Another week gone by, and more memories made. This last week was relatively uneventful at school. I wen to class as usual and made it through all of the lessons alive. It is a little rough at times with the two I have in classes in Spanish, but luckily those two teachers are the best ones I have. I find that I am really most excited to go to those because not only are the teachers good, but because the classes are in Spanish it forces me to really learn and interact with my classmates during group wok in Spanish! Next week I have a couple of exams, and this week I have to turn in some practical work...shouldn't´t be to hard but the work is starting to pick up.
Don´t let this fool you, I am definitely still having a blast! This last weekend I had an action packed trip to Italy. I went to Bergamo which is a city in the north about 45 minutes from Milano. Why Bergamo right? Well, while in Portugal I met some cousins of my direct cousins that live there, and they had invited me to come to their house and spend some time. Needless to say we had a ball. I arrived Saturday evening (I know what you are thinking...Saturday night, why the heck would you arrive Saturday night. Well maybe I screwed up the ticket purchase, off by one day in each direction, arrival one day after I wanted and departure the same...so be it, I knew it would be a blast either way, and the bonus was that they hadn´t started school yet.) Sebastian picked me up from the airport and we arrived home to his brother Martin working hard on some appetizers and cocktails! They had invited a few friends over and we all sat around chatting. I was surprised at how much Italian I actually picked up on...not as hard as I thought. After appetizers it was time to go out on the town to check out the night life! We went to a couple of local bars, and then to a party thrown by one of their friends. It was pretty cool, the party was out doors and up in the forested area above the city. We parked on some lonely road and hiked about 10 or 15 minutes up the side of the mountain until we finally arrived. It was really cool getting to spend the night as the locals do, and see how it was.
The next day we decided to go to Milano. Martin stayed home because he was studying for an exam so it was just Sebastian and I that went. While there, he showed me the more important sites of Milan. We went to a castle in the middle of the city which was the castle of the first wealthy family in Milan. It was quite spectacular. After touring around the grounds, we walked across part of the city to the main Cathedral. It was breathtaking. A beautiful piazza with a huge cathedral with extremely intricate architecture. I just imagine the people working the stone and the number of man hours it would take to build such a structure. We were there on Sunday so Mass was being held, we watched briefly but from a distant. I was surprised that the Church wasn´t very full, but I am sure it would be a nightmare trying to find a seat during the holidays. The last real touristy thing we did in Milano was go to a little place with a cup shaped whole n the ground. Apparently if you spin around three times with your heal in it it will bring you good luck. It was not clear to me which way I was supposed to turn, and people were turning all sorts of directions and times, so I just hope that I did it correctly!!!
After the action packed half day in Milano, Sebastian and I went to Città Alta. The old city above Bergamo. It is absolutely spectacular. An ancient city with four main doors in the outer walls, one to Milano, one to Venezia, one to Switzerland, and hmmm one to (I don´t recall). In Città Alta we walked around the exterior of the city, or most of it, and toured the two Churches in the central piazza. One of the Churches was where Papa Giovanni XXIII body was up until 2000. There was a nice sculpture and memorial display there. We also toured the fort at the highest point of Città Alta that protected it in early times. All in all, it was beautiful and wrapped up a great day.
That night we were wiped out, stayed in cooked and watched a movie. MMMM FOOD! Martin is quite the cook, I learned how to make a few different dishes this weekend that I didn´t know how to before. Sunday night, he made us an octopus risotto that was extremely good. It´s probably because John makes a mean Risotto that I never tried, simply because I was scared to not make it as well as he does! Lame right, not any more, Risotto cook off when I get home!!! Another thing in the food category now that I am thinking of it. I am not sure if it was mental or really that much better, but we ate a mean Parmesan cheese from the local market, mmm mmm Good.
On Monday Sebastian and I were off again as Martin studied, Exam was today Tuesday, so Monday was the last day for him to cram! Anyways, Sebastian and I went to Lago di Como. The lake is absolutely huge and sits in the pre Alps just due North of Milano. The drive to get there was beautiful, through the country side and through some small towns. We dropped down into the valley where the lake sits and were thinking of what to do. Sebastian had only been there once or twice before and not for years, and I had not done any homework so we were just flying by the seat of the pants...not quite sure if we missed anything really special there, but we had a great time. We walked along the shore of the lake for a while and took in the sights from a far. The only ting that really stood out to go see was the main church in the center. After looking at the lake and the surrounding cities on the hills from a distance we made our way to the cathedral. A very pretty Cathedral with what appeared to be a couple of cooper or brass domes, at least that is what I would guess due to the color of the oxidation? I am not expert though. After walking all around the labyrinth of small streets looking to the sky to try to find it without a map, we made it! Again, unbelievable architecture and detail...how did these people have so much time on their hands?
Kind of an aside, I think to my self, why is it that I am so blown away by the churches and buildings and old cities? It is such common place for everyone here, yet at every new sight I am peering through my camera taking pictures in awe. I feel as though I should be going through these cities in a carriage, or on a horse. It is as if I am living in the past. Old people sit and watch the world go by, time goes by slower, things are calmer...Very different from back home...
Back to Lago di Como, while we were about to leave, we saw some train tracks heading straight up the side of the mountain to a small little town probably a thousand feet or so above the city of Como. It looked pretty cool, and had to be an amazing view from the top so we went to check it out. the ride up was awesome, extremely steep, and the sights from the top were amazing, pictures can´t do it justice. There were a few hundred unbelievable houses at the top, most of them quite old and on large pieces of land, they must have been vacation homes. There was not much more than the homes, and a couple of little tourist bars. We wandered around, and looked over the lake at a few different vista points. We even saw a float plane take off from the lake (pretty cool, I had never seen that before!)After making our way back to Como, we made the trip back home to Bergamo. Once again, Martin cooked a wonderful dinner of Penne and red cabbage with a Gorgonzola cream sauce. I am not usually crazy about Gorgonzola, but didn´t have the guts to tell him so I gave it a good shot and really actually enjoyed it, even surprised myself!
Well that's all or now folks.
Pictures to come later this week, before Thursday that is, as in TOMORROW! Thursday another adventure will begin, 4 friends and I are off to Munich for Oktoberfest!
Hope everyone is well.
Much Love from the library in Getafe!
Phil
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
PHOTOS!!!!
