France Part II / Back in Spain

August 25, 2010
9:50 PM
My last night in Europe! Well, probably. There’s a slight chance I might stay one more night, as my flight is overbooked and there’s nothing I absolutely have to be back for (plus I don’t really have a bed in Boston yet, so a free hotel voucher would actually probably greatly improve my sleeping circumstances for tomorrow night).

The rest of my time in France was awesome. I finally got up the courage to tell Yves that I was exhausted and couldn’t keep up with the marathon-sightseeing he had planned for us. Luckily, he was very understanding about it, and I got to sleep in a little more and have time to read and hang out around the house. I used one of my free mornings to read all the correspondence from the US through the years. I don’t think that I wrote about the story at all before – the reason that my grandpa is friends with the family I stayed with is because his great-aunt (?) had a pen-pal in France starting in 1919, something her school initiated as a show of support for France after WWI. Although the original pen-pal US side died a short number of years later, at the age of 19 (my age – scary to think about), the family kept up the correspondence through the years, all the way up to today. I told Yves that he has to write a book about the story, because it really is an amazing one. I only had one side of the correspondence and it was still fascinating. I learned things about my family that I never had known, and got to trace peoples’ lives all the way through birth, life, and death. That actually shook me up quite a bit, to watch someone live an entire life in half an hour or so. I even cried a couple times, every time one of the members of the family died and stopped writing. For someone who was unable to cry at either her great-grandmother or her grandfather’s funerals, I was encouraged for me.

On Monday, Yves had to make a trip to another part of France to help with the process of beautification (is that what it’s called in English? The process of making someone into a saint) of the founder of the order whose convent we stayed in the first night in Paris (Oh, don’t think I mentioned that – we stayed at a convent in Paris and many of the sisters helped to translate for me, both in English and Spanish. It was actually a really great time, and we were all able to understand each other somehow in the mix of languages). He wanted to take me with him, but I had to be back in Paris to catch my train before he would be back. Rather than leave me alone by myself in the house, with only his wife to talk to after she got off work (“talk” – she only speaks French, so it’s a bit difficult), I went to stay with his nephew Christoff’s family in a nearby village outside of Auxerre. They have two sons, Thibault and Alexis, who were around my age, so it was a lot of fun. We were going to go to a ropes course on Monday (which I was psyched about!), but unfortunately it was closed due to wind, so we went go-kart racing instead. Terrifying! Those things go FAST! I failed miserably, and kept spinning myself around as I tried to turn corners – I think I missed something about how to drive them correctly, the directions were all in French… but it was fun. I also went running with the boys and almost managed to keep up with them the whole time, which I counted as a success.

On the day I had to leave from Paris, we left at 7:15 AM to have time to sightsee for the day. I think we had a bit too much time, but we fit a lot in… we went to “France Miniature,” which is all of France constructed in miniature (obviously), which was awesome. I took about a million pictures there, because everything was just so cute! We got there super early too, so there were no lines for any of the rides they had. I convinced Thibault to go on a couple of them with me, and pretended not to understand when he tried to tell me they were only for little kids. It was a blast. Then we went suit-shopping for Thibault, which was extremely entertaining. They kept asking me if I wanted to sightsee with one of them while another stayed with Thibault, but I was sick of sightseeing and liked helping pick out suits for him to try on! ☺

We did end up doing a bit more sightseeing after a suit was successfully purchased, and then headed to the train station. Everything went well, even though my luggage still weighs about a million pounds – OH. I forgot to say: leaving Paris to go to Auxerre, my luggage handle decided to break. Getting from the convent to the train station was pretty much the worst experience of my life. Not because it was that hard for me, Yves took care of dragging the suitcase along by a rope thing, but because it was so painful to watch him. I think I caused permanent circulation problems in his hand, the rope was digging in so much… I kept offering to help (it really would have been easier for me than him, because I’m shorter), but he refused. So anyway, his brother Alain gave me a new suitcase to replace mine, which was super nice of him. So I’m coming back from Europe with two new suitcases; that one and a tiny one that I bought today to [[hopefully]] fit all the extra weight of my big suitcase.

I didn’t have a compartment in the train back to Madrid though, so got to experience the joy of sleeping in a train seat. My mom says it was a good experience to have, but I’ve had plenty of experience sleeping in buses overnight so I don’t think I really needed the train one as well… let’s just say it was extremely uncomfortable. Had a scary moment in the bathroom too: I got in there fine, but couldn’t figure out how to open the lock on the way out. I honestly thought I was going to spend the night in a train bathroom. I even started knocking on the door and yelling in Spanish and English for someone to help. The train is really loud and the bathroom is pretty far away from the seats though, so I wasn’t extremely optimistic (plus, I wasn’t yelling very loudly because I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted someone to hear me). I had finally decided that the people sitting around me would eventually realize that I had been gone for a long time and come investigate and that they would rescue me somehow and that it would all be fine but very embarrassing, when I finally figured out the lock. Turns out someone HAD just come over to investigate – which would have been REALLY embarrassing when it turned out the lock wasn’t broken as I thought, but just being handled by a really inept person, so I was very glad I had just managed to escape on my own before that fiasco had time to occur. I didn’t go to the bathroom again once in the 13-hour ride though, as I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it again.

Everything went exactly according to plan after arrival in Madrid though.
9 AM- arrive in Madrid
10:15- get to airport (I took my time)
11 AM- leave airport, with suitcase successfully stowed for the day
11:30- get to Plaza España, where my hostel is located. Check-in time is 2 PM, so shop for food and a bag for my extra weight
12:30- eat in a nearby park. Turns out yogurt and a big empanada were not really the best foods to buy without utensils to eat them with (which I did think about at the time), but I made it work.
1-2 PM- read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in the park, which Yves bought for me in Paris
2:30- in my room!
The only complaints I would have are the lack of air conditioning and functioning wi-fi – it’s supposed to work in all the rooms, but for some reason is only working on the steps on the first floor (I’m on the seventh, although there is an elevator). SUPER annoying. But other than that, perfect! I walked around Madrid for a while tonight and went to Starbucks for the first time since in Spain – others went earlier to experience America for a couple minutes, but I held off until now. Then came back to my hostel to write this and go to sleep!

Even though I’m super, super excited to go back and start school and see all my friends, I’m actually starting to get a little nostalgic already. I’m not sure for what exactly – I don’t particularly want to stay longer, and I feel like I got the most out of my time here. I think maybe it’s only the feeling that my life for the next couple months won’t be nearly as exciting or remembrance-worthy as my life here has been. But that’s okay too, right? And I’ll come back here eventually, I’m sure. Madrid and Paris are definitely my two favorite big cities that I have seen during my time in Europe, and I also promised to visit the Clert family in France again – but being able to speak French when I do!

So, unless I get bumped from my plane tomorrow, hasta luego and au revoir. It’s been fun writing these blogs