Vacaciones - Vacations

Travels:


The university we were studying at had told us we needed to stay in Spain until July 16th, because finals last an entire month and there was a possibility we could have one up until the 16th. I booked my return ticket for July 7th, hoping I wouldn’t have a final after that. To my luck, my last final was actually June 15th, meaning…. Time to travel! I decided to do a solo route on this, and travel to a few countries by myself and to meet friends of mine in each of them. Here’s the synopsis of my travels with some of my favorite pictures:



Scotland! My amazing roommate in Spain, Anna, has amazing family living in Scotland, just a little outside of Edinburgh. Anna invited me to come visit while she was there with her family. Lucky for us, the days we spent there were some of Scotland’s hottest of the summer.

• Tour of Edinburgh

• Edinburgh Castle

• Haunted Cemetery (lots of people were buried alive here, J.K. Rowling got her names for Harry Potter off the tombstones here, and that famous little doggy GreyFriar Bobby became famous for spending 14 years faithfully at the grave of his owner in this cemetery)

• Tried Haggis (sheep liver, heart, lungs, onion, broth, and spices cooked in the stomach of the sheep). I actually enjoyed this typical Scottish dish!

• Steamboat ride on Loch Katerine

• William Wallace Monument

• Doune Castle (Castle used for almost every castle scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

• Sterling Castle



Brussels! Capital city of Europe. Another amazing roommate of mine, Brayan, met me there and we spend two days CouchSurfing with a host. Honestly, it was an interesting experience, but we met some other awesome girls who were staying with the same host at the same time. We did get some awesome tours of the city thanks to our host though!

• Famous Belgium Waffles

• Famous center of city

• Peeing boy fountain (the statue that Brussels is famous for, and it’s so tiny!)

• Musical instrument museum

• Famous beer bar (2,000 types of beer) and watching Brazil soccer games!

• The ATOM

Amsterdam! Brayan and I continued our travels by taking a bus to Amsterdam. This city is absolutely beautiful. Forget the stereotypes for it being sketchy or too free spirited or wild. This city is captivating! So incredibly beautiful, 2.5 bicycles to every single person in the city, open minded people, OH and great fries.

• Met some other WSU Cougs on the walking tour we did! SMALL and AWESOME World :) I made them take my Go Cougs picture with me!

• Canal tour!

• Bicycle Tour (I fell off my bike and down a bunch of stairs. Graceful, I know)

• Windmills

• Red Light District (it was right next to our hostel, so of course we had to go there. It was different, but not as bad as I imagined. Definitely a prime example of how the Netherlands are very open people)



Oslo! I met up with my friend Magnus, the exchange student from my high school, in Oslo, Norway. Norway is without a doubt the most expensive country I have ever been to, but it was amazing to see nonetheless. Everything there is absolutely beautiful, filled with nature, all about the water ports and rivers, and the homes and architecture are beautiful as well

• Parliament Building

• Tour of Oslo

• Oslo’s Port

• Tusenfryd amusement park (almost had a heart attack on one of the rides, it was pretty intense)

Prague! My sorority sister and super close friend Quynn happens to be backpacking through Europe, and she had plans to go to Prague with her friend from her hometown. So I made plans to meet up with them there! Definitely had some struggles with transportation and actually meeting up/finding each other, but eventually we did and it was all good! Unfortunately, their travel schedule was pretty strict and they had to leave first thing the next morning for Venice, so I had an entire day there by myself, which was different, but actually enjoyable. Beautiful city, straight from fairy tales!

• Prague Castle

• Charlie’s Bridge

• River

• John Lennon Wall

• Dancing Building

• Famous Prague Pub Crawl

• Fun Park with peacocks!

