Christmas in England

el 29 de diciembre de 2008

Again, posts have become few and far between. This is not, per say, due to a lack of interest in posting, or a lack of wanting to share my adventures, but instead a busyness that became me the past couple weeks. Anyways, this is what I've been up to...

Months ago, Georgina ("George") jokingly mentioned how fun it would be for Cory and I to stay at her place over Christmas. When she noticed we were not kidding around, she asked her parents and got the OK. So we bought some plane tickets and last Sunday the 21st took off for England. I was happy to get away from the rain and wind of Santander to enjoy... the rain and wind of England. But it was not to be so. In fact, it was sunny most of the time we were there. Anyways, George picked us up at the airport and we drove 2.5 hours to her home in North Hampton. The trip is normally about 1.5 hours, but she drives like a grandma and the heckling from Cory, James (boyfriend) and I didn't help.

Her house is amazing. It's a converted stable, and so it's big and beautiful. Cory and I were put in the guest room, and as we arrived late we headed to bed promptly after introducing ourselves to her parents. That was Sunday.

Monday. Monday we slept in. Lazed about the house. Went grocery shopping, and that was that. At night, however, things heated up. Cory was tricked into making Paella for the family (we were 6 including Cory and I). So that was how our night was spent, with Cory cooking the paella, me helping make the Sangria which took about 2 minutes (then just let it soak up the fruity goodness) and then there was general tomfoolery as I was now in a position of Big Brother in the household, and as such picked on George and her sister Emily (nickname "Pid". Don't ask. I don't know the answer.) Dinner was amazing, and we all rolled into bed eventually.

Tuesday. Up early and out the door to the train station to head to London for the day. Present was George, Kate (George's mom), Cory and myself. We spent the day walking the streets, seeing the sights and enjoying the not-rainy and quite mild weather. It was really amazing. Sights seen include: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, and Guards with funny hats who can't smile. We also enjoyed a nice lunch of fish and chips, mashed peas, English beer, and a cute waitress from Canada. We left London to head home, such that George's parents could make their dinner date with friends. George, Cory and I rendezvoused with some of George's friends at the pub on the bottom of her street. This is where I learned a new drinking game called "Beer Mat." Well, it's called that now anyways.

RULES: Hang a coaster half way of the table. Flip it up in the air and catch it without letting it drop. If you fail, drink. Otherwise everyone else goes. Add another beer mat to the stack. Repeat. Get drunk. It's great.

Wednesday. Christmas Eve was upon us. We slept in again, and I actually don't really remember much of what we did during the late morning, early afternoon. However, in the evening we went to the neighbor's house through the village for Christmas drinks. We spent several hours there getting tipsy, and Cory and I walked around introducing ourselves as the Americans, picking up silly English catchphrases. Highlight of the night: Hearing an Englishman actually say "Cheerio!". It was brilliant. I spent most of the night talking with the gentlemen there about European traveling, differences between the US and Europe, politics, economics, environmentalism. It was actually fucking awesome. George came up to me afterward and asked how bored I was all night. I countered saying I had a blast with all the conversations I had. I even came out with a book recommendation. We left around 7 after singing Christmas carols, and headed home for dinner. Before we got there, we made a stop at the Pub, where Dave (George's dad) kicked my ass in Beer Mat. 16 he hit. The bartender was being a real wanker so Dave stole the mats. Haha. That guys was awesome. I guess the bartender noticed after we left and got pissed. Never going back there again. Oh well. I think sleep came shortly after. Oh yea, I remember: Love Actually was on and I caught the end. It made me think of Crosspatch and how I managed to make it 9 months practically living there without having seen it once through. Thusly made me a bit home sick.

Thursday. Merry Christmas! We woke up and showered, ate, dressed, headed to church service. It was very nice, but because we were in an old Victorian style English church, they have installed space heaters into the ceiling. The trick is to sit in the line of fire to keep warm during service. Anyways, it was nice and afterwards we said hello to some acquaintances from the night before and headed home. We opened presents and shared some laughs. Afterwards we went to another neighbor's house for Christmas drinks, but only stayed for one. We didn't particularly like these neighbors I guess. Christmas dinner at the Hetherington's was amazing and really fun. Their grandparents were there which was great, and we enjoyed ourselves laughing and eating and having a good time. After dinner movies were watched and more drinks were had. It was a great day and I was so so so thankful to be able to spend Christmas with a family. I also missed you all very much. I did get to skype my family, so that made me feel better too.

Friday. Boxer Day. We were up early again (ish... like 10) ate and dressed and got in the car to go watch the setting off of the Hunt. That's right. An old school English Fox Hunt. It was bomb! It was just like out of Mary Poppins, red coats and beagles and everything. It was really great. The afternoon was spent watching a movie (Iron Man... great flick!). With the onset of sunset we took a short drive to a park about 20 minutes from their house where there are tree tops lookout spots. Unfortunately the park closes at dusk so we were only able to enjoy one of the lookouts but we still had a good time. The view was incredible. Friday night's dinner was fun, especially because two more relatives Tom and Dan were there (late 20's I think?). Dan happens to live in Prague teaching English, and so he gave me the complete run down on what to do while I'm there over New Years. The night ended well, though was a little sad being our last.

Saturday. Up and at'em. Cory and I woke, packed, and got ready to move. We had time before we had to leave, and Dave cooked us a full fledged English Breakfast. Bacon, beans, eggs, sausage, I can't even remember what else but it was amazing. After our breakfast we thanked them again, said our goodbyes and hopped in the car with Dave to head back to the airport. We arrived quite early and had time to mull around, find some food, and even grabbed a coffee.

Summary: It was amazing. What a great way to spend a holiday, and I can't wait to go back and visit (if I can) some time in the spring. It really was a blast. Also: so much tea and toast. Holy crap. You might notice most of our time was spent either watching movies or drinking, but to be honest it was such a blast. We got to sleep a lot and truly relax. Considering how much we did as well, it was a great vacation. I got to see a lot and relax. What could be better?

So that was last week. I spent Sunday doing laundry and hanging out, spent today food shopping and getting ready for tomorrow, and now I'm heading to bed. The next move is:

Tomorrow: bus to Bilbao, flight Bilbao to London, London to Prague to rendezvous with Farp, Dillon, Rob and Justin.
Friday (2nd): Train with the same guys to Vienna for a couple days.
Sunday (4th): Fly with Justin Vienna to Venice.
Hang out in Italy for 5 days, hoping to see Florence on our way to Rome.
Friday (9th): Fly Rome to Santander.

I'll have more adventure details when I return. I hope you are all well and that you yourselves had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year to you all!

Miss you all dearly, as always.

Un saludo,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Barcelona

el 9 de diciembre de 2008

It's been a while since I've updated I guess. I've been doing a lot of stuff actually. I went to Barcelona two weekends ago, from November 27 to December 1 (Thursday night to Monday night). I meant to update when I got back but things got busy. So here it is now!

The city is very international. I heard more Italian and English than I heard Spanish. Many of the Spaniards speak English as well. The city itself is gorgeous. I love the architecture, something that I can't get in Santander. Once again this is my only regret about this city. It doesn't have the historic ancient section of the city, which takes a lot of the fun out of being here. Back to Barcelona... Night and Day differences: we arrived at night. There were men selling beers right from the six pack all down the main roads, and there were a couple of hookers at the end of our street. The street was also full of probable pickpockets and homeless people. The next morning the city was something completely different: a boisterous, beautiful city full of displays or art, music, and dancing in the streets. I couldn't believe it. What a transformation.

Starbucks. We stopped in. Several times. Lots of times actually. I celebrated the fact that they were there a little too much. Again, international city: every street corner has Starbucks or fast food. NOT like Santander at all.

The Collectibles Shop: Here was where I found several amazing things. Most of them were the most gorgeous chess sets I have ever seen in my entire life. Ever. I wanted to buy one SO badly it hurt. The prices were reasonable, only about 75-80 Euro for a set. But what a set, hand crafted and beautifully painted. If only I weren't a poor college student. I also found in that shop Blokus Duo which, that's right, is two player travel blokus. Again, the 30 Euro price tag outdid me.

Food. The food was amazing. We ate well, but economically all weekend. The first night there we stopped in a restaurant across the street from our hostel and I had the best salmon I've had in my life. It was right up there with my mom's home cooked meal, it was so good. I devoured it. We had ourselves the menu del dia several times and enjoyed the hell out of that too.

Picaso Museum. This place blew my mind. It was great to see how Picasso's art evolved. Before he developed Cubism, his paintings were just like any other master's art, in that there were landscapes, portraits, etc. His Blue Period has to be my favorite. Even more than Cubism. It's the obsession in the artist that drives me to wonder and awe. This man was feeling something deep down in his soul and for who knows how long, could not paint a picture, could not create art without having heavy blue overtones. And like I said, it's so strange seeing him go from that to Cubism.

