spain while Valencia is the Austin. Well, maybe Barcelona is the Austin, but since I haven't been there yet, I couldn't say. Regardless, Madrid seems much more metropolitan than Valencia. More intricate government buildings (it is the capitol, after all), a more complex public transportation system, lots of museums, and a lot more money than Valencia.

For those of you who aren't too familiar with the geography of Spain. Here's a map:
blue = Valencia, orange = Madrid. So ya know!

We hit up as many museums as we could while we were there, and also checked out a really cool market. At the market, a lot of the stands were selling tapas for 1€  (about $1.28 in USD), so we just had one at all of them! Definitely some of the best tapas I've had so far. SO good. 

used book store inside the market. pay by the kilo!

Also, the interior of Spain is MUCH, much colder than the coast. I was freezing all weekend.

The Parque del Retiro in the center of the city is gorgeous. And with a really nice pond in the center! 

Those of you who keep up with any international news might have seen some of the strikes that have going on all over Spain. We ran into one of them while we were there - we were trying to cross the street to get to a museum, and the police blocked our path and told us we had to go another way. Really, if you think politics are messed up in the US, they're messed up in Europe, too. 

Anyway, I'm so glad I went, but I can't say Madrid would be the first place I'd go back and visit in Spain. I definitely preferred the cities we visited in Andalucia (a region in southern Spain), which I'll update you guys on next!

Also... side note, if I make any grammar mistakes, please forgive me. For every word and grammar rule I learn in Spanish, I swear I forget one in English.

I found this in a store in Madrid. How funny!

The Eternal City

Sorry friends and family! I know it's been a while... I spend so much time on the computer doing homework and trying to figure out things here in Spain that I usually avoid it as much as I can otherwise.

Anyway, my last trip was to beautiful Roma, Italia, and it was incredible! The entire time we were there we kept saying that the entire city is just a museum. Every corner you turn, there is another magnificent monument or building just waiting to be explored and photographed.

One of the amazing things about Rome is that some of the most gorgeous/historic sites are completely under-appreciated, simply because they are overshadowed by the even more gorgeous/historic sites that are right down the street. A building that, in any other city, would have a long line of spectators waiting to enter, is completely passed by, simply because there is SO much to see. 

I met up with my roommate's friend (Victoria) who'd stayed with us in Valencia a few weeks earlier, and her group of friends was meeting in Rome for a "study abroad reunion," as they'd all spent a year studying in Norman at OU. The funny thing was, the weekend we were in Rome also happened to be the weekend of the Texas-OU game, and I ended up hanging out with a bunch of Sooners! You can imagine the taunts that started after our devastating loss... But don't worry, in case you were asking yourself, the answer is still the same: http://doesoustillsuck.com/

But I digress. Colosseum: huuuge line of people, but incredible & worth it. So amazing to see it in person after seeing it in pictures so many times. 

The Roman Forum: definitely cooler than the Colosseum, in my opinion. Absolutely huuuugeee and just so amazing to basically see what an entire Roman community was like so many hundreds of years ago!

The Pantheon: breathtaking. Probably one of my favorite buildings we saw. It rained a lot while we were in Rome, and I wish we would have gone here while it was raining. Apparently it's really cool to see all of the rain coming into the interior of the building. And I always wondered what happens to the rainwater... but we discovered that there are tiny drains in the floor beneath the oculus :)

St. Peter's Basilica: words can't even describe it... but I'll try. Enormous. Gigantic. HUGE. (getting an idea?) Inspiring. Heavenly... the complexity, size, light, and detail in this building are just mind-blowing. And after studying a lot of religious architecture, I can completely see how this building served its purpose back in the day (and still continues today) - to bring people to God. Especially for a person living hundreds of years ago. I can just imagine an average person coming in to St. Peter's and literally thinking that the choir was a choir of angels singing. The acoustics are incredible. And for a person to feel so small and look up and see this gigantic, sunlight-filled space... wow. If architecture can make a person feel/believe/act a certain way, I think it is most exemplified in religious architecture. And since St. Peter's is the world's biggest church, well... it just might be the most influential of the most influential! You know?  

