Madrid Tour 2009

Finally I got around to editing my Madrid Tour footage from last year, where I went to Madrid, Segovia, and Toledo. I wanted to make a multi-video series on my entire semester abroad, using this one as an introduction. Enjoy.

Best Tortilla. It's official.

I am pretty sure I already mentioned this, but in case I didn't: In my cooking class abroad, my group won best tortilla (egg omelette) in our competition. All three of us won aprons.

Well, I just came across this today (googling myself). It was published on the Gastronomic society's website!

http://www.gastronomica.com/index.php?id=81&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=393&tx_ttnews[backPid;_ylc=X3oDMTVndHBoZHUxBF9TAzIwMjMxNTI3MDIEYXBwaWQDc1k3Wlo2clYzNEhSZm5ZdGVmcmkzRUx4VG5makpERG5QOWVKV1NGSkJHcTJ1V1dFa0xVdm5IYnNBeUNyVkd5Y2REVElUX2tlBGNsaWVudANib3NzBHNlcnZpY2UDQk9TUwRzbGsDdGl0bGUEc3JjcHZpZAN1MEREbzJLSWNycWtmaUt6WGk2NkdhaWVXODV4ZzBzeEpoTUFCbVdp]=82&cHash=566c683e28;_ylc=X3oDMTVndHBoZHUxBF9TAzIwMjMxNTI3MDIEYXBwaWQDc1k3Wlo2clYzNEhSZm5ZdGVmcmkzRUx4VG5makpERG5QOWVKV1NGSkJHcTJ1V1dFa0xVdm5IYnNBeUNyVkd5Y2REVElUX2tlBGNsaWVudANib3NzBHNlcnZpY2UDQk9TUwRzbGsDdGl0bGUEc3JjcHZpZAN1MEREbzJLSWNycWtmaUt6WGk2NkdhaWVXODV4ZzBzeEpoTUFCbVdp


Sorry, that link is enormously long.

Anywho, it's in Spanish, and a little basque. And now that I am reading it, it is a bit insulting to the losers!

El Jurado encargado de valorar las tortillas de patatas del concurso de cocina, fue este año muy exigente e hizo remarcar que la tonica general ha sido en la presente edición algo más floja que la del año pasado. Algunos se olvidaron de la sal, sin duda preocupados por la hipertensión y algún otro, pensando que se le quedaba la ración un poco corta, añadió mas patatas a media cocción dandose la curiosidad que dependiendo de que lado probaras la tortilla, las patatas estaban más o menos hechas.

Empate a puntos entre la 2ª y 3ª clasificada y la ganadora fué la preparada por Cassi Gabiola, Alex Irelan y Melissa Weinmann. Zorionak.

Rough Translation:

Basically they say that some omelettes were too small, some lacked salt, some were undercooked (the potatoes were hard) and the jury had to bend the rules as to what makes the omelette perfect, since not everyone did the traditional recipe.

Then they say that Alex, Cassi and I won for first place (we were in one group). What it doesn't say is that ours was a chorizo, onion, garlic, and potato omelette and it was AWESOME.


Zoroniak means congratulations.


There are also pictures in the gallery to see.

I would like to know where our picture went of us and our aprons standing by the cooking class people. That would be awesome.

EDIT, Nov. 2011:
I found the photos from a study abroad friend on Facebook, Rosanne.
The above photo is Me, Cassi and Alex (in the blue aprons) surrounded by the gastronomic society (green ribbons) and our program director, Patricia (all black).

The above photo is myself and two other students (I am in the lighter jeans) with our certificates of completion for the course.

But I DID find what I was looking for!

When I was in Spain, I heard several times the song "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" by the band U2...only it was in Spanish.

I looked online a hundred times for this version of Bono singing Spanish to no avail.

Then I searched today, and found the exact translation of the title (TODAVIA NO ENCONTRE LO QUE ESTOY BUSCANDO) and alas! I found it on Youtube.

I first heard it on the busride to Barcelona, and I was humming along until I realized the lyrics were in Spanish. I really wanted that version.