Water Fountain Light Show. Oh my god, this was one of the most awe inspiring things I have ever seen. It was a HUGE fountain downtown near the Olympic Park, and they run a 15-20 minute light and music show where the fountain just dances. Literally, the water was dancing. I'm trying to use the term as literally as possible... little room for metaphor. The way they engineered the show was just brilliant. The way they played with the mist and the streams, and moving them together. At one point they had the entire outside ring doing mist, and with the lights it looked like there were figures dancing in the shadow. It was awesome. I think Cory took a video, so maybe he'll put that up online somewhere. I hope if any of you are in Barcelona you will make it one of your top priorities to go here. It only takes a half hour and it is truly worth it. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Quantom of Solace. Yep. Barcelona has movie theatres that show the movie in their original language with Spanish subtitles, so we took the opportunity to catch the latest Bond flick. Worth it.

Sagrada Familia. Gorgeous and very impressive, but very under construction. It's a giant church for those wondering. It was one of Gaudí's last works. It's still incomplete. We had more fun in the little christmas fair outside.

Park Guell. So the whole trip was really worth it just to see the sunset from this park. Again, one of the must sees in a trip to Barcelona. The top of the park crests and there's a small bald spot where you can look out upon all of Barcelona. We could see the entire city stretching before us, and we were lucky enough to get there at sunset. I'll not comment more, but instead leave you with this picture.



Museo Gaudí. Though it was nighttime when we got there, we checked out the outside of the Park Gaudí. It was a lot of Gaudi type things, all beautiful of course. I love his intricate style of everything. The colors he uses and the designs he creates are gorgeous.



Barcelona Zoo. I hate zoos. I've decided. Especially ones in big cities. I've never seen more sad looking animals with such small living space in my entire life. The only fun thing I enjoyed was when the peacocks came and had lunch with us. They are so used to people being around that they'll get within a meter of you. It was crazy. Plus there was an albino one. How cool is that?


Other things we did that are worth a mention but not much commenting:
-Dunkin Coffee. It was gross, but funny to find.
-Statue of Columbus
-Irish pubs. Three. All right next to each other. And full of Brits. We only went in one.

All in all, the trip to Barcelona was amazing. Huge success. My favorite part was sharing it with the people I did. We all live in Santander, and we're all good friends, but when you're thrown into the same small hostel bedroom for 4 days, the bond deepens... and the jokes fly. It was good time for sure.



I can't wait to go back!!

Hasta pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Are you getting somewhere, or did you get lost in Amsterdam?

el 18 de noviembre del 2008

So this weekend I went to Amsterdam to meet up with Jenn and much of the German IEP crew to celebrate Jenn's Birthday and to have an all around IEP Reunion type gathering. So my story goes like this:

Thursday. I'm supposed to be studying all day for my exam on Tuesday but I'm way too excited about the weekend that is close at hand. I leave Santander via Bus to Bilbao to catch my plane. Problem #1: My flight is at 7:30 am, but the only bus I could find that would get me there before then (my other option being arriving in Bilbao at 7:30 itself) was the 10pm bus. So I got into the Bilbao bus terminal promptly at 11:30pm. Problem #2: Public transportation has already shut down. I've been to Bilbao before and sort of know where I'm going, but can't walk all the way to the airport so I hop a taxi. Problem #3: The airport is fucking far away. 20 euro and 20 minutes later I arrive. Problem #4: The taxi driver warns me, and I ignore him out of blatant hope that he's wrong, that the airport, in fact, closes overnight and will be doing so in about an hour. My hopes of sleeping somewhere inside were crushed. My fears of sleeping outside on a bench in the cold were very much realized. Problem #5: The airport doesn't re-open until 5am. It's now 12:30am.

So after 3 hours of very cold, uncomfortable sleep I awake and stumble into the airport and get to my terminal in plenty of time. My flight gets delayed an hour due to fog in Frankfurt, but after that hings ran a little more smoothly. I made friends with some really cool Americans who also, as it turns out, were heading to Amsterdam for the weekend. Side note: They are studying in Bilbao as part of a third party travel group called ISA. For those of you who remember, this was the organization I went to Costa Rica with. I was excited. Anyways, so we fly into Frankfurt, catch our re-scheduled flights, and take off for Amsterdam. I sat next to one of the Americans, Allen, and we had a nice chat on the flight. We parted ways in the airport after some last name exchanging for later Facebook adventures and I began my search for Jenn. My search ended quite quickly when she strolled out of the bathroom next to my terminal. I guess she had also been looking for me.

So now we were together, and had a good 5 hours until the Germans arrived. What to do? ;) We decided that we would head downtown and enjoy some typical Amsterdam culture. Well, after trying to buy a map of downtown to use for the weekend, we were told we were not actually in Amsterdam, and needed to take the train. Note: Warwick::Providence as Schipol::Amsterdam. (Yea SAT's). Anyways, so we got downtown and afer grabbing a quick bite we started walking around. We accidentally (seriously) stumbled upon the Red Light District, and while there stopped at Cannibas College. They have website. Look it up. They don't sell drugs, that's illegal. It's nothing more than an information institute, and a good one at that. So with all of our new information we took off and spent the 2 hours we had to wait in a local coffee shop. Eventually we met the Germans at our hostel outside of town, and then returned to town to further enjoy the local scene. We hopped to one or two different places, but it was already rather late and we wanted to rest up for Saturday so we turned in.


Saturday we awoke rather early (9am-ish) showered, ate, and headed towards the Anne Frank house. The line was all sorts of long, and we decided that waiting would ruin the rest of the morning and afternoon so we opted to head straight to the Van Gogh Museum instead. It was far away, but we wanted to do some walking around and also wanted some lunch and make some stops along the way. So we did. It was delightful actually. Highlights include the Sex Museum and in general the architecture of Amsterdam. Note: Santander experienced a huge fire several years ago and as such the historic part of town was burned down. So I don't get to see that "typical" European architecture that you would normally expect. We finally arrived at the Van Gogh Museum after a couple hours of walking around, souvenir shopping, etc. The Museum itself was very nice indeed. Some of the art didn't really do much for me, but there were a couple pieces that I really enjoyed. We looked for prints in the gift shop, but the selection was limited. After we left the Museum, we all headed out to dinner at this nice little Italian place. It was really nice to sit down at dinner with all of those people again. REALLY nice. I am very thankful to Jenn for calling us together for this. I'm glad it was Amsterdam, but it could have been any city in Europe; I was just happy to see my friends again.

So after dinner we went out and enjoyed more of the local culture, including a nice leisurely walk in the Red Light District. We eventually mosied home and I said my goodbye's because I had an early flight and the Germans were all taking the train in the afternoon. So I departed, happy to have spent such a wonderful weekend with my buddies and having enjoyed Amsterdam thoroughly. I'd like to return, though, and see some of the museums that I couldn't make it too, and the parks as well. I might go back in the Spring when it's not as rainy and cold.

The flight home was easy. I was delighted to find an All Organic Café in the airport in Munich, and enjoyed myself a beer and a coffee. The rest of the trip home went smoothly. I hopped a bus from Bilbao to Santander, and got home around 8 or 9ish.

Overall: Damn good weekend, and I'm very glad I went. I can't wait for my next set of travel plans which seems to be not this weekend but the next one, when we'll be heading to Barcelona. I don't travel internationally again until the Holidays, but man I'll be all over the place: London (1 week), Prague (3-4 days including New Years), Vienna (2-3 days), and Italy (1 week).


I can't wait!

Tan pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

No witty title this time. Sorry.

el 12 de noviembre de 2008

First note: new blog setup. There wasn't enough green in the other one. Seriously, that was my main motivation. I like the new one.

Moving on:

Since Halloween, several things have happened. In general: classes continue to go well. My social life has settled down a little bit, but for a couple of reasons. I got really wrapped up in some school work because, for once, I am actually interested in my subject matter. The class I am specifically referring to is International Social Law. My grade is based on two papers that I have to write, each on one topic chosen from a list of four. For the first paper, due one week from Wednesday actually, I elected to write about International Organizations. For those who keenly remember, this subject interests me very much. Between my work with Invisible Children and S4S and my considerations towards NGOs and the Peace Corps as post-graduation options, I was excited to investigate. I wasn't let down, and found the material to surprise me and change my opinion, attitudes, and overall thought process on what constitutes an international organization and what goes into it. In any case, I got into all the reading I was doing, but it's a lot of work and as such I've been working a lot to get it done.

In addition, I have an exam/second paper due next week as well, the day before the Law paper. This I was NOT excited about. Two papers and one exam in the same week means something isn't gong to get done. Well, luckily today Cory and I approached that professor and got an extension. The conversation went very much like this:
Cory: Professor, we were wondering if it might be possible to have an extension, because we're having difficulty with the language and trying to get everything done (etc etc)
Prof: Sure. Just hand it in after Christmas break.