• Soldier performance to Michael Jackson songs and Eye of the Tiger in the plaza hahaha

• Kryzik Fountain (beautiful fountain display the goes off to classical music, yes I felt really awkward being there alone haha)

15 days of mostly traveling on my own in 6 different countries definitely taught me a few things. I’m more independent than I thought. I was capable of planning the entire journey out on my own down to the T before I left. I felt fine traveling alone, and actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Although, I know there is a lot to be said about the company you have while traveling, which brings me to my next conclusion. I have always always said I just want to travel travel travel, and I want it to be part of my career and I want to see all sorts of different places. I definitely have realized: no matter where you go, how you get there, how long you are there, if it’s a famous city or just a small town, the real adventure and the real fun is in the company you have while you are there, the friends you have with you or the new friends you make, and the experiences that occur from it. I will always have this desire to travel. The more I do travel, the more people I meet and the more places I hear about that I must go see. It’s addictive. But I have realized, traveling alone isn’t something I would want to do all the time. It is nice to see a familiar face, that is for sure.

Los examenes finales - Final exams

Finals, finals, finals:


Believe it or not, this experience did come with some academics as well! And let me tell you, it was a lot. Granted, it’s obvious I picked up the “Spanish lifestyle” for the semester and definitely put things off until the last minute, which I do regret, but the workload was a lot even if I would have started things earlier. I think I probably learned the most academically the last 3 weeks of classes before my finals, when I was literally cramming to read, analyze, and memorize 50 short Spanish stories, cram out the 15 page research paper, a few presentations, other papers, and teach myself the entire subject of International Finance (which is clearly the subject I waited far too long to start paying attention in). Academics in Spain taught me a lot. Carmela and Megan, two of my close friends in Murcia, and myself had to endure one of the most intense classes we will ever have to take, mostly because our teacher yelled at us, made fun of us, used cuss words, and generally made us feel like royal idiots. Ironically, it’s the only class that has posted grades for and despite his lecture about how all of us are failing, us Americans actually passed! Hoping for the best for the other classes!

Y ahora...Algunas actividades culturalmente enriquecedoras.- "And now... some culturally-enriching activities"

Adventure # 1: Granda, Spain

Ok, now for a post about a location a little more educational and culturally enriching than the last. GRANADA! I sort of had a little bit of a freak out, realizing I’m only here in Spain for a little bit longer, and I still hadn’t visited Granada, the city that my friends boasted to be their favorite of all of Spain. So, my roommates and I planned a spur of the moment trip to Granada. Four roomies plus one of our friends. We stayed in an awesome hostel, owned and ran by a boyfriend/girlfriend couple who bought this sweet home/shack in the upper hills adjacent to the Alhambra (palace of Granada), with views like no other. They had breakfast for us in the morning, did a free walking tour in Granada, owned an adorable puppy and kitty, and said they used to have Donkeys and goats on the property as well. The hike up to the hostel was enough to leave us out of breathe by the time we reached the top, but every time we made the climb, it was so worth it to overlook the beautiful city of Granada.

(me on the the balcony of our hostel. The Alhambra behind me)

(us taking a photo of ourselves in a street mirror)

(In any restuaruant or bar in Granada, when you order any drink, it automatically comes with Tapas, a type of appetizer food, for free!)

(one of the hippie-type markets of Granada, these are homemade genuine teas)

(Anna and I in one of the beautiful city gardens)

(At the Palace of the Alhambra)

(Beautiful gardens of the Alhambra)

We also got the opportunity to view Flamenco put on by the International School of Flamenco. It was incredible! But I wasn't allowed to use flash so my pictures didn't turn out so well.

Next adventure: Wine Tasting

My friend Carmela had her mom visiting this week so we were doing all sorts of fun things to keep her busy. We went an hour out of town to do a wine-tasting experience at SilvanoGarcia winery. It was such a fun experience! We were taught about the history of the winery, which has been around since 1925. We learned about how the wine was made, why certain techniques were used, why certain types of wood were used for the barrells, and we learned how to properly taste the wine. They also had an "aroma" room, where we were able to smell about 40 different "aromas" which could be found in wines. At the end, they tested us on it, and we all failed miserably, but it was still fun!

(me testing out the different aromas)

(Enjoying tasting a glass of Silvano Garcia Dulce "Moscatel 2009 Young White wine")

Pillow Fight!: So a few international students at our university organized a massive pillow fight on Thursday. Why? Who knows. But it was the greatest thing ever! I've been studying like crazy lately trying to finish my research papers and studying before finals, and this was the perfect study break. Here's a video, if any of you need a good laugh.