Check out all my Photos on my Picasa...Please let me know what you think, and if there are any problems.
http://picasaweb.google.com/allanphil
Phil!
Monday, September 21, 2009
September 15th-21st
I promise this one will not be as long! Well, the first week of classes went really well. I found out that I will get more credits than I expected and my classes are all very interesting. What do you know I am already sick of talking about school, not much is new in this area!
Now to the good stuff, yet another week full of events. Thursday night is the night that all of the Erasmus students go out to kick off the weekend. I went out for a little bit but it was really cold and I was tired so I ended up coming home around 3:00, which is an extremely early night! Friday, I did not have classes so I did all the boring stuff that I needed to do around the house: laundry, unpack!, reorganize my room, etc. In the evening I met Marc at his house and then we met up with some his friends at a restaurant near by for dinner. After dinner we all went to a little town called Majadahonda to the town party Friday was the first night of the two week festival. I was only planning to stay for a few hours because I had to be at the train station at 10:00 a.m. to go to Toledo to watch the Vuelta de España, but one thing lead to another and we danced the night away until a mere 5:30! Once we all decided to leave, the adventure started. Majadahonda is in between Madrid and Las Rozas were Marc and his friends live. I didn’t want to be a burden so I decided to take the night bus home! I waited for about 30 minutes and finally one arrived. It was a mad dash to beat the other 60+ people that were waiting to get a ride back to Madrid! I made it on, and made it to Madrid safely, packed in the sweaty bus like sardines! Of course the bus dropped me off on the other side of Madrid, not the one that I live on! I started walking, and made it about half way before the Metro began running...I caught the first Metro of the morning, and ended up making it home right about 6:30a.m.
I’ll tell you what (Insert Hank Hill accent!) a 9:00a.m. alarm was not what I wanted to hear after only 2 hours or so of sleep! I barely made it to the train station on time to meet my German friend Timon, and we were on our way to Toledo...the high speed train only takes 30 minutes to get there. We toured all over the city taking many pictures (thanks for the new camera Mom & Dad!) until about 2:00 when the race began. We found a great spot to watch on top of an old wall where we could dangle our legs over and watch the riders sprint up the last hill and finish. It was a time trial, so all the riders came one by one, or occasionally you would have a rider that caught another and the crowd would erupt cheering them on to the finish. The atmosphere was electric when the final rider, Valverde, passed by. He is a Spaniard that ended up winning the overall classification. After the race, while walking back to the train station I ran into Carlos Sastre, the 2008 winner of the Tour de France...photos to come! All, in all the race was a great time and the city was absolutely breathe taking.
Saturday night on little to no sleep I went out again with a few friends. I would have loved to have just gone to sleep but once a year there is La Noche en Blanco, where Madrid is alive all night with art exhibitions, street performers and musicians entertaining the people. It was a lot of fun to walk all over the city and take in the sights and people. I lasted till about 2:30, and called it a night!
Sunday was relaxing, checked my email, went the bakery for some bread, showed my new roommate Charles around, he is from Cameroon...he just arrived on Thursday. In the evening we went again to the bull fight, this time armed with a camera. It was absolutely spectacular...if a fighter does an excellent job the president of the Plaza de Torros will waive one, two or three white flags signifying the reward he shall receive. If one flag is waived the fighter gets an Ear. If two flags are waived the fighter gets both ears, and if three are waived it is my understanding that the fighter gets both ears, the tail, and is carried out of the stadium to the cheers of the arena! It is extremely rare for a fighter two get two, much less, three white flags. On this night we witnessed a kid (must have been no older than 18) receive a white flag from the president... the ear was immediately cut off the bull and given to him. He then marched around the arena and was given tons of love from the crowd...WHAT A SIGHT!!!
Well that’s about it folks, I am off to class...I hope all is well with everyone back home, and once I download the pictures from my camera somewhere I will be sure to share them.
Much Love Always,
Phil
Now to the good stuff, yet another week full of events. Thursday night is the night that all of the Erasmus students go out to kick off the weekend. I went out for a little bit but it was really cold and I was tired so I ended up coming home around 3:00, which is an extremely early night! Friday, I did not have classes so I did all the boring stuff that I needed to do around the house: laundry, unpack!, reorganize my room, etc. In the evening I met Marc at his house and then we met up with some his friends at a restaurant near by for dinner. After dinner we all went to a little town called Majadahonda to the town party Friday was the first night of the two week festival. I was only planning to stay for a few hours because I had to be at the train station at 10:00 a.m. to go to Toledo to watch the Vuelta de España, but one thing lead to another and we danced the night away until a mere 5:30! Once we all decided to leave, the adventure started. Majadahonda is in between Madrid and Las Rozas were Marc and his friends live. I didn’t want to be a burden so I decided to take the night bus home! I waited for about 30 minutes and finally one arrived. It was a mad dash to beat the other 60+ people that were waiting to get a ride back to Madrid! I made it on, and made it to Madrid safely, packed in the sweaty bus like sardines! Of course the bus dropped me off on the other side of Madrid, not the one that I live on! I started walking, and made it about half way before the Metro began running...I caught the first Metro of the morning, and ended up making it home right about 6:30a.m.
I’ll tell you what (Insert Hank Hill accent!) a 9:00a.m. alarm was not what I wanted to hear after only 2 hours or so of sleep! I barely made it to the train station on time to meet my German friend Timon, and we were on our way to Toledo...the high speed train only takes 30 minutes to get there. We toured all over the city taking many pictures (thanks for the new camera Mom & Dad!) until about 2:00 when the race began. We found a great spot to watch on top of an old wall where we could dangle our legs over and watch the riders sprint up the last hill and finish. It was a time trial, so all the riders came one by one, or occasionally you would have a rider that caught another and the crowd would erupt cheering them on to the finish. The atmosphere was electric when the final rider, Valverde, passed by. He is a Spaniard that ended up winning the overall classification. After the race, while walking back to the train station I ran into Carlos Sastre, the 2008 winner of the Tour de France...photos to come! All, in all the race was a great time and the city was absolutely breathe taking.
Saturday night on little to no sleep I went out again with a few friends. I would have loved to have just gone to sleep but once a year there is La Noche en Blanco, where Madrid is alive all night with art exhibitions, street performers and musicians entertaining the people. It was a lot of fun to walk all over the city and take in the sights and people. I lasted till about 2:30, and called it a night!
