While I was waiting to board the plane yesterday I was anxiously waiting for my friend Lauren to show up. Luckily she made it just as we were boarding. Close call. As soon as we got on the plane, our flight was delayed by 30 mins because France was doing something. Not cool. We made it to London about 2 hours later, took the tube to our hostel and met up with our friends who took an earlier flight. By this time, we were all starving and ventured out to find some food. Of course, London isn't Spain and at 11pm not much is open still. After quite a bit of walking we found a cafe that was still open and I ordered some rice and steamed veggies. It was amazing!!! And only 2 pounds. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see veggies! After our very late dinner, we walked back to our hostel and went to bed to get ready for today's packed day! Today was packed with all the emotions of traveling in a new city. We woke up bright and early to visit Buckingham Palace and grab some breakfast. Like I said the other day, I researched the heck out of the places we wanted to go and where we could eat. The plan was to take the tube to the Buckingham Palace and grab breakfast around there before we stopped by the palace. While we were walking underground, a familiar scent filled my lungs. Fresh bread. At first I thought it was weird because we were underground but I was certain. After about 2 mins of walking we turned the corner and there was a little shop that sold pastries and paninis. Moments like these make me think I'm destined to be a chef! :) We went to breakfast at a place near Buckingham Palace called Cafe Bella Maria, a small family owned business that uses local suppliers. It was amazing! So cute, so perfect! In fact, even before I walked in I knew it was the perfect place just because of what they had written on their window. It says " You can't buy happiness but you can buy cake!" The actual food was amazing as well! As much as I wanted to get the traditional full English breakfast (fried egg, baked beans, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, toast and a grilled tomato) I don't like half of the things on the plate so I decided against it and ordered Mediterranean style scrambled eggs. Great food! Buckingham palace was awesome and even though we didn't get to see the changing of the guards we got some really awesome pictures! Then, we went to Borough Market (an absolutely amazing food market). It was like a playground for food lovers. I could have stayed there for hours. I stopped by a stand and bought walnut baklava and chocolate covered almonds. They were heavenly. As you can tell from the photo. After the market we stopped by London Bridge and I sang the famous song London Bridge is falling down. Now I get to check that off my bucket list! To be honest, I have no idea why there is a song about this bridge. It was just a bridge. In the picture in the background you can see another bridge with 2 towers called Tower Bridge. Most people think that bridge is London Bridge because that bridge is way cooler! Our next stop was Tower of London, a famous castle that not surprisingly has a ton of towers. It was awesome to walk around and explore at our own pace! It also had great history too! I was 2 feet away from the exact place where Henry VI died. Kind of creepy but also cool at the same time! It also great to touch buildings that are over 1,000 years old and still standing. It was kind of surreal actually. There were some towers that were used to hold prisoners and then engraved things in the walls. Most of their engravings were religious but just imagining someone engraving that is crazy. There was also a story of the murder of 2 young boys by their uncle Richard because he wanted to become king. Many years later they found their bodies in a chest under rumble when they destroyed one of the towers. Creepy. Before we went up Tower Bridge we stopped at a food truck for burgers. Not the greatest but the quickest and cheapest thing around the touristy area. The views on top of the bridge were amazing! Once you get up there, there's a museum of sorts and glass in the floor so you can see below you. We were lucky enough to get to see the drawbridge lifting while we were up there. After you go down you follow the blue line on the road to engine room. Before, they used to use coal to power the lifting of the bridge, now they use hydraulics. My dad would have been giddy. It was really cool! After Tower Bridge we took the tube to King's Cross so the Harry Potter fans could take their pictures. They finished around 6pm and were hoping to go to Regent's Park but realized when we got out of the tube station at 6:30pm the sun had set. WHAT? I COULD NOT LIVE LIKE THAT. The sun setting at 6:30pm? GET OUT. So unfortunately, I couldn't see Regents Park but we got to see Abbey Road and take the iconic Beatles photo. Note: this crosswalk does not have a light so we were trying to do this without getting hit by cars. Definitely worth it. Dinner at an old fashion pub was next on our checklist. We stopped at a place around the corner from our hostel called the Queens Arms. I ordered Southern Fried Chicken and Caramel Sticky Toffee pudding. It was heavenly. You would think after all that we'd be done for the day right? Wrong. We relaxed at the hotel for 30 mins and I took a (unintentional) 20 min power nap before we headed out again to go to one of the best clubs in London called Ministry of Sound. The cover charge alone was 35 pounds but Adriana's friend got us on the guest list for free with VIP access. We were super special. It was definitely an interesting experience. I never thought I would step foot in an EDM club but there I was and too be honest, I really don't understand it. It was nice to see but I don't think that's my jazz. We didn't stay for too long because we had to get up early the next day. Of course, the tube stopped running at 12:30 and we had no idea. We ended up walking for about an hour and finally taking a cab home for the last 2.5 miles. I think that was the most I've ever done in one day. And despite all I wrote, I still didn't write everything we did! By the end of the first day we learned how to use the tube without referring to the map every 5 seconds, and had seen ALOT of London, both day and night.
