Christmas in Madrid!

Like they went big for Halloween! They are going big for Christmas!

ALSO I FLY HOME IN ONE DAY! ONE LAST POST BEFORE I GO HOME FOR CHRISTMAS BREAK!

I went to a light show in "Banco de España" This is my post office. Its massive and one of the historic buildings of the city. Check out the videos I posted using my Ipod touch, they are kind of low quality but it was an amazing show. It was put on by Samsung and they projected these lights on the building to make it look like it was a movie.

After the lightshow I went walking around to see different christmas decorations in Madrid. It help me feel more at home, seeing all the christmas lights. I think this tree should be up on Valentine's Day and not Christmas because it was all hearts.

Here's the big (Macy's) of Spain. This store had flashing snowflakes and music blasting. I would hate to live near this store hearing Jingle Bells every 5 minutes! Haha!


Below this one are more pictures of the post office light show. They lit fireworks off the top as well, it was really cool!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I hope to see everyone while I'm on break. If not, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year that you can enjoy with family and good friends!

December Puente Vacation in Spain, Andorra and France

Christmas break is almost here! I'm flying home December 23rd and I'll be in Dulles at 8:15pm on the 23rd. I fly back to Spain on January 5th at 5:30pm from Dulles. So hopefully I can see everyone while I'm back. I have missed everyone so much.



Recently, I went on a trip to the north of Spain, south of France and a small country in between called Andorra. We had off school Tuesday, Thursday and Friday last week. So we left for a long weekend trip. I went with friends from the master's program (Alyssa, Bill, Brittany, and Nathalia). We all rented a car (Opel Astra)

and Bill and I took turns driving, since it was a 5 speed, and we were the only ones that knew how to drive it. We only came close to wrecking/backing into things about 15 times! Haha! Just kidding.

Our first stop was Saragossa, Spain. Its just right outside of Madrid (about 2 hours) and a pretty young city. It had a big cathedral (just like any other city in Europe) and inside was what they call "La santa capilla del pilar."There was some live manger scene going on outside the church, and kids were riding camels around! We stopped here just long enough to see this, grab some lunch, bathroom break and then head on out to the small country of Andorra, between France and Spain right smack in the middle of the Pyrenees.

Here are some pictures from Andorra la Vella, Andorra. This is a small country between France and Spain, about the size of the city of Madrid. Its right in the Pyrenees mountains, so it was amazing. Too bad it was too early to go skiing. We are definitely thinking of coming back here when there is more snow on the resorts. We stayed Thursday night here.

Us in front of the town tree.

Me in front of the huge mountains in Andorra!

Some of the snow on the mountains further away

More snow!

Dinner at a cool restaurant in Andorra. Some excellent pizza cuisine!

More snow! The views were amazing!

Me and Bill, having some drinks, staying classy!

Our next stop was Foix, France. This was about another 2 hours from Andorra. We had breakfast in Andorra and then headed for Foix after that.

This town was really cool. Not really that big, but you could tell it wasn't a tourist trap like most big cities. We had some crepes (French dessert/snack) with nutella. SO GOOD!

We also saw the Castle of the Counts of Foix. It was this huge castle on this mountain in the middle of the city. Check out the pictures:

Us on our successful arrival to Foix.

View from the square of the castle.

 View from one of the towers.

Me walking down the winding steps from the tower.

Us in front of the view of Foix, France.

This is the view looking up to the castle. We had some steep walks.

Another view of the castle from fair away.

Next stop: Carcassonne, France.  We stayed here for Friday and Saturday night. It was a really pretty city. It had a chateau in the middle which is a walled fortress. It was really cool. It actually had a fortress inside of a fortress. We spent an entire day inside this place. There was so much to see and great food. I had duck while I was here in France and it is so good. I would recommend it anyday!

Check out the pictures:

Here is the Chateau comtal la cite de Carcassonne. Look how cool looking the sky is!

 

More of the Chateau comtal la cite de Carcassonne

Inside the Chateau comtal la cite de Carcassonne.

Group shot Chateau comtal la cite de Carcassonne

 Me in front of the walls here.

A little nervous on the Ferris wheel in Carcassonne

A fortress inside a fortress. The city has an actual castle inside of the walled city and castle looking structure itself.