Note: That's about 2 months from now. "Small" extension haha. So that helped ease my work load.

On to the other exciting thing about that extension: now I can fully enjoy and appreciate this upcoming weekend which will be spent in Amsterdam for Jenn's 21st. I'm wicked excited. I get to see a bunch of the IEP people from back home and in Amsterdam no less. It should be amazing.

Which brings me to another recent development: I've packed almost every weekend I possibly could with a trip to somewhere. I finalized my New Year's Eve/Following couple days plans, and besides that planned a couple other trips with some friends around Spain. The mere notion of knowing that I'm taking a trip really helps me get through those cabin fever bouts that I've had the past couple weeks. They came up often. Either tension with class, stress, a little bit of homesick... all of that comes from just sitting around every day in the apartment. It rained for the past two weeks as well, so I couldn't even really go outside. So the travel plans really help. Plus I'm finally getting to see Europe!!!

Another fun development is the job that I had (we'll get to that) downstairs in the cafe/bar. It's amazing. The bar is really small, really laid back, and the regulars and other employees are all really nice and also very laid back. To be honest, if I ever get to open my own cafe/bar that I've been pseudo-dreaming about, it would be very much like this one. The owner was really cool about me working there. They weren't even looking for people; I was just in there one day and went up to him and said "Hey, I'd like to work here. I've tended bar before. Call me if you could use me." And he did. I worked last week and it was really really fun. It's a great way to practice my Spanish and put a little bit of cash in my pocket. So anyways, the past tense is being used because I actually quit the job today. I went down and talked with the owner and told him it was just one too many things on my plate right now. He was really nice and wanted me to stay, and said we might be able to work something out for a schedule, even with all the dates I need off (the main reason for my quitting) and I truly considered it. However, I quickly brought to mind the past two semesters I had at URI. I drove myself crazy trying to do everything I possibly could at the same time. I wasn't going to let myself get into that position again, especially not when I could be enjoying myself in Europe. So as I was ready to take off he mentioned that if I wanted to host any parties there that I could, as long as it wasn't a million random Erasmus kids. I told him I had some ideas for some smaller parties and it would mostly be me and my friends. I'm excited to see if he's cool with it. Having a bar offer itself as your personal party-host for NO fee is a pretty sweet deal. So I hope that works out.

So anyways, I dropped a job, I'm doing lots of schoolwork, I'm getting psyched to do some traveling, and I'm on the winning side of the tail end of a cold. All in all, I'm still doing alright out here. Which is good. Also, Cory's mom sent us Flintstone vitamins.

For the win.

Hasta pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Halloween Part II

el 2 de noviembre de 2008

So facebook photos are in-accessible due to privacy settings. As such, upon request...





This was my Halloween Costume. Yep. There are lots more but I'd have to download them all and it will take me a while to search through them. Anyways, there ya go.

More soon,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Halloween

el 1 del noviembre de 2008

So last night was amazing. After class got out at 2, we had lunch and then all rendezvoused at the bazaar-type store up the street to throw together some costumes. My original costume idea was to be Shaggy from Scooby Doo, but I was pretty sure nobody was going to get it. Also I would need a stuffed Scooby Doo for sure, and had no clue where to obtain one. In any case, I was going to roll with it. Well we get to the bazaar and start walking around looking for ideas. Cory and I pass through one of the clothing aisles and we happen to spot some flamenco dancer costumes. Female ones. For young girls. Well, luckily (luckily? interesting concept here...) they had one that was meant for an 18 year old girl. Well, the limits of this costume were about to be tested by a 21 year old boy. I was a little unsure about the costume at first, but quickly, with some help from the company present at the time, calmed my fears and started getting really into the costume. After I found the wig, beads, flowers, and Cory found me stockings I was ready to go. Cory found his costume, which was really impresive on his part in terms of imagination. He went as a sandwich sign, and had people sign his board all night. It was amazing in a lot of ways, but mostly when people we didn't know just walked up and signed the board.

So we headed home to prepare/create our costumes. My dress had to be cut in one or two spots at the waist in order to fit over my shoulders. My final costume involved an amply stuffed bra, wig, flowers, dress, stockings... and flip flops. They were the only black shoes I had haha. Cory put together his costume like a pro, and after a quick dinner everyone met at our place to head out.

The plan for the night was to meet all the Erasmus kids at the Celtic Tavern for a couple drinks before heading to Tempo for the real party. Well, we were the first ones to the party at the Celtic Tavern. By first, I mean the first ones from the Erasmus group. Which meant that the bar was full... just not full of anyone we knew, or anyone in costume, and I was in a dress. I felt exposed. After a couple beers and a shot of Jameson we felt much better. After a little while more Erasmus people showed up, some in costume, and some of the locals began showing up in costumes as well. We hung out there for a while and eventually headed to Tempo around 1ish (I think).

Side note: Celtic Tavern is my new favorite bar in Santander. This place is so amazing. The decorations last night were off the hook, there are always specials for the parties with gifts and such, and the people there are really cool. This is also the place that I met that professional photographer who I was chatting with. He's the guy who met and did the photo shoot for Bruce Springstein when he came to Spain.

Moving on, Tempo is where things got interesting. I remember dancing with lots and lots of random people. I remember lots of people touching my breasts. Sadly, I remember one dude slapping my ass. Yea. We were all pretty shitfaced. I also remember taking a million pictures with people I don't even know (and some with people I did know). My costume went over pretty well, haha. Cory's also went over really well, and we both won prizes in the costume competition. Sweet! Free t-shirt and drink, although at that point I really didn't need another drink. Oh well. But yea, it was really amazing. Cory and I both noted, though, how funny it is that we know for a fact that there will be hundreds** of photos of us on Facebook that we will never be able to see because we have no clue who these people are. May or may not be for the best, considering how I was dressed.

After we left Tempo, rather, after Tempo closed we all headed to the rain filled street to find some Doner Kebab before heading home. It was ridiculous. The people at that poor restaurant must either really love of absolutely hate 5:30am. So the night ended there. Cory and I made it home fine, Amanda called me about 5 minutes after I had drunkenly stumbled into bed to have me come buzz her in (forgot her keys) and then I passed the hell out.

What a night though. I remember George saying, at several points in the night, "I love our friends!" etc etc about our costumes and how crazy we all were. It made me feel really bittersweet about the whole thing. I wish my first inclination had been to think "Yea! We really are awesome, and I'm so lucky to have found this amazing people to spend my time abroad with" but that was my second though. My first thought was "Wow. I have to leave these people in a couple months." It was strange. I didn't jump into any depressing mood swings or anything, but I just thought "Wow. If I had these friends back in RI they'd be just like my friends there now: we would all be inseparable and do all we could to see each other often etc." But it's different here. It's different being an American. We would have to cross an ocean. The Europeans can hop on Ryan Air for 40euro round trip and spend a whole weekend with each other. Now, I'm not saying that this is going to stop me, or, for sure, that I won't stay in contact with these people. All I'm saying is that it is just really weird making such strong friendships with people who essentially live on the other side of the world. This does two things to me: the first I already mentioned, in that it makes me sad to think about leaving. But the second is that it makes me ever SO excited to stay in contact with these people when I leave. And even MORE excited, a year or two or three down the road, when we visit each other in our home countries. Or maybe even a rendezvous in Santander. Who knows!

Now I said this when I was in Costa Rica, that I couldn't wait to stay in touch and talk and visit etc. And to be honest, I've lost contact with everyone. Only about a week or two ago did I get another facebook message from my group of friends from the trip about what we were up to and how we were doing. Spain, I feel, is very much different. One year is so much more time to make a deeper friendship than I had in the 5 weeks I was in Costa Rica. Which makes me even more excited about the friendships already developing.

A couple quick notes:
-Purchased my plane tickets for Christmas in London and New Years in Prague. Wicked excited!!
-Purchased plane tickets for Jenn's birthday in Amsterdam in November. That weekend will be nuts.
-Remembered that I have two papers and an exam the week after that weekend in Amsterdam.
-...
-doh!

That's all for now. As always, I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well back home. I hope the leaves have turned the beautiful colors that I know they can.

Happy November.

Tan pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP


**Note: "hundreds" of pictures is a gross exaggeration. Well, maybe not. It is Facebook.

Bilbao

el 30 de septiembre de 2008

So last weekend Cory, Martin, and I went to Bilbao. The plan was to catch the 9:30 bus, and spend the morning/early afternoon at the Guggenheim Museum and then the rest of the day walking around the city, for sure checking out the Casco Viejo, which is the old part of the city.

