"Oui" is spelled with an "o," not a "w"

August 21

So I'm writing this in the Boston airport. I've been traveling for almost 20 hours and I'm finally almost home. But anyway...

We finished off our Spain study abroad experience by taking a very impromptu trip to Paris. It was amazing. We didn't get to see everything but we were happy with what we saw: the Eiffel tower (at night with the light show), Notre Dame, the Opera House, and of course, the Lourve (only about 1/8 of it. It was humungous. Whenever we stepped in through the main entrance at first I thought it was a mall.)

I must admit I had some preconceptions about the French being very rude but almost every French person we met was very helpful. I love listening to French. And imitating the accent.

This week was our last in Santander. Que triste!

How Barcelona ate Danielle's camera

So we (Danielle and I) were scouting some Gaudí art and walking a little at the same time towards the bus stop. Danielle tripped (curse those cobblestones!) and since her camera lens was open, it smashed right into the pavement. Needless to say, the camera didn't survive. We weren't exactly having the best of luck that day (hotel A.C. was broken, the bus lines were running slow), and afterwards we decided we enjoyed Madrid much more, but Barcelona was still worth it.

Barcelona art rocks. Picasso, Dalí, and Gaudí lived and left their art all over the city with the most prominent one, in my opinion, being Gaudí's La Sagrada Familia. Gaudí started this huge church in the early 1890's and it still has about 30-40 years before it'll be finished. When it's built, it will have 16 towers. Yeah, 16. It was my favorite part of Barcelona.

So we got back to Santander safe and sound. We took a boat ride around the bay yesterday, and afterwards we tried chocolate with churros (which are totally awesome) in a little cafe overlooking the boat dock. We stayed for like an hour discussing seagulls, Paris on Friday, and how Michael Phelps is collecting gold medals like Cracker Jack box prizes.

A few of us (myself included) have been feeling a little homesick so we are going to a little Mexican restaurant we found downtown for a guacamole fix to hold us off until we return to the U.S. next week. I'll be really sad to leave Spain, but I think I'm ready to get back. I miss my family and friends in Dallas and Austin and I can't wait to see everyone again.

Ode to Art

Last weekend, Danielle and I explored Madrid: the Prado Museum, the Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, Real Madrid stadium, shopping on Gran Via... Then caught a last minute bus ride to Toledo where we saw a beautiful gothic cathedral, bought a bunch of Toledo Gold, and made it back, tired but satisfied, to Santander. Needless to say, it was a busy but wonderful weekend.

It's obvious that Madrid takes pride in its art. I think my absolute favorite part was the Prado Museum. It houses over 3,000 paintings of famous paintings by world renown artists like Goya, Rembrant, and Rafael. Statues of famous figures (Christopher Columbus, Goya, and the author of Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes) are spread throughout the city.

There was one thing that I found curious about this (you may not, but I found it interesting):
On our way from place to place on our first day in Madrid, we passed by like 50 shops that sold little statues of Don Quijote for a couple of euros a piece. "How weird," I thought. After about 25 more shops I finally gave in and bought one.

Anyway, my real question: why doesn't the western world idolize famous authors like Europe does? Have you ever seen a monument dedicated to Edgar Allen Poe or Harriet Beecher Stowe? Do you own a little statuette of Washington Irving? John Maxwell? F. Scott Fitzgerald? America doesn't lack famous authors. Yet Pamplona boasts a statue and a small plaza for the American author Hemingway (for his famous book about Spanish bull fights, The Sun Also Rises). Drop me a comment and tell me what you think.

Just thought that was interesting... off to Barcelona!

"Honey, Don't Forget to Feed the American"

Very strange day yesterday:

I was at the local travel agency in Santander booking a trip to Paris (!) with Danielle and Monica. The travel agent asked me for my passport number. Like an idiot, I left both my passport and my copy of my passport back in my Santander apartment. Nice. So I proceeded to call, well, everyone. Mom, Dad, Jordan, Lauren who might know where they were. Nada. So I stopped because I didn't want to run up a huge phone bill. I called my host family. I started to think
about where exactly my passport was... in the dresser to the right of the bed with the lamp on top, first drawer, all the way in the back left-hand corner underneath the zip-lock bag of receipts. Simple enough, right?

This is what I think, more or less, came out of my mouth:

"Hello? Hello Padre. I'm Jennifer. I'm at an office for traveling and I need a lot my number of the passport from America. Could you look for me? In the bedroom with the little table on the right is my passport with a light, uh.. lamp. Yes, in the wood thing to hold things. The one close from top. The first one. Beside the bag of plastic and papers. To the left. It is blue and has a name on it that is mine and a picture on first page. It has a number that is mine. Dos cuatro what?... Ok. Now I have it. Muchisimas Gracias!"


Needless to say, I was the entertainment of the day for the ladies in the travel agency, and for my friends.

Anyway, Madrid this weekend, Barcelona the next, then Paris the next after that!!


Note: When I got home, my family was taking a nap, and forgot to set their alarm to cook dinner. So dinner came a little late, like 11:30 ish. But really it's ok. I just wanted to put it as the title of this blog because I saw a tv show that mentioned the title (The Simpsons? not sure). No more misleading titles after this blog, I promise. I just wanted a reason to share it with someone.

Blood Pudding, Excursions, and Some Random Spanish...