Locura en la espuma: Bienvenidos a Ibiza! - "Craziness in the foam: Welcome to Ibiza"

I know that it appears I am always traveling, going here and going there, and maybe I am, but I promise I’m doing other things too! It’s just that the traveling is the most interesting part to write about. Life in Murcia, well… it gets a little redundant after a while; the town isn’t all that huge after all. But I’m surely used to the life of towns that are way smaller!


The most recent trips I’ve taken were to Ibiza and Granada (two extremely different cities). Ibiza is actually an island off the coast of Spain. It’s famous for its clubbing scene, known to make Vegas look lame and Cancun even lamer. This isn’t the type of trip I would normally plan out for myself, but our university actually has a program that plans trips out for the international students, and this was one of them. I wasn’t sure if I could handle 6 days in a city known for its “club scene”, something I hadn’t even experienced in the US yet, but my friends and I all decided that everyone in college needs to have at least one crazy spring break, and why not a better time than while we’re studying abroad in Spain! The week that our trip was planned was for a week when international students from all over Spain were all going to be there. Clubs opened up exclusively for us Erasmus (the name for exchange student program in Europe) students! Here’s a synopsis of the week.

Ferry boat to the island with 2,000 other exchange students in Spain. The “ferry” was more like a cruise. There was a boat party, complete with DJ and lights and a pool party on the deck. Here’s the pool before we even left the port:

Beautiful beaches of Ibiza:

(we rented a paddle boat complete with a slide, here's me jumping off the back of it into the Mediterranean)

Oashua outdoor beach party:

Paradis water party (There’s an empty pool in the middle of the dance club, and at 5 am, water pours from the ceiling to fill the pool, making a crazy sudden beach party)

Getting back to our hotel at 7 am after the Paradis water party club.

Club Space: Summer school party.

Ferry boat to Formentera island!

(Glass bottomed ferry ride... us looking out onto the sea floor)

Gala Nights outdoor club, complete with a foam pit dance floor!

So it looks like a crazy crazy time, and it was, but 6 days of late late nights and tanning on the beaches under the hot sun can sure wear you out! Overall, it’s safe to say that Ibiza wasn’t necessarily one of those educational or cultural-enriching trips, much like a lot of my other ones, but like I said, everyone needs to have at least one crazy spring break in their lives. Ibiza holds the title for some of the funniest days I’ve ever lived, thanks to crazy people popping out of foam, getting lost in club Paradis, Mozzarella stick cravings, some of the craziest and most fun Mexicans holding true to the tequila tradition, a kid named Carlos who was the true epitome of Ibiza, us Americans going down in Erasmus Ibiza trip fame for our whistle blowing at all the parties, learning new Spanish drinking songs.. and hearing them WAY too much, almost going overboard on a crazy ferry boat ride, failing miserably at finding the beach … on the island of Formentera (it was a complicated island ok), caterpillars, and so many other shenanigans. Ibiza is for sure a one-time experience. I definitely won’t be going there again; But I’m so glad to say that I have been! The island, in its peak season, is home to dozens of celebrities, famous events, some of the world’s most famous clubs (with entrance fees of 50 euros and up… per person!) I’m glad our university was able to set us up with a great place to stay, things to do every day, free drinks and entrance to the clubs, and so much more, for a really really discounted price. Gracias ESN Murcia!! My recomendation for anyone interested in checking it out someday: Do it, but only do it once. Go with lots of friends when all of you are single. Expect to spend a lot. and have fun!

Mi vida últimamente - My life Lately

Life lately.

