Thursday, July 5, 2007

SuNdAy jUNe 17

Do you know what its like to not understand someone talking to you?

Well being in Spain most of us can relate. It’s been a week since arriving in Spain and we’re getting use to using what little Spanish we know.

As a group of us were calling it a night after seeing the Barce (Barcelona) nightlife we were taking a cab home. Carlos (one of the students on the trip and now friend) was telling the cab driver from the back seat to take us to our hotel.
He said with an American lazy unrolling accent, “vamos aqui” “no mas” and pointed hard to a card we took from the hotel lobby.

Us who were in the cab were cracking up a storm at Carlos because he couldn’t have been more American. (He's Hispanic.)

tHURsdAy jUNe 14

I am studying abroad in Spain!
Does it matter to you?
Should it?

There are countless reasons that should interest you about our travel time.

For instance, if you are thinking about vacation, our blogs could be used as a tool for you to deem Spain worthy of your hard earned dinero. It could also provide insight for questions you might have or show you how much fun we’re having.

With the availability of the internet, why not take a moment of your day to see what a traveling student has to say? With blogs, we can share our experience of how we’ve gotten lost and managed to get back to the hotel or how we speak broken Spanish to the locals.

If you’re a parent, maybe it interests you to read our blogs because you have children who might be contemplating travel?
If you’re a student, you can read about the excitement we get when we meet different people from countries like Ireland, Germany or who knows where.

For these reasons, someone back home in San Antonio, in the U.S. or anywhere in the world should care about our Spain blogs is the idea that we students are out of our norm in a different country coping with our surroundings.

We want to share our feelings of the Spanish culture to incourage you (our reader) to try and do the same to witness more of the unknown of this world.

tUESdAy jUNe 12

“PASA ME LA BOTELLA… VOY A BEBER EN NOMBRE ELLA”

“pasa me la botella… VOY A BEBER EN NOMBRE ELLA”


The mood in Madrid has me so happy I find myself singing as I walk back to the hotel.

Today was eye-opening. Ish and I had a late wake and missed the tour with the group due to our love for the Spurs. We stayed up late last night to watch game 3 of the NBA finals at a local sportsbar/pub O’Connells.

Vivo los spurs 3-0

Following our late wake we took the metro to El Prado to witness the famous art Madrid has the right to boast about. There are various artists that have their work displayed here from Francisco Goya to Velasquez.

Some of the paintings demand attention by depicting still life, focal points, linear perspective and other enlightening methods. One that caught my eye was Goya’s "The Colossus." It’s a dark painting with a giant looking down at a village terrified of him. Francisco Goya’s recognizable "The Third of May" is also at The Prado. It is bigger than expected as I saw the painting expand across a wall like an ultra sized 60 inch plasma T.V.

One thing that I noticed was the Americanism that is at almost every corner. McDonalds. KFC. Burger King. They’re all here in Madrid. I found myself thinking that America is taking over the world.

It made me sad that this gorgeous gorgeous atmosphere here in homestead Madrid could become an image of home.

Where would we go for a break?
Where will we go to get away from it all?

Monday June 11

As the sun goes down walking trough the streets of Madrid, I turn to my roommate Ish and say, “I love it here”.

It feels as if the city flirts with you. Making me blush, I cant help but smile.

Today is only our first day in Madrid.

Despite the fact that I expected a lot from this trip I already feel satisfied. As I walk through Palacio Real de Madrid (The Royal Palace of Madrid), the historical essence of the city grabs me and leaves me amazed at the complex carvings of royalty and the fascinating art paintings that are at the ceiling of the palace.

I ran into fellow San Antonians who only noticed me as a Texan because of my “Going for Four” Spurs t-shirt. The two men and woman where on holiday in Madrid, but it was fun to run in to someone from home and chat a bit on our first day.

Today was merely our first day in Spain. As I constantly smile while feeling a state of blissfulness, I can only anxiously anticipate the next three weeks.