Reina Sofia!

Less than two hours ago I shook the Queen of Spain's hand, and she pinned a pin on my shirt.

Swoon.

if all goes well, you are hopefully seeing a few pictures, finally. One is of Bilbao's waterfront, which is really industrial but I think looks cool. Also the Guggenheim, complete with "Puppy" and a Basque separatist protest.
Then there are some pictures from El Escorial, which is monestary we visited yesterday, and also some stuff from Avila, the city with "the most impressive fortified city walls in all of Spain." Its where the Spanish royalty lived for a long time, and where they are still buried. It was neat in Avila, because they had a huge cathedral, of course, but half of it was built to look Romanesque, but by the time they finished it, the style had turned Gothic, and you can really see the transition and different from one half to the other.

this weekend has been pretty fun. On thursday Julia and I finally booked our flights into Budapest and out of Prague, so that trip is definitely happening now, which is pretty sweet. We also went to this cool little tea place called "El Jardin Secreto" aka the Secret Garden, and it was really nice, because I havent found places like that yet. It was a little funky hole in the wall with homemade desserts and lots of teas and coffees. Friday Julia, me, and couple other people went and listened to some live jazz at a little bar near the Reina Sofia. It was really relaxing to listen to live music with a feelgood crowd. Then we went to another one of those international parties at one of the brazilian student's apartments. Those are always fun, its so refreshing to not be around the same people all the time.
Saturday we had an excursion to see a huge old monestary/cathedral/palace, called El Escorial. It was gorgeous, but it felt like we stayed there too long, because we were also going to see the walled city of Avila and we only ended up there for about two hours, which was too rushed in my opinion. But Avila was really cool, we had a bit of free time so a few of us went to this relicary place next to a convent called Saint Teresa's, where they had some relics of hers, including the sole of her shoe, her rosary beads, and....her ring finger! it was in a little tube, it was pretty creepy. it was kind of decayed but mostly just dried out, there was still stuff on it besides bone, and there were two rings on the finger as well. Crazy! The only relics I had seen before this was peices of cloth and stuff like that, never actual body parts.
Last night after we got back, Julia and I went to this bar called El Cueves, or the Cave, which was a little underground place with lots of quotes from Dante's Inferno all over and a live pianist, which I loved. They only served Sangria though, and we needed food too so then we got some tapas and tea. It was a chill night and definitely the kind of weekend I have been hopign to have in Madrid. I feel good now that Im actually doing the things I wanted to do.

Oh, also. Today for lunch we had shrimp that still had the heads and legs on them, and you have to pull it off yourself. Now, this may not be that exciting for some people, but those who know me well know that...im picky and sensitive about how my food looks. the only kind of shrimp I am used to is already decapitated and de-legged, as well as gutted and cleaned. It was just a little overwhelming to walk into the kitchen for lunch and have about ten little shrimps staring at me, daring me to rip thier heads off. They eat them with mayo, too, instead of cocktail sauce, which was way different than I am used to.
The other part of lunch was these little tiny fish that they fried, whole, so you eat everything, from tail to head. Right as I took a deep breath and bit into the first one, one of my hermanas, Bea, said "be careful because you eat the bones too!" And then my madre said "Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, the bones stay in, so chew really well before you swallow." And this was all said in Spanish, so by the time I was able to understand completely what they were saying, I was already swallowing too soon and scratching my throat with bones. sigh.

Erin comes a week from tomorrow, I cant wait! I think we are going to a Real Madrid game, and hopefully to see some flamenco!!!

Besides that, its just school here, not too exciting. Its been raining for about a week straight and Im ready for it to be sunny again, though I wouldnt mind it being a little colder.

alright, thats it for now! adios.

Bilbao, Gernika and San Sebastian

Julia and I did indeed go up into Basque country this weekend. We had a hectic run to the bus station on Wednesday, made it to Bilbao about 9 at night, got to our hostal and were told they were full and we could only stay there one night. It turned out to be ok, we found an amazing hostal that was much better situated, and we had this adorable room with a balcony, and geraniums, and we could see a church and the mountains from it. Gorgeous.
So on Thursday we walked around, got some amazing spanish tortillas for breakfast, and then walked to the Guggenheim. It was amazing! everything I imagined it would look like, and more. It was made even better by the gigantic floral puppy in front of it (check out my pictures when i put them up!!)
After that we came back to our hostal, took a siesta, and then went out for dinner, we just barhopped and grabbed tapas at a bunch of places. the food was really really really good, very different than Madrid tapas.
Friday we took a train to Gernika, to see the peace museum and a famous oak tree. It was interesting to be there, because pretty much what you go to see is a LACK of any old buildings or historical sights, because almost everything was destroyed in the bombing. All that was left was the tree, and a church. It was a really intense experience.
Saturday we took a bus to San Sebastian, which is basically a beach town. It was so beautiful. We climbed to the top of a small mountain to see a huge statue, and the view was spectacular. We walked along the beach, went to an aquarium, and also ate RAW SNAILS. wow. They taste how you would imagine them to. It was pretty intense. You get a little cone of them, and they give you a pin, to scoop them out of thier shell with, and then you just eat it. We only ate two each, it was a bit much. We ate tapas again that night, and they were even better! Apparently the food in San Sebastian is supposed to be the best in all of Spain, and I believe it. It was so so so good.
We got home yesterday, it was a whirlwind trip but totally amazing and worth it. I can't wait to go back to bilbao with my parents.
It was really interesting to be in an area that is actively fighting for its independence. The Basques want to be thier own country, and there is a huge movement to separate from Spain. I didnt have an idea how visible it was going to be, but it really was. At the Guggenheim their was a protest going on, and there is graffitti all over for ETA, the Basque terrorist group, and also more peaceful graffitti and flyers, and almost every window had the Basque flag hanging in it.
I am going to be posting pictures soon on flickr, at flickr.com/anniemb, as usual, and I will also probably be making a google webpage for myself, because flickr has a limit on how many pictures you can post a month, and its not a very big limit. So keep your eyes open for all that!
Hasta luego.