Well, I thought it was U2 performing it on the bus radio, but it was actually a band called "Airbag" that covered it. But, it was a noisy bus and the instrumental aspect of the song sounded the same, so SUE me if I thought the following was performed by U2.





Ahh. I am SO glad I FINALLY FOUND THISSSS!

More International Music

When we were in the streets of Burgos, we came across this insane accordian and xylophone player.

I wish I had a longer clip, but my friends were embarrassed that I was taking video.

Random trivia: After I stopped the camera, there was an unrelated gunshot sound in the plaza that scared us all to death. It ended up being a firework.

Another random trivia tidbit: The same thing happened on our Madrid tour, with the whole fireworks/gunshot thing. Apparently Spaniards like setting them off in public places.

A few select pictures

Our school recently had a Study Abroad picture contest. There were four categories, which I cannot remember, and you could submit pictures to each one. There'd be a winner in each category and the prize was $50. You could only win one category at most.

So I compiled a ton of pictures from my study abroad experience, but I didn't enter the contest. Why? Because this semester is so unbelievably busy that it's ridiculous.

Here are some pictures I just love, some are repeats, but it's really the creme de la creme of the photos I have from my whole semester, which is a LOT.

A boy (or girl?) whistling to the tunes played during the parade on San Sebastian Day.

A child dressed as a leprechaun for the parade.

A group of girls in costume for the parade, banging barrels to the beat.

A young boy in a chef hat, blue and white (San Sebastian's colors) carrying a drum to play along with the La Tamborrada.

Overlooking the water in Lisboa, Portugal, from the castle entrance.

Raquel, Natalia and Ana sitting by the water in Barcelona.

Me and the lizard fountain in Parc Guell in Barcelona.

Cool rock archways in Parc Guell, Barcelona.

Weird Samurai man in Parc Guell, Barcelona. I watch him with a smile as he does some sword moves.

More kids from the parade from San Sebastian Day.

Entraince of Parc Guell, this man poses for pictures dressed as the famous lizard fountain.

Palm trees in a park in Barcelona

Obama's face...in a window of a sushi restaurant...in Barcelona...

Sleeping/laughing in the sun on the dock in Barcelona.

Raquel, Me and Ana in front of the water in Barcelona.

A view of Toledo, Spain as we drive towards it during the Madrid Tour.

The creek/river in Toledo as we drive over a bridge.

I just love how European I look right here, don't you? This is at Palacio Royal in Madrid.

View of Madrid as we drive from the airport to our hotel.

Raquel, Ana, Natalia and I scream as we are eaten by a shark in Barcelona

Fishies in the Aquarium in Lisboa, Portugal.

Interesting graffiti in Porto, Portugal.

Giant cider barrels in San Sebastian

View from the 2nd bridge with Ana, walking home one night from the bars.

Toledo? Ohio?! In Toledo, Spain.

Natalie, Me, May and Cassi in a garden in Sevilla.

The beautiful beach in Lagos (and the first time we saw great weather during spring break)

In the same garden as the previous group shot, in Sevilla, with May, Natalie, Mary Kate and myself.

View of Lisboa, Portugal from the castle rooftop.

Alex (or Mary Kate?), Natalie and Cassi in awe at Lisboa's aquarium.

Cassi, Becky, Megan and Annette walking in the fog on our 3 hour hike in Burgos.

I just love these pictures.

The pics from Toledo and Madrid are from the Madrid tour, the Barcelona pics are obviously from when we went to Barcelona over Valentine's day weekend, San Sebastian day was January 20th (some USAC students wore aprons for the celebration, but wrote "Obama" in big letters, too, as it was his inauguration that day), the Lagos, Sevilla, Porto and Lisboa pics are from Spring Break (Holy week) and Burgos pics are from the week after that, for our overnight trip with USAC.

EVEN MORE Videos!

Here are the rest of 'em!

Again, all are also viewable on youtube at youtube.com/missy8888

And may I remind you that sometimes the best part is at the end...so be sure to watch them all the way through.


Music at the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla:



Alex laughs for a LOOONG time. I don't even know why this happened, or how. Cameras capture the best moments.