Sunday was relaxing, checked my email, went the bakery for some bread, showed my new roommate Charles around, he is from Cameroon...he just arrived on Thursday. In the evening we went again to the bull fight, this time armed with a camera. It was absolutely spectacular...if a fighter does an excellent job the president of the Plaza de Torros will waive one, two or three white flags signifying the reward he shall receive. If one flag is waived the fighter gets an Ear. If two flags are waived the fighter gets both ears, and if three are waived it is my understanding that the fighter gets both ears, the tail, and is carried out of the stadium to the cheers of the arena! It is extremely rare for a fighter two get two, much less, three white flags. On this night we witnessed a kid (must have been no older than 18) receive a white flag from the president... the ear was immediately cut off the bull and given to him. He then marched around the arena and was given tons of love from the crowd...WHAT A SIGHT!!!
Well that’s about it folks, I am off to class...I hope all is well with everyone back home, and once I download the pictures from my camera somewhere I will be sure to share them.
Much Love Always,
Phil
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Madrid September 7th - 14th (Kind of a long one!)
Well it has been just over a week since I last wrote, and there is a ton of new stuff to catch up on. This last week has absolutely flown by. I am sorry if it is a little bit scatter brained but as I was writing things kept coming to me and I didn’t want to leave them out so I tried to make it fit in kind of sort of where it would work! Enjoy!
The first few days of the week (September 7th – 10th or so) I spent the mornings at the university trying to get counseling on choosing my classes because I was having trouble navigating the web page that the school has so poorly built; well I guess it is actually more of a work in progress, they are updating it. Anyhow, I kept getting there earlier and earlier because they are only open for two hours and the lines were tremendous Monday and Tuesday by 11:30. Talk about sweet hours again, they are only open 12:00 – 14:00. On Wednesday I finally arrived early enough, I got there at 11:00 and was the third person in line, minus a few people that had gotten tickets the day before and told to come back on Wednesday. The Lady that helped me was quite nice she showed me how to choose classes, and told me which ones that I could choose. It appears that I will be a taking a few Economics classes, and one or two organizational, and business administration classes. I am also planning on taking a Spanish class because the three of the other classes are taught in English, and I only have one in Spanish. I will be taking, Organizational Principles, Game Theory, Macroeconomics of Monetary and Fiscal Policy (this one in Spanish), and also Business Administration of some sorts (I might drop this and take Commercial Distribution Economics instead, which is also taught in Spanish).
After being unsuccessful the first few times at getting a counselor I went to the library and spent my afternoons chasing down a flat somewhere in the city. I must have looked at 300+ ads, about 20 or so that I called on and about 6 or 7 that I went and saw. I was getting more and more nervous as the week went on. As I think I might have mentioned in earlier posts I was staying at Julein’s brother, Olivier’s apartment while I was searching for one of my own. The catch here is that Olivier was moving back to Paris on Friday early morning. As the days drew closer and closer to Thursday night I was becoming more and more stressed. Every place that I looked at was either small, had no windows, had no living room, or had strange folks living there! Finally on Wednesday night I found something that was interesting and set an appointment to go and look at the flat. Only in Spain would you set an appointment to look at apartment at 10p.m. but that’s what it was so that’s when I went! The first impression was the stair well. It is an older building, I am guessing late 1800’s early 1900’s, and it is in an older neighborhood. The stairs are all made of wood, and they are all grooved from being used so much over the years. As I walked into the apartment I met José Antonio; he is the gentleman that is renting the room and he seems to be in his late 50’s early 60’s but very nice. He showed me around and although the flat was small the room that he was renting was fair sized and had a nice veranda that looked out onto the street. I knew right away that it was the one! The apartment is a nice little place that is quite, right in the heart of the city, and close to the train station that I need to go to class. The next day I signed a lease and moved in. What a relief the day before I needed to be out of Olivier’s apartment, I found a place to live!
Today, September 14th, I had two classes. I went to Organizational Principles and Macro Econ. Both were tough, because the professor for Organizational Principles spoke very broken English, and the Macro class was taught in Spanish so it was challenging. I think I understood about 75% of what the professor said, and afterwards I went and introduced myself to him, he seemed very nice and happy to have an exchange student in class; and luckily for me, the text for the class is in English. Bueno, enough of this boring stuff, let’s get caught up on all the fun stuff that has happened over the last 8 days!
Alright, enough of this nonsense, let’s talk about all the fun things that went on this last week; there were a lot of them! Every night at Olivier’s we would all cook dinner and eat together which was real nice. On Monday we all just hung around the house and had a mellow evening. Tuesday night proved to be much more exciting. Olivier had a dinner with his co-workers before he left, so I cooked and had dinner with his roommate Alberto. After dinner there was an Erasmus (exchange student) event downtown. We all met up at a Karaoke bar and sang the night away. Well, actually the place really relatively small; there were 200+ of us and only one bar tender so the party ended up out on the street with all the students buying beer from the chinos, as they are called here, that were selling beers for 1 Euro on the street corners. It was nice to chat with a few new people and hang with some of the ones I already knew.
The next day, I met up with a few of the Dutch guys I met to play a pickup game of soccer at Parque Retiro, which is only about 10 minutes from my new place, although I wasn’t there then. It was really fun, I am not nearly as good as any of these kids that has been playing all their lives but I like to get out there, mix it up with them, and they are all just happy to play no matter what level you are at which is really cool. Wednesday night was really mellow, as I said earlier that is when I came to look at the apartment and then I just hung out trying to find classes to take.
Thursday however was extremely fun. I went to school in the morning because no one was home at Olivier’s. After returning, I gathered all my belongings which only consisted of one suitcase at the time (the other one was at a friend Marc’s house), and moved into my new apartment. After moving in, Olivier and I met up with Alberto to go out to eat for Olivier’s last night in Madrid. We went to an Indian restaurant right near my flat in a barrio called Lavapies. The food was good and we had a great time hanging out and chatting. After dinner, a few drink, and goodbyes, I was off to my next Erasmus event. Thursday night, we all met up at a club in town called Shanghai. Before going there, I met up with a few people that I met Tuesday night for a cocktail or two. The club was full of people that I had met and we all danced the night away till some ridiculous hour. I arrived home at a bit after 4:30, and the club was still full of people.
