They made it!!!

Our day trip to Salamanca was like any other day trip, one filled with cathedrals and lots of walking uphill. But this time, instead of visiting just one cathedral, we got a packaged deal and visited 2 that were connected! Pretty awesome, I know. However, we were supposed to tour the college university that was in the city, but it was being closed for "reconstruction." Bummer, because I was actually really excited about seeing that one.

This is a picture of the outside of one of the buildings of the college. And there is a myth that if you find a frog with a crown on his head amidst all the decoration on the outside, you will get good grades for the next school year. As you can imagine, we all went crazy trying to find that thing. Robyn ended up finding it first, so who knows? She might get all A's next year! I found it eventually, much to my relief! 

This is a picture inside the cathedral. 

Next stop on our trip: the only city left in Spain that is fully walled in. Like there is a mini great wall of china around the whole city. It was really neat and we ended up getting to go up on the wall. 

Update on my parents arrival: they have finally arrived! They were supposed to arrive Wednesday at around 7, but guess what? Their flight got delayed 16 HOURS! They were supposed to fly from Dallas to Miami, then Miami to Spain, but they missed their flight to Spain because their first flight got delayed. Horrible! Then, to top things off, they can't find their luggage! So, I spent all Wednesday thinking I was never going to see my family again! 

But they finally got here yesterday around 10. We basically spent the whole day getting them a phone and shopping at the Corte Ingles (which is like a walmart and nordstroms put together) finding them some new clothes because they had been wearing the same thing for about 2 days! Welcome to Spain!

I left them for class in the afternoon, and was going to meet up with them afterwards to go to dinner and then a flamenco dancing show. I told them what metro stop to exit and this is what they ran into... 

A protest! I thought I would never find them. Then, one of my friends said to me, "please tell me that's not your dad" because my dad was across the street flailing his arms at us! Hilarious! We are the ultimate tourist family! 

We quickly got a bite to eat then were off to the Flamenco show. It was fabulous and I loved it! I never knew a person could click their feet or clap their hands that fast! 

Here is a picture of us outside of the place. Like my mom's new european shirt and my dads new shorts?

After that, we got ice cream in the Plaza Mayor, got a little lost finding a metro, and went back home for the night.

Observation #7: Spaniards like to have protests. We have experienced 2 while over here in Spain. And it is over just about everything. They like them so much, that there is a sign up list for who protests what and when. Its an organized protest! Crazy!

Maria

Miscommunication gives you lots of Frustration

Today has been an interesting day. I spent about 4 hours of today thinking that my family disappeared from this earth. My family, minus Hunter, were planning on coming to visit me in Madrid my last week here. So, my dad emailed me about a week ago telling me they were going to arrive today at 3:30 and somehow there was some big time miscommunication because today, in fact, was not the date of their arrival. After informing just about the entire world about their arrival, I left my friends early to meet them at their hotel at around 5pm. So, after getting wonderfully detailed lessons on how to travel via the metro (thank you navigator Robyn) I did my research and went to the metro stop that was near their hotel. Being all by myself, and having the horrible direction skills that I have, I got a wee bit lost in trying to find the actual hotel. After searching for about 30 minutes, I finally found it. 

The conversation with the lady at the front desk went a little bit like this:

me: "Hi, uh, do you know english?"

front desk attendant, looking very annoyed: "yes"

me: "ok, well, uh, can you tell me if a jim lockhart has checked in today?"

attendant: "what?"

me: "did a JIM LOCKHART get here today? Thats l-o-c-k-h-a-r-t"

(lots of typing) attendant: "whats the name?"

me: "LOCKHART, JIM. maybe James."

attendant: "Lockhart with a L?"

me: "yes"

(more typing) attendant: "no."

me: "ok, well, uh, is there a jim lockhart staying here?"

attendant: "no"

me: "well, my parents told me they are staying here and um, is there another hotel velazquez nearby?"

attendant, looking even more annoyed: "no."

me: "ok, well ill leave now. see ya!"

if it sounds a little bit awkward, times that by ten and thats how it went. So, my parents weren't staying at the hotel they told me. Great. I then contemplated sitting out on the front steps and waiting until they got there. But, felt a little weird doing that, and considering that the lady at the front desk really didn't like me anymore, I decided to do a little shopping at some stores I passed when I was lost. Bought some cute clothes and about an hour and a half later, still no phone call. Ok, it was about 6:30pm and the situation was getting ridiculous. I then gave up and spent about 30 more minutes trying to find a metro stop to get on to go home and try to find some new form of communication with my parents.

