Wait... there's no Carnival? (We LOVE Madrid!)

It all started with the bus.. 6 hours to Madrid. It was soo long! But well worth it. :) We took the overnight bus to Madrid from Pamplona, to arrive at 3am in the city. Luckily, our hostel was awesome! With 24hr front desk service, it was an easy check in. We made our beds (we even had our own room!) and crashed. We were all so tired after the lack of sleep from the bus ride. We got up at 9am the next morning, had breakfast, and got to go on a free 3hr walking tour sponsored by our hostel. It was so nice, because we got to see so much of the city. Unfortunately, it was really rainy on Saturday. But, we made the best of it. After the tour, we went to a bar/eatery that was recommended by our tour guide. In Madrid, with a drink you get a free “tapa” (kind of like an appetizer). It was so yummy! After filling our bellies we decided we could continue on with exploring. :) We went to the Reina Sofia Museum, one of the most famous museums in Spain. The collection was... interesting. It was contemporary art, so some of the pieces were really neat while others were just downright weird. You’ll see this in my pictures on Facebook. :) My favorite exhibit was the 9/11 Tribute. It was a room full of the newspaper covers from all around the world the day after it happened. It was so neat to see the world’s reaction to such an immense event. After the Reina Sofia, we went to see a real authentic Flamenco show!!! :D It was so neat. The restaurant was really nice and expensive. We all ended up sharing one tapa because we couldn’t afford anything else! :) But it was so worth it. The show was amazing and the dancers were so good! I admire their abilities, because I could never do it! Following the show, we were beat! We took the metro home to save our feet. :) When we got home, Candy and I took showers, and Candy managed to flood the bathroom! It was absolutely hilarious at the time because we were all so tired. Luckily, we were able to clean it up with a mop with no problem. The hostel was very nice, in that we had our own room to the four of us and our own private bathroom! So it was an easy clean up. Finally, we made it into our beds around 1am. We woke up at 8am the next morning, had breakfast again, and went to the Rastro! It was absolutely amazing. It is the biggest outdoor flea market I have ever seen in my life! The girls and I were able to get cute scarves for super cheap. :) It was great. We spent a couple of hours just walking around the Rastro because it was that big. When we finally finished the Rastro we treated ourselves to Churros con Chocolate. So yummy! But very sweet. It is a Spanish tradition though, so we had to try it! Then, we got to tour the big and beautiful Royal Palace. It was stunning. The amount of gold in every room was unbelievable. The Royal Palace has over 2,000 rooms, of which we could only see about 50. Crazy! You won’t see many pictures of this unfortunately though, because we weren’t allowed to take them. :( By this time, we were starving and stopped for lunch at another bar/eatery in town. I had one of the most delicious burgers of my life! Here in Spain, they make they’re burgers with a fried egg on top. Sounds weird, I know. But it’s so good! On Sundays, the Prado (the most famous art museums in Madrid) is free all day. We took advantage and stood in the LONG line to see the beautiful artwork. After about two hours of admiring, we decided it was time to head back to the hostel. We were soooo tired. Surprisingly, we all stayed under our spending budget for the weekend! :) Yay! At about 11pm, we took the long metro ride back to the airport to wait for our 1am bus. It was another loooong bus ride, with a total lack of sleep. We arrived back in Pamplona at 7am.. only to have classes at 1pm! I got about 3hrs of sleep and started the new day! I have since gotten a little sick.. the whole no sleep thing doesn’t really work for me unfortunately. All in all, it was a FABULOUS weekend. We had soo much fun and got to see so many amazing things. AND!! .. The whole reason we went to Madrid this weekend to begin with was because there was supposed to be a Carnival! Candy’s 2011 guide book and the Madrid website said it was this past weekend.. well, they were wrong! It wasn’t. But it actually turned out better because we never would have gotten to see all that we did, had the Carnival been up and running. So it worked out for the best!! :) God works in mysterious ways!

(BTW.. The Spanish in Madrid is so much easier to understand! Much less of an accent! Interesting..)