On Friday, I met up with an Erasmus student at Parque Retiro again for a picnic and to check out some of the sights. It was fun just hanging out people watching and then walking around this huge park in the downtown area. A bit later that afternoon, I went to my friend Marc’s house. Last time I as there (August 19th – 22nd) his parents were not there, but this time they were so I got to meet them. Both of his parents were extremely nice and made me feel as if I were at home with my family or any one of my closest friends family. We had a wonderful dinner out at an Argentine restaurant near their house. After dinner, his parents dropped us off at a friend’s house and it was time again for another long night of partying. We all met up at Daniel’s house around 11:30. Daniel is going to go study in Frankfurt on Wednesday, and while all sitting around before going out, we decided that it would be nice to go visit him while he is there; and what do you know Oktoberfest just happens to be coming up around the corner…Oktoberfest here we come!!! We are booking our tickets tomorrow and will spend October 1st – 4th enjoying authentic German beer, in hopefully authentic Bavarian attire!!! Enough talking about that, I am gitty every time I think about it! The night went on, we met up with some girls that Marc and Daniel know downtown for a drink before going to the club for the night, it was a nice little local place and I met some of their other friends that I hadn’t met before which is always nice because they are all locals. We went to a club called Orange Café, and again as usual danced our tails off until some ridiculous hours of the morning. This time we arrived home at just before 7 a.m. to Marc’s dad getting his day started!
I slept till about 1 in the afternoon and then decided that I probably shouldn’t waste away the rest of the day. I ended up learning how to cook some homemade Gazpacho, and Albondigas. Gazpacho, for those of you who don’t know it, it a vegetable soup that is tomato based and also has onions, bell pepper, and hmmm maybe that’s it. Albondigas on the other hand are a sort of Spanish meatball in a red sauce that is similar to marinara but it just merely covers the meatballs, not much more. After lunch we went to a movie, and then they dropped me off at the train station with my other bag of luggage to make the trip home. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for me to get to their house on public transportation; it is in an outskirt that is very nice called Las Rozas.
Well, Saturday night was finally relatively mellow, I had dinner out with a friend at a little tapas bar and called it a night. Sunday, on the other hand was a little more exciting. I woke up late after sleeping in and again went to Parque Retiro to have a picnic, this time all the Erasmus students were there and we all brought different things to share. It was quite a nice day until it started to drizzle on us. Once the rain started coming down I left with a few other students and we went to the other side of town to the world Famous Ventas Plaza de Torros. We went to watch the Sunday evening bull fight, and let me tell you, it was quite the experience. I was not sure how I was going to like it because the kill the bulls and I heard that it was terrible, but upon review I found it to be quite the experience. I started thinking about the hundreds of years of culture, and history, and events that had taken place here and it was breathe taking. We bought the cheapest seats we could, 2.20 Euro, or about equivalent to $3.50, nearly free! We sat at the top of the stands but had an unbelievable view of the city to the west as the sun was setting in the semi-stormy sky. It was quite the experience, it s hard to put into words. The crowd was hard to please, and applauded when the Torero made suave maneuvers, and heckled him when he was not performing to their liking. Although it was a little gruesome, I found it to be a spectacular experience and will have to go back to take some pictures when I have my camera.
Alright, well sorry if this post was a little long but there was a ton to catch up on and I just can’t stop once I start for some reason. I will try to post more often so they are shorter and easier to get through. I hope this post finds everyone doing well; I am excited to see that more people are following the Blog. Please feel free to share it with others and comment as you wish (criticism of my poor writing is welcome, I can’t help it, I am a Redneck!). I hate to admit it, but I am starting to really miss everyone back home, I was hoping it wouldn’t happen till a bit later but that’s reality. Hopefully I will talk to some of you all soon, you can find me on Gmail chat (allanphil@gmail.com), windows live messenger (Oneofdabuoys), or Skype (Oneofdabuoys).
Much Love from Madrid,
Chao,
Phil
The first few days of the week (September 7th – 10th or so) I spent the mornings at the university trying to get counseling on choosing my classes because I was having trouble navigating the web page that the school has so poorly built; well I guess it is actually more of a work in progress, they are updating it. Anyhow, I kept getting there earlier and earlier because they are only open for two hours and the lines were tremendous Monday and Tuesday by 11:30. Talk about sweet hours again, they are only open 12:00 – 14:00. On Wednesday I finally arrived early enough, I got there at 11:00 and was the third person in line, minus a few people that had gotten tickets the day before and told to come back on Wednesday. The Lady that helped me was quite nice she showed me how to choose classes, and told me which ones that I could choose. It appears that I will be a taking a few Economics classes, and one or two organizational, and business administration classes. I am also planning on taking a Spanish class because the three of the other classes are taught in English, and I only have one in Spanish. I will be taking, Organizational Principles, Game Theory, Macroeconomics of Monetary and Fiscal Policy (this one in Spanish), and also Business Administration of some sorts (I might drop this and take Commercial Distribution Economics instead, which is also taught in Spanish).
After being unsuccessful the first few times at getting a counselor I went to the library and spent my afternoons chasing down a flat somewhere in the city. I must have looked at 300+ ads, about 20 or so that I called on and about 6 or 7 that I went and saw. I was getting more and more nervous as the week went on. As I think I might have mentioned in earlier posts I was staying at Julein’s brother, Olivier’s apartment while I was searching for one of my own. The catch here is that Olivier was moving back to Paris on Friday early morning. As the days drew closer and closer to Thursday night I was becoming more and more stressed. Every place that I looked at was either small, had no windows, had no living room, or had strange folks living there! Finally on Wednesday night I found something that was interesting and set an appointment to go and look at the flat. Only in Spain would you set an appointment to look at apartment at 10p.m. but that’s what it was so that’s when I went! The first impression was the stair well. It is an older building, I am guessing late 1800’s early 1900’s, and it is in an older neighborhood. The stairs are all made of wood, and they are all grooved from being used so much over the years. As I walked into the apartment I met José Antonio; he is the gentleman that is renting the room and he seems to be in his late 50’s early 60’s but very nice. He showed me around and although the flat was small the room that he was renting was fair sized and had a nice veranda that looked out onto the street. I knew right away that it was the one! The apartment is a nice little place that is quite, right in the heart of the city, and close to the train station that I need to go to class. The next day I signed a lease and moved in. What a relief the day before I needed to be out of Olivier’s apartment, I found a place to live!