A little after 9 I get a call from Martin. He's running late, but we should be able to make the 10am bus. Well, Cory and I get to the bus stop a little late and we miss the 10 o'clock. The 11 o'clock is sold out, so we opt for the noon bus. I was upset. I wasn't so much upset that we weren't going to keep to a schedule, so much as I was upset because we didn't have a schedule and I was looking forward to having a whole lot of time to just walk around and enjoy the city. In any case, with the two hours we now had on our hands we walked to a nearby coffee/tea shop called "Espressaté". I love this place. It's amazing, and they make all sorts of infusion coffee drinks that are delicious. We hung out and had coffee and nibbled on some food before taking the bus over. I was also happy because I was able to snap this shot while we were having coffee:

"Morning Coffee"

Anyways, the bus ride was fine. The countryside and views of the coast during the trip are really amazing. I was reading most of the way there. I had quickly approached the end of "Contact" and was eager to finish. We arrived around 1:30ish and headed right to the Guggenheim.

Firstly, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and it was warm out as well. T-shirt and jeans were just fine. It was great. So that really set the mood, and we enjoyed the afternoon walking around outside just taking it all in, snapping photos wherever we pleased. We were able to see the giant puppy statue made of flowers that sits out front of the museum. His name is "Puppy" but in Spanish, thanks to the lovely accent, his name has become "Poopy." Yea, we took our time enjoying that one. We signed up for the 4:30 guided tour (in English) and met our tour guide. She was a student at the Univ. of Bilbao and this was her first tour in English. We told her we spoke good enough Spanish in case she had trouble.

"Poopy"

So the Gug (as it is known) is all modern/contemporary art. We got a tour of the first floor, which was really interesting. There was this one exhibit called the "Matter of Time" which was amazing. The concept is that you walk through these huge undulating sheets of steel, and they completely throw off your balance and your idea of where you are just by walking through. The concept is that you are uncertain as to where you are in the peice, and you keep looking around the corner expecting to be at the center when you're not. It's very hard to describe, but it is truly amazing. Though I've never been through them myself, I imagine that it's very much like walking through slot canyons.

There was another exhibit called "Your World, Your City." The way it works is that the artist has created an interactive work of art. You enter the room which is full of blocks and rods, all silver colored, and it's like you are back in pre-school playing with blocks. You put on gloves (to protect the piece) and you can alter anything in the room. You can move blocks, stack them, unstack them, etc. It's amazing, and was really fun. Because we were on the tour we got to play in there. It was great.

That was the end of the tour, and we three headed to the third floor to look at some of the paintings there. The third floor was the "History of All Art" section. Most of it was older Renaissance-esq paintings. Some were very interesting, but the most interesting were on the second floor... which was closed because they are preparing a new exhibit. I was upset.

"The Gug"

After we left the Gug we headed for the Casco Viejo for some drinks and Pinchos. Pinchos are very much like "tapas" excpet normally they are a bit larger, more like a small sandwich or something of that sort. There was also a dance party in front of the Cathedral. It was amazing. I guess when the city gets bored on Saturday nights they all just head out. We were told that there was one section called "los Siete Calles" (The Seven Streets) which are 7 parallel streets in the Casco Viejo that turn into a massive street party at night on the weekends. We decided it was a good idea to investigate. And so we did. We enjoyed the cuisine and some drinks at 3 or 4 different bars before heading back to the bus station to catch the 11:30pm bus back to Santander.

All in all it was good day. I had a good time and got to see another city, which was great. I can't wait to start traveling more!

Tan luego,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Milestone

el 15 de octubre de 2008

This entry is going to be different from my others, in that it will be more of a reflection on my experiences than recounting them.

Milestone
This week marks the longest time I have spent away from:
Home
Friends
Family
The State of Rhode Island
The United States

6 weeks. Costa Rica was only 5. Wow. My reaction is one of surprise, pride, and comfort. I'm surprised that I haven't gotten as home sick as I did in Costa Rica. It seems more and more that going to CR was such a great "trial run" for this trip. I learned so much about what it's like being abroad and it really prepared me for this bigger step. I'm proud about how immediately I said "Okay. I'm in Europe now. I'm pretty much on my own... let's do this." And just took of running. I'm surprised at how comfortable I am here. This is my 8th year studying Spanish, I have some really good friends, the local people have been kind and friendly. It's just a great environment.

"Ex-pat" versus "Tourist"
Cory and I talked about this topic this past weekend. If you read my previous entry, you noticed that I mentioned how very much I loath the idea of traveling in large groups of obvious tourists that act obnoxiously, very rudely, and almost offensively in public. It's not just Americans either, it's a universal tendency. I would be much happier doing what Cory and I did: we took off on our own, talked with some locals, asked them where the best local place to get the authentic drink/food was, and then went there. The little authentic places, the real culture, talking to locals, getting involved in music/arts of the region... this is all what I truly want to experience here. I mentioned how upset I was on our trip to 'los Picos de Europa', how we got there, rode the gondola to the top of the peaks, spent 10 minutes taking some photos and then left. That says nothing except "Look! I've been here! Once! It was... nice!" But ask that person about what it's like to walk around on these peaks and about the stories behind the peaks and maybe someone who climbed it in some epic journey and they won't know shit. Cory said it the best while we were talking. Paraphrasing, it was "I feel like everyone here is still a tourist who happens to be staying here for a long time, but you and I came and planted ourselves here. We're here for a year, this is where we live." We made a joke that we were the ex-patriots planting roots versus everyone else being the tourist just passing through. I liked the thought. (Don't get me wrong, gotta love the Red, White, and Blue... but Yellow and Red go good together as well...)

"Home" is still contextual
The previous two commentaries noted how comfortable I am here and how I am slowly, but surely, moving my mindset to living here in Spain and all that this will entail. However, I noticed that the concept of "home" is still contextual. To better understand, an example: Cory and I were talking and he mentioned something that he'd like to do when we got back to Santander, but he used the phrase "when we get home." It was something general, that can be done anywhere, and I also got excited about doing that thing (I forget what it was) but immediately jumped to the thought of doing it in Rhode Island with my friends. As much as I love it here, and have found myself more than others (save Cory of course) really planting roots and immersing myself here... home is still Rhode Island. My opinion on the matter is rather neutral. I wish I could change that and make this place my new home. And I will... I am. It's happening slowly, but it is happening. At the same time I love the fact that I will always have Rhode Island as my home. In either case, I'm glad that no matter where I am, I can be comfortable enough and adapt myself to always know where home is. Always.

Anthropology
The "Ex-patriot" topic about also goes under this category, but deserved it's own section. I've noticed that I really enjoy observing people. I noticed this tendency this past year, especially in the IEP house. When we would hang out and drink and chat, I would sometimes go quiet and people would ask if I was okay. I was fine. I was observing. I enjoy, very much actually, just sitting back during a conversation and listening. I listen for several reasons. I listen to learn about the topic: sometimes I don't know enough to participate, but am eager to learn. I listen to learn about the people: just sitting back and letting someone just talk can teach you things you never knew. Sometimes people really want to say something but never found the right context to say it, but by just letting them talk they can move the conversation themselves and steer the conversation right to the spot they want to be. I listen to see if I'm right: I have never taken an Anthropolgy class, but even as such you can learn a lot about sterotypes and tendencies within different people just by watching them day to day... well, obviously that's what Anthropolgy is. Anyways, I really like making a hypothesis about someone's opinion on something and then listening during a conversation to see if I'm correct. I also like being surprised when I'm not. I listen to draw connections: above all my favorite thing to do is just listen to two or more people talk, compile their different comments and opinions and then try to look into what I know about them and see if I can pinpoint why the opinion differs.
All things considered, I'm excited to take an Anthropology class when I get back to URI.

Photography
I have a blast taking photos. I find it really fun, and I get really excited when I take a good picture. It's a very gratifying art form, and it's even more special to me considering how important it is to my brother John, and also to so many of my friends (namely Meg, Handrigan, Jeff, etc). Mostly, I've noticed, I love it as a community. In the 6 weeks I have been in Spain, and thus the 8 weeks I have actually owned my camera, I have on several occasions have had conversations started with/by someone that was either 1) interested in my camera or 2) was a photographer as well. And not only that, but the conversations are much more than just a "cool camera" comment before moving on. I mentioned in my last entry I met this man Peter from Belgium in Oviedo this past weekend. I pulled out my camera to get some shots of these peacocks in this park, and out the corner of my eye I saw him also pull out a camera. Later on I saw him creep in a bit closer for a shot and we exchanged "this is cool" glances while taking some great photos. Afterwards, we showed each other a couple of shots, but then instead of going about our ways we just started chatting. He told me he was there with his wife for a friend's wedding, he likes the city, and his camera and lens were a gift for his 30th anniversary. I told him I was a student, I was living in Spain for a year, and that I was only in the city for about 4 hours. We made a little more small talk and then moved on. I like having something like photography as a gateway to meeting new interesting people. I like it a lot.