We were supposed to go to Morocco this coming weekend.. so cool right!! :) We had the buses, flight, and hotel booked; but, unfortunately with the recent unrest in Africa and many other Muslim countries, the US Embassy in both Madrid and Morocco recommended that we do not travel there. So our plans had to be cancelled. :( We were able to get a full refund for the hotel and the buses (yay!) but not the flight. RyanAir is very stringent with their regulations and does not refund for any reason. But we figured we would rather be out a few dollars than dead or in a dangerous situation! We are all sad to not be going, but happy to have made the right decision. It’s just not safe. We are hoping to do a day trip this coming Saturday to make up for it though, so hopefully I will be able to tell you all about that in my next post! :) And it will also give us some time to catch up on sleep.. which will be nice. We are just so happy and blessed to be traveling at all! :)

Classes have been going well too! I am officially registered in the five that I picked. It took a while, but then again.. it’s Spain time!! The siesta slows everything down. :) Haha. Nothing too interesting with classes though. But I should say, the difference in schooling is SO apparent. Classes here is Spain are so much more laid back and less demanding. I don’t know how they learn anything! In my sociology class we have to write a paper, and the Spanish students were complaining openly in class to the teacher about how much work it is!! Honestly, its not even that bad! Classes in the U.S. are a million times more rigorous and stressful. But, as stressful as they are, I am thankful for them, as I feel like I learn so much more than I would in this education system. There were “senior” students in my class saying that in all their four years, they have not had to write one paper! And that they didn’t know how to do a bibliography.. what?! And just the fact that they were complaining in class baffled me. They were pretty much ganging up on the teacher. It was definitely an experience! :) However, as laid back as the classes are here, they are still hard for us internationals because of the language barrier. But that’s why we’re here! :)

So... I’m having the time of my life!!! :D But I really do miss you all at home! <3

A little bit of B.O. goes a looonnnggg way :)

Hiking with the group in Navarra :)

I think I have have my class schedule figured out! :) After three weeks, I should hope so. I am going to take five classes, including one in English and one Spanish language class. The rest are general courses taught in Spanish (Wine, Genetics, and Sociology of Communication) The classes here are generally two hour blocks twice a week.. that’s a normal class. My Economics class is three times a week for about two hours, but it is also worth more credits. So five classes is a lot, but the stress level should be much lower because the students here don’t seem nearly as stressed about classes. Also, there is much less homework! :) So I think it will be manageable. Maria and I figure it also gives us a little more cushion in case we don’t pass a class.. but I’m sure that won’t happen :) haha. Anyway, it was a long week.. but a good one! On Thursday, we got internet!!!!!! Yay! Finally. Although, it’s still not great. It is limited so we can’t really skype or upload/download anything on our internet because it uses up too much space. However, it is still nice being able to surf and chat. Anything is better than nothing! On Friday (highlight of the day) we found the spin cycle on the washing machine!! I never though I would be so happy to have the spin cycle. But, it means the difference between having to wring out sopping wet clothes and the clothes coming out just a little wet.. so it’s a huge deal! Friday evening we went to a local concert for a spanish band. It was really fun! But it was very packed. So the B.O. was ROUGH. Let me explain this by first explaining a little about Pamplona. Pamplona lies in northern Spain in the Navarra region. This region is part of the Basque Country, which a like an entirely separate lifestyle here in Spain. The Basque people are so extreme that they want this region to be it’s own country. Because of this difference, northern Spain is much different than southern. The Basque people even speak an entirely different language called Euskara and they are insistent on calling this the Basque region and NOT Spain. It’s so weird. Well, european people in general are much different than Americans in terms of hygiene. Most Europeans do not shower everyday and do not wear deodorant. This means that B.O. is veryyy common here. The Basque people are EVEN WORSE. And almost all of them have dreads or mullets.. crazy! It’s just interesting to see the drastic difference between different types of people in the same area. So, needless to say, the smell at this concert was NOT fabulous.  We did not stay the whole time, as Candy, Maria and I had to get up really early Saturday to go hiking. 7am came VERY EARLY the next morning. :)  We left for northern Navarra; very close to the area we were in last weekend. The hike consisted of 6.5 miles (10K) of trekking through the gorgeous Pyrenees Mountains. It was a little rough, I’m not gonna lie. :) There was a lot of up and down and lots of pricker bushes too! But all in all, it was a great time and totally worth it for the great exercise and the people we met. And we crossed into France again! We were beat afterwards though! We came home and Candy slept and Maria and Megan and I just relaxed at home for the rest of the night. :) Today, we slept in and went over our traveling expenses! We are all soooo excited to travel and see Europe! Classes again for the week and then we are off to Madrid next weekend for the carnival!! YAY! :D