Today, September 14th, I had two classes. I went to Organizational Principles and Macro Econ. Both were tough, because the professor for Organizational Principles spoke very broken English, and the Macro class was taught in Spanish so it was challenging. I think I understood about 75% of what the professor said, and afterwards I went and introduced myself to him, he seemed very nice and happy to have an exchange student in class; and luckily for me, the text for the class is in English. Bueno, enough of this boring stuff, let’s get caught up on all the fun stuff that has happened over the last 8 days!
Alright, enough of this nonsense, let’s talk about all the fun things that went on this last week; there were a lot of them! Every night at Olivier’s we would all cook dinner and eat together which was real nice. On Monday we all just hung around the house and had a mellow evening. Tuesday night proved to be much more exciting. Olivier had a dinner with his co-workers before he left, so I cooked and had dinner with his roommate Alberto. After dinner there was an Erasmus (exchange student) event downtown. We all met up at a Karaoke bar and sang the night away. Well, actually the place really relatively small; there were 200+ of us and only one bar tender so the party ended up out on the street with all the students buying beer from the chinos, as they are called here, that were selling beers for 1 Euro on the street corners. It was nice to chat with a few new people and hang with some of the ones I already knew.
The next day, I met up with a few of the Dutch guys I met to play a pickup game of soccer at Parque Retiro, which is only about 10 minutes from my new place, although I wasn’t there then. It was really fun, I am not nearly as good as any of these kids that has been playing all their lives but I like to get out there, mix it up with them, and they are all just happy to play no matter what level you are at which is really cool. Wednesday night was really mellow, as I said earlier that is when I came to look at the apartment and then I just hung out trying to find classes to take.
Thursday however was extremely fun. I went to school in the morning because no one was home at Olivier’s. After returning, I gathered all my belongings which only consisted of one suitcase at the time (the other one was at a friend Marc’s house), and moved into my new apartment. After moving in, Olivier and I met up with Alberto to go out to eat for Olivier’s last night in Madrid. We went to an Indian restaurant right near my flat in a barrio called Lavapies. The food was good and we had a great time hanging out and chatting. After dinner, a few drink, and goodbyes, I was off to my next Erasmus event. Thursday night, we all met up at a club in town called Shanghai. Before going there, I met up with a few people that I met Tuesday night for a cocktail or two. The club was full of people that I had met and we all danced the night away till some ridiculous hour. I arrived home at a bit after 4:30, and the club was still full of people.
On Friday, I met up with an Erasmus student at Parque Retiro again for a picnic and to check out some of the sights. It was fun just hanging out people watching and then walking around this huge park in the downtown area. A bit later that afternoon, I went to my friend Marc’s house. Last time I as there (August 19th – 22nd) his parents were not there, but this time they were so I got to meet them. Both of his parents were extremely nice and made me feel as if I were at home with my family or any one of my closest friends family. We had a wonderful dinner out at an Argentine restaurant near their house. After dinner, his parents dropped us off at a friend’s house and it was time again for another long night of partying. We all met up at Daniel’s house around 11:30. Daniel is going to go study in Frankfurt on Wednesday, and while all sitting around before going out, we decided that it would be nice to go visit him while he is there; and what do you know Oktoberfest just happens to be coming up around the corner…Oktoberfest here we come!!! We are booking our tickets tomorrow and will spend October 1st – 4th enjoying authentic German beer, in hopefully authentic Bavarian attire!!! Enough talking about that, I am gitty every time I think about it! The night went on, we met up with some girls that Marc and Daniel know downtown for a drink before going to the club for the night, it was a nice little local place and I met some of their other friends that I hadn’t met before which is always nice because they are all locals. We went to a club called Orange Café, and again as usual danced our tails off until some ridiculous hours of the morning. This time we arrived home at just before 7 a.m. to Marc’s dad getting his day started!
I slept till about 1 in the afternoon and then decided that I probably shouldn’t waste away the rest of the day. I ended up learning how to cook some homemade Gazpacho, and Albondigas. Gazpacho, for those of you who don’t know it, it a vegetable soup that is tomato based and also has onions, bell pepper, and hmmm maybe that’s it. Albondigas on the other hand are a sort of Spanish meatball in a red sauce that is similar to marinara but it just merely covers the meatballs, not much more. After lunch we went to a movie, and then they dropped me off at the train station with my other bag of luggage to make the trip home. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for me to get to their house on public transportation; it is in an outskirt that is very nice called Las Rozas.
Well, Saturday night was finally relatively mellow, I had dinner out with a friend at a little tapas bar and called it a night. Sunday, on the other hand was a little more exciting. I woke up late after sleeping in and again went to Parque Retiro to have a picnic, this time all the Erasmus students were there and we all brought different things to share. It was quite a nice day until it started to drizzle on us. Once the rain started coming down I left with a few other students and we went to the other side of town to the world Famous Ventas Plaza de Torros. We went to watch the Sunday evening bull fight, and let me tell you, it was quite the experience. I was not sure how I was going to like it because the kill the bulls and I heard that it was terrible, but upon review I found it to be quite the experience. I started thinking about the hundreds of years of culture, and history, and events that had taken place here and it was breathe taking. We bought the cheapest seats we could, 2.20 Euro, or about equivalent to $3.50, nearly free! We sat at the top of the stands but had an unbelievable view of the city to the west as the sun was setting in the semi-stormy sky. It was quite the experience, it s hard to put into words. The crowd was hard to please, and applauded when the Torero made suave maneuvers, and heckled him when he was not performing to their liking. Although it was a little gruesome, I found it to be a spectacular experience and will have to go back to take some pictures when I have my camera.
Alright, well sorry if this post was a little long but there was a ton to catch up on and I just can’t stop once I start for some reason. I will try to post more often so they are shorter and easier to get through. I hope this post finds everyone doing well; I am excited to see that more people are following the Blog. Please feel free to share it with others and comment as you wish (criticism of my poor writing is welcome, I can’t help it, I am a Redneck!). I hate to admit it, but I am starting to really miss everyone back home, I was hoping it wouldn’t happen till a bit later but that’s reality. Hopefully I will talk to some of you all soon, you can find me on Gmail chat (allanphil@gmail.com), windows live messenger (Oneofdabuoys), or Skype (Oneofdabuoys).