We found a Mexican restaurant in Santander! The food wasn't as spicy as at Tex-Mex places in Texas but it was still totally awesome to order a tortilla and guacamole. And it turns out there is another Mexican restaurant in a town about 40 minutes away, so we are so going to plan a day trip. Spain has an interesting take on the whole idea of Tex-Mex. There aren't really any foods in Spain that are spicy so Tex-Mex food on the whole is very bland. Estancos (tobacco shops) sell Tex-Mex Doritos that I expected to be super spicy, but it's really just nacho cheese.

The Spanish equivalent of the Tooth Fairy is a rat. Spanish children anxiously await the morning after they have lost a baby tooth to find out if Ratoncito Peréz has visited during the night. Just thought that was cute.

If you ask a Spanish kid to draw a picture of a cat and write what kind of sound it makes, the cat would have a little bubble next to its mouth that says: “miau!” Even the cats speak Spanish.

Spaniards celebrate alot of festivals (according to the patron saint of their city) which include bullfights, fireworks, concerts, and bars open all night. Santander's Santiago Festival was held this weekend, and I got to go to a bullfight. It was a very interesting experience, but definitely not for weak stomachs, because the bulls always die in a horribly, unfair gladiator match sort of way. But I'm glad I went.

Last weekend was the excursion to Bilbao and San Sebastian. We visited the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and I thought that was the most interesting part of the trip because there just happened to be a guest exhibit about Surrealism that featured some of Salvador Dalí’s work. S. Sebastian is a beautiful little tourist city famous for its beach and relatively cheap food. I enjoyed both for a little while, though the beach was super crowded.

I just got back from León, Salamanca, and Valladolid and it was amazing. My favorite of the three is Salamanca. It has the oldest university in Spain and the most beautiful architecture. It would be so cool to study there. Plus it has one of the most amazing plazas in the world. (Ever seen Vantage Point? Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor is featured in that movie.) We took tours of all three cities, including their old gothic cathedrals, the castle in León, and important artwork.

On our way back from Valladolid today, we ate in a bodega, which is a winery that is built underground (this one was in a cave) to keep the wine cool. I tried lamb chops today, which are actually pretty good, until I started thinking about that show (… I forgot what it’s called…) with that cute little lamb that sings “The Song That Never Ends.” Then I couldn’t get it out of my head and it was kind of disturbing so I stopped eating it all together. There was another dish called morcilla that I dared not try. At first, when a waiter brought it to the table, I thought it was really burnt sausage. Then somebody explained that it was “Blood Pudding:” entrails from a pig covered in blood that blackens whenever it’s cooked. Yum.

A Lesson in Biology

Did you know (according to wikipedia) that our eyes contain thousands of tiny vessels that pump blood and allow light and other information to pass through for our brain to process? Millions of microscopic Rods and Cones separate that information into colors, and other nerves pass along information about space and depth down a mind-blowing maze of organized blood streams that eventually connect to the rest of the body.

Now, imagine that wonderful system 10,000 times smaller, sliding down the back of your throat, contracting down through your esophagus, and finally being consumed by stomach acids.

Whenever my Senora said what we were having for lunch today, all I heard was "arroz con something-something," and I said to myself, "arroz... hey that's rice. I like rice." Well apparently the something-something I missed was some type of shell fish typical of this region of Spain. The dish mixed rice and peppers and shell fish (which were still in their shells), and looked up at me as I continued to force myself to try at least one. Let's just say it didn't really agree with me.

Un Paseo and Ugly Babies

I don't know any words in English or Spanish to describe the insanity of the Running of the Bulls Festival in Pamplona. Really, it's ridiculous how much people can trash out an entire city in one night.

But it was alot of fun. Danielle, Melissa, and I walked around the whole night looking at landmarks and pretty buildings. We saw the Paseo de Hemingway and his statue put up in rememberance of his book The Sun Also Rises. All that can be said more about Pamplona can be better understood in my pictures which I have yet to post so I will try and get a faster internet connection soon.

Melissa, Monica, and I took a stroll along the beach and climbed a mountain on Monday (literally) and experienced some of the most amazing views I've seen of Spain so far. I think we must have walked at least 3 miles from the beach all the way a mountain where a lighthouse is on top, and then back down. Summer is definitely the season for Northern Spain. Everything is so green, and the whole town, it seems, shows up at the beaches along the Bay. In Spanish, "to take a walk" is "dar un paseo," and Spaniards always manage to squeeze un paseo into their schedule somehow, and now I know why. In Northern Spain, the sun doesn't start setting until about 10PM or so, so they have plenty of time in the cooler hours to take walks along the bay until what we might call a late hour.

There are no ugly babies in Spain. Another girl who was in the first summer program in June suggested this to me and at first I didn't believe her. But I've looked everywhere and so far I can find not even one. When you ask a little kid to write what sound a cat makes, he or she will write "miau." The other day my host father pronounced "Alabama" as "Ah-le-va-ba," and it took me forever to figure out what he was saying. We don't eat lunch until about 2pm and dinner around 9:30pm. I've heard men taking walks along the bay suddenly burst out in song with no inhibitions.

Anyway, we're going to Bilbao and San Sabastian this weekend, so more later, and may be pictures :)

Sorry so short, and scattered. I have a limited time on the internet.