After a longgggg break

Updating for the first time in over a month! Wow.  I didn't think that I would get as busy as I did during the month of March, but I'm going to give a quick overview for whoever out there is wondering about my life.  I am about halfway through the program now-- I got here a little less than 3 months ago and will be leaving 3 months from this past Monday! I'm already sad about it, but I know that I'm going to have SO MUCH FUN in these next few months, and even though it will go by crazy quickly, I have a long way to go!

Here was the craziness that was the month of March:
London March 2-4
Geneva, Switzerland March 9-12
Lisbon, Portugal March 16-18
Visit from LK from London: March 22-25
Spring Break: Valencia: March 30-31; Malta: March 31-April 5; Bari, Italy: April 5-7; Rome, Italy: April 7-9

Andddd that's just traveling! I am incredibly grateful that I was able to do all of those things, but am glad to be back in Madrid and staying here this weekend! I am also really content with all of the places I traveled to- each one is so unique from the others!

Here is a quick synopsis of my life:

Geneva, Switzerland:
I flew to Geneva, Switzerland kind of on a whim; I wasn't planning on going but there was a cheap flight to Geneva so we went!! It was crazy interesting. Switzerland is obviously one of the most expensive countries in the world, and Geneva is one of the most expensive cities.  We didn't miss that. First of all, we stayed just over the border in France because we couldn't stay anywhere for less than 100 or so euro a night in Geneva since everything was booked! So I guess I can check that one off of my list.. not that it was really there before so I guess it's more of a surprise that I went to France!! The town that we stayed in was super cute, and on Saturday we walked through its market! After a short bus ride, we got to Geneva.  We walked around, saw all these reallllllly fancy stores, ate some Swiss chocolate, saw the fountain in Lake Geneva! We decided to take a boat tour on Lake Geneva as well, which was GREAT!!! We saw so much that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.  Also, Saturday, the day that we did this, was so beautiful and clear, so the mountain ranges looked ridiculous.  I couldn't believe it was real!!!
On Sunday we decided to go skiing!! Now neither I nor my friend had ever skied before, so we got a recommendation from the tourism office that we should go to this little Swiss town up in the mountains which had a small hill that was good for beginners.  So we decided to do that! The train ride was obviously beautiful, going through the alps and all. We got to the ski hill and I got super nervous.. I'm really nervous with balancing and wasn't sure how it was all going to work out! But we rented skis, and some guy gave us a free "lift" pass (in quotes because it was a rope tow..).  We needed another one but the man working the lift saw me standing and watching my friend Marisa go up and walked over to me and pulled my onto the tow by my pole.. haha. So we both skied for free! I was really bad, partially because I made myself so nervous. And partially because I was on the beginner hill obviously and there were a bunch of little Swiss kids running around on the hill the whole time and I was bad at steering. haha
 SOOOOO that was Switzerland!! Glad we went, it was incredibly beautiful!!!

Lisbon, Portugal:
Portugal had been on my list because it is so close, obviously, and I had only heard good things!! We flew into Lisbon and went to our AWESOME hostel! On Friday night we walked around Lisbon and then went back to our hostel to eat (pretty good food!) and to go on a pub crawl with the hostel! We met a lot of interesting people in our hostel, and ran into some others from our school as well.
On Saturday we took a free walking tour from our hostel.  Lisbon has so much character and it was really cool to see! Obviously everything  is old but it just added character to the city, didn't make it look run down or anything! We were followed by some pickpocketers, we went to the flea market, it was great.  Then we broke off on our own and went to a realllllllly good lunch and then walked around some more.  We decided to go to an area called Belem in the afternoon, which was beautiful and really fun! And they made this really good pastry thing that was AWESOME! And then at night we went back to our hostel to eat there again and talk to more people from our hostel, so that was good!! I also decided that would be a good weekend to start the Hunger Games.. bad idea, all I wanted to do was read!!!!