Alyssa always gets a head shot in the guys pic. She also went to UVA, so theres some tension.

 

Castle chilling

 

The city from the ferris wheel.

Shot from one of the towers of the castle off into the distance.

 Wheres the moat?

Mom, thought you would like this. Gargoyles off of every castle here!

Just hanging out castle windows, no problems.

 

Night shot of Carcassonne town square.

Last stop: San Sebastian, Spain. This was on the north coast of Spain. It was actually pretty hot that day. This was on our full day of driving back to Spain. No one was happy. We may have also all been a little hungover from the intense weekend we had. I also touched the water with my finger, so I can say I have been in the bay of Biscay!

  Thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures! Can't wait to see everyone for break!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looks like I'll be spending my Thanksgiving here in Madrid! I'm sad that I can't be with my family, but I'll be ok, because now I know that Christmas is right around the corner and I'll be coming home to celebrate Christmas.

Since Thanksgiving is not a Spanish holiday, they don't celebrate it and they didn't offer us the day off either, so I'm at school right now, working away. Nice surprise this morning, one of the American kids in 1ºC brought me in a drawing of a Turkey that said, "Happy Thanksgiving!" I also got another drawing from a girl in the same class. Jo thought it was so adorable, so she got the opportunity to star in my blog showing the picture. But just for this time.

For dinner, I'm going to meet my friend Bill from the Master's program, and maybe Riccardo later after he finishes his private English lessons. We are going to go to the Irish pub in downtown Madrid and have some turkey dinner and watch the NFL game that comes on at 12:30 Eastern US time (6:30pm Madrid time). Can't get any better than that! Good food and good company!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this program here in Spain. I'm thankful for all my family and friends that have supported me through my journey and I'm thankful to be able to come home for Christmas and see everyone! I hope everyone enjoys their food and company! Love and miss you all!

My New Apartment!

Life on Fish Street (Calle del pez, pronounced like Peth) in Spain is great. My new apartment is right in the heart of downtown Madrid and there are plenty of things to do (even though I have little time to do any of those things). I have 5 other roommates. Their names are Ilona (From France), Nabil (Morocco), Michael (Rhode Island, US), and Sacheis (Barcelona, Spain) Not so sure on the spelling on a couple of the names. Everyone is really cool and we are all students/teachers. We don't actually really even see each other that much, because when we are here we are all in our rooms working or sleeping. We all speak to each other in Spanish (if Michael and I are talking separately we will speak in English). Its actually kind of funny to hear the accents in Spanish, we have to speak slowly and clearly to each other so we can understand each other. Even Sacheis (who is the only one from Spain here) talks to us, he has a funny accent because where he is from in Barcelona, they speak Catalan. So Spanish for him is a second language.

The apartment has 7 rooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen and some big entrance room that no one uses. I'm the first room when you walk in and there is a long hallway to the other rooms and the kitchen and bathrooms hold up the back of the apartment. We don't have a living room! Which is why its so hard to see the other roommates! The kitchen is really big, has a table in there for eating, but does not have an oven, so I have to watch what I buy, because I accidentally bought a frozen pizza to put in my oven I don't have. Good thing we have a toaster oven, so I cut up the frozen pizza and wedged it in the toaster oven! Wasn't going to just throw that away. We haven't had any conflicts with the bathroom situation because everyone wakes up at different times, so I haven't yet needed a bathroom when one wasn't available.

I'll be home from Dec 23rd (around 8pm in Dulles) - and I fly back Jan 5th (10pm ish from Dulles).

Here are pictures of my room here.

So it came with all the furniture and girly curtains and bedspread, the non working fire place and school chairs from 1970. I'm also not sure, but I think my bed used to be bunk beds or someone had a canopy around it, but I use it to dry clothes that don't fit on my drying rack. Its great! The two last pictures are the view from my balcony. I get a lot of conversation from the street sometimes, but I've adjusted quickly and can sleep through just about anything now.

Yep this is life on Fish Street in Madrid. Its a one way street to Calle San Bernardo. Bernardo actually connects to the Gran Vía (or Grand View St) one of the major streets through the center of Madrid. So, its really a great location to experience all the culture.