At the same time my feelings were a bit mixed, knowing how much corruption there was in the Catholic church when it was built, and also knowing how much poverty and hunger there was at the time. The space is beyond amazing, but while taking it all in, I was also thinking about the increeedibblee amount of money that was spent on this building. Anyway, in summary, breathtaking but taken with a grain of salt.

Also another cool thing: while we were looking out from one of the many beautiful look-out spots in Rome (the city was built on 7 hills!), I looked down and saw a column on which I had written an ENTIRE PAPER. It was Trajan's Column, and it was pretty cool to instantly recognize a structure I'd studied so much (without even looking for it!).

We found an awesome little Italian cafe with amazing pasta, coffee, and vino after St. Peter's (and no tourists! Difficult to find in Rome...), and even made some real Roman friends. They showed us a cool neighborhood where more of the locals hung out (and fewer tourists), which was really neat. 

Ok... I'll stop here since I've already written an essay. But basically, Rome trip: success. The only thing I really wanted to see but didn't was the Sistine Chapel, but I suppose that just gives me a reason to go back to Rome someday! 

Post-Life Adventure

Last Thursday, we lost my Poppa Doc. It gives me a lot of comfort to know that during his last days, he was surrounded by his family who loved him and was still his same old self, teasing family members and making everyone laugh.

So far, this has been the hardest part of my semester abroad... not being able to comfort and be comforted (in person) by my family back home. While thinking about how he's now free of the pain and limitations of his tired, worn-out body, I was reminded of a quote by J.M. Barrie from the book, Peter Pan, that I found touching:

"To die will be an awfully big adventure." 

After thinking more about it, the quote seemed surprisingly relevant to Poppa and my semester here, since it has been all about embracing the adventures that life throws our way. I'd only anticipated those I'd encounter in my travels, but I am now realizing that maybe a semester of "embracing adventure" goes deeper than simply hopping on a plane to Europe.

Not five minutes after this quote came to mind, I unexpectedly came across a photo of the kid who played Peter Pan in the movie (dressed in character). About an hour later, and without mentioning anything to her, my roommate Veronika told me that she was so excited to find one of her favorite books in the bookstore down the street: Peter Pan. Somehow it felt like a sign that Poppa was up there having quite the adventure.

I might be living an adventurous life here in Spain, but I know Poppa is now having a more joyful, pain-free adventure than I could ever imagine. Love you and miss you.

Things I miss about Texas

(besides family and friends, of course) ;)
Torchy's
regular business hours
food trucks
garbage disposal
normal street signs 

Things I don't miss about Texas
heat
lack of siesta time
lack of bike lanes
driving everywhere

Stockholm, Sweden

This past week, I made my first trip away from Valencia! I hadn't started classes yet (well, not really...), and Josh had a week off from medical school, so he flew to Stockholm, Sweden where we met up with a bunch of friends who are studying all over Europe for the semester! It's a group of about 25 architecture students who travel with two architecture professors from UT, and they go all over Europe for the first 7 weeks or so. This past week, they were in Stockholm, so we decided to join!

The building below is the Stockholm Public Library, designed by Gunnar Asplund. The circular reading room inside is a pretty neat experience.

We also went to the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Architecture with the group. For their "studio Europe" program, each student is assigned a building and a city which they have to research. When they get to that building, that student gives a short presentation to the rest of the group. Here, Diana is giving us a brief background of the Museum and its exhibits.

 This was the best "group" picture I could manage while I was with them. Guess I'll just have to meet up with them again somewhere else in Europe! :)

 

I have to admit that I wasn't super pumped about our next stop, but it ended up being one of my favorite sights from the trip: The Vasa, a Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. In the 1960s, they decided to PULL IT OUT OF THE WATER and salvage it. This thing was HUGE. Even though I read all about the process of how they got this thing out of the water, I am still amazed that they were able to do it. The size, detail, precision, everything... was absolutely incredible.