May and Natalie comment on a fried, dead lizard they find on the streets of Sevilla.


Foodism: May explains her new religion: food. In Real Alcazar de Sevilla.


Labyrinth in Real Alcazar de Sevilla. Alex has the camera this time...


"Authentic" Flamenco in a Granada restaurant. There are quotes there b/c it's pretty touristy.


Go Johnny Go in Granada. El Mirador de San Nicolas in Granada, near our hostel, hosts some interesting people. Like hippies who play Chuck Berry.


Steel Drum in Barcelona. One of the many unique musicians encountered in Parc Guell in Barcelona.


In Parc Guell, these guys seemed to be playing all the hits of the 90s, including Champagne Supernova


At Parc Guell again, this time Fastball's Outta My Head


Lute Player in Parc Guell More music we came across in Barcelona


Si Fuera un chico in a durum restaurant in Barcelona: AKA Beyonce's "If I were a boy" but sang by her in SPANISH.


When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Especially if those lemons are crazy street dancers in Barcelona, and making lemonade means taping them. On Las Ramblas in Barcelona, we encounter this man, performing for no audience but himself.



Universong (name of the band) on the streets of Barcelona. We are walking around this maze of old streets when we turn a corner and find this. SO COOL.


On the plane back to Santander from Barcelona, there was a leaky ceiling. Natalia tries to tell the story, but when they re-enact it (hence Ana's weak "achoo" at the beginning), they can't handle themselves


Natalia asks the question that she knows everyone will ask her when she gets back from Barcelona...and she's prepared to know why.


Santander airport needs better decor.


Teleporter AND Hand Dryer! Ana being weird in the bus station in Santander.


Megan shows us around the Sagardo Eguna, or cider fest, in Irun.



New, Not necessarily Bad... Alex comments on art in the Catedral de Burgos.

More Videos!

Here's some more from my youtube!

In Sevilla, the hooded people walk the streets in a somber procession to begin Semana Santa (Holy Week: The week of Easter)


A bit of info: They apparently won't let you purchase alcohol after a certain time during Semana Santa (or maybe just every day), but Alex did a little Spanish convincing and paid the guy in cash and he let her have a 40 of beer. I don't know whether or not that money he took went into the register...we were hiding from the security camera of the store so his boss wouldn't know. Oh well!


More to come!

VIDEOS!

So I uploaded a bunch of miscellaneous footage from my travels on youtube. These are unedited tidbits that I captured from everywhere I went. This includes Burgos, Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, Porto, Lisboa, Lagos, and Irun.

Some of the footage you may recognize from the Spring Break and Barcelona videos. Some of it is new, though! And I am still making videos with all the footage I have, trust me.

They are all pretty short, under 2 min each. Check them all out either here or on my youtube page, which is http://www.youtube.com/missy8888.



A man, dressed as the Sandeman Wine logo guy, gives us an explaination of what Porto wine exactly is. From my Spring Break footage.



We went walking around Lisboa, Portugal, and took a tour of this castle. A man inside played music. Alex approaches to find a CD for a friend.



A sign warns against falling! In Lisboa, Portugal, in an outdoor castle



In our hostel in Lisboa, Portugal. Cassi has the camera. When she says "take two" she is referring to the previous botched attempt when she ran out of tape.


When in Lagos... But really, when in Lagos, Portugal, the girls (Alex, May, Cassi) decided to hop in a random dude's boat. Jordan later joined. The commenting in the background is Natalie, Tyler, Mike and Chris (who we met in the hostel, who are from Texas and studying abroad in Sevilla for the semester). We later caught up with those three boys when we moved on to Sevilla after Lagos.


At midnight on Easter morning, the bells rang out at the Catedral de Sevilla!

It ain't over till it's over...

As you may already know, I am home in the states.

But don't worry, I have more to post here. I have footage from my day trip to France, I have footage from my walk up the Jesus Mountain, and more pictures.

I also have stories about my trip home.

So, more to come.

Spring Break 3/3

Spring Break 2/3

Spring Break 1/3

Mission Accomplished.

