Well last time I left you all I was landing in Lisbon from Madrid to give a quick visit to Felicia. The visit went pretty well, on Sunday when I went to see her for lunch she was doing pretty well and in good spirits. She broke out a few of her jokes and was telling stories that were really funny. After the visit I spent some time with Tia Nicha, David, Teresa and Maria. It is always nice to spend time with them, Tia Nicha is like my mom on this side of the world, all ways looking after me and checking on me! Man is it good to have family around! In the afternoon they had to study so it was off to Avo's house with Francisco to hang out, we ended up hanging there for a while and then Domingos and Pedro came over for dinner. We ended up being a mess of people because Tio Joao was there with Marta and Mariana, and then Pedro, Francisco, Domingos, Avo and I...I am not sure how many that is, maybe 8, well it was a lot cause we went from 5 to 8 in the snap of a finger but Avo came through with a great meal as always, including my favorite soup (sopa de feijao verde).
On Monday I was up relatively early and it was back to battle with the Bureaucrats at the office to get my European Health card being that the temporary one they sent me expired, and the real one never came. After battling with no success it was off to another visit with Felicia before going back to Madrid to make it to class on time to turn in an assignment I had due. The second visit was not as good as the first, in that Felicia had not had a very good night and was pretty weak and tired. I helped give her her lunch and enjoyed spending time with her. After the visit, it was off to the airport. Like most the time, the flight to Madrid was delayed and hour or so. I ended up making it to class about 45 minutes late but better late than never right. After class I got a call from Tia Luisa, Marta and Mariana's mom, saying that she was in Madrid and wanted to get dinner together. I ended up meeting her and a couple of friends in Barrio Salamanca and having a great meal. I had some sort of Goose or duck breast in a sauce that I am not sure of, but it was excellent. It ended up being one hell of a long day, I finally arrived home around 12:30.
Tuesday was another long day at school, things are still heating up, tests and assignments to turn in and group projects to start on. Not exactly my idea of studying abroad, but I guess a little work won't kill me! Thank goodness I had something to look forward to and the day went right on by. On Wednesday I was off to Valencia for a festival called Las Fallas. I have a friend, Luis, that lives in a little pueblo outside of Valencia called Benevites, and he was nice enough to put me up for a night while I went to the Fallas. I arrived Wednesday around 4 in the afternoon, the flight was a mere 30 minutes or so and we still had the rest of the day ahead of us. Luis took some time off work during the day to pick me up at the airport, then we went back to his house and hung out. We walked around his little town and looked at the garden, and soccer pitch, and amphitheater that they have there. We also went to his folks new house they are building right around the corner from his. The whole pueblo has a population of 660 and is a surrounded by orange groves. Instead of going into Valencia downtown the first day, I ended up just hanging out in the pueblo and catching up on some much needed rest.
Thursday was another story, PARTY TIME! Luis had to work for the day at the family business, but his parents were nice enough to drop me off at the train station that was about 15 minutes away by car, and I was on my way to Valencia for the real action. The first experience I got with the Fallas was the train ride into town...I have NEVER seem a train so FULL. Luckily I was on my own so right as the doors were closing I shoved some people around a squeezed my big butt right in the door! At every stop more people tried to shove there way in but it was with little to no success that they would make it on, occasionally one or two might get real lucky and squeeze their way on. After getting off at the main train station in Valencia, I was right in time to catch the firework show at 2 in the afternoon. Yes, you heard it correctly, a firework show at 2. I have never seen something quite like it, and not sure where you will find anything else like it. In the center of the city, Plaza de Ayuntamiento, there were people shoulder to shoulder, I mean completely stuffed in and filling up about 4 city blocks deep of side streets in any direction. at 2 on the dot these big explosions started going off and smoke was everywhere. It was absolutely spectacular, and left your ears ringing for sometime afterward. The show lasted a good 5 or 6 minutes and after it was waiting until people dispersed so you could finally walk around a little bit.