I ended up calling home on skype hoping that hunter would answer and give me some details as to if they had made it to Spain. I called and guess who answered? Mom. I was so confused. But she finally told me that they in fact were leaving Dallas tonight and getting to Madrid tomorrow. So I was completely off and spent all that time for nothing. Although it was a big accomplishment that I got anywhere by myself, with no friends helping me. 

Oh, and it made great conversation with Paquita. Ok, really, it was confusing trying to tell her that in fact my parents were getting here tomorrow and I couldn't find them today. She really probably thinks I'm an idiot now. 

Other than that whole story, today we visited the Royal Palace and yesterday we went to the Congress. The palace was pretty neat and looked a lot like the other palaces we have visited. And I liked going to the Congress because our teacher said that not even all the Spaniards get to see their own Congress. So it was supposedly a huge privilege for us Americans. Except our tour was in Spanish, so I got literally nothing out of that one. I can't share any cool facts for the blog about the Spanish Congress.

Today is also a great day (im saying this sarcastically) because the bathroom that is designated for Robyn and I is currently broken. I tried using Queeties bathroom today, got caught, and didn't know if it was ok that I used it or not. So, until I know for sure that that thing is fixed, I won't be showering, using the bathroom, washing my face, or brushing my teeth. So, beware those who are around me, I might smell a little funny.

Tomorrow we have another day trip to Salamanca. I have noticed a trend. Lots of the spanish cities we visit start with an "S." Not sure why, but its just something I have noticed.

It has started to get really hot here in Madrid. We are talking over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This has been miserable for us and has caused Robyn and I to walk in on Luis without a shirt on at least 3 times. The first time was really awkward and we didn't know whether to look or not. Luis proceeded to tell us that he thought we were his wife and apologized for not having his shirt on. We got a good laugh out of that one afterwards.  

Observation #5: Speaking of the temperature, The mullet look is HOTT right now in Spain. I have seen everything: curly. straight. dreds. braided. beaded. multicolored. short. down to your thighs long. I have seen more mullets that I ever want to see. So, gentlemen and even some ladies, its time for a little business in the front and a party in the back.  

Weekend at the Beach

This weekend was glorious! I am now starting to realize how much I will miss Spain when I leave in a little over a week. I could easily stay longer. 

This past weekend was a little vacation with our whole group to Santander. But on the way to our destination, we stopped in Burgos to see what else? A cathedral! Burgos does happen to be the birthplace of both Paquita and Luis. Very exciting for Robyn and I. Other than that, the cathedral is pretty much the most interesting thing in the city. The cathedral was pretty nice and had a museum in the bottom that was interesting to see. 

This little man moves and chimes a bell at every hour I think. He was kinda creepy looking, but you can't really see it in the picture. 

Cool staircase in the cathedral

This room contained lots of pictures of past bishops and priests and I thought it looked like something out of Harry Potter. haha!

After that stop, we made it to Santander, which is famous for its somewhat cooler weather and BEACHES! And our hotel just happened to be right on the beach! I loved this city! We realized pretty soon that this city is like the Hamptons of Spain. I half expected to see the Barefoot Contessa walking down the streets with her baguette in arm. Our teacher said that this city serves mainly as an oasis for wealthy spaniards. The elite like to spend their summers here because it has cooler weather than the rest of the country and it is absolutely beautiful! I do have to say, this weekend was the first time I felt that I did not have to worry about watching my purse! A huge relief after having to constantly watching your bag in Madrid. 

This is the view from our balcony and where we spent most of our day. 

We got there in the evening and had just enough time to go out to eat, explore the downtown area of the city and head back for a relaxing evening in the hotel. The next morning we woke up early to eat breakfast and hit the beach! We threw on our swimsuits, bought some towels, and set up camp.

This was hilarious. Mark decided to play his guitar and ended up drawing a crowd of teenage Spaniards. They loved him and kept requesting songs for him to play. Classic beach scene like something from a movie. 

We ended up getting lessons of how to body surf from some of those guys and I had just about the best time ever despite the fact that on one of the waves I thought I was literally going to die because I got sucked under and swallowed about a gallon of salt water! The waves were huge so it made it all the more fun! But note to self: next time I attempt to body surf, I will remember to bring a swimsuit that likes to stay on my body better. Provided for some awkward instances. Don't really want to talk about it anymore...

After getting more than enough sun, we headed back for some shopping, only to realize that all the stores were extremely expensive. Like if you found something under 100 euros, you were doing good! We basically just ate dinner that night and went to bed early again, feeling the pain of the sun from earlier.