Semana Santa. When we got back from Germany, we had made it back in time to see the end of "Semana Santa", a two week celebration throughout Spain (one week prior to Easter, and the week following Easter). Although we missed some of the largest festivals while we were in Germany, we did get to witness Entierro de la Sardina (burial of the Sardine). This is a celebration of the end of having to eat fish and the ability to eat real meat again. So at the end of Semana Santa, there are several parades every day, although the parade for Entierra de la Sardina is one of the largest. There are about 15 floats at the end of the 2 hour parade filled with thousands and thousands of toys (mostly soccer balls). The "workers" in the floats chuck the toys out into the crowd. You literally have to be watching what you're doing at all times because you probably will get hit! I saw several children crying from getting stuff thrown at them. At the end of the night, majestic music is played at they set a giant paper/plastic/cardboard sardine on fire, and then throw it into the river. Welcome to Spain!

(This is one of the daily religious processions. The outfits are different colored every day. Yes, their hats are cones, but these outfits have been around WAY longer than those of the KKK, so don't make any assumptions)

(During the Entierro de La Sardina parade)

(Here is one of the floats chucking toys out!)

(This is the actual burning of the Sardine. Epic music included)

Volcano. Ok from my last post, it had said I was heading to Dublin for a weekend of fun. WELL, that was before this crazy volcano in Iceland spewed its ashes everywhere and cancelled enough flights that it was considered the “worst disruption of flights in the history of aviation travel”. Bad timing. So my flights were cancelled and we found out only hours before going. Yes, my roommate Anna and I were disappointed, but we figured it was probably better that we didn’t go; if we did make it to Dublin and THEN the volcano erupted, we would have been stuck there for over a week. Sounds great, but that surely would have been expensive and really difficult to catch up on school.

Academics. I’m still getting used to the school system. Students tend to show up randomly and whenever they please. Teachers are often 15 minutes late to their own class because they were outside the building smoking or were “hungry” and had to get some lunch first. My friends Megan and Carmela share a political science class with me in which we struggled to write a 5 page paper in Spanish over a 500 page political science book in Spanish that we were supposed to read over spring break (but we were in Germany so we know that wasn’t going to work out). We instead ordered the English version of the book online, and the transaction didn’t go through, so we struggled to write the papers without the English version or having read the Spanish version at all. Well, after turning in the papers, the teacher asked who hadn’t completed the essays. Several students raised their hands and he gave them extensions without asking a question. We also realized that students in the US write papers way different than students here in Spain. We had each written a 5 page paper straight through. Every Spanish student had sectioned off their paper into areas with separate titles. After reviewing all the essays, the teacher later preached to the class how much of a disgrace the essays were and even called out individual students for their embarrassing work. He later posted every student’s grades in an email sent to the class. Well, us girls did well enough to pass, yet it was still embarrassing that every other student could see our grades. The best part was that two weeks after we had to turn in the essays, we found out that the bookstore had finally charged our cards and the English version of the books showed up at our apartments the next day. Only in Spain.

Weather. For living in the “sunniest city of Spain”, promised to have next to no rain, we sure did have a long period of time with lots of cold weather and rain. But alas, the sun has finally stopped playing tricks on us and it has warmed up! We had several days of 90 degree weather which were perfect for doing some class readings while on the rooftop terrace or for hitting the nearby Alicante beach. Beautiful beach!

Apartment. My roommates and I have recently realized that we’ve been stuck in a sick and twisted joke of an apartment and we can’t get out of it due to contract. Sure, when we first arrived the fake wall that split the living room in half so the landlord could make more money was quite frustrating, and the oven that didn’t work was annoying, and the fact that all of our furniture is from off the streets, and that even the light covers have been removed from all the lights in the house was quite strange, but nothing has compared to the ridiculous crimes our landlord has tried to pull on us. We are already paying more than any of our neighbors around us, and have a living room half the size (due to the wall put up to make another “room”), have furniture 50 years older and straight from the streets, have an illegal set up for the gas that gives us hot water, the oven is broken, and there’s nothing in the entire place worth any value (even the pots and pans which have metal scraping off of them every time we wash them), yet somehow our damage deposit was twice as much as everyone else we know… 500 EUROS (aka $750). And our landlord (who lives in France) has used every opportunity to take our money from the damage deposit. We had some close friends over last weekend for my friend’s birthday. We planned a potluck lunch for everyone on our rooftop terrace before we got rained on. Everyone moved down into our apartment, but it was 3 in the afternoon, there was no music playing, no games, no singing, just hanging out for some eating. Well, our landlord was called when we had tried to go up on the terrace because one of the neighbors was concerned it was a “fiesta”. Regardless, when the landlord showed up, he proceeded to yell at me and Anna on the bottom floor of our building, wouldn’t come up to witness there was no such “fiesta” going on, though instead told us 100 euros will be taken out of EACH of our damage deposits, and he stormed out of the building without letting us say a word. He’s also trying to kick us out of the apartment before our contract ends… although wants us to pay as if we were staying until the end. Needless to say, we’ve been having some unique experiences in this apartment. Although our landlord is relentlessly cheap , money-hungry, and mean, and our apartment is quite stingy and cheap itself, I have to say I have some of the most amazing roommates in the world, and living in this apartment has been worth it just for the reason that I’ve become so close to them.