After the show I started wandering around aimlessly. I probably should have done some more research about what to see, or where do to go but instead I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I ended up seeing the offering that all the Falleras took flowers to, and saw the Falla that one first prize for the year. the structures were absolutely incredible, and really funny. They are all plays on different things, political, social issues, or anything else you could think of. Please enjoy the pictures and videos that will be up later today. Around 11p.m. Luis made it into town and we were off to cut up the town, he showed me the natural history museum or something like that...some incredible modern buildings, and then we met up with a few of his friends for a drink at a restaurant, and then went bar hoping all over Valencia. Before you knew it, it was 6 in the morning and I had a plane to catch at 8. Right after I got on the metro that was again, extremely full, I happened to glance to my side and ran into one of my colleagues from Carlos III...what are the chances, that we catch the same metro, and get in the same car, at the same door! It was pretty funny. I got to the airport with time to spare, and fell right asleep when we took off. I was rudely awoken by the bump of the pilot landing, and it was straight home to clean up for David and Bernardo (cousins) to come visit. I cleaned to room a little bit and then grabbed another 3 hours of sleep or so before going to the airport to pick them up.
The pick up went pretty smoothly, I found them with out any major problems although they both came out of different doors than the screen indicated. Being that they are both 16 and growing the first thing that we did was head to a restaurant for some late lunch. After going home and dropping there stuff off, it was right out the door to check out the main sites of the city, we wandered all over and took in the city little by little...I don't know how much we walked all weekend, but it was a lot. We went home for dinner, and then it was back at it again, off to the neighbor Vasco's house to hang before going out to the Disco. Like any good older cousin I took them out for a night on the town. unfortunately we did not make it till the very end of the night because the 3 hours of sleep I had had the day before wasn't enough! I know, what a wimp right, but there is always the next day and we had things to see on Saturday.
Saturday we got up at a reasonable hour, as in not much after 1 in the afternoon, and it was right off to check out the town some more. Marc met us at the house and then we made our way to our favorite Indian restaurant for lunch. We ate well and then it was teach these kids about art and history so we went to the Reina Sofia museum to see some of Picasso and Dali's work. As always boring tasks are rewarded, after walking by the Prado, and skipping it due to a line that must have been a quarter of a mile long we went to a nice little Tapas bar for some Tapas. Not bad right! By the time we got with all of this we went walking even more, we checked out the Royal Palace, and Templo Dibod, which is an Egyptian Temple that was given to the king of Spain, in the year I don't know how many as a gift. The temple was deconstructed, brought to Spain, and put back together. I had actually never been to the site, and was thoroughly impressed. It is up on a hill that looks to the west of the city and at sunset is quite spectacular. We went back to the house for a small dinner, and then once again it was out for the night. Saturday night Ismael and Amy met up with us and the five us headed out. This time Bernardo, David and I made it all the way till closing, we had an awesome time cutting up the dance floor and grooving!
With just a few hours of sleep yet again, it was up at 9:45 to get Bernardo up and take him to the airport. I was like a zombie on the way home, and right after I jumped in bed again David woke up! Luckily I was able to still grab a quick little 30 minutes or an hour or so and it was back at it. We grabbed some lunch and then went cruising for ladies...ok we didn't go cruising for ladies, but it sounded cooler! We went and checked out this place called the Caixa Forum, which is a really cool building near my old house. The building has been lifted one floor off the ground and always has some cool expositions outside of art (pictures in the Picassa album). Before you knew it, it was time to head right back home and get him to the airport. Really looking forward to getting to sleep early I ended up talking with mom and Andrew, then almost everyone else back home was up and for some reason or other I was up till way to late talking with everyone...well worth it though.
This post should have been written yesterday, but being that I had an exam I was not prepared for, I tried to get some studying in before I went into the room for a rough, rough exam. I guess any points I get are better than none! I think I did ok, but not too great...the weekend was well worth it though.
Well, that should keep everyone busy for quite some time. I hope I didn't bore anyone to badly, and if I did I am not sorry cause that was one heck of a week! I hope this finds everyone doing well, and I am really looking forward to having Tommy come hang out for Semana Santa, or Spring break!
Also, I wanted to give a big congrats to John for the job offer! Great job man, really proud of you and your awesomeness.
Ok that is really it for now!
Much Love,
Phil
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Mar 9th - Mar 14th
Coming to you from somewhere over Spain, between Madrid and Lisbon. Just had a great long weekend with Lorena, Tommy’s sister, and off to give a quick visit to Felicia (our nanny in Lisbon) who is down with Pneumonia(or something of the sorts) at the moment, sounds like she is doing better, but made the trip all the same to say hi and wish her well.