Until spring break, or Semana Santa (holy week), I really had to focus on classes. There isn't too much classwork here, so it was hard to pull everything together.  I had midterms for 3 of my classes. In one of my actual Complutense classes there is a project, and the topic that we picked just happened to fall on the Wednesday before spring break! So when everyone else was done on Tuesday, we still had this presentation and huge paper to write for this class! But luckily, class was cancelled on Thursday (kind of) due to a general strike, or huelga, in all of Spain.  Evidently, it could have potentially been dangerous for us to go to school.. works for me! Extra day of break!

   Thennnnnn it was time to get ready for SEMANA SANTA!!!! 11 days of vacation, wow. We saw so many different places!! Here are the highlights!!

Valencia, Spain! We took a bus to Valencia because we got a cheap  flight out of there to go to Malta! Plus it's a good place to see, anyway.  We got there and immediately went to the beach (surprised? we've been landlocked!) It was really fun! After that we walked around town and waited for the rest of our friends to arrive! So all in all, it was good to go, but definitely didn't see everything that we should have! And we also missed dinnertime aka a bunch of the kitchens closed that were serving paella.. only an issue because Valencia is famous for paella! But we ended up getting some good tapas, which is always okay by me!

Malta!
We basically went to Malta because my friends were looking for cheap flights and for someplace they thought would be warm! It was a really interesting place to go to for sure- the terrain was really cool and the water was beautiful! It was a lot of relaxing.. which I'm bad at! We rented an apartment which was fun, and had a pool and were close to town (by close I mean walking up hills and more hills..but still)! My favorite thing to do was go to Blue Lagoon- the water was insanely blue and I have never seen more beautiful water in my life! It was ice cold though and really difficult to swim though.. we tried!!!

Bari, Italy!
We flew to Bari from Malta on Thursday. I have been to Italy before, and LOVED it and never wanted to leave!! So I was excited to be going back to another town that I'd never been to! The food was great, and we stayed in the Old Town of bari, so everything was super Italian- the streets were small and stone and everyone's doors were open right into their kitchen!! So it was definitely really interesting!!! Our hostel was super sketchy, but it quickly turned into something comical!

ROME
I have been wanting to go back to Rome since I left a few years ago. It is probably my favorite city that I have ever been to!  So after I researched Bari a little bit, I realized there wasn't incredibly a lot to do there, so I decided to meet up with some of my other friends who were going to Rome. And I'm so glad I did because it was my favorite part of my trip! I did a lot of walking around, which is my favorite thing to do, as most people knowww.  The weather was a little weird/rainy which prevented me from going to the Colosseum and Roman Forum again while I waited for my friends to get there on Saturday, but that was okay! We saw it at night and they went another day after I left.  One of the main reasons I went to Rome though, was because I wanted to go to Easter Mass and the Vatican.  It was so worth it, and absolutely incredible. It was so cool to see how many people gathered for mass in St. Peter's Plaza outside the Basilica, and how far people came for the pilgrimage to the most holy day of the year at the Vatican! I was so blessed that I had the opportunity to go! And I saw the pope, which is awesome in itself! My favorite part of the 2+ hour mass though was when the pope gave the crowd his blessing- probably in 30 or so different languages. And when he announced the name of each country, people would cheer and wave their flags! It was great!!
The rest of Sunday was spent walking around to Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps, then back to the apartment to relax before dinner! It stormed then too, a little bit- thankfully it held out during mass though!
I left Rome super early on Monday and had a huge travel day before I finally arrived back in Madrid!! Thankfully we don't have class on Wednesdays so I'm easing back into things!

So, I'm updated. Hopefully another month won't pass by without me updating! I don't really have too many plans- I'm here this weekend and going to Extremadura- a state in southwestern Spain- the next with my program.  I need to plan a weekend of travel after that because we have a five day weekend but my next trip will be CRETE!! In GREECE!! So excited!!!

Adventures in London

So today is my catch up day. AKA I uploaded pictures on facebook, went grocery shopping, and now am going to talk about my great trip to LONDON on here! Oh and also, for those of you who can't but want to see my pictures just ask me and I'll send a link!