We were in France! .. for like a second :)

The roommates! (Maria, Megan, Me, and Candy)

The beauty of the Navarra countryside.

Classes, a lack of internet, and a LOT of walking has made for a tiring end to the week.. but its all worth it! The girls and I are now completely settled into our apartment, yay! We bought the little things we needed and went grocery shopping for the essentials. We have been cooking dinner, cleaning, doing laundry, and enjoying spending time together. The laundry is still such a hassle, as we have to plan for about three days of drying time for our clothes. BUMMER. I will never take a dryer for granted again! :) And you will be so surprised to know.. I have actually been cooking dinner for myself!! I know.. its hard to believe. The girls have been such a big help, telling me what to add in and how long to cook it for.. but I'm learning! Finally :) haha. Classes have been going well so far. I am absolutely loving my economics class in english! But then again, I'm a little biased seeing as I’m an economics major. The only bad thing is that it is Wednesday through Friday at 8am.. yikes! But its worth the early rise. Maria and I's wine class is going well too! Thursday we tasted water with the main tastes of wine to learn where the taste lies on your tongue, so cool! Our ethical genetics class was cancelled both days this week. And our Spanish class doesn't even start until February 10th. So really.. we have only had two classes so far. Next week however, we should have every class. I am excited to finally get into a schedule, as I'm sure the rest of the girls are as well. Also, we may be getting internet this week!!!! We have not been able to get it so far because you either have to be a resident or its super expensive. It's really frustrating. But our landlord was nice enough to say he will contract it and we just pay him. Because, so far we spend a lot of time at the university using their internet, which is annoying. So hopefully we will have it soon so I can communicate better with everyone at home! :) We didn’t get to go out at all this weekend, because of early classes and our tour on Saturday. But it was okay because the tour on Saturday was so neat! We left early in the morning on a big tour bus for the north of Navarra. Pamplona is in the Navarra province of Spain, so it was very close. We traveled to a few little towns in the north that were so cute! I took so many pictures. The buildings are all so old and pretty and the towns are so little. In the morning, we stopped for coffee at the most precious little shop in the first town. From there we traveled to another town where we got to walk on this beautiful trail up through one of the mountains. The trail continued down the mountain and through a huge cave! It was so cool, and we were even technically in France for a little bit! The guide told us that, many years ago, this cave was where “witches” took refuge, during time when they were being burned alive for practicing witchcraft. The town even had a little witch museum! Then we had lunch at a really pretty restaurant with a two-course meal and dessert. :) They even showed us how they make their special wine afterwards and let us taste. However, the wine was like 45% alcohol.. gross. It was SUPER strong. The last thing we did was visit a botanical garden with lots of trees. They even had sequoia trees.. big ones. :) It was really pretty. It was a really long day, but it was lots of fun. And we only had to pay 15 euro for the whole day, including lunch! :) It was fabulous. We were so tired by the end of the trip that afterwards we  relaxed all night. We used the wifi internet at a bar right down the street from us when we got home, only to have 3 Spanish MEN hit on us! Haha, they were so interested in the fact that we were Americans. The one even asked if he could buy me a drink. He was like 40 years old.. yikes! Needless to say, it was an experience and we left soon after. And then we all enjoyed sleeping in. :) Today, Sunday, we are going to extreme clean the apartment and explore the town a little more. Back into the grind of classes tomorrow!

Missing everyone at home! <3