Last week at school went right on by, I don’t know what it is but they just keeping on going by faster and faster. The weather seems to be changing to spring; we had our first few days of consecutive sunshine which was really nice. Well, I was going to talk about school but not much is new, more work than I want to do. I am getting through it though, and making sure to have a good of time as I can while doing so…so far I think I am doing a pretty god job! Ok, now to the exciting, interesting stuff, the weekend.
On Thursday afternoon I went and picked Lorena up from the airport in the afternoon and in no time we had dropped the baggage off at the house and we were wandering the streets, seeing the sights. Thursday was pretty low key, we walked all over: Plaza de España, Plaza Mayor, Gran Via, Sol, el Palacio Real, and Lavapies. Not too sure how it worked out but it seemed that we would walk for about 40 minutes and then all of a sudden we would find ourselves in a bar having a Caña (little beer) and some tapas. We actually went to a tapas bar that was new to me (I had heard of though) and found a winner. After bar hoping and seeing the sights during the afternoon we watched a bit of a soccer match (Atletico de Madrid Vs. Sporting Lisboa) and in no time it was time to meet up with Marc for Indian dinner. Marc, Lorena, Amy and I all enjoyed a nice meal at Marc and my regular place. After dinner Marc headed home because he had to work so Lorena, Amy and I headed off to Ismael’s house to have a couple of cocktails before going to tear up the discotecha! We had a great night on the town, Amy had not been out to a disco in Madrid yet, and Lorena is usually into the live music scene not the disco scene but we all had a blast and made it until about 6:00 before calling it quits.
After a short little nap, as in some 5.5 hours of sleep it was up and at them, we had a day to take advantage of and things to do and see. I had to run down to school to turn in some work, so I showed Lorena how to get to the Reina Sofia museum and met her there a bit later. From the museum we went and toured Parque Retiro, and then made our way through the city to grab a Bocadillo de Calamare (calamari sandwich) at this little bar that I know of near Plaza Mayor. Beat after walking for miles and miles we made our way back home, but before getting there stopped off at the grocery store to put together a little Tapas like dinner at the house of some things that she liked, and some that she had not tried yet. I invited a few people but it ended up being just 5 of us: Ismael, Lorena, Amy, Catarina (my roommate) and me. We had: Gambas alajillo (wow, now I am doubting on how to spell that, but it is shrimp cooked in olive oil and garlic, LOTS of garlic!), olives stuffed with anchovies, goat cheese, manchego cheese, bocarones (little fish fillets marinated in olive oil and lemon), some fresh bread, a salad, and artichokes. It was quite the spread and was really good if I could say so myself. We were planning on going out to watch some live music, but after a long night the first night the energy level the second night was not as high as it might have been, so we went to a bar near the house had a beer and called it a night.
Saturday was the same as the rest of them, action packed. We woke up a bit late, trying to catch up from not getting to many ZZZ’s Thursday night, and then we enjoyed the sunny weather and walked across the city to the Prado Museum. It had been a few years since I had been to see the work at the Prado so it was nice to get back there and see it again. I don’t like it as much as the Reina Sofia (the modern arts museum), but all the same it has some interesting pieces. The pieces that I enjoyed the most were Goya’s black paintings, Bosco’s work on depicting heaven and hell, and Velazquez’s piece Las Meninas. Apart from those few it is more old historical paintings and portraits that are nice in their own respect but do not particularly peak my interest. Before we knew it, we had spent a good 2.5 making our way through the museum. After we grabbed a bite of lunch, and headed home to grab a nap. Around 9:00 we met up with Marc, Ismael and May again and went to another one of our favorite restaurants near the house, they have some great tapas. When we got there we were way too late to get a table, and the bar was packed so we ended up ordering the food to go, buying some beers, and taking it home. It wasn’t as good as eating it there, but it was nice to be at home where we could hang out, chat, jam to some music and enjoy each other’s company. (What we ate: Sepia a la plancha, pollo con pimientos, carne adobada, salchichas, y patatas bravas…Squid, chicken with peppers, pork adoboada style, sausages, and potatoes with spicy red sauce) Before long it was almost 1:30 in the morning, and Lorena had to be up 6:00 a.m. to be at the airport by 7:15. Made it just barely on time and now I am about to land.