 

This is a picture of the downtown area right on the beach! So pretty!

Beach trip was over and that next morning we hopped back on the bus, only making one big stop in Bilbao. That was such a great stop because it contained the Guggenheim museum. So cool! One of my favorite buildings I have ever seen. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry and absolutely amazing! He was inspired by fish and the water so the whole outside looked very similar to scales on a fish. Everything in the whole building except the floors were curvy lines. I couldn't contain myself, I kept wanting to take pictures and more pictures and more pictures...

Basically a huge puppy dog made out of flowers. Like it dad? 

Amy and I were inspired by the water and felt the need to recreate that scene from Titanic, if you can't tell. I bet the locals loved that! Crazy americans!

Observation #4: You know how I mentioned on an earlier post that some spanish guys called us by saying "here Kitty, Kitty." Turns out thats not what we were saying. We mentioned that to one of our younger teachers, and she informed us that they were really saying something like "here giddys, giddys," which means hey white girls in Spanish slang. Good thing that got cleared up!

I leave with a shoutout to Jim Lockhart and all the other dad's reading this because it is now Father's Day. So happy fathers day dad! Hope its the greatest! I love you! 

Maria

Museums, Castles, and Parks, Oh My!

Its been a while since the last update and we have done much in that time! A couple days ago we got to go to the Prado museum. It is one of the most famous museum's in Madrid and contains lots of old art. I loved it! And it was really cool because there were several people doing studies on famous pieces and basically trying to copy them. That was fun to watch. 

That night we went to dinner at this restaurant called Alfredo's with the big group. It is owned by this Spanish guy who LOVES Texas, and therefore loves when we come. It is decorated with tons of texas themed artwork like Indians, cowboys, cows, and horses and there is country music playing in the background. Also, there is barbeque and delicious hamburgers on the menu. It was a taste from home!

The next day was our day trip to Segovia. We stopped and saw a cool aquaduct built by the Romans,

Then we visited a castle that was built in the middle ages. It was neat because we saw that they hung tapestries on the walls to keep it cool in Spain's hot summer. 

There were armor suits everywhere! So we had to take a picture with one of course!

Then we stopped at an old King and Queen's summer castle. It was beautiful! Especially the gardens in the back!

They did have this one water fountain, that at a certain time turned into a waterpark like fountain with water spewing everwhere! Little spanish children were racing towards it like it was the ice cream truck. hilarious!

The next day we decided to finally paddle boat!!

See these people? They had the bright idea of throwing a dead fish in our boat! And guess who had to chunk it out? Me!! Disgusting! I was so in shock i didn't even take a picture!!

Afterwards we saw one of those, what do you call them, muchacha macharchi whatever band. Julie wanted to take a picture but see that guy in black? He ended up slapping my rear and squeezing it while we were taking the picture!! Oh spaniards! Too much for me!

Thats all folks! No time for observation of the day, I have to leave for my weekend in Santander!

Maria

spanish ducks = no bueno

Yesterday was a milestone in Robyn and my relationship with Queetie. Paquita's son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were all over visiting and eating lunch with her. So, we just so happened to get invited by Queetie herself to not only sit in her living room with them, (our first time to ever see it!) but also stay and hang out with them in there! Wow, this was a big deal. Plus, we were in there like 30 minutes and chatted it up with them. 

We talked about everything, from Queeties paintings she painted, to where we were going on our upcoming daytrips, to what we liked to do in Spain...and she then told us that she got a computer. At least, we think thats what she said. And Robyn and I feel like we were someone of an influence on her in that area because whenever she comes in our room, 99.9 per cent of the time we are on our computers. She also got a kick out of the fact that we "steal" internet from her neighbors. She promised she wouldn't tell on us. haha! 

Today we have spent our afternoon studying away for my 2 tests tomorrow and Robyn's 1 test. We decided to go to our favorite, Retiro Park. When we got there we saw a bench with pedals attached so as to get a workout while sitting on a bench. Genius! There were several people chatting away while getting an excellent leg workout. So of course we had to try it for ourselves...

We then walked around a bit and came upon the lake where, for 4 euros, you and 3 of your friends can rent a paddle boat. We are most definitely returning to try that one out. 

Oh, and did I mention I got pooped on by a bird while being a good student and studying? It landed right in my book. Guess I can't study that chapter anymore. And, sorry Caitlin for making fun of you earlier when you got pooped on. I feel your pain and now share the same hatred towards spaniard birds. I like to think the target us Americans.