Much Love from Madrid,
Chao,
Phil
Monday, September 7, 2009
Madrid...First few days
Well not much has happened since the last time I wrote. I am going to try to keep this short, we'll see if that happens. I arrived in Madrid and spent the first couple of nights in a Youth Hostel right downtown. On Friday the 4th, I had orientation for school. It was not that eventful...we were greeted by the president of the university (about 400 of us exchange students), and we were given some presentations by people in the international offices, and the international student network. After that, we split into about 5 groups and went on a campus tour. After the campus tours we all met up at the cafeteria for Tapas, beer, wine, and soft drinks...this sure wouldn't happen at a campus in the states! I met a lot of German exchange students, everyone was very friendly.
I ended up staying one more night at the Hostel, and then went to Julien's brother, Olivier's, house. It was extremely nice of him to welcome me in with such open arms. The folks that he live with are also very nice. I have been going out looking at apartments everyday now, and have yet to find one that I am fond of...they are always either extremely old and ratty, or strange folks, or tiny little places. THE SEARCH GOES ON! I decided that I will just sleep on park benches until I find a place that I am satisfied with, adventurous right!
The other night, Olivier had a little get together at his house because he is moving back to Paris on Friday of this week. I already inquired and his room has already been rented. Total bummer because it is an awesome third floor flat that overlooks a beautiful Plaza, Plaza Olavide. It was very nice to get to know some of his friends, they were all very nice, and wished me luck on finding a flat. After the get together a few of us went out for a beer or two at the local bar. The schedule here is ridiculous...we didn't end up getting home till like 4:45 or 5:00 a.m.
Well today I came to the university even though classes don't start till next week. I need to go talk with the international student services people to get some help building my schedule for the year.
Well it is getting to be that time, the office is only open from 12:00 - 2:00 and 4:30 - 6:30, sign me up for that work schedule please!
Until next time.
Philip
011-34-676-209-533 (Thanks mom for the correction!)
I ended up staying one more night at the Hostel, and then went to Julien's brother, Olivier's, house. It was extremely nice of him to welcome me in with such open arms. The folks that he live with are also very nice. I have been going out looking at apartments everyday now, and have yet to find one that I am fond of...they are always either extremely old and ratty, or strange folks, or tiny little places. THE SEARCH GOES ON! I decided that I will just sleep on park benches until I find a place that I am satisfied with, adventurous right!
The other night, Olivier had a little get together at his house because he is moving back to Paris on Friday of this week. I already inquired and his room has already been rented. Total bummer because it is an awesome third floor flat that overlooks a beautiful Plaza, Plaza Olavide. It was very nice to get to know some of his friends, they were all very nice, and wished me luck on finding a flat. After the get together a few of us went out for a beer or two at the local bar. The schedule here is ridiculous...we didn't end up getting home till like 4:45 or 5:00 a.m.
Well today I came to the university even though classes don't start till next week. I need to go talk with the international student services people to get some help building my schedule for the year.
Well it is getting to be that time, the office is only open from 12:00 - 2:00 and 4:30 - 6:30, sign me up for that work schedule please!
Until next time.
Philip
011-34-676-209-533 (Thanks mom for the correction!)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Last Days In Lisbon
I have arrived in Madrid...here is the posting I wrote in the Lisbon airport for everyone to enjoy!
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I do believe that the last time I wrote I was on my way to the family farm to pick the grapes on the vineyard. Well, it was a success… The drive from grandma’s house to the farm is about 2 hours more or less. About half of the driving is on the freeway and the last half is on rural country roads. The closest village to the farm is Villa de Frades, which is a cute little village full of white house’s with different colored trim painting around the windows (blue, Green and Yellow typically). All though it is cute, we have to do most of the shopping in the next village over, Vidiguiera which is only about 4km away and not a whole lot bigger.
When we arrived at the farm, we opened up the old ranch style house that must have been built in the late 1800’s. It has started to fall apart withing the last 5 years or so, but it looks about the same as it did last time I saw it (some braces holding up the ceiling in the living room that is no longer used (probably for the reason). After getting the house ready, Grandma and I went shopping. The first stop was the cheese lady in Villa de Frades, unfortunately she didn’t have any fresh cheese and wouldn’t be making any for the rest of the week. We stopped at a few other places with no luck until we finally stopped at one of the local markets that had some fresh cheese made by a different person. I am not a huge fan of fresh (I think it was goat cheese?) but I tried it and it was actually not too bad. I don’t think I would eat it everyday but I would have it again if I was a guest somewhere and felt it would be rude to decline!!!
Next, we went to the bread lady in Vidiguiera to pick up a couple of loaves of fresh bread. Not really anything else like it! It’s just a couple of little old ladies that have no sign above the door of their shop…when you pull up it is just an open door in the village, usually with cars illegally parked all around from people stopping in to get their bread for the day. We picked up two loaves fresh out of the oven, still warm, ordered a few more for the next day and went on our way.
After shopping and returning home, my Aunt Nicha arrived at the farm with her three kids (David, Teresa, and Maria) and Teresa’s boyfriend Francisco. After about a half an hour of chatting, having a snack of fresh bread, and changing clothes, we hit the vineyard to start picking the grapes that the picking machine could not get to. It was a slow start until we got a process going and figured out the most efficient way to pick. There were just 5 of us picking, three on one side of the vine and two on the other, three people (two on one side, one the other) would clip the grapes and let them fall to the ground. The other two people would trail behind, picking the grapes up, putting them in buckets, taking two full buckets at a time to the place where the truck would pick them up the next day. We only ended up picking grapes for about two the first evening because it started to get late, we had a nice homemade dinner, and called it a night.