Home Sick
I haven't gotten truly home sick here. There have been several occasions where I had wished "insert name" was here to share this "insert fun activity" with me. But truly, I haven't really been "home sick" in the true depression, can't leave the room, crying over missing family/friends kind of way. I was talking with Tori and mentioned that I have two opinions over being in Spain alone (Note: I do have Cory, which is amazing. But in terms of the "group" I'm used to having around it's quite different). The first, is that I hate the fact that pretty much all my friends in Europe are in Germany together in one big group. I will admit that seeing there pictures makes me jealous. They all got to go together, and they get to be together during their great experience abroad. The second opinion is that I am truly happy and proud that I'm not in the big group. I mentioned above how much I dislike the idea of the large group but I don't think that 7-8 of my friends really falls under that category. Anyways, I'm really excited that I'm here on my own. I think it will definitely afford me different experiences and opportunities to grow and learn in different ways. It also affords me the experience of truly living on my own and being independent which, as the youngest child, I have been yearning for for years. What an incredible place to have that opportunity.

Things I Miss
Coffee ice cream.
Dels.
Coffee.
Fall in Rhode Island.
Pint Night at the Mews.
Newport Storm Amber Ale.
Brewed Awakenings... for coffee.
Bon fires that last all night.


Well, that's a bunch of "reflections" that I've noticed and wanted to share. I hope you are all well and, as always, I miss you all and can't wait to share more experiences/adventures when I/we have them.

Tan luego,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Weekend trip: León and Oviedo

el 13 de Octubre de 2008

So this weekend AEGEE Santander organized a weekend trip to two cities very close to Santander: León and Oviedo. Leon is in the region called "Castilla y Leon" (South and a little West) and Oviedo is in Asturias (West). For the record, Santander is the capital of the region known as "Cantabria". So Cory and I awoke on Saturday around 6:30 and got ready to be at the bus for 7:45. We weren't sure if the city buses were running and as such took a walk through the park instead. The walk was nice, and we arrived right on time. The student coordinator arrived right on Spanish time, at 8:20, and we piled onto the bus and headed out.

The bus ride was fine, though a bit long. Our first stop was to be Leon were we would meet up with one of the guys from AEGEE Leon for a city tour. We arrived, drop our stuff at the "hotel" (which was actually a hostel) and got back on the bus to rendezvous in the city. We met up with the guy and began walking around. Cory and I immediately realized that we would much rather go off on our own, rather than walk around with this very large, obnoxious group of students. It was funny, actually, because I feel as though Americans get this bad stereotype for traveling in large groups and being loud and obnoxious, and yet it's really the same no matter who you are*. Our group was pretty much half Italians and half Brazilian students, and just the fact that they were together, in a large group, turned it into a typical loud group of tourists. Anyways, as I said Cory and I quickly decided we were all set, and the moment we had free time we took off. We walked around the city a bit, toured a historic library set in this very beautiful church (sadly we had to re-rendezvous with the group to do so) and also we were able to walk around the Cathedral, which was gorgeous. There were about 3 or 4 weddings that day. I was actually in the Cathedral for one of them, behind the alter taking pictures and some guy had to come up behind me and, whispering, asked me to please leave. It was great. We really didn't have time for dinner and we were supposed to all meet up at some plaza at 11:30p for a huge party in some bar. Well, Cory and a couple friends and I were hungry, and decided the answer would be tapas. For anyone who doesn't know about "tapas" I will explain:

Tapas (literally translated as "tops") are little snacks that bars serve with drinks later on in the evening. The word "tapas" came from long ago, when people would place the little dish with snacks on the top of the drink to protect it from bugs and flies and such. The food they give you can range from anything from peanuts or olives, to little pieces of bread and meats, to potato chips. It's essentially like leaving peanuts on the bar top in the U.S., but infinitely better. Some bars will serve them to you with your drink, or alternatively some bars will actually leave the little morsels spaced along the bar to be picked at as the night goes on. Tapas normally go out/are served later on after people will have eaten lunch/dinner. You really don't see them at clubs, and certain bars won't do them either, for example certain college bars, because the students are more there to drink. So there ya go.

Anyways, so Cory and I and a couple others headed out for some tapas. The safest thing to do is to get a draft beer, because you're guaranteed tapas. After the first two bars, the other 6 friends of ours decided they were going in search of the party. Cory and I decided that this night would be a bar hop. So we continued our search, stopping into 10 places, drinking at 7 of them, and enjoying the hell out of our tapas. We had all different types, from potato chips, to bread and meats, to a mashed potato type of treat. It was amazing. We also enjoyed a new type of drink which was "cerveza con limón", or essentially beer with lemonade. They take whatever is on tap** and add some lemonade to it. It's amazing! It's very light, crisp, and really really tasty. It's hard to drink more than a couple though, it's just one of those drinks. So after the tapas bars, we finally decided to make an appearance at the group party. We were at the bar for about 15 minutes before the group decided to move to another bar. We got lost, and then when we actually found the place we (Cory, my other friends in my room, and I) decided to just go back to the hostel to sleep. It was a good decision.

We awoke and headed to the next rendezvous which was breakfast. It was greatly welcomed. We had to wait a little while for the rest of the group to arrive/eat so Cory and I ducked into the park that was next to the restaurant. Oh early morning lighting how I love you so!! We just walked around the small park and sat on the benches. I snapped some photos and eventually we had to leave in order to get the bus.





We got on the bus and headed to Oviedo. Oviedo was very nice, but the trip was not as organized/filled with stuff as León was. We arrived around 3 in the afternoon, and they said "Okay... the cathedral is about 2 streets that way, and be back on the bus at 7. Try the "Sidra", it's a drink typical to Asturias." (Asturias being the region we were in.) And so we were off! Cory and I paired up and left the group, again, as quickly as possible. We shot a couple pictures of the cathedral and the square (again... gorgeous!) and then began the hunt for food. We were starving. On our way we found a couple things: 1) A t-shirt store. We both made a purchase and they're both awesome. I'll get a picture of the shirt later at some point. It says "Folk" on it, but in a mock "Ford" (as in car) logo type image. It has a large man playing a bagpipe. I guess Asturias Folk music is rather good? 2) A National Geographic Photography Exhibit. Wow! There was one category "Under 11" that made me cry. These kids are nuts. SOOO much better than me, haha. I need more practice :) 3) A music stand that sold... Authentic Asturias Folk music!! I was so happy. I bought one cd and put it in as soon as I got home. For the record, it's amazing. I'll pass it on to any who want it.

After all of that we finally found lunch. We got the "Menú del día" which is how Spaniards do lunch. You get a series of plates: two larger plates, one desert, a drink, and bread. All for about 9 euro. It's f'ing amazing. It's the best concept ever. So we shared a red wine (which was deliicious), both had the paella to start (oh god it was good) and then Cory had the fish and I had the chicken. We then both had flan. Afterwards, we headed (a little tipsy) to find some Sidra. We found an authentic Sidraría, and had ourselves two bottles. Now the thing with this drink is that it has to be poured a special way. You hold the bottle above your head, and the glass as low as your arm stretches... and pour. Yep. Also, you only pour enough for one shot. Why you do both of these things I have no clue. But it was tasty. The waiter poured the first, but after that you're on your own. Cory and I had fun, but for sure ended up getting more in the street than the glass. Anyways, we had two bottles and then bought one for the apartment. It was tasty stuff.

So having 2 1/2 hours until the bus left, we headed to this little park we saw down a side street to take a nap. Well, no sooner did we walk in than we saw a group of kids taking a nap in the very same park. Apparently that was the plan for the afternoon. Ha! So Cory lied down for a nap, and I took out my camera and walked through the park. It was very quiant. There were a couple fountains and a little pond with ducks/swan/peacocks. Two of the peacocks got loose and were walking around the park. I got pretty close, about 3 feet, and got some cool pictures. I also met this man Peter from Belgium, who also pulled out his camera and was taking pictures. We gave each other the courtesy nod and a mutual "these peacocks are f'ing cool"-type-grin while snapping photos and after the peacocks walked away we chatted for a bit about photography and what we were both doing in Oviedo.*** He was there with his wife for a friend's wedding, and didn't speak Spanish. He was very nervous when I tried to start the conversation in Spanish, but quite relieved when I quickly told him I was American and spoke English.




After more hanging out in the park we took the bus home. It was the worst ride ever. (Return to comment about loud groups of tourists: enter me, surrounded on a bus trying to sleep by yelling and screaming. I don't want to hear anyone speak Italian or Brazilian Portugues for a loooong time.) I moved seats after our rest stop to try and sleep better.

So to recap: The cities were both nice in their own respect. It was great seeing a "real" cathedral, being an American. It's really fascinating for me to be able to see all of this ancient architecture and the history behind it. I'm not one for history class, but I LOVE hearing really cool stories about Medival times and old European customs/stories. It's fun. The trip as a "trip" was not my cup of tea, but I'm still glad I went.