I have a list of things that I needed to get done here in San Sebastian before I went home.

I accomplished a ton yesterday.

Weather.com failed me yet again, yet this time in a good way. When I checked on Monday, it said the weather for Monday would be sunny and nice, Tuesday would be rain rain rain, and Wednesday would be super sunny and warm.

Instead, it was SUPER nice on Monday, then later (luckily I was in for the day at this point) it was a HAIL STORM. Yes, it was bright and sunny, kids were eating ice cream, dogs playing in the park, then (while it was STILL SUNNY AND NICE), golf ball sized hail started raining down from the sky along with heavy rain, then there was lightening and thunder. It did this until early evening.

Tuesday was supposed to be terrible, then it ended up being 73 and sunny and cloudless. What!??! Everyone on facebook posted their statuses as "at the beach" "hanging at the playa" "sitting in the sand and soaking up the sun!" It was completely unexpected. To think San Sebastian has NICE weather? I dunno, it sure did surprise me.

And as of now, Wednesday is looking pretty nice too. There are clouds in the sky, but they are wispy and light. Other than that, it is sunny, and it is about 70 degrees.


Anywho, what I am trying to get at is that I got a ton of stuff done yesterday because of the unexpectedly nice weather.
I got to rollerblade around Jesus Mountain, which isn't really called that, but there IS a giant Jesus statue on top. I think it's actually called Mount Urgull or something.
I got to HIKE UP Jesus Mountain. It used to be some kind of fortress back in the 1800's and there are ruins all over the mountain of different stations. There are old cannons, withering stone walls, and lots and lots of greenery. It's also pretty touristy, which isn't what I was expecting. What I mean is not that it was crowded, but that there were signs pointing out what was in which direction, plaques describing what stuff was, and...
When I got to the top where Jesus was, I thought it would just be the statue and stuff. Instead it was a large lookout point with cannons, then some security guide summoned me into this building under the statue and it was a tourist center for the site! You could buy postcards, there was a mini museum of artifacts from San Sebastian, movies playing about the history of the area, posters, maps, etc etc. Up the stairs you could get to the top and see a panoramic lookout of the whole town. It was gorgeous.

After that I went to lunch at this restaurant I've been dying to go to (it was on THE LIST), called La Perla. It is right on the ocean, and there is a fancy restaurant part as well as a cheaper outdoor grill. I got a DELICIOUS cheeseburger with grilled onions and plopped down at a table right on the balcony overlooking the beach. From there I got a wonderful view of the ocean as well as a 65 year old woman tanning topless.

Then I went to La Parte Vieja where I did my last minute souvenir shopping for friends and family. I also got myself a scarf, one of the things here that EVERYONE has.

Finally, I got a "Cookie"-flavored ice cream on the boulevard. That wasn't on the list...but I couldn't resist.

I tried calling up people to do all this with, but as always that failed. Instead I accomplished everything on my own, which was a lot better because I found it more peaceful and fun that way.



Now, all I have left is to get Chocolate y Churros today (wednesday) or tomorrow before I leave for Madrid. It's a super common snack here of rich hot chocolate (basically a liquified chocolate bar served warm) and churros (you know, those fried pastries with cinnamon and sugar...YUM). My host mom recommended a good place to go in Parte Vieja for that, so I am excited.


PS: Sun down here since daylight savings has been around 9:30pm. Like, straight up brightness until 9:30. My parents told me that sundown is like 7pm in the states. That will be weird to come home to.

Regalos Video!

My parents wanted to know how my host parents reacted to their gift.

In their own words...

(well, translated)

iYa esta!

Nik nire klaseak bukatu ditut. Nik nire etsaminak bukatu ditut. Osteguna ni etxera joango naiz. Hala ere, asteaztea nik maletak prestatuko ditut...


I'm done with classes, I'm done with exams. Thursday I go home. However, I'll pack on Wednesday.



Whew, time flew! Especially finals! Well, it helps that they were all ON THE SAME DAY.