As always I hope that this finds everyone doing very well, and be ready for an ultra post next week…lots going on in the next 8 days!
Much love,
Phil
Last week at school went right on by, I don’t know what it is but they just keeping on going by faster and faster. The weather seems to be changing to spring; we had our first few days of consecutive sunshine which was really nice. Well, I was going to talk about school but not much is new, more work than I want to do. I am getting through it though, and making sure to have a good of time as I can while doing so…so far I think I am doing a pretty god job! Ok, now to the exciting, interesting stuff, the weekend.
On Thursday afternoon I went and picked Lorena up from the airport in the afternoon and in no time we had dropped the baggage off at the house and we were wandering the streets, seeing the sights. Thursday was pretty low key, we walked all over: Plaza de España, Plaza Mayor, Gran Via, Sol, el Palacio Real, and Lavapies. Not too sure how it worked out but it seemed that we would walk for about 40 minutes and then all of a sudden we would find ourselves in a bar having a Caña (little beer) and some tapas. We actually went to a tapas bar that was new to me (I had heard of though) and found a winner. After bar hoping and seeing the sights during the afternoon we watched a bit of a soccer match (Atletico de Madrid Vs. Sporting Lisboa) and in no time it was time to meet up with Marc for Indian dinner. Marc, Lorena, Amy and I all enjoyed a nice meal at Marc and my regular place. After dinner Marc headed home because he had to work so Lorena, Amy and I headed off to Ismael’s house to have a couple of cocktails before going to tear up the discotecha! We had a great night on the town, Amy had not been out to a disco in Madrid yet, and Lorena is usually into the live music scene not the disco scene but we all had a blast and made it until about 6:00 before calling it quits.
After a short little nap, as in some 5.5 hours of sleep it was up and at them, we had a day to take advantage of and things to do and see. I had to run down to school to turn in some work, so I showed Lorena how to get to the Reina Sofia museum and met her there a bit later. From the museum we went and toured Parque Retiro, and then made our way through the city to grab a Bocadillo de Calamare (calamari sandwich) at this little bar that I know of near Plaza Mayor. Beat after walking for miles and miles we made our way back home, but before getting there stopped off at the grocery store to put together a little Tapas like dinner at the house of some things that she liked, and some that she had not tried yet. I invited a few people but it ended up being just 5 of us: Ismael, Lorena, Amy, Catarina (my roommate) and me. We had: Gambas alajillo (wow, now I am doubting on how to spell that, but it is shrimp cooked in olive oil and garlic, LOTS of garlic!), olives stuffed with anchovies, goat cheese, manchego cheese, bocarones (little fish fillets marinated in olive oil and lemon), some fresh bread, a salad, and artichokes. It was quite the spread and was really good if I could say so myself. We were planning on going out to watch some live music, but after a long night the first night the energy level the second night was not as high as it might have been, so we went to a bar near the house had a beer and called it a night.
Saturday was the same as the rest of them, action packed. We woke up a bit late, trying to catch up from not getting to many ZZZ’s Thursday night, and then we enjoyed the sunny weather and walked across the city to the Prado Museum. It had been a few years since I had been to see the work at the Prado so it was nice to get back there and see it again. I don’t like it as much as the Reina Sofia (the modern arts museum), but all the same it has some interesting pieces. The pieces that I enjoyed the most were Goya’s black paintings, Bosco’s work on depicting heaven and hell, and Velazquez’s piece Las Meninas. Apart from those few it is more old historical paintings and portraits that are nice in their own respect but do not particularly peak my interest. Before we knew it, we had spent a good 2.5 making our way through the museum. After we grabbed a bite of lunch, and headed home to grab a nap. Around 9:00 we met up with Marc, Ismael and May again and went to another one of our favorite restaurants near the house, they have some great tapas. When we got there we were way too late to get a table, and the bar was packed so we ended up ordering the food to go, buying some beers, and taking it home. It wasn’t as good as eating it there, but it was nice to be at home where we could hang out, chat, jam to some music and enjoy each other’s company. (What we ate: Sepia a la plancha, pollo con pimientos, carne adobada, salchichas, y patatas bravas…Squid, chicken with peppers, pork adoboada style, sausages, and potatoes with spicy red sauce) Before long it was almost 1:30 in the morning, and Lorena had to be up 6:00 a.m. to be at the airport by 7:15. Made it just barely on time and now I am about to land.