The next day I was the first one up, 6:00 a.m. sharp. Sickening, maybe a little, but it was absolutely beautiful. The sun had not risen over the hills in the east, the rooster was just starting to do his thing, and the air was crisp and still. Not too long after, everyone else was up and moving around, I had already sliced a loaf of the fresh bread and started making toast for everyone. We had a few pieces of fresh toast with butter, and fresh honey, and were again off to go pick. By the time that we made it out there, the grape picking machine had beat us to the punch and was already harvesting. We picked as fast as we could until the very last moment that we could (we had to stop at the same time the grape machine did, to load the grapes that we had picked onto the same truck to take to the processing plant). Apparently, the processing facility that my aunt is using has a 8000kg limit for each day of harvesting so the machine only picks a certain number of rows. We ended up doing pretty well, and hit that limit right on the head after we loaded all of our grapes and the machines grapes into the truck.
After cleaning up, we all went down to the processing plant to fill out the paperwork on the delivery of our grapes. I’ll tell you what (Insert Hank Hill accent here!), things are much different here in Portugal than back home; we were allowed to go all over the processing plant and look at all the different processes of the wine making. We watched the grape be unloaded and put through a separator; taking the leaves and stems out, leaving just the grape. We got to see all of the huge fermentation barrels that the wine is made in; and we got to go into the packaging station with all of the automated conveyer belts, taking the bare bottles out the cases, cleaning them, labeling them, filling them, corking them, repackaging them, and finally stacking the cases of wine onto pallets for distribution. It was really quite something, we walked all around and touched whatever we wanted and saw everything!
Well, after having a nice lunch under the wisteria covered trellis of the house, it was off to pick up my nanny (Felicia) in her village a little ways down the road, and then take her back to Lisbon with us. It was about an hour drive to get to Entradas, the village that Felicia is from, but it was a beautiful road through the country side and several other small villages. When we arrived she was all ready to go. She spent the whole month of July and August with her niece in the village and missed being home in Lisbon. The drive back to Lisbon went relatively smoothly; whoops I forgot to mention that my Grandma’s car’s air-conditioning was not working and we were in the desert of Portugal this whole time! Well it was not the most comfortable thing, but not terrible, we had reasonable weather, 32’C, don’t know the conversion (+32 and times something?)! We arrived home without any problems and had a nice dinner together along with my Uncle Joao. After dinner, I again scoured the internet for Apartments to rent in Madrid, and came to the conclusion that I will wait till I arrive so I can see it and make sure it is what I want.
This morning I booked a hostel for two nights, so I have a place to stay for orientation, and then hopefully I will have either found a place, or will stay with some friends. Well, it is about time for my flight. I don’t have net right now so I will post this when I arrive in Madrid. I hope all is well with everyone.
Until Next time,
Philip
0034-676-209-533 (cell)
P.S. I thought this was going to be a real short and sweet post, I must just be rambling on and on… sorry if I bored anyone! (I DON’T FEEL BAD IF I DID!!!)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Time in Lisbon
Well I have a few moments, so I thought that I would write a new post before I forgot what I have done! And I want to apologize now for not having any pictures up...technical difficulties with the camera, new one should be in the mail any day(Don't worry there is almost a year worth of pictures still ahead of us!)
Alright, well since the last time I wrote, my time here in Lisbon has been 100% action packed. The second day back anfter one day of relaxation, I met up with my two cousins Marta and Mariana. We decided to meet in downtown since they live on the other side of the city, so I took the metro down to Baixa, which is a little area near the river in Lisbon. Apparently I was not at the spot the expected me at so it took about 30 min or so to finally find eachother! Once we rendezvoused we decided to go for a walk to the castle at the top of the hill near the river called Sao Jorge. I had been there before but it has been years so we walked to the top and got to see the panoramic view of the city, quite a sight! After that we went back down to Baxia and toured around looking for an electronics store so I could buy a new web cam to skype with, Success was ours on that day! Towards the end of the day we met up with their mother Tia Luiza and went to the beach near Cascais and walked along a board walk, similar to the one at home in Carlsbad and had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. Needless to say, the Mexican food on this continent does not really compare to what we eat back home!!!
The next day was relatively slow in the morning, Grandma and I went for our usual coffee just up the street, came back to the house, relaxed for a while, had lunch with my uncle, relaxed some more...same ole thing! Later in the afternoon, we went to Cascais again but this time to go see a regatta that my uncle and a few of his friends were participating in! I guess this would have been saturday now that I think of it, just to give you a concept of time! We arrived at the marina around 3:00 and waited for the boats to start coming back in. I don't really know why I wanted to go check it out; I guess it didn't occur to me that all of these 40+ foot boats would not be doing circles right in front of the harbor!!! We sat in the scorching sun for about an hour before we wised up and went and got an ice cream and enjoyed the shade under a table at the cafe. We did manage to go back and watch them come in about an hour after that. It was mostly uneventful but nice to be there to support them coming on in. I got to go down on the dock and talk to my uncle Ita and his friend Luis, and a distant cousin Pedro about the regatta; apparently they did not do as well as they did the say before, but they all had a good time. After that we went home, had some dinner and went to bed, man the sun just takes it out of you!
On Sunday, my Grandma woke me up around 11:30 because my uncle Ita had called and wanted to know if I wanted to go out on a friend of his' boat for the day. He came and picked me up and we went down to the marina around 1. There were 5 of us on the boat: Me, Uncle Ita, Aunt Po, and their friends Fernando and his wife Isabel. I had never been on a big sailing boat before, this one was 36.7" long. We left the marina, put the sails up and were off towards the ocean (we started up the river Tejo a little bit). After sailing for about an hour and a half we stopped and had lunch near a beach. This by no matters was a tough sailing trip! For lunch, Isabel had prepared: bread with prosciutto, patte and fresh cheese spreads to start with; a green salad with Tuna, hard boiled eggs, olives, and cherry tomatoes; and fresh fruit and cookies for desert. Whoops and I forgot, champagne to enjoy with all of it! Tough life it was on the boat. After that we went all up and down the coast looking at Lisbon from the water, seeing the different forts that were used in the early days of the city, the palaces that were on the water for old kings and kings to use, and all the different statues and state buildings that were breathe taking. That night we went to Ita and Po's house for dinner. Grandma met us at the house and we had a little family dinner at their new house. I had never been there before, but it was really nice, closer to the river than grandma's house so it stays a little cooler, and the building is relatively new so everything in the apartment was really nice. After dinner a few of the cousins, some friends of theirs and I all went to go see the movie Glorious Bastards. I thought it was pretty darn good, Gorey...Yes, but it was action packed and cool!