Highlights:
Sweet old European architecture
Tapas bar hopping
Menú del día
Peacocks

Sorry this post was so long. Yay embedded pictures!

Hasta muy pronto,
Andrew
Santander, ESP



*See next entry about "ex-patroit" comments.
**Not literally "whatever." I doubt they'd use Guinness. In some places it was Amstel Light or something like it.
*** See next entry about why I LOVE photography for so many reasons.

Ultimate Frisbee

el 5 de octubre del 2008

On Thursday I got an email from the University providing a contact email for anyone interested in playing Ultimate Frisbee. I immediately emailed the person, telling him I was an American student looking to play. I heard back from the guy (Amador) that afternoon, and he said they were having a practice that afternoon. By the time I got his email I had already missed the practice time, so I emailed him back and told him so. He sent me one more email telling me that they were going to play this Sunday and I could join them if I wished. I replied and said I wouldn't miss it. (So many emails. We exchanged phone numbers, so maybe that will be easier.)

So this morning I awoke around 9:30ish and slowly arose and got changed. I packed my bag and grabbed a bottle of water and headed out. I would have to take the bus to the city center, than switch buses and ride out to some random Rugdby field outside Santander. For any and all of you who have every played Utlimate Frisbee for a team, you'll understand about trying to get field time. UF isn't exactly a very popular sport with the Sports Offices, and it's always a hastle to get field time and things like that. Well, here it's no different. I found out, though, that the team is actually a Club team and not a University team. I'm rather excited about that, becaues it means we have a couple older guys on the team as well, which always makes an interesting dynamic as they have more experience and whatnot. It's a coed team, which is also more fun, and three of the girls are actually from the States. Although I met them all, I only got a chance to chat with one and she's from New Hampshire. Everyone else on the team is awesome. They were rather excited that I had played before, and it was really cool for me because I got to play a more major role on the team and helped demonstrate things.

Above all, it was just fucking great to play again!!! I didn't play on the team last year because of my crazy, stupid, ridiculous semesters (which many of you might remember). Anyways, I'm really excited to be able to play again and compete. So yea, I had a blast. We played for about 2 hours or so. Luckily one of the guy's on the team offered to give me a ride home so I didn't have to take the bus. We'll practice again this week, and I think we'll try to practice once or twice per weekend. I'm SO excited! Ugg! It also helps that I'm feeling a million times better than I did last week. I think I'm over my flu, and my stomach is rapidly adjusting to the new diet/climate/etc.

So that's all for now. I just wanted to relay my exciting Frisbee news. I just skyped my Mum and Dad, who are getting ready to travel around Italy for the better part of two weeks. Sadly, it might not be possible for them to swing by Spain due to flights and timing and such, but I'm happy they're getting out of Rhody for a while.

This will be my first "full" week of classes, so we'll see how that goes. I've also enrolled in a racquetball class which is really fun, and meets twice a week. I have a class conflict on Tuesdays with racket-ball, but my class schedule might change a bit so we'll see what happens.

I hope you are all still well. I am jealous that I'm not home to see Autumn settle in. I've been told it won't snow here, though the rain will continue as always. I wonder what the leaves will look like here and if they're even compare to New England... yea, I don't think so either.

Atentamente,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

One Month Later...

el 1 de octubre del 2008

One month. 31 days I've been here. Incredible. I really can't believe how this concept just does NOT seem strange to me. "Of course I've been living in Spain." Of course I go about my daily life, sliding in and out of two different languages as I please. Of course I come home to this apartment, and feel comfortable even though it is not the home I'm used to. Of course I'm surrounded by people I am just getting to know, and we act like family.

There are many things that contribute to this comfort, and I've mentioned some of them before: I know my roommates, they speak English, I'm used to living near the beach, the city is very mellow and easy to get along in, people are helpful etc. But I've been thinking lately more in terms of mental and metaphysical, for lack of a better word. One of the reasons I've been thinking on is that I am really coming into my own. I have matured a lot of the past 2 years, marking my "beginning" point as my trip to Costa Rica. Taking myself outside of my comfort zone, I learned a lot. Then I returned to the U.S. and learned even more. Though I am always learning and growing, I feel like here something has changeed. Instead of learning new things about the person I am becoming, I am noticing things about the person I am. Instead of trying to shape-shift myself into a person I think the people around me will like, I simple throw myself out there, knowing that I am strong enough and comfortable enough with myself to catch myself if I fall. And that makes me happy.

So what have I been up to lately? Well the last time I wrote was 2 weeks ago. A lot has happened since then, and I apologize for any/all details I forget. But let's see...

The 17th to the 20th was "Orientation." They told us about signing up for classes and a little bit about some student groups we might want to be involved in. There is one group, called AEGEE Santander, which is the local AEGEE group, that is essential a social group that tries to gets students together to party, travel, hang out, play sports, etc. It's a way to get ERASMUS students to actually talk to each other instead of hiding away with people from your same country. They've hosted a ton of parties and social events at local bars and also a couple soccer games. They're also planning a weekend trip to Leon and Oviedo, and I'm told they will organize several more in the coming months.

So after the morning session on the 17th, the rest of the afternoon was spent on a Bus tour of Santander. I wasn't too excited, considering I had been living here for 2.5 weeks beforehand, but it was really nice to see some places I hadn't gotten a chance to visit yet and to hear a little history as well. Thursday (18th) we went to Picos de Europa and then continued on to Comillas. The Picos was a little boring. We got there, went up the trolly to the top, spent 15 minutes up there, and came back down and left. We spent about 3.5 hours in transit on a bus to do this. I was, needless to say, very upset. Like many of you, I would have rather taken a day there to walk around and hike in the mountains, than to just take some "Yes, I'm a tourist and look where I went!" pictures. I guess I can't complain though, considering I did get some really nice pictures. And at least now I know it exists and can go back if I want to. Which I do. The second half of the day was Comillas, which was this tiny town where Atoni Gaudí build his famed "el Capricho". It was his only work in Cantabia, and was very interesting.

Friday was the final day, and we headed to Altamira. This is the location of an pre-historic cave dwelling that was dicovered in the 1880s. They closed the actual cave in 1977 due to the danger presented to the preservation of the drawings by humans (all the CO2 isn't good for them). They have since created an "exact" replica of the cave, complete with lights, holograms, pictures, and it sucked. I was really upset, haha. I understand completely, don't get me wrong, but the giant plastic (or whatever the material was) cave just wasn't very exciting. The museum, however, was very interesting. I found it interesting that all of the blurbs around the museum were in English as well as Spanish. I read most of them in Spanish, and used the English side more as a dictionary and reference for words I really didn't know. So that was fun anyways. The final excursion in the afternoon on Friday was to Santillano del Mar. Here was a Medival village that was left untouched. I got seperated from my tour group at the beginning and missed the historical bit, and feel kind of bad about that. However, there was a Inquisition Torture Museum there, which was... painful to walk through. Ooh man. These people were ruthless. Some of those torture tactics were just aweful. Words can't describe, but feel free to check out the pictures on facebook.

So that was the end of the excursions. That weekend their were a couple parties and such around the city. I spent Saturday morning (1am to 5am) outside this one bar with my new friend Edu, chatting away in Spanish. I was, again, surprised at my ability to speak Spanish even though much of the credit goes to the alcohol I had enjoyed. I remember running around the city at one point, chasing Edu with two other friends, in search for more beer at another bar, but he came rounding a corner towards us with 4 cans of beer instead. Where he got them, I couldn't begin to tell you. It was 4:30 in the morning. He could have stolen them for all I know. Anyways, good times and I got back around 5:15am.

Since then things have been a bit slower. The first couple weeks we would go out every night and on the weekends we'd get really silly out at the bars etc. We'd be at the beach everyday, surfing and whatnot. Last week was the onset of actual classes and the beginning of the semester. We have since taken a little step back to focus on getting our schedules all worked out and everything. Cory and I had one hell of an adventure at the Oficina de Extranjeros (Literally, "Office for Foriegners".) Imagine, if you can, a DMV where everyone is just as angry, just as miserable, but they don't speak the same language you do. Then try asking a quesion. It was hilarious actually. We went on a Tuesday at around 1:45, but they close at two. After being yelled at by Angry Lady (I think that's her name anyways) we left to return the next morning. At least we new what we needed. Upon arriving the next morning, promptly at 10 (they open at 9) we were delighted to see that Angry Lady at the front desk was replaced by Awesome Guy. Well Awesome Guy was very helpful, told us exactly what we needed and what we needed to do and even answered the questions we had. So we passed the front desk and headed through security to the waiting room. This was probably around 10:3oish. Well, around 1ish we finally got our number called, in true DMV fashion. So we walked into the room we were called into, only to see Angry Lady at the table we were assigned to. We were less than enthused. We said as little as possible and avoided eye contact. ThankGod, Awesome Guy came by and helped us through the process. We finally finished around 1:30ish and were told to return in about a month and a half to obtain our Residency cards, which will make it legal for us to live in Spain for the next year. Sweet!