Other than that, I leave you with observation #3: Spanish men are extremely friendly towards American girls. We feel like we are going down a catwalk most of the time we are walking through the metro, down the street, etc. And they have tried to get our attention through numerous ways. Some of which are:

1. the common whistling to get our attention

2. making a clicking noise in their mouths

3. saying something in broken english like, "hey pretty ladies"

4. making various animal noises like barking like a dog, saying "here kitty kitty" and baahing like sheep.

5. making a noise similar to what the oompa loompas make on Willie and the Chocolate Factory like "ee oo, ee oo, ee oo" 

Note to spanish boys: making the above noises will NOT attract you an american girlfriend.

Hasta luego,

Maria 

"welcome to ameeeeeeeerican idol!"

I think my weekend in Barcelona will now go down as one of my favorite weekends ever. Everything about it was fantastic and so fun! 

I'll start out with describing our hostel. Forward: Caitlin, Beth Ann, Robyn, and I have never stayed in a hostal, seen one, or had any experience remotely like staying in a hostal. We walk up to this place and first notice that it is called Barcelona Dreams. Creative name. Then we see that is a juvenial hostal. Our first thoughts: its a youth hostal! Awesome, we might just have booked a place that requires a 10pm curfew. Much to our relief after talking to the nice australian girl at the front desk, it was not. 

Our second impression: this place is a hippies dream. Funky music playing, artwork drawn by guests of the hostal all over the walls professing themes of peace, love and traveling, interesting decoration with things like dream catchers and recycled couches, funny smell, etc. Very quirky place, but I loved it. We got to our bedroom and it was literally just brightly painted walls, four beds with labels 1, 2, 3 and 4, and corresponding lockers. I must say, the beds were extremely comfortable. better than any nice hotel we had stayed in yet. 

It was such an experience staying in this place though. Not the most posh living, but it did give us free internet, great people watching from all over this world, breakfast, comfortable beds, and lots of laughs. Oh, and we just happened to stay there the same weekend that a very large group of special ed people did. H-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!

. 

This is a picture of the lounge area. Just a snapshot of what it looked like. 

After getting settled in our hostal, we went exploring. We made it to the main street, La Rambla and got a great taste of the energy of Barcelona. La rambla is a long street with various shops and restaurants on either side, then the middle contains small street vendors, and performances by acrobats and various odd characters willing to do anything for money from tourists. We stopped to watch these three men do an acrobatic performance of flips and jumping and things. Then one of the guys decides to pull 2 people out of the crown to be apart of a stunt where one of the guys jumps over them. Guess who got chosen? Yours truly. They would choose the tall american girl. So, while my heart was pounding away, me, this other tourist and one of their friends got jumped over by this short spaniard. I am happy to say I survived and am here to tell you the story. 

This is the best picture of what happened. See that pale girl with a brown short sleeved shirt behind the guy in the green shirt: thats me. See that orange blob above us: thats the spaniard jumping over us!! 

That night we just ended up going out to dinner at a fantastic restaurant on La Rambla and calling it a night, eager to get back to our hostal. Haha. kinda. 

The next morning, after being rudely awaken by some construction worker with a jack hammer, we started our day off with several touristy things to visit, thanks to my excellent Spanish guidebook. 

Our first stop was the infamous Sagrada Familia. It is basically a huge cathedral that is still being built since its start in the 1800s. It was designed by Gaudi. It was a really cool place, however kinda a let down. We paid a whole whopping 9 euros to enter, walk around for max 10 minutes, only to realize that it wasn't worth the 90 minutes of waiting in line to climb very steep stairs to the top only to see yet another panoramic view of a city of Spain. So we took a few pictures and moved on to the Picasso museum.

Sagrada Familia itself

I was very excited to see this because I just love the work of Picasso. We saw tons of tons of paintings by the great man himself, as well as learned a few interesting facts along the way. My favorite part was seeing the incredible paintings he did at a young age of 15. I will never ever be able to create something like what he did a that young of age. It was inspiring. 

courtyard of the Picasso Museum

After that, we were starving and decided to take the advice of my guidebook and eat at this local pizza place that promised 2 slices and a drink for like 3.50 euros. It ended up being the best pizza I have ever had! And for an awesome price.

The group eagerly awaiting our pizza! Shoutout to Carolyn, friend of Beth Ann's and Anne Langhornes who came all the way from London to visit us in Barcelona!

Our next museum may be one of our favorites. The museum of CHOCOLATE! It was fabulous, mostly because the ticket came with a free sample of dark chocolate. Wonderfully delicious!