As always I hope that this finds everyone doing very well, and be ready for an ultra post next week…lots going on in the next 8 days!
Much love,
Phil
Monday, March 8, 2010
Mar 2nd - Mar 8th
Just got out of class an hour early and figured what better way to spend my time between classes than writing to my HUGE fan base around the world...yes, that´s right, my fan base is international! Last week was a busy one with little sleep. Monday´s and Tuesday´s feel as though they never stop, I have class from 1p.m. straight through to 9p.m. and on top of that I am actually having to do a little bit of work to make sure I pass again this semester. After growing accustomed to doing nothing and passing last semester this is a definite shock to the system.
I got through of the first half of the week, and the second was not much slower. Wednesday and Thursday I don´t have class but they always seem to fill up with things to do. Looking back on it I am not exactly sure what I did either day during the day....hmmmm...ah that is right, I had to do a group project for my financial management class. Not digging my group members too much, well one of them that is, she just wants to do the least possible to get by. I know this sounds like my idea of working while on exchange, but I think I need to actually learn something in this class being that it is my Major back home! We ended up getting the case study done and putting together a presentation to give to our class Friday.
Thursday night I went out with my Spanish friends from my Marketing class last semester. I only have class with one of them, Jesús, so it was good to get together and see the rest of them. It was our friend Sara´s birthday so we all went to dinner and then out dancing to celebrate. Seeing that I had a presentation to give the next day I probably should have called it an early night, but being the friends I am I could not leave all of my friends to have a good time without me! Ended up getting home around 7 a.m. or so to see Mom online and have her ask "Are you just getting up?" after laughing a little bit, I hit the sack for a quick few hours before going to rock out on the presentation.
The presentation went well. Luckily, it is the one class that I have in English and I was able to ge up there and speak better English than any other person that presented and did a fine job at answering the questions the teacher threw my way. The plan was to go home and nap afterward, but as always something better seems to come up. I ended up meeting up with Marc, Ismael, Javier, and Alvaro. We all went out for dinner and then another night out on the town. We were going to go to a discotercha near my house, but arrived in the pouring rain to a huge line so quickly changed plans and went to a slightly smaller one and cut up the dance floor.
It would have been nice to get a good 12+ hours of sleep after Thursday night but that simply was not in the plans. Saturday morning I woke up after a solid 4 hours to meet up with a girl named Amy. I had not met Amy until Saturday...We met Online!...ok that´s a lie! My good buddy Matt Kipper has a girl friend, who has a sister, who lives in Madrid, Amy. We have been trying to meet up to meet each other for some time now and finally on Saturday it worked out. We met at 11 at the Atocha train station and were quickly off to Cercedilla to do some hiking. To get to Cercedilla it is about an hour ride by train. It is up in the mountains near Madrid. We arrived to snow and completely white mountains, but were thrilled to be out of the city and do something out doors. I can´t really think of any other time that I have gone hiking in the snow other than snowshoeing, but man was it fun. We ended up running into random animals such as cows and horses along the way, but had a nice hike for about 3 or 3.5 hours, plus a little picnic of nuts, fruit, and a loaf of bread. All in all, we had a great time and she is a really cool girl.
I got back home around 7 or so exhausted, but just in time to catch the Real Madrid game on TV at 10! Call me crazy but I had to watch the game, not to mention my Sun Devils were playing and I was following the game online. Sunday was the day to catch up on rest! I slept for a good 12 hours and would have slept longer if I had not had plans. Sunday afternoon I met up with one of my professors from last semester, Paulo, who is from Brazil. He is a really nice guy and we met up to grab some Brazilian food for lunch. We ate a mean Fejoada (typical Brazilian bean dish) and talked sports...I was not aware but he also is a sports fanatic. After having lunch, we met up with a couple of his friends to go and see a Monet exhibit near Sol (The center of Madrid). After the afternoon out I got home threw down on my bed, talked to the family and watched movies...and man did it really feel good to do nothing!