Across the street was a coffee shop called "La Café Viña" which served "Café Blanco y Negro" which was a coffee with a scoop of ice cream in it. Needless to say, it was amazing. I can't wait to go back.

Since then we really haven't done much. I started feeling ill around Thursday, and still haven't made a full recovery. I think it was the flu, and I spent Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday morning in bed. I felt well enough to go to the beach Saturday afternoon, but still haven't ventured out to a bar in about a week. I'm starting to get angry. The other symptoms have stopped, by my stomach still seems out of order. I would say it's the water, but I've been drinking filtered water, and since I got here too, so it's not something new. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to fully recover before this weekend and can get back to my regular social habits.

I've also started to become a lot more comfortable with my camera. I really enjoy taking pictures, and hope that maybe with time I can turn this into something more than a hobby. For now, who knows, but all my friends here have noticed that I've gotten some good shots and keep telling me how impressed they are. If nothing else it's a confidence boost. Still, I can't wait to learn more and I do so every time I take it out.

Classes are good. Right now we're still all juggling classes to see which we really want to take. Right now I'm in "Meteorology and Oceanography", "Effects of Waste on the Marine Environment", "Water Chemistry", "International Social Law", and "Environmental Impact". I have dropped History of Art due to a conflict, and Social Anthropology because I don't like the presentation and I don't feel like I'm going to really learn anything that I want to learn. My Meteo/Oceo class is amazing. I love the professor, he's so nice! After the first class I went up and introduced myself to him and just said something like "Hi, I'm an American student and just wanted to let you know that I think I'll be able to get the concepts but the terminology is a little tough to translate." And his response was "...I have half an hour, would you like to go over what we talked about in class today?" And so we did. And then he took my to the library upstairs and showed my an "Into to Meteorology" book that I should read. I was blown away by how helpful he was. My Waste Effects class is also awesome. The professor is very laid back, and of the 4 students in the class only Dario and I showed up this week. It was really cool though, we just chatted and she told us what the class will be like etc. It's going to be very hands on as far as researching topics during class in the library and then coming back to the classroom to discuss them afterward. Sweet! The Water Chemistry and Int'l Social Law haven't started yet. I've missed one or two classes for the Environmental Impact class, but that was because it is a recent addition. Cory told me about it. Him and Amanda are in it, and he says it's pretty much everything I've ever wanted in a class. How's humans affect the environment, sustainable development, etc. I'm very excited to enroll. Plus he said the professor is really nice. All in all I'm very excited for classes, which is very unlike my normal experience at URI. Oh, URI. So silly.

Also, I've signed up for a couple sports classes. Squash and fencing. I'm very excited for both. Especially fencing. That one starts tonight, so we'll see how it goes.

That's it for now. I'm still alive, a bit sick, but still doing well and very excited for the coming semester. It will take some work, but I'm actually willing to put it in and learn. Mainly because it'll be so cool to have learned all of these amazing things in Spanish! Crazy!

Ode to Rhode Island: A Haiku
Fall leaves change colors,
Beaches, Friends, Camp Fires, Weekends,
Take me to the Mews.

Hope all is well back home. We think of you guys often, and miss you all.

Hasta la proxima,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

16.09.2008

el 16 de septiembre de 2008

Today was the last day of classes for the early program I was in. The exam for Grammar went well and my interview (5 minutes or so) for Oral Expression went well also. Overall I think I learned a lot. The presentation of the material is what made the biggest difference. Some things that I already had learned but did not understand were made much clearer simply by studying it in a different way. So now that the classes are over, we're all heading out to dinner and then to celebrate tonight at the bars. I'm quite excited.

For those of you who haven't already seen my photos from the trip to the zoo on Saturday, you should check them out! I had such a blast with my new camera taking all those shots. I'm learning so much about my camera just by taking it out and shooting photos. We had a blast in the zoo! The park used to be a mine, and after a while they converted it to a national park/zoo. The park is huge! and so we took a bus around to each "pen" and then would get off and walk a bit and take photos if we wanted. I would have prefered to walk, but after driving around the park I realized how hilly it was and walking would not have allowed us to see much. Plus it rained a lot. Eso es Santander... But yes, there are loads of pictures on facebook and if you don't want to go there you can see them here! What a fun trip!

I continue to love this city. Once again, just the tranquility of it, the great mix of mountians and beach, and the friendliness of the people I've met have given me such a great impression. A lot of people when home always say "Oh, these people don't like Americans because such and such" or "These people are always mean to Americans." I've found this not to be very true. For sure, there are cases where people are just ignorant and intolerant of other cultures. We talked about this in class today, about the stereotypes from different cultures and how my profesor HATES it when people apply stereotypes to those they meet abroad becuase clearly just by traveling abroad and studying abroad these people have broken the stereotype and are truly trying to assimilate and understand how another culture lives and thrives. I found the conversation quite enlightening.

The other international students I've met I continue to love. We're all such a great mix and really do enjoy ourselves when we're out. Cory is very intent on learning lots of German phrases, and of course our friends only teach him the funnier more interesting ones. "My house or yours?" for example, haha. I'm also very excited because one of my friends from Austria, Martina, is really into mountain climbing and other sports like that, and said she found a rock gym in Santander that we can go to. I'm really excited! I also mentioned that I like to climb to one of the assistant students, Eduardo, and he told me that his friend climbs a lot and he's going to try to introduce me so we might be able to tag along. Sweet!

I'm still trying to teach myself to surf, and it's hard! Especially because these aren't those wimpy waves we get back in Rhody... these are rather intense cross-current, strong undertoe waves that really toss you around. It's quite tiring but really really fun! Plus, I can't really complain about spending almost every day on the beach can I? I got my first sunburn. It's not that bad, and I'm excited to once again be a color other than bleach white. Maybe by the time the winter hits I'll have a tan. Ha.

I hope everyone back in the States, and those soon to join me in Europe, are doing well. ¡Salud!

Atentamente,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Wow, I've been here over a week?

el 9 de septiembre de 2008

Wow. Again, I start with that word. It's really the only thing I can use to describe this place. I'm always in awe. We went to this little secluded beach yesterday afternoon, and to get there we had to walk along this beautiful cliff walk. I remember on the way back looking across the Bay and seeing the two gorgeous beaches stretching across my entire view, behind which stood this beautiful city, and of course behind that towered mountains topped with clouds. The sun was shining, and I had to check myself. Do I really live here? Am I truly in this place? Did I really leave all my family and friends and security behind? How could I have done so? This must be a dream.

But it's not, it only seems so.

So the first week was amazing! I am currently taking two classes: Grammar and Converstation. Both profesores are absolutely amazing. They're really laid back, but I'm learning SO much. I really am. I'm in the 3rd level (of 4) and decided to do so based on my want for a stronger base before starting the semester. Much of what we're going over I have already learned or addressed before in my studies, but the new style of presentation and learning it from someone who actually speaks Spanish all class is so different. As I said, I'm learning, and have learned already, so much. It's a little tough sometimes because the 40 of us aren't on the same level, and so we have to switch back and forth between languages quite often. Everyone here speaks English (what the hell!) but we're pretty good about speaking Spanish a lot. When we're in a bigger group, there's a little more English spoken just because it's the nature of the beast. But it greatly depends on how lazy/tired/intoxicated we are.

As far as how I pass the day, well that's easy. It's Spain. I have class from 09:15-14:00ish, with two 5 minute breaks and one 1/2 hour break. Grammar lasts 3 hours, and Conversation is about 1 hour or a little over. The program itself has 40 students in it, and they're all awesome. Already I've made a lot of new friends. The groups is quite the mescla, with Austrians, Frenchies, a handful of Americans (only 2 in addition to us 3), 2 girls from the UK, and the rest are all Germans. Almost the whole group is Germans actually. Anyays, after class we come home and have lunch, and then siesta begins. Today is actually the first day I've taken full adventage of siesta. The first week we spent the afternoons going to the supermarket, trying to find household items and groceries that we'd need. Then Cory arrived on Wednesday and so he also had things to get, so we returned again. Yesterday we spent siesta at the beach (a pretty good trade off) but today was the first day I stayed home. I took a nap. Actually, I would have gone to the beach with some others but I wasn't feeling to well. I think I might be getting a bit of a cold, so I wanted some more sleep. I do feel better (thanks for asking!).