Riddarholmen Church: burial church of the Swedish monarchs. 

The only things I didn't like much about Stockholm were 1) the food (can't say I'm crazyabout Swedish food... too much mayonaise, dill, and weird fish things), and 2) most of the people that we met weren't overbearingly friendly. But overall, Stockholm was pretty fantastic. The city is incredibly clean considering how large it is, and I noticed innovative design solutions everywhere. There were a TON of bikes everywhere, and the fact that we were walking around a bunch of islands was pretty cool. Also, since it's so far north, the sun hangs pretty low in the sky and always creates long, dramatic shadows that usually only happen in the morning and evening for us Texans. I felt like it was 6:00pm all day long! Another benefit from its northern latitude: an amazing sunset that seemed to last for ages. 

Bienvenidos a Valencia!

I finally made it to Valencia! And I had a GREAT last couple of weeks in Texas. I met a bunch of international students studying at UT for the semester (including the two architecture students who are from my school in Valencia!), and I got to spend some time with my family and Josh at the beach in Galveston :)

Goodbyes are always hard, but my last two weeks in Texas involved a LOT of goodbyes. First, I moved out of my apartment in Austin, which was sad because I had a lot really good time living there this past year. Saying bye to my friends and family was also tough... And I had to say goodbye to our house of the past 21 years, because when I come back to Texas in January, my parents will be living in their new place in Austin!

But soon after all of those goodbyes came lots of "hellos"! It's been a bit surreal that I'm finally in SPAIN to live here for the next 4 and a half months. Spain has 17 communidades (like the US states) and this flag is for la Comunidad Valenciana, the community in which the city of Valencia is located. I really like the flag! :)

 These are two of my new roomies, Aldo and María. They have both been so great, but unfortunately María is moving to Copenhagen in a week. She has shown me all around town and helped me so much with my Spanish. I'm seeing a trip to Copenhagen in my near future... Aldo will stay in Valencia, and I have two new roomies coming soon from the Czech Republic.

 It doesn't get much better than a view of the beach and the mountains. We walked down a pier near the port of Valencia and got to see these great views of the ocean.

The hardest part of being in a new country has definitely been the language barrier. I've been pretty surprised by the fact that I can carry on a decent conversation in Spanish (even if my grammar is TERRIBLE), but when I'm in a group, it's a whole different story... The other day we went to this beautiful swimming hole and had a picnic by the water, but while we were sitting around the table, I didn't say anything. Not because I'm shy (definitely not the problem...), but because by the time I was able to figure out what everyone was talking about in Spanish and thought of a response, they had moved onto a new topic. For over an hour, I didn't say a single word. I felt SO antisocial, because that is not me at all...

I was feeling pretty stressed and overwhelmed after spending almost an entire day in confusion, so I decided to go for a run that afternoon. There used to be a long river that flowed through Valencia called Turia, but it was diverted, and the old riverbed has now been converted into a park that goes all through the city. The park is extremely wide (this picture doesn't show it very well) and is absolutely beautiful. What surprised me most was that each part of the river/park was so thoughtfully considered, because around each turn there was some beautifully designed feature: a small sidewalk cafe, a reflecting pool, several playgrounds, a skate park, places to rent bikes, sculptures, art... and it reminded me that truly wonderful design does have an impact on us, whether we realize it or not. Simply being in the park made me feel so much less stressed about my day.

I have one last story, and then I promise I'll stop writing. (See, a lack of things to say is really not my problem... just a lack of things to say in SPANISH.)

So grocery shopping in a foreign country is more difficult than I anticipated. My roommates and I decided to make fajitas because I thought I'd bought chicken... but apparently it was turkey. I am a horrible Texan for making turkey fajitas. At least we had a healthy dinner? Also, I have no clue what kind of cheese I bought... but whatever it was, it wasn't too bad in the fajitas. 

And with that... here are some more pictures around Valencia. Bona nit for now... (Goodnight in Valenciano) :)