Well, it is Monday and I am half way through the day here at School, got out of International Finance a bit early and about to head off to Financial Management. I hope this post finds everyone doing well, and I want to send a special shout out to Andrew for kicking some Major BUTT at a broadcasting conference last weekend. He took home first place for live reporting if I am not mistaken, and I am sure he would have taken the anchoring first place again given the chance to have competed. Well, I am off, look for pictures from the hiking adventure soon.
Much Love,
Phil
I got through of the first half of the week, and the second was not much slower. Wednesday and Thursday I don´t have class but they always seem to fill up with things to do. Looking back on it I am not exactly sure what I did either day during the day....hmmmm...ah that is right, I had to do a group project for my financial management class. Not digging my group members too much, well one of them that is, she just wants to do the least possible to get by. I know this sounds like my idea of working while on exchange, but I think I need to actually learn something in this class being that it is my Major back home! We ended up getting the case study done and putting together a presentation to give to our class Friday.
Thursday night I went out with my Spanish friends from my Marketing class last semester. I only have class with one of them, Jesús, so it was good to get together and see the rest of them. It was our friend Sara´s birthday so we all went to dinner and then out dancing to celebrate. Seeing that I had a presentation to give the next day I probably should have called it an early night, but being the friends I am I could not leave all of my friends to have a good time without me! Ended up getting home around 7 a.m. or so to see Mom online and have her ask "Are you just getting up?" after laughing a little bit, I hit the sack for a quick few hours before going to rock out on the presentation.
The presentation went well. Luckily, it is the one class that I have in English and I was able to ge up there and speak better English than any other person that presented and did a fine job at answering the questions the teacher threw my way. The plan was to go home and nap afterward, but as always something better seems to come up. I ended up meeting up with Marc, Ismael, Javier, and Alvaro. We all went out for dinner and then another night out on the town. We were going to go to a discotercha near my house, but arrived in the pouring rain to a huge line so quickly changed plans and went to a slightly smaller one and cut up the dance floor.
It would have been nice to get a good 12+ hours of sleep after Thursday night but that simply was not in the plans. Saturday morning I woke up after a solid 4 hours to meet up with a girl named Amy. I had not met Amy until Saturday...We met Online!...ok that´s a lie! My good buddy Matt Kipper has a girl friend, who has a sister, who lives in Madrid, Amy. We have been trying to meet up to meet each other for some time now and finally on Saturday it worked out. We met at 11 at the Atocha train station and were quickly off to Cercedilla to do some hiking. To get to Cercedilla it is about an hour ride by train. It is up in the mountains near Madrid. We arrived to snow and completely white mountains, but were thrilled to be out of the city and do something out doors. I can´t really think of any other time that I have gone hiking in the snow other than snowshoeing, but man was it fun. We ended up running into random animals such as cows and horses along the way, but had a nice hike for about 3 or 3.5 hours, plus a little picnic of nuts, fruit, and a loaf of bread. All in all, we had a great time and she is a really cool girl.
I got back home around 7 or so exhausted, but just in time to catch the Real Madrid game on TV at 10! Call me crazy but I had to watch the game, not to mention my Sun Devils were playing and I was following the game online. Sunday was the day to catch up on rest! I slept for a good 12 hours and would have slept longer if I had not had plans. Sunday afternoon I met up with one of my professors from last semester, Paulo, who is from Brazil. He is a really nice guy and we met up to grab some Brazilian food for lunch. We ate a mean Fejoada (typical Brazilian bean dish) and talked sports...I was not aware but he also is a sports fanatic. After having lunch, we met up with a couple of his friends to go and see a Monet exhibit near Sol (The center of Madrid). After the afternoon out I got home threw down on my bed, talked to the family and watched movies...and man did it really feel good to do nothing!
Well, it is Monday and I am half way through the day here at School, got out of International Finance a bit early and about to head off to Financial Management. I hope this post finds everyone doing well, and I want to send a special shout out to Andrew for kicking some Major BUTT at a broadcasting conference last weekend. He took home first place for live reporting if I am not mistaken, and I am sure he would have taken the anchoring first place again given the chance to have competed. Well, I am off, look for pictures from the hiking adventure soon.