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I'm so excited that in a few hours I will be in London! Today I had my usual classes but made a concious effort to finish as much homework as I could ahead of time. Even though Monday we are going to get back around lunch time I know I probably won't want to do any homework. Plus, Monday is a holiday in Spain so I'm sure there will be some festivals or something fun to do. I wouldn't want to miss out because of homework. Classes today were pretty interesting, of course I'm one of the only ones that thinks so. Most of the other students in my class just stay quiet the entire time either browsing Facebook on their Macs or phones. Sound familiar? Yeah. Anyway, I dont really mind because that just means I get to interact with the professor more and ask an excessive amount of questions. Today in International Business our teacher asked us, "What could we use to measure purchasing power across countries?" The answer was simple. I shot my hand up (even though it's completely unnecessary) and answered, "the Big Mac." Yes. That Big Mac. The one that's made by McDonald's. You think I'm kidding but I'm really not. See the way you compare purchasing power across countries with different currencies is to use a basket of goods (milk, eggs, bread), find the price of that basket and then convert that cost into a common currency (the US dollar). The countries that have the highest cost (relative to the USD) are the ones that have lower inflation, which means their currency is valued more than the USD. So what does the Big Mac have anything to do with this you ask? The Big Mac is a basket of goods. It has bread, meat, cheese, vegetables, labor, overhead, etc. All of these things are calculated in the price of the Big Mac; plus McDonalds is in a majority of countries across the globe. Tah-dah. If you don't believe me just check out this link: http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index Of course, I didn't miraculously learn this on my own. It was one of the many benefits I got from my finance class last semester with Dale Rosenthal. For those of you that don't know, that class was the hardest class I've ever taken in my entire life. Many a night did I cry. But I learned a lot about finance and how to think about things on a deeper level; not to just take what is given to me as fact but really question everything. I also learned how to use, sort and analyze data to predict things about our economy, which I ended up using for a class activity 10 mins after the Big Mac question. In Marketing today we studied a case on Amazon's business model and how they use Big Data to their advantage. They have a really interesting history and they're an amazing company because since day one they have been centered around the customer. I'm really going to miss our guest lecturer, our next class on Tuesday is our last together. So back to the more exciting stuff, London! Ive spent the past few days strategically planning with my friends our iternary for the weekend. I even made a schedule and managed to include most of the things on our bucket list. Some of the things on my bucket list are the Natural History Museum (they have a dinosaur exhibit!), London Bridge, Regents Park, Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace and high tea. Because when in London one must have high tea! I'm actually writing this at the airport because I got here a lot earlier than I expected. In fact, it took me less then 30 mins to get from my apartment to my gate at the airport. That includes waiting for the bus, the bus ride, going through security and finding my gate. Amazing! But now I'm here two hours early. Oh well, I guess being early is better than being late. Time to board the plane! Ehem, let's forget about the fact that 4 days have passed and I haven't updated my blog! Shame on me. I'm going to try to remember as much as I can about each day so here it goes! Day 30- Friday was a really awesome day! I spent most of my morning procrastinating because I wasn't in the mood to do my homework so instead I decided to go out for a walk. I browsed around a couple floors of Corte Inglés, a book store called Casa de Libros, and Fnac (imagine if Barnes & Noble and Best Buy had a baby). It was kind of nice to stroll around in Fnac and I even found a manga section! On my way home I ran into my host mom on the street and she told me she left my food ready. After a very filling lunch, I relaxed in my room while watching Masterchef Junior. A very cute but depressing show because I can not believe those youngsters can make better food than I can. Later that night, I met up with my friends to check out a food truck festival in Casco Viejo. Since we went around 5pm and I ate a relatively gigantic lunch, I opted out of eating anything. Everyone just got a burrito from a Mexican food truck which looked really good. After, we went to a theatre to watch a flamenco performance. I was super pumped because I love flamenco and when we arrived at the theatre, I discovered it was literally the one across the street from my apartment. Que guay! Unfortunately, the show wasn't what I expected because it was mostly a woman singing flamenco songs but a couple times a guy would come out and do some amazing footwork. Despite the fact that it wasn't what I expected, I still loved it because the woman had a beautiful voice (I even bought a CD), the show was 2 hours long, and it was only 11 Euro! After the show, we went out for drinks and I came home to finish some homework. Day 31- Saturday was an unexpected day at the beach! We all went to Sopelana beach (the farthest, but nicest, and biggest. Side note: one of them is a nude beach. We avoided that one). Everyone wanted to go surfing but since it was only 70s and I didn't really feel in the mood, I opted