(All the roomies together!)

Visit from friend. I recently had my friend Magnus from high school come visit me for a week. He was our exchange student from Norway for a year at Prosser High School. I hadn’t seen him in 3 years and when he offered to come visit, I had to say yes! It was great to see a familiar face, and although Murcia didn’t have a ton to keep us entertained, he did get to see the great life of Spain, meet my friends, visit the beach of Alicante, experienced one of La Universidad de Murcia's on-campus parties, and went to Murcia’s largest concert of the year with us. It was a fun and entertaining week!

(My roomies, myself, and Magnus at the on-campus party)

Concert. Murcia’s largest concert of the year! It’s called SOS 4.8 and is hosted by one of the well-known brands of beer in Spain: Estrella Levante. It was a 48 hour concert that was 15 minute walk away from my apartment. It was filled with art, guest speakers, poetry, smaller bands, and of course some of America’s, the UK’s, Spain’s, and other countries well known bands. Franz Ferdinand and Fatboy Slim were two of the headliner bands! Their concerts were absolutely ridiculous! There was roughly 40,000 people who attended the SOS festival, and it was clear. I’ve never seen so much trash and garbage in my life, or been pushed around so much in the “mosh” section. Saturday of the concert was my friend Carmela’s 21st birthday, so we gave her a list of things to “complete” while at the concert. Besides giving her own concert to people on a picnic table, dancing with kids from our class, getting serenaded by Spanish men, and getting us free pizza to share, she was one of the most entertaining 21 year olds I’ve ever witnessed. My 21st is this Saturday… doesn’t seem quite like there’s much to celebrate when it’s in Europe and the drinking age is already 18 and not enforced. BUT, nonetheless, I’m excited for one more year of my life and am celebrating how amazing this past year has been!

(Franz Ferdinand Concert at SOS 4.8)

(Isabella, myself, and Megan at the concert)

(The birthday girl Carmela performing a Spice Girls song on a picnic table with only a couple hundred people in the area watching)

Culture shock. Yep… people said it would happen, I just expected it to happen sooner. It took a while, but yes, I have actually gotten quite frustrated with Spain on several occasions and have had many thoughts of “well if this were in the US, that would never happen”. It’s a bad habit, but sometimes I can’t help it. Siesta time during the day has actually gotten a little frustrating, as well as the fact that everything is late/cancelled/postponed. Us girls are getting exhausted of the hoots, hollers, and whistles that is so “socially acceptable” here. So even though this culture shock is frustrating, I think, that the reverse culture shock, when I miss everything from Spain, will be even harder to cope with, because I won’t know the next time I’ll be back here!

I can't believe how fast this experience has gone by already. I have two months left and a mountain of things I want to do, see, and accomplish before then! The thought of me going home is bittersweet, thinking of seeing all my amazing friends and family who I've missed so much... though also leaving behind 6 months of my life here in Spain and some amazing new friends who I'll miss dearly. Well, my next adventure is 6 days in Ibiza, Spain, an island that's said to make Vegas look like a child's sandbox. The university actually planned the trip for the exchange students, so I'm quite excited to see what it has in store. And it comes perfectly 2 days after my 21st birthday. Until next time, hasta luego!