Today in my Organizational Behavior class we were talking about visions, missions and strategic plans. Not exactly something everyone gets excited about but my teacher brought up some great points and I would love to share them. He showed us a video that revolved around our theme for the class; Steve Job's address at the 2005 Stanford commencement. It was inspiring to watch and listen to. Hopefully one day I will be that successful. I added the video so you can watch it for yourself. When we were leaving class though my professor said, "Try to do something that everyday that is worth something special to you, so that you can say I'm happy because I did this!" It sounded better in Spanish. Trust me, but you still get the point. One thing I love about the Spanish lifestyle is they work to live, while in the U.S. we live to work. College students experience so much pressure to have everything figured out when in reality we can only do our best to have a rough plan. The rest is up to fate. All day, I caught up on my homework and blogs. After lunch I took an unexpected siesta and forgot to set an alarm but luckily woke up 20 mins before my Economics class. I grabbed my things and managed to make it to class only a couple minutes late. The Spanish ways have permanently been imbedded into my system.
This weekend was really fun and now that I'm thinking about it I've been here for almost a month already! It's crazy how time flies by so fast. In 2 weeks I will be in London and the week after that my brother's godparents (Georgette & Robert) and my godmother (Valerie) are flying in for the week to visit me. I'm very excited! Now to finish the rest of my homework and go to bed early! Goodnight everyone! Remember, do something special every day! :)
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Today after we ate breakfast we went to Museo del Prado, an art museum that houses about 80% religious related paintings and sculptures. We had a guided tour of this museum as well, which was nice but I would have rather gone at my own pace and read the information from the walls. They had many rooms from El Greco and Goya, two famous painters, which created a variety of beautiful pieces. I loved how all the paintings were in immaculate condition and was surprised at vivid colors and realism. I even tried to snap a few pictures but I guess that wasn’t allowed and got in trouble. Whoops. Apparently, the museum was originally intended to be an academic school and center for history but instead is an art museum. Instead of going back inside to explore more I decided to catch some rays outside for about 15 mins until we had to be on the bus again. We grabbed an early lunch where they served cow intestines…GROSS! But they had other stuff too like tortellini, potato salad. The entire weekend I basically ate the same exact food because that’s all they served. Now were on the bus heading back home to Bilbao! This is what I was greeted with when I came back. I love it! This is the second part of day 24! If you haven't read the 1st part please do so! :) Our hour bus ride to Madrid was pretty quick and we were dropped off downtown to explore more. I didn’t really research what there was to do in Madrid so I just went with whatever my friends were doing. We walked to the Parque del Retiro, which is an absolutely stunning park. Let me tell you! First, it was enormous. Second, the trees are changing color already so it was beautiful to just sit around. Third, we stumbled upon a little event focused on getting kids more active. They had gymnastics, soccer, and volleyball games with music playing in the background. Fourth, there’s a glass building that looks absolutely gorgeous with a pond and fountain behind it. This pond also had ducks, turtles and fish. I loved all the nature! I could write forever about this park! There was another huge pond that a lot of people were rowing boats on and there were street artists, performers and entertainers standing around. There was a musician that had what looked like an inverted grill lid on his lap called a hand pan, which apparently was a very expensive drum. Unexpectedly, he made beautiful music with it and I snagged a video to share! Hopefully I can figure out how to upload it. I bought a painting from a local artist which I thought was an original but when I looked at it later more closely it was a reprint of the original. Even though I only paid 10 euro I feel cheated but it’s still pretty. I mean did I really expect an original painting from a local artist for only 10 euro? Come on Patricia. We rode the metro a number of times today, which definitely reminded me of home. There was a great mix of drunken people, awesome train service around the city, entertainers, homeless people, and crowded trains! We rode the subway to a random Egyptian temple that was placed in a park for who knows what reason. The coolest part was we were able to go inside for free and look at all the hieroglyphics! There were also some amazing views of the city from the edge of the