So after the afternoon activities we normally break and have dinner at home or some people go out or sometimes we all go out together. The night can start at any time from 8 to midnight depending on what day it is. Weekdays we normally go out around 8ish and then stay out til aftermidnight or so, maybe 1 or 2 if we push it, then walk home. Weekends... well... I came home at 5am on Saturday. Haha, it was a great night! We left the apartment at midnight after making tortilla from scratch... and then immediately devouring it. But side note: I'm going to be in such good shape in about 2 weeks. Santander is situated on a hill. The University and my apartment on are one side, towards the top, and el centro (the bars, shops, etc) is on the other side. So the walk home is a long, sobering, 15 minute walk straight uphill. Ridiculous. I actually prefer it though, for several reasons: it really does sober you up, it's getting me in shape, and I'm a cheap bastard and it's cheaper than a taxi. Ha!

So that's the night life. The beaches here are absolutely amazing! I can't even describe them. The one we went to on Sunday was fantastic. I've never seen anything like it. The bottom contours were all messed up. You could tell just walking on them! They undulated very much, and becaues of this the waves would break 2 or 3 times on their way in. That led to a very interesting phenomenon, which was that over the 8 hour period we were there, I never once looked out and saw less than 4 waves breaking at once. There are waves breaking all the time, all over the place. It's so beautiful. The one down side is when you rent a surfboard, haha. We got our asses kicked. It was so fun though! I can't wait to go back. It's really cheap too, only 10euro for the whole day's rental of the board and wetsuit. The water here is very, very cold (think RI waters in April or May) and so the wetsuit is essential, especially if you're out there for a while.

I've described the general outlook, so now it's time for some highlights! Surfing is definitely one, and Cañadio is surely another. It's this open air plaza surrounded by bars. When the cops aren't there, we normally sneak up the street to a corner store, buy a couple of 6-packs, and then bring them down to enjoy on the fountains and stairs, talking the night away. I really can't describe the experience. It seems so simple, but I really couldn't ask for much more. We've had such good times there, and it's only been a week and a half. In addition, on Sunday I had quite the meal. We went out to dinner after surfing and quickly noticed that not only could none of us really read the menu, but we couldn't describe what we did know to the others becuase we couldn't translate from spanish to english/german, and then to german/english, haha. In any case, I accidentaly, but was pleased to find out, that I had ordered octopus. It was delicious! It had a texture like calimari crossed with scallops. It was good though. It also helped that we downed two pitchers of Sagnría. Oh man, so good! The other drink I love is called "calimocho", which is half red wine and half coka-cola. It's absolutely delicious! Try it as soon as possible! Also, making tortilla is really fun, and it's so tasty! I can't wait to make more. So far Cory has made two, Amanda made one at her other friends house, and I think I might be up next, or at least I'd like to try.

So that's it for now I guess. In short, this place is amazing, I love the people, love the city, my Spanish is improving, I'm enjoying myself, and I can't wait for visitors so I can share some of these amazing experiences with you all!

Salutaciones.

Antentamente,
Andrew
Santander, ESP

Getting there... alive.

6 Sept. 2008

Wow… really… just wow. This place is so amazing. I don’t know where to begin, so I guess I’ll just start at the beginning. First, however, I want to apologize for not updating in so long. I’ve meant to but I’ve either had a spotty internet connection, too tired, or inebriated. As such, this will have to start all the way back from a week ago.

So I left Rhody behind and flew from Boston to Philly, and then crossed the Big Blue Wet Thing heading to Dublin. My first time out of the country. The flight over the Drink kind of sucked. I was freezing cold, and couldn’t get comfortable (6’3” people just aren’t meant for airplanes). My only real spot of “homesick” came when they served dinner. Something about eating alone got to me. I ordered a drink to try and help me fall asleep, even though I was already exhausted. It was a Jack/Coke and I thought of Tori.

I finally dozed off for about an hour and a half, woke up with the sun and complimentary orange juice, and was able to gaze at the unbelievable landscape that is Ireland. I decided then and there I wasn’t going to Spain, I was just going to stay in Ireland. I thought of Ayla.

So I got to the airport at around 9am local time, went through Customs, went to the Aer Lingus check-in to get my ticket, and that’s where things made me feel better about the crappy flight I just had. The nice man with the Irish accent whom I couldn’t understand put me in the Emergency Exit aisle so that I would have more leg room. (The story continues later with the other two passengers not showing up and me stretching out over the 3 seats and sleeping the entire flight… I was ecstatic). Anyways, I was also told that my terminal was a 15 minute walk and as such I left right away instead of exiting the airport like I had planned. I headed to my terminal and on the way grabbed a small coffee and snack as I was starving. I then said “Well. Shit, when in Rome…” and so at 10am I headed to the pub at my terminal. Note: 10am. Note: This bar was overflowing, like not even standing room. I love the Irish. I had myself a Guinness (so tasty!) and then headed to my terminal. I ran into two students (Andy and Luke) heading to Bilbao to study and we chatted while we waited for our delayed flight to board. (1 hour 20 minutes. Something about being late out of Germany). Anyways. As I just mentioned this flight went much better.

When I awoke, we were about 20 minutes out and so I hopped into the window seat to enjoy the scenery. And oh man did I enjoy it! The red roofs were the first thing that got me excited. They’re so beautiful from the sky! Not only that, but all these small towns were just tucked in these mountain valleys all over the place! The mountains were also beautiful, and I even saw lots of wind turbines spinning away… way to be Europe!

So I got off the plane and headed to customs. I don’t know why this man seemed so angry, but customs didn’t seem particularly fun. That sheet that you normally fill out on the plane we founded in a small stack on a table next to the booth with the angry man, and most people didn’t even fill it out. I handed him that and my passport, and he quickly stamped it and I was on my way. I’m not sure he even looked at me. Anyways, that puts me in Bilbao, which is decidedly not Santander. I got my bags and headed for the bus. After a little bit of a run around I got on the bus to take me to the Bilbao bus terminal. I arrived just in time to grab a 18:30 bus to Santander. The ride was very nice and I shared a short but pleasant conversation with the Spanish girl next to me.

I arrived in Santander around 7 or 8ish, I think? I forget when, but took a taxi to my apartment. Someone standing just inside the door was nice enough to open it for me (I didn’t have keys yet) and so I took the elevator up to the 4th floor, knocked on the door labeled 4A and Amanda greeted me. I had made it. Alive. Tired. And so many latte’s.

Well, that’s all I can give you for now. But at least you know I got here. The next entry will describe the first week in Spain. What a week! I can’t wait! For now, I’m heading down to the beaches and it’s Saturday, so I’ll probably end up going out tonight. In any case, hasta la proxima!

Mucho amor,

Andrew
Santander, ESP.

Pre-departure

So the day has arrived. I really don't know what to say. I'm excited, but very nervous still. I've said it before, but I will repeat myself: last summer's trip to Costa Rica was the best warm-up for this trip I could have hoped for. I know what it's like to get home sick, to be stuck without internet, without music to listen to and comfort me, and I know that after a couple days of forcing myself out of the house, I will be just fine. What's more, I'll be living in an amazing city in an amazing country, and as nervous and unsure as I am, I've been waiting to do this for three years.

I will board the plane as a 21 year old Native Rhode Islander, born and bred. I have little travel experience, quantitatively, but much more than I could have dreamed qualitatively. I am an engineer, always sizing things up, and over analyzing whenever possible. It's the nature of the beast I guess. I'm a Spanish major, ready to kick back in the afternoon with a glass of wine and watch the world turn once or twice while I catch my breath. I'm an International Development Minor, looking for opportunities to help wherever possible. I'm a god-damn dirty hippie, and shoes are optional, though I'll never be found without a pair of sandals nearby.

I will miss my friends and family. Especially after this summer, as we all grew just a little closer and hugged just a little tighter knowing that separation was coming in the fall. I will miss Fall in Rhode Island, my favorite time of the year when the leaves change and the wind blows just hard enough to make you put on that hoody. I will miss my hammock and my Alpaca blanket. For those who know me well enough I know you understand. I will miss playing music with my brothers in the basement, rocking out when we know Mom has had enough.

I will enjoy experiencing a new culture. So many things to observe, so many habits to break and new ones to learn. I'm excited to see if I dream in Spanish, and how well I'll be able to speak English when I get back. I'm excited to find my local coffee shop, where I can give the staff a nod and they'll recognize me. I'm excited to travel to other parts of Europe, to see the other side of the world and mostly to see friends while doing so. I'm excited to have people visit me. This, more than anything, will make my trip so special. I want to experience all of these new things, but doing so with friends is what will make the memories truly last forever.

I am excited to return. To see the world through new eyes, to hear the world through new ears. It's almost taboo to talk about returning already, but maybe it's just the Rhode Islander's ingrown want to always be home.

And with that, I depart on a new adventure. I will leave behind so many things, but I leave them with confidence and with the joy of knowing that they will be there when I return. I was once told to "Follow My Bliss" wherever it may take me. So off I go.

Hasta Pronto.

-av-