Much Love,
Phil
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Feb 23rd - Mar 1st
The trip to Chamonix:
Don't ask why but this one gets a title! The week at school leading up to the trip was basic, fell behind a little bit because of the changes I made with my schedule, but there is always time later to deal with that right? I left for the trip on Friday evening, I had class till 5 p.m. but didn't realize that I had a problem set due so I talked to the teacher and left before she went over it so I could turn it in on Monday for full credit! Man it is nice to be in a country where EVERYTHING is ok late.
I went to the Airport with my roommate Rosarinho, she was traveling to Milan the same evening so we went together. We ended up getting there a little late but both of our flights were delayed so it did not end up making a difference. It was nice to have someone to talk to while waiting, then it was time to catch the plane and get to Geneva. I had a bus transfer from Geneva to Chamonix for 10:30p.m. and ended up getting there at just past 10:40, luckily the van was waiting and I ended up being the last one to get on. The trip to Chamonix was really short, it was an hour and fifteen total. The driver was supposed to drop me off at the door but because the street sign on the road said dead end he would not go down it. He left me there on the corner and rambled something to me in French that I did not understand, but meant something along the lines of "trust me it is right down here". Well easy for him to say, hoping back in his warm van, I ended up using my cell phone as a flash light and wandering down the icy road a few hundred meters before finding the little cottage. I was by myself the first night, and Olivier arrived early the next morning.
Saturday Morning I was up at the crack of dawn and excited to hit the slopes. Olivier arrived around 7:45 with bread and Nutella in hand, we had a quick bite to eat and it was off to the rental shop to grab a snowboard. This apparently was the first clear day after a week of snow so by the time we got to the top it was awesome carving some fresh tracks down the runs. The resorts here are not to similar to back home, the runs were very vertical, and they used a lot of trolley like gondolas to get you from peak to peak or from the bottom to the top. We had a killer day of riding together in the morning, and then in the afternoon Olivier Skied up-hill. He had this set of ski's that he strapped some felt type stuff to the bottom of and went from the bottom of the resort to the top. Not my idea of fun, but for each their own. I ended up skiing down the run he was going up and ran into him a couple of times. We met back up at the top and then did a few more runs before calling it a day.
After getting down from the mountain, we cruised around the down town area and grabbed some mull wine and a beer. Nothing like hot wine to warm you up when it is chilly out. We were waiting to meet up with Olivier and Julien's other brother Christophe. Christophe and his girl friend ended up showing up around 7:30, we had a beer and some hors d'oeuvres and then we went out to grab a bite to eat. The next morning, Sunday, Christohe gave us a ride to the slopes and on the way there we stopped in at the rental shop that he works at to pick me up some Ski's...yes you heard me correctly, I decided to give skiing another shot after some 8 short years! The second day was not as nice as the first weather wise, as a matter of fact, it was quite awful. The weather could not decide if it wanted to rain, sleet, snow or hail, so it did some mixture of the four! Once we got up the mountain it was just snowing, but due to the high winds and low visibility the top of the mountain was closed. I was surprised at how quickly the skiing came back to me, the first run or two definitely were not pretty, but after a couple more I got the hang out if and was able to go down pretty much all the runs there. By the end of the day my legs were killing me but man did I have a great time.
After skiing all day we took the bus back into town and stopped by the grocery store before headed home. We made ourselves a dinner of cheese filled gnocchi with a sun dried tomato sauce, and desert of yogurt with some sort of traditional chestnut paste...now that's what I call a good meal. After dinner Olivier packed up his stuff, I took him down to the train station, and it was back to Paris on the overnight train for him. I called it an early night and first thing in the morning my shuttle was there to pick me up to take me back to Geneva...this time AT THE DOOR! The ride back during the day was nice, I dozed in and out of sleep and watched the scenery as we made our way out of the alps. The flight back went smoothly, and I made it home in time to go to class for 6 hours on Monday! Not the ideal way to end a trip, but man was it a good one.
Well I hope this finds everyone doing well back home and that you are all going to have a great March.
Much love from Madrid,
Phil
P.S. Good luck to Andrew at his broadcasting conference this week...Kick some Butt mang! I am really proud of you! Also, please enjoy the pictures that are to the upper right of this post, if you click on them it will take you to my Picasa Albums...there are a few new ones uploaded yesterday!