So first of all, I was really hesitant about going to London. For some reason, it just never really sparked my interest as somewhere I would like to visit.  I thought it would be more interesting to go somewhere where they spoke another language and the culture was completely different, I guess.  But as I heard more about London from other people I realized I was the minority as this city is a lot of people's favorite city they've been to.  Since one of my friends from home is studying there for the semester, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to see it- she could show me around and I could see what she liked to do in the city, as opposed to only doing tourist activities which I have minimum patience for on most days, depending on what it is.

I only spent about 30 hours in London; in retrospect it was a realllllly short trip but I did everything I wanted to do! On Friday night when I got to the city, my friend Laura (the one studying in London) and my other friend Franny (who is actually studying in Madrid but flew to London on Thursday because she didn't have class Friday) met me at the station and we got on the TUBE! Which was great but I am still partial to the Madrid Metro.  Then we went to a pub that Laura heard was good but had never been to, Sherlock Holmes, and had our traditional Fish and Chips dinner, which didn't disappoint.  I opted out of a Guinness though, sorry London.  We went back to the hostel (at King's Cross station, what up Harry Potter?) and got ready to go out! I was so exhausted though, and was almost falling asleep while walking.  Not to mention that I am an idiot and jumped off of a really short curb a week and a half ago because I evidently can't do anything like a normal person and landed on my foot weird and have a bone bruise or something.  Soooooo that was good.  But London was so pretty at night! We walked across the Thames, saw really pretty shots of the city, and went through Trafalgar Square.  Then we finally got to where we were going, and there was a 10 pound cover.  Note to self, London is expensive.  Then I proceeded to take multiple mini naps in the booth until the bouncer woke me up because he thought I was passed out, but I was just napping.  Most expensive nap ever.

LONDON AT NIGHT!!

Saturday was our day to fit everything in! We woke up and went to Buckingham Palace, and accidentally saw the changing of the guard!!! Which was really cool but it was packed.  Another note: London cares.  A policeman on a horse came down to where we were standing to warn us that about 20 feet away there was a pickpocketing incident, so to mind our things. How nice is that? There were also signs everywhere telling us about pickpockets.  I haven't gotten any warnings or read any signs in Madrid, which seems like it has more of an issue than London does.

After that we met up with Laura and walked past St. James Park back towards Trafalgar Square. Which is still beautiful during the day.  Obviously.  We were deciding where to eat, and per her advice, decided to go for an international (kind of) meal. Apparently even British people don't want to eat British food.  So we went to Chinatown which is always good.  Plus we never went over winter break in Chicago so this was like a traveling Chinatown adventure.  Awesome. Then we went to walk down the Thames to see Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and other sights in between. Everything was completely beautiful.  We didn't go into anything, which was fine by me! I like to see things but am not necessarily down for paying 18 pounds to do something insanely touristy... multiple times. Then we walked back along the Thames and back to Laura's flat, which was great! We hung out there for a while and then went to this great little market by her house and then out to dinner- sushi! My first sushi ordering experience.  I'm really expanding my tastebuds over here. I eat tomatoes too.  whatttt

After that we went to get gelato and went to the Picadilly Circus stop and walked around Soho in London for a while.  It was definitely really cool! But we had an early flight the next day, aka we left at 1 am, so we didn't do anything too crazy.  When I finally got back to Madrid I was exhausted....I mean I didn't sleep but I was TIRED! Nothing has changed!! Instead we went to Retiro Park, which is the big park here, and rented boats which you can row on the little lake in the park.  It was great!!!! So many adventures!!!

PS- I'm making progress in my piso. I talked to the Italian today, in Spanish, and the Spanish girl finally came home! Everyone is great. I'm also loving my Danish friend from my Complutense class, I see her all the time.  Next stop: making Spanish friends. We'll see how that goes.  Maybe I should email my intercambio?

WATCH THIS really you don't have to but it's what I was thinking about when I went to Westminster Abbey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ma0ZDQ6Ig