so classes are actually going really well, despite my hestitations. the classes are a bit challenging, but are about interesting things for the most part. It feels really good to be back in the swing of going to actual classes.
This past weekend was really nice! It was exactly what I have been looking for in Spain. Friday night, Julia, a girl named Holly and I went to this party in an apartment on Gran Via. It was all international students, but barely any Americans, which was really refreshing. There was a Dutch girl from my grammar classes, and also a Brazilian from class too. There were Italians, French, German, Brazilian, Dutch, Estonian, Danish...and a lot of other nationalities that I cant remember. It was really cool, and it felt nice to have the common language actually be Spanish.
Saturday Julia and I went to Plaza Mayor for this weird Basque festival that was going on. There was lots of cheap food, and wierd gigantic puppets, and a bunch of people dressed in yellow dancing all over the place. It was nice. And instead of really going out that night, we just went to a sidewalk cafe and had some wine and sat and people watched for a few hours. Sunday, we just took a walk in this huge, nice park near the Prado. All in all it was exactly what I have been wanting to do in Madrid, so I'm glad I finally started doing it.
This weekend Julia and I are hopefully going to Bilbao, up in Basque country, to see the Guggenheim. It might not work out for this weekend, but we are definitely going at some point. This weekend would be nice, though, because we have a 4 day weekend.

more pictures are up at www.flickr.com/anniemb so check those out. sorry some are sideways, i dont know how to fix that yet!

We went to Andalucia this past long weekend, after our grammar finals. We drove for 6 hours, and went briefly to la Alhambra in Granada, which is a pair of winter and summer palaces for Moorish and early Spanish royalty. It was incredibly beautiful, as was every single other thing we saw, so sorry if I get repetitive in that department. After Alhamba, we got back in the bus and drove to our hotel for the night, in the middle of nowhere. The next morning we woke up early and started driving again, this time down to an area near Malaga, on the beach. We spent the whole day on the beach, and I didnt get burned! We will see in a few months if any damage was done, I guess.
After Malaga we drove back to Granada, but got there so late we didnt really get to see much of it, which was a bummer. I wish we had left the beach after lunch, and headed back earlier, so we could have at least had dinner out in the town or something, it looked like a really cool place.
The next day we woke up, went down to breakfast, and of course I managed to drop a cup and slice my finger open and bleed on the floor and have strange old people stare at me and do nothing. Good times. Its ok though, it didnt hurt to bad, and its still open, but definitely getting better.
So, after that fiasco we got back on the bus for MORE driving, and we went to Sevilla. We walked briefly through an old Jewish neighborhood, and went to this enormous cathedral, which of course was absolutely stunning. Its the biggest cathedral in Spain, and it was definitely impressive. Then a few of us, including a non-Kalamazoo girl named Susan, went to find authentic Sevillan cuisine. I tried a sweet sherry, because thats apparently Sevilla's drink, and wow, was it sweet. I didn't really like it, I couldn't finish it. We ordered a couple tapas to share, and they were SO GOOD. We had sweet peppers in a oil sauce with onions that was phenomenal, and also fried eggplant in a gazpacho sauce, which was so good we ordered another. I was really surprised I liked them, but they were both really amazing!
Then we met back up and walked to a few more gorgeous places, and then we got on the bus once again, this time to drive to Cordoba. We got there kind of late, had dinner and then just hung out and watched a movie. I went to bed early because I was sick and stuff.
In Cordoba we spent a lot more time in a Jewish neighborhood, and also a tiny, old synagogue. It was really interesting to see, and to know how old it must be. It had been converted into a church, as is everything in Spain that was Arab or Jewisih, but you could still see that it was Jewish. There was old and chipped Hebrew all along the wall, and there was a nook for the Torah, and a place for the Cantor to stand, as well as a separate place above for women to sit. And there were 12 windows, one for each of the tribes of Israel. It was fun to see.
After that we went to a HUGE old moorish mosque, that had also been converted into a cathedral. It was amazing. I am going to post more pictures SOON to show everyone.
Today we started our real classes, they look like they are going to be kind of difficult, because they put the intermediate (me) with the advanced, for some reason. I dont understand that, because whats the point of dividing us into groups if you are going to ignore them? I feel totally out of my league, as do all the other intermediate people. None of us are going to feel comfortable talking or anything, its really frustrating. Hopefully tomorrows classes will be better.
Alright, time to go. Adios!