Don't ask why but this one gets a title! The week at school leading up to the trip was basic, fell behind a little bit because of the changes I made with my schedule, but there is always time later to deal with that right? I left for the trip on Friday evening, I had class till 5 p.m. but didn't realize that I had a problem set due so I talked to the teacher and left before she went over it so I could turn it in on Monday for full credit! Man it is nice to be in a country where EVERYTHING is ok late.
I went to the Airport with my roommate Rosarinho, she was traveling to Milan the same evening so we went together. We ended up getting there a little late but both of our flights were delayed so it did not end up making a difference. It was nice to have someone to talk to while waiting, then it was time to catch the plane and get to Geneva. I had a bus transfer from Geneva to Chamonix for 10:30p.m. and ended up getting there at just past 10:40, luckily the van was waiting and I ended up being the last one to get on. The trip to Chamonix was really short, it was an hour and fifteen total. The driver was supposed to drop me off at the door but because the street sign on the road said dead end he would not go down it. He left me there on the corner and rambled something to me in French that I did not understand, but meant something along the lines of "trust me it is right down here". Well easy for him to say, hoping back in his warm van, I ended up using my cell phone as a flash light and wandering down the icy road a few hundred meters before finding the little cottage. I was by myself the first night, and Olivier arrived early the next morning.
Saturday Morning I was up at the crack of dawn and excited to hit the slopes. Olivier arrived around 7:45 with bread and Nutella in hand, we had a quick bite to eat and it was off to the rental shop to grab a snowboard. This apparently was the first clear day after a week of snow so by the time we got to the top it was awesome carving some fresh tracks down the runs. The resorts here are not to similar to back home, the runs were very vertical, and they used a lot of trolley like gondolas to get you from peak to peak or from the bottom to the top. We had a killer day of riding together in the morning, and then in the afternoon Olivier Skied up-hill. He had this set of ski's that he strapped some felt type stuff to the bottom of and went from the bottom of the resort to the top. Not my idea of fun, but for each their own. I ended up skiing down the run he was going up and ran into him a couple of times. We met back up at the top and then did a few more runs before calling it a day.
After getting down from the mountain, we cruised around the down town area and grabbed some mull wine and a beer. Nothing like hot wine to warm you up when it is chilly out. We were waiting to meet up with Olivier and Julien's other brother Christophe. Christophe and his girl friend ended up showing up around 7:30, we had a beer and some hors d'oeuvres and then we went out to grab a bite to eat. The next morning, Sunday, Christohe gave us a ride to the slopes and on the way there we stopped in at the rental shop that he works at to pick me up some Ski's...yes you heard me correctly, I decided to give skiing another shot after some 8 short years! The second day was not as nice as the first weather wise, as a matter of fact, it was quite awful. The weather could not decide if it wanted to rain, sleet, snow or hail, so it did some mixture of the four! Once we got up the mountain it was just snowing, but due to the high winds and low visibility the top of the mountain was closed. I was surprised at how quickly the skiing came back to me, the first run or two definitely were not pretty, but after a couple more I got the hang out if and was able to go down pretty much all the runs there. By the end of the day my legs were killing me but man did I have a great time.
After skiing all day we took the bus back into town and stopped by the grocery store before headed home. We made ourselves a dinner of cheese filled gnocchi with a sun dried tomato sauce, and desert of yogurt with some sort of traditional chestnut paste...now that's what I call a good meal. After dinner Olivier packed up his stuff, I took him down to the train station, and it was back to Paris on the overnight train for him. I called it an early night and first thing in the morning my shuttle was there to pick me up to take me back to Geneva...this time AT THE DOOR! The ride back during the day was nice, I dozed in and out of sleep and watched the scenery as we made our way out of the alps. The flight back went smoothly, and I made it home in time to go to class for 6 hours on Monday! Not the ideal way to end a trip, but man was it a good one.
Well I hope this finds everyone doing well back home and that you are all going to have a great March.
Much love from Madrid,
Phil
P.S. Good luck to Andrew at his broadcasting conference this week...Kick some Butt mang! I am really proud of you! Also, please enjoy the pictures that are to the upper right of this post, if you click on them it will take you to my Picasa Albums...there are a few new ones uploaded yesterday!
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