But I think I did well. On all the art tests I have been getting A's, and in Euskara our teacher graded the exams so we could know what we got before we left.

I got a 99 on the midterm, a 98 on the final project, a 96 on the exam, and my final grade was a 97. As Natalia (my teacher) said, "ZORIONAK!" I am not sure what that means, but I think it's congrats or something.

And she was so sweet today, telling us that she cannot say "agur" (goodbye) because she'll get too sad. Instead, she says "gero arte" which is "see you soon."
"Agurrik ez, gero arte baizik!"= No goodbyes, but instead a see you soon!

After she told me my grade, she insisted that I continue with the language because I am so good at it. I would love to, but being in Chicago with 3 people who know basque (the three Loyola students in this program), that won't be very likely. I am sure I will say "Kaixo"(hello) and "ongi"(good) a few times, as well as "neska"(girl) here and there.

I am definitely going to miss Natalia, but I plan to keep in touch by email.


And finally I had my Track/grammar exam, which wasn't too bad. I was actually surprised by how easy it seemed, but we shall see how my grade turns out. Looks like I'll be getting a B in that class, but a high B, which isn't too bad.

Aihnoa (my Track teacher) had chocolates and cookies for us at the test, which was a nice treat. We gave her a card wishing her a good summer and an early congratulations for her baby (she is pregnant, and BIG TIME showing...I think august 3rd is when she will "dar la luz" aka give birth). It's gonna be a boy, and she has a name picked out already, but I can't remember what it is.

But wow. The semester is over. Now I have two full days of nothing until Wednesday evening when I catch a bus to Madrid at 7pm. THEN I am waiting there for 5 hours until my 7am flight, then I am off on my long journey home. I wish the travelling times weren't so cruel.

Mother's Day

In Spain, Mother's Day is May 3rd or something like that.

Yesterday I would have wished you all a Happy Mother's Day, but it isn't Mother's Day yet.

My mom changed it officially until I come back home.

Weird French Commercials

Being so close to the French border, we get French TV stations here in SS.

When I was at Peter, Angela and Megan's place the other day, we were watching the French channel because there was a soccer game on.

This Nicole Kidman commercial came on.

And now it is circulating the web as a "what the hell?" moment. I guess French commercials don't have to make any sense at all.

The gifts have been received...

I gave my host family the gifts and caught it on camera, but i have to put up subtitles so you can understand.

Pues, it'll take a bit.

But, patience is a virtue.

Another blog?

After keeping up with this blog, and after having a video camera for four months, I kind of want to copy this guy:

http://daveydanceblog.com/
"Davey Dance-BLOG. A project started while traveling Europe during Spring 2007. Armed only with an ipod and a Canon PowerShot, Davey picks a location and a pop song. Then Davey records an improvised dance."

It's weird because I have already started thinking of places and songs. I was gonna do "A million ways" by OK GO at Peter, Megan and Angela's apartment b/c the entrance of their place is EPIC. I also thought about doing the song "homecoming" by kanye west in front of the bean in chicago.

Looks like Davey already combined my ideas a while ago:

Davey Dance Blog -44- CHICAGO - OKgo "A Million Ways" from Pheasant Plucker on Vimeo.

Farewell from USAC

Today I got this in the mail from the USAC office here:

Estimados estudiantes,


¡Qué rápido ha pasado el tiempo!

Esperamos que lo hayáis pasado muy bien este semestre en San Sebastián, que hayáis aprendido mucho y que hayáis hecho buenas amistades aquí.

¡Suerte en los exámenes! ¡Os echaremos de menos!

Esperamos que lo paséis muy bien este verano y que algún día nos volváis a visitar aquí en Donostia.

Un abrazo,

Patricia, Tito, Aizpea, Cecilia , Asun


Translation:
Look how fast the time passed!
We hope that you have had a good time this semester in San Sebastian, and that you have learned a lot and have made good friends here.
Good luck on exams! We'll miss you!
We hope that you have a good time this summer and that some day you'll come to visit us here in Donostia (the Basque word for San Sebastian).
Hugs,
Patricia, Tito, Aizpea, Cecelia, Asun