Yesterday, again woke up around 11:30 and went to coffee with my grandma up the road and had a little pastry. After that, we went to go visit a great aunt of mine Tia Pepa. She lives a few blocks away so we walked to her house and spent half an hour or so chatting with her and catching up. Later in the afternoon, my cousin Teresa called to see if I wanted to go to the beach...of course! I went over to her house and went to the beach with her and the rest of her family (Aunt Nicha, Cousin David, Maria, and Teresa of course). At the beach a few other cousins met up with us: Francisco, Miguel, and Pedro. There were not any waves like we have at the beach, but it was nice to splash around and spend time with the cousins. Well as always had a nice dinner, this time with their family at their house about 15 minutes from grandmas. Came back home late and went to bed!
Today, not much has happened. Grandma came to wake me up to go to coffee, but I had to pass; I was to darn tired, and it was the first day that my room was not burning up hot in the morning. I eneded up going an hour or so later by myself...couldn't get the day going with out it! We just finished up a lunch of CaraPao (little fish) that are fried, one of my favorites. Everyone here eats the whole fish head and all, so I went for it today...ate the first head and freaked myself out! Had to stop doing that pronto, wasn't real bad tasting per say, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it again!
Well we are off to the family farm to pick some grapes from the vineyard. Apparently there are some areas that the machine can not get to...be gone for a day or so back tomorrow night! I hope everyone is doing well, and are enjoying the posts.
I Miss you guys.
Phil
Alright, well since the last time I wrote, my time here in Lisbon has been 100% action packed. The second day back anfter one day of relaxation, I met up with my two cousins Marta and Mariana. We decided to meet in downtown since they live on the other side of the city, so I took the metro down to Baixa, which is a little area near the river in Lisbon. Apparently I was not at the spot the expected me at so it took about 30 min or so to finally find eachother! Once we rendezvoused we decided to go for a walk to the castle at the top of the hill near the river called Sao Jorge. I had been there before but it has been years so we walked to the top and got to see the panoramic view of the city, quite a sight! After that we went back down to Baxia and toured around looking for an electronics store so I could buy a new web cam to skype with, Success was ours on that day! Towards the end of the day we met up with their mother Tia Luiza and went to the beach near Cascais and walked along a board walk, similar to the one at home in Carlsbad and had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. Needless to say, the Mexican food on this continent does not really compare to what we eat back home!!!
The next day was relatively slow in the morning, Grandma and I went for our usual coffee just up the street, came back to the house, relaxed for a while, had lunch with my uncle, relaxed some more...same ole thing! Later in the afternoon, we went to Cascais again but this time to go see a regatta that my uncle and a few of his friends were participating in! I guess this would have been saturday now that I think of it, just to give you a concept of time! We arrived at the marina around 3:00 and waited for the boats to start coming back in. I don't really know why I wanted to go check it out; I guess it didn't occur to me that all of these 40+ foot boats would not be doing circles right in front of the harbor!!! We sat in the scorching sun for about an hour before we wised up and went and got an ice cream and enjoyed the shade under a table at the cafe. We did manage to go back and watch them come in about an hour after that. It was mostly uneventful but nice to be there to support them coming on in. I got to go down on the dock and talk to my uncle Ita and his friend Luis, and a distant cousin Pedro about the regatta; apparently they did not do as well as they did the say before, but they all had a good time. After that we went home, had some dinner and went to bed, man the sun just takes it out of you!
On Sunday, my Grandma woke me up around 11:30 because my uncle Ita had called and wanted to know if I wanted to go out on a friend of his' boat for the day. He came and picked me up and we went down to the marina around 1. There were 5 of us on the boat: Me, Uncle Ita, Aunt Po, and their friends Fernando and his wife Isabel. I had never been on a big sailing boat before, this one was 36.7" long. We left the marina, put the sails up and were off towards the ocean (we started up the river Tejo a little bit). After sailing for about an hour and a half we stopped and had lunch near a beach. This by no matters was a tough sailing trip! For lunch, Isabel had prepared: bread with prosciutto, patte and fresh cheese spreads to start with; a green salad with Tuna, hard boiled eggs, olives, and cherry tomatoes; and fresh fruit and cookies for desert. Whoops and I forgot, champagne to enjoy with all of it! Tough life it was on the boat. After that we went all up and down the coast looking at Lisbon from the water, seeing the different forts that were used in the early days of the city, the palaces that were on the water for old kings and kings to use, and all the different statues and state buildings that were breathe taking. That night we went to Ita and Po's house for dinner. Grandma met us at the house and we had a little family dinner at their new house. I had never been there before, but it was really nice, closer to the river than grandma's house so it stays a little cooler, and the building is relatively new so everything in the apartment was really nice. After dinner a few of the cousins, some friends of theirs and I all went to go see the movie Glorious Bastards. I thought it was pretty darn good, Gorey...Yes, but it was action packed and cool!
Yesterday, again woke up around 11:30 and went to coffee with my grandma up the road and had a little pastry. After that, we went to go visit a great aunt of mine Tia Pepa. She lives a few blocks away so we walked to her house and spent half an hour or so chatting with her and catching up. Later in the afternoon, my cousin Teresa called to see if I wanted to go to the beach...of course! I went over to her house and went to the beach with her and the rest of her family (Aunt Nicha, Cousin David, Maria, and Teresa of course). At the beach a few other cousins met up with us: Francisco, Miguel, and Pedro. There were not any waves like we have at the beach, but it was nice to splash around and spend time with the cousins. Well as always had a nice dinner, this time with their family at their house about 15 minutes from grandmas. Came back home late and went to bed!
Today, not much has happened. Grandma came to wake me up to go to coffee, but I had to pass; I was to darn tired, and it was the first day that my room was not burning up hot in the morning. I eneded up going an hour or so later by myself...couldn't get the day going with out it! We just finished up a lunch of CaraPao (little fish) that are fried, one of my favorites. Everyone here eats the whole fish head and all, so I went for it today...ate the first head and freaked myself out! Had to stop doing that pronto, wasn't real bad tasting per say, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it again!
Well we are off to the family farm to pick some grapes from the vineyard. Apparently there are some areas that the machine can not get to...be gone for a day or so back tomorrow night! I hope everyone is doing well, and are enjoying the posts.
I Miss you guys.
Phil
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