park. It must be really popular for wedding pictures because there were at least 3 brides and grooms taking photos there. Afterwards we hoped on the train again to go to an obscure microtheatre where 15 tickets go on sale 30 mins before the 15 min. show for 4 euro. It definitely was an experience. I thought you were close to actors in a black box theater; this room was the size of the bathroom and the show was great even though we were really cramped in there. Apparently, before it was a microtheatre it was a brothel…so there’s that random fact. We rode the metro back to our hotel and grabbed some much needed dinner. I was so exhausted from walking around that instead of going out with everyone else I decided to just relax and get some rest. Our wake up call at 7:15 am was not welcomed at all; mostly because I was the one sleeping next to the phone. I jumped out of bed and got ready for our excursion to Toledo, a small city about an hour away from Madrid. Our tour guide jumped on our bus and pointed out famous buildings and gave us some history about the city. Formerly occupied by Arabs and Christians, the city has A LOT of churches and converted monasteries, with Arabic design elements. The city has a lot of inclines so I definitely got a great work out! We also took a tour of the cathedral, which had over 40 altars, some original 1000-year-old stained glass windows, paintings, sculptures, smaller chapels where they held wedding ceremonies, and even a crypt. They also had some rooms with artifacts featuring a holder for communion made of 16 kilos of solid gold that would be processed in for mass. (It’s only the middle portion in the picture.) One of my favorite paintings in the church is of Jesus after he is taking down off the cross. Instead of the artist painting blood or open wounds, they emphasized the pain that Jesus felt in his heart by having his right hand lightly placed over it. This cathedral had a crazy amount of gold! During the Napoleonic Wars and the Spanish Civil War, they had to hide all the gold to prevent it from being stolen. The holder for communion had all 12,000 of its screw able parts dismantled and hidden. The gold railings were masked with black shoe shine, which when rubbed off later took some of the gold with it.
P.S. Don't forget to read part 2! Currently, it is 9:35am and I’m on a bus headed to Madrid with the entire program. I woke up at 6 am to have enough time to get ready and be at the bus stop at 8 am. Somehow I made it 30 mins early and ended up waiting by myself for most of the time. While casually glancing around, I saw the last second of an advertisement for a Rise Against concert on October 4. I looked it up just be sure and sure enough they are playing!!!!!!! The tickets are only 30 Euro and I definitely want to go see them! Surprisingly, the 5-hour bus ride to Madrid went by pretty quick and we had beautiful views of Spanish country and mountains. I also saw a small slum for the first time in my life. It was so weird because it was fairly close to the expressway and the outer edge of the city. When we pulled up in front of our hotel it seemed pretty run down but it was actually really nice inside! On the way up to our rooms, a girl had her backpack accidently pressed against the buttons and we ended up stopping at every SINGLE FLOOR. Of course, we were on the 9th floor so that was definitely fun! The rooms were really pretty but for some reason you have to put your key card into a slot in the wall by the door to use the lights. I guess that’s the European way of making sure people don’t leave the lights on and wasting electricity. There was also a bidet in the bathroom. Once everyone was settled into his or her rooms we ate lunch in the hotel buffet, which was surprisingly good. Our first stop on our tour of Madrid was the Palacio Real. It was extravagantly gorgeous. Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures inside but I took a few outside! In the courtyard area there were some simply stunning views but the inside was definitely where the intricate work was. Each room had a completely different design and purpose. The dressing room walls were hand embroidered with vines and flowers. The banquet room was my favorite because there was a beautiful dance floor with a chandelier and a ginormous dining table that seats 140 people. I definitely have some ideas about the requirements from my future house. After the palace, we went on a guided walking tour to around Madrid de los Austrias, which includes la Plaza de la Villa, la Plaza Mayor y la Puerta del Sol. Since we were walking to a lot of touristy areas, most people didn’t like the city as much as Bilbao and were overwhelmed by all the people. Even though Madrid has only about 4 or 5 high rises it still reminded me of Chicago because there were a lot of chains like Dunkin Donuts, TGI Fridays, Hard Rock Café, along with TONS of people.
After the tour we went back to the hotel for dinner. Instead of going out or staying up super late, I decided to go to sleep early.
When I got home I had to figure out how to use the electric stove (ugh) then started boiling my potato (for mashed potatoes) and preparing my meal. Within a couple minutes my host mom came home and was a little thrown off that I had bought food to make (even though we had just agreed that I would cook for myself) because she had bought some burgers to make me. I told her that I would eat them another time because I had already bought the food and I really wanted to cook. Of course, that didn’t stop her from telling me how to cook my meal and taking my potato of the stove to cook it in the microwave… After a while she left. Well, needless to say it was an experience but I was so excited to be cooking! While I had my chicken and green beans cooking I started to smash and whip my potatoes with milk, butter and salt. As soon as I finished preparing my food, I almost cried. It smelled so good and everything was cooked exactly the way I like it. I snapped a few pictures (while my hands were shaking violently from being so excited to eat) and dug in. I was in heaven. Simply amazing!!! I accidently made 2 portions but I ate about 90% of the food. Definitely one of my biggest meals but that’s okay because it was absolutely amazing! After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen and went to my room to relax for a bit and pack my bags for the weekend. CIDE (my program) is taking us to Madrid and Toledo for the weekend and I am super excited! I will defiantly try my best to keep you updated throughout the weekend.
This morning it was pouring outside and since I have a 20 min walk to school I tried my best to prepare myself for the weather. Unfortunately it wasn't enough and I ended up getting to school late and soaking wet! Yay! Not. Also, when I opened my book bag to get my books out I realized I had forgotten them at home. A+ job Patricia! Good thing I'm auditing my Spanish class so it doesn't really matter. Luckily, I only had that one class this morning so I could go home and take off my wet shoes and socks. Looks like it's definitely worth it to invest in some rain gear. After my Economics class, I met up with my friends and we stopped by a carnicera to grab sandwiches. I got something called horanzo (I think?). I did not like it at all. The bread tasted like it was wet, had a weird texture and it was really salty and was just filled with meat. After walking quite a bit, we found a bar to watch the fútbol game. The streets were crowded and it reminded me of around Wrigley Field when there's a Cubs game. People were walking in the street, bars were filled, so many jerseys! Although, Athletic lost to Real Madrid it was a really fun game to watch! Day 19 - Since I had such a busy weekend all I did today was go to class and write my blogs! I also took a siesta for an hour, which was fantastic. I met up with my friends for churros and chocolate and we talked about places to stay in London. To be honest, the churros and chocolate weren't as sweet as I thought and we're kind of diasppointing. Also, you could taste that they needed to change their frying oil for the churros. Since planning for London took longer than I expected, I ended up coming home to shower and get some rest. Day 20 - I woke up early in the morning to finish my homework and when I went to the kitchen to grab breakfast I was surprised to find everything covered. The windows in the apartment were getting changed and they had moved all the furniture and covered everything so it wouldn't get ruined. They told me last night that I would be able to eat breakfast but just that the table would be in a different spot. WELL, not true. Even though I tried to go under the plastic it was virtually impossible and since it was Tuesday I went to the bakery for breakfast. After I bought my things I realized that I probably bought way too much to eat for myself and when I got to school shared the calories with friends. They were awesome. The one on the right was basically bread with whipped butter and sugar on top. (To be honest it was not so great. Wouldn't get it again.) Then there is a croissant filled with whipped cream and a bun with CHOCOLATE whipped cream. The bun with chocolate whipped cream was my favorite. Simply amazing. After class, I met with my friend Kenzie at the movies to see Del Revés (Inside Out). Since I saw it at home before I knew exactly what was going on but was kind of surprised by how much I understand the dialogue. Very proud of myself! Anyone who has seen Inside Out knows how it plays with your emotions and I realized that it's actually a very relatable movie for me right now. I'm in a different country, in an unfamiliar place, experiencing completely new things, living with people I have known for 2 weeks, and studying in a completely environment. Anyone who has studied abroad or has followed my blog knows how intense these emotions can be. Definitely a great movie to remind me I have a wonderful family supporting me from home. :) Shout out to my parents! Love you! <3
When I got home, I ate dinner with my host mom and brother and FINALLY had the courage to let her know I wasn't too happy with my food situation. I told her everything was good and I appreciate it but I can't eat pasta and pizza everyday and I'd much rather cook for myself because I'm a picky eater. THANK GOD I said something because as soon as I did they agreed and said they were trying to figure out how to suggest I cook my own food without sounding rude. Literally, one of the hardest conversations I've had here. Very nerve wrecking but definitely worth it because now they are excited to see how well I can cook. They better be prepared for the party on their tastebuds!! :) Now to catch some beauty rest! Goodnight! P.S. A pigeon casually walked into the cafe and was pecking around. No big deal. Good news about today was that my friend was able to buy my bus ticket. Bad news was I slept through my alarm and both my friend who had my ticket and happened to show up late to the bus stop at the same time. The stars definitely aligned. We just weren't meant to go, which in all honesty was totally fine with me because after San Sebastián and not having enough sleep I was exhausted. Yes I was disappointed I couldn't go but I can't change the past. Of course, my friend Olga was quite upset with herself and I had to give her some comforting words. Besides, my group of friends that I went to San Sebastián with actually had plans to see la regatta, which is a very competitive rowing boat race. Neither of us had a chance to eat breakfast so we stopped at a little cafe and had some tea and empanadas. They were awesome and definitely hit the spot! Someone had the idea of going on top of Puente Colgante (Vizkaya transporter bridge) for the best view. Boy were they right. Spectacular. Everyone was scared when the bridge was shaking but I wasn't. I was one with the bridge. We also went down to see what different tents they had and be around the crowd. I can't remember the name but the green team won! Those guys were strong! After the regatta was over we wandered around for a bit in the neighborhood and then went back home. For lunch I stopped by a donerkebab place to try it and it was super salty. Definitely will not go there again. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing I just chatted with Jeshua and we watched a ton of Ramsay videos. Perfect way to end the weekend! WARNING: THIS POST IS GOING TO BE SUPER LONG! Today was a day filled with so many new experiences! A lot of laughter, some pain, frustration and success. I woke up at 6 am to catch my 7:30 am bus and when I stepped out the door...SUPRISE it was pitch black. Side note: for a second I was locked into my apartment because I couldn't figure out how to open the door! Getting to the bus station was pretty easy. If you take the metro to the San Mames stop and walk for a minute you are there! Joe was cutting it really close by having an extra bowl of cereal and made us wait until 7:26 am. The anxiety was high. But he made it! The bus ride was quite nice the chairs were comfy, we saw some amazing views and there weren't that many people so we all got to sit by each other! Once you figured out where the bus terminal was in relation to our place to stay, we enjoyed looking around at all the natural beauty. It involved A LOT of walking. I even set a new record at 21,740 steps! On the way to our villa we stopped at a bakery cafe for a snack and to burn some time up before we could check in. I wasn't planning on getting anything but Joe convinced me otherwise and I'm glad he did! The sweets were amazing. One resembled a cinnamon roll and the other was similar to the apple dessert I got at the half price Tuesday's bakery. Once we got to our villa it looked just like it did in the picture (except without the edgy Instagram filters), it was absolutely gorgeous! We were welcomed in, given a tour and the keys, and settled in. It's actually more of a bed and breakfast because it had multiple rooms and bathrooms. We figured out what we wanted to do for the day and set off to enjoy ourselves. In the last picture you see a bunk bed. This is actually a collapsable bunk bed. You just lift up the top bunk and lock the legs and ladder in place. THE CRAZIEST YET MOST INGENIOUS INVENTION EVER. It was super sketchy though and we didn't trust it; so Joe pulled out his bottom bunk and slept on the floor. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant which was pretty pricey (at 20 euros) but definitely worth it! Since lunch is the most important meal of the day, it's the biggest and most extravagant. Almost every single restaurant has something called menu del día, which is basically a 3 or 4 course lunch where you pick dishes from a set menu for a set price. Usually, the menus range from 7 euro - 30 euro (depending on how fancy you get). Our lunch was more expensive because we were in a highly tourist area. I had unlimited fresh bread and drinks, a GIANT plate of spaghetti bolognese for my first course, grilled steak with red peppers and potatoes for my second course, and flan for dessert! The flan definitely wasn't as good as my moms but pretty close! Everything was spectacular! After lunch we went walked around and walked toward the beach. AMAZING. Just look at this view! Joe and I were pretty excited to try surfing and found a place on the beach to take a class. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. The whole group ended up taking the lesson, which came out cheaper for us and it was so much fun! I swallowed so much sea water and got hit so many times but it was definitely worth it! At the last minute of our lesson I got bombarded with a giant wave, couldn't get on my board in time and the board ended up smacking me on the head really hard. It was the most intense pain in ever felt in my head and I got a slight concussion. Luckily though, Joe and Matt are both life guards and checked to make sure I was okay. Instead of hiking up the mountain, I took a cab home and ended up stopping at a bakery to buy a cake for Joe since his birthday was on Saturday. The funniest part is, we were planning on surprising him at midnight with the cake and were trying to figure out how one of us could get away without him noticing or suspecting anything. My slight concussion did just the trick. After I got to our place, I showered and felt much better! I met up with my friends and we went out for pintxos and gelato. We got back to our place at 11:30pm and stalled until midnight to make sure Joe was up. At about 11:50pm I went to go change into my pj's and grab the cake. At exactly 12:00am I opened the door to our room singing happy birthday and everyone joined in. Joe was so surprised. Best face ever, he turned into a tomato! Unfortunately, we didn't have any utensils or plates to cut and eat the cake and we ended up using dental floss in substitute for a knife. This is how memories are made. It was absolutely spectacular. By the end of the night I was definitely beat and could not wait to get some well deserved rest. Too bad the mattress was worse than sleeping on the floor. It was terrible. I did not sleep at all! In total I had about 3 hours of sleep. While everyone was peacefully sleeping I was too uncomfortable to fall asleep. At 5 am I gave up and just sat in my bed until 8:30am when everyone else woke up. What did I do you ask? Well, mostly I was wishing I was home. I miss my family, I miss my bed, I miss Cilantro, I miss Julian. It sucks to be completely alone. Sure I have my friends here but in reality I've only known them for 2 weeks and that definitely doesn't substitute for my family or friends back home. But that's studying abroad for you. You put yourself in a completely different environment out of reach of anything familiar. And yes you have fun and make lifelong memories but times like this no one talks about because they absolutely suck. I realized we had only been here for 2 weeks and I'm going to be here for 4 months! It's such a longggggggg time away from home but at the same time it's very short. The message here is simple: for anyone interested in studying abroad, please do it. It will change your life. But know that it's okay to be scared, it's okay to be uncomfortable, and it's definitely okay to miss home. Everyone here does. But don't use that as an opportunity to stay in one place. Use it as an opportunity to experience everything you can in this short amount of time. While everyone was waiting for the showers I ran downstairs and checked out what was for breakfast. Basically bread, muffins, cereal, coffee, tea, etc. It wasn't that bad. I had bread with butter and jelly but that is definitely not a great breakfast. I would have loved some tea but when I went to look at the cups they all looked dirty. I decided I didn't want any strange diseases so left to pack my things. On our way to town we stopped by the bakery again and I grabbed a better breakfast. A sandwich and a chicken empanada. The empanada was awesome! We also finished the leftovers from Joe's cake. We also discovered the direct translation for the Brazo bombón trufa cake was arm hottie truffle. Hilarious! We walked for what seemed like forever to Mount Igueldo and took the funicular up to the top. The views were absolutely breath taking. But that's not even the best part because there was an amusement park ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN. I'm not kidding. The prize attraction, a 103 year old roller coaster. That was the best thing I did all day. Definitely worth the almost 2 hour wait (because the operators were on their siestas) because we got to talk to a souvenir shop keeper who offered to watch our bags while we rode. She even told us great facts about Basque country and great places to visit while in Spain. We also went to the highest point on the mountain, which was on top of a tower. The view was indescribable. Pictures cannot even capture the beauty. Definitely worth the 2.50 euro to go up there. And to think I wasn't about to because I was too tired to climb up the stairs and didn't want to pay but then Joe said: "If you have to debate whether or not to do something, do it because if you don't you WILL regret it." Pure gold. Thanks Joe!
The trip home was fun and we went out for some Chinese food for dinner. Definitely a great way to end the night! |
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