for a nice relaxing time on the beach. It was really amazing even though in retrospect I just l lied on the beach for hours. I did go in to the water for a little bit but I was freezing and wanted to work on my tan. Before we actually went to the beach though, we went on up this hill and found one of the most amazing views I've seen so far. Of course, we had to stop and take a photoshoot! (Hence, the first picture on the blog and the ones below.) On the way down I also ran into a giant tree that reminded my of the pineapple from Spongebob. Definitely had to take a picture with it! Day 32- Sunday was also awesome because I climbed a mountain! I was rushing to the Termibus station and ended up getting there 30 mins early. Just as the bus was departing Joe saw Olga and I managed to stop the bus driver so we wouldn't leave her behind. As soon as he stopped, I ran off the bus and was yelling for Olga. After a couple seconds she came around the corner and ran towards me. It was a beautiful Hollywood moment. Also, I'm a hero! ;) We rode the bus to Gernika, about an hour away from Bilbao. En route to the mountain, we stopped by a church that was built around a giant rock which was a Pagan alter. As soon as I saw we were getting close to the mountain, I started stretching to prevent any injuries. Of course, I had the work out of a life time! When I imagined hiking, I didn't imagine hiking up a 80 degree incline! After 5 mins my legs were killing me but I pushed through! We also were climbing through the woodsy area without a "paved path" and it started to get really hot. Luckily, it started raining and I got to cool off but that also made things a lot more slippery. On top of the mountains there were a few houses and so many animals! Sheep, cows and horses were all over the mountains, even on insane inclines! Overall, I really liked the hike! There are three stops that we make on the hike: para de los cacahautes, para de las galletas, y para de los bocadillos. (Roughly in English: Peanut stop, Cookie stop, and sandwich stop). It was really nice because everyone was sharing and having a good time until the cap to my water bottle fell into the dog bowl. I rinsed it off and prayed before drinking again later. Every time I thought we were at the top the guide would say, "No chica, hay mucho mas." I thought I was going to die. At the para de las galletas we stopped at what I thought was the very top of the mountain but it was just a little landing, and there was an altar! A little bit higher, there was a church where our guides said locals would come and have mass. On top of a mountain. Mass on top of a mountain! When we finally got to the top it was so windy and rainy that all the pictures look ridiculous. But the view was incredible. There's something that get's lost in image when you capture it with a photo. It just doesn't compare at all. By the time we got down we were hiking for about 6-7 hours and were all exhausted. When you hike a mountain, plan to be sore forever after. Day 33 & 34 - After the hike I was exhausted and my legs and hips were feeling the soreness. It hurt just to get out of bed. My 20 min walk to school in the morning was not fun, but I did it. The rest of the days consisted of homework, class, sleep, eat, and catch up on blogs. It's becoming pretty routine but that just means I really do live here. This weekend I'm going to London so I'm pretty excited for that! I actually leave on Thursday after class and get home on Monday, since Monday is a holiday. Now back to work!
Day 27 - Today was great! Specifically, my marketing class because for the next 4 classes we have a guest lecturer who started his own business focused on big data. Big data is one of those topics that sounds super boring but in reality it's super fascinating! He showed us a clip from a money called Moneyball to introduce the topic. In case you are interested, I added it down below so you can see it too. After class, I went home to relax instead of doing homework and was so interested in the concept of applying Big Data that I found the movie and watched it. I definitely recommend it. It's awesome! Day 28 - After my morning class all day I worked on homework. Not fun but I think I was pretty productive! Also, I got ice cream before dinner. Always an amazing idea. ;) Day 29 - Today I had a Spanish Grammar exam and it went well! But, I'm not really worried about it because I'm basically taking the class pass/fail. Also, referring back to Big Data, today in marketing class we did a case study of Netflix's applications of Big Data. I don't think I've ever been se excited about interpreting numbers. Their use of Big Data is so fascinating that now one of my goals is to try to get a data or marketing internship with Netflix! I also was so interested in Big Data I thought about switching to an IDS major but then remembered all the math that was involved and was like NOPE. Business Management is my groove. So far I don't have many plans for this weekend. On Sunday, I am probably going with the Mountain group and hike up a mountain. Hopefully I can survive. One of my friends' friend went last time and said they were climbing for 8 hours. I WOULD BE DEAD. So if you don't see a blog from me on Monday you'll know that I'm probably crying on a mountain because I couldn't keep up with everyone else. On a side note, today was the first day Julian and I got to talk for more than 20 mins since last month. It's crazy how time flies. Also, I've been here for a month already, HOLY COW. When they say time flies, they really mean it. Especially because I only have class 4 days out of the week. Now to try to get some homework done! :) 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! :) 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.
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