The museum basically consisted of facts on the history of chocolate and then sculptures made out of chocolate. This so happens to be a scene of Don Quixote. 

After that we made it to the much anticipated Barcelona beach and worked on our tans. It was beautiful. However, I have seen more of the human body than I ever want to see in my lifetime. When in Spain, expect to see people in the nude on the beach. I would include a picture, however, you might see some things you normally wouldn't want to see. 

That night we decided on skipping the showering at Barcelona Dreams, for the sake of our personal hygiene and mooched off of a hotel our friends were staying at. We called it the "princess palace." Long story short, a bunch of our group booked a hostal that turned out to be quite sketch and ended up quickly booking a super nice, however notedly pricey hotel. Outside it was one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life. It was this light show slash waterfall extravaganza. There were all these waterfalls that would light up and change to various songs playing in the background. It was the type of show where you would expect Celine Dion to pop out of the center and belt out in song. 

The next day, we met up with two of our friends, Kathryn Wiley and Hunter McGee from Baylor, who were studying abroad in Paris, France. They flew in to experience Spain for the weekend. What a treat! We all ended up taking a bike tour of Barcelona through the Fat Tire Bike Company. But what was supposed to be a 4 hour tour ended up being an all day tour, thank you Amy Gibson. We had a bit of a problem with flat tires. 2 to be exact. Nevertheless, it showed us some great parts of the city and made for an adventure. 

The whole group in front of the Arc de Triomf

Amy's second flat tire. 

That night we then all went out to dinner, had some great paella and spanish tortillas and ended up meeting these HILARIOUS group of British men who were in Barcelona for one of the guy's bachelors party. I have never laughed so hard talking to a group of people than these guys. Their accents are so funny and they are so proper! Everything you would think when stereotyping people from England. I do have to say, they thought my english accent was the best out of the group. Probably because I am partially from the English decent. They especially loved my last name, Lockhart, saying it was a good strong english last name. 

Then when they tried to do our accent, oh goodness. It was so funny. They were hooked on imitating Ryan Seacrest and saying "Welcome to Ameeeeeeerican Idol" and "whats up dawg" like Randy. Hilarious! We then easily convinced them to take a picture with us, which they were very excited about, exclaiming that "we LOVE americans!"

The one guy in the middle, if you can't tell is trying to make an "A" for america. 

That pretty much sums up our weekend and also doubles as the longest post in the history of blogspot.com. For your sake, I will cut the observation of the day, although I have a good one in mind...

Cheerio!

Maria

no mas! no mas!

You would think since it has been about 2 weeks of Robyn and me telling Queetie "no mas, no mas!!" whenever she tries to give us unhumanly large portions for meals, that she would get the point. Nope. This is Paquita we are talking about. Last night for dinner we had lots of broccoli soup, bread, crackers, yogurt, chips, turkey and cheese grilled sandwiches, and that laughing cow cheese. As soon as we start eating she says comemos mas!!! Now, I am a girl who can shovel food down like nobody's business, but this is outrageous. If I ate all that she wanted me to eat I would weigh 500 pounds. (Ok false, but somewhere up there on the scale.) Maybe someday she will get the hint. 

Yesterday our group had an optional visit to the Reina Sophia Museum. It wasn't an option for me and Robyn. We made a promise that we will attend all optional museum visits so as to experience it all while we are here in Spain. It is this HUGE museum of modern art that is located in an old hospital. Kinda makes it creepy since we saw some very unusual things. Sometimes, I just don't get modern art. Some of the unusual things we saw were:

1. A room with some tiled floor and a statue of a child with a large head sitting. Robyn said "I don't understand why the room is this big and the only thing that is in it is this one statue." 

2. Statues of these weird men with beanbag-looking bottums.

3. Two men hanging themselves

4. Painting of just 4 or 5 blocks of solid colors

5. One room that was dark and had a little mouse hole with light coming out of it playing creepy music

That's just a taste. However it did have very cool paintings by Picasso and Miro. Loved that! I do have to note that Robyn and I spent a good 3 HOURS in that place! We were for sure the last of our group to leave. Way to go us!

Observation #2:

Spaniards are waaaay more green than americans. They conserve everything! Queetie recycles her paper and plastics. (she was very excited to show me.) Every public place has motion-sensing lights. I have only seen one restroom with paper towels, they all use air dryers. They reuse all their bags. We eat our bocadillos in grocery bags. And they have a metro and walk practically everywhere! 

This is going to be the last blog all weekend because I am going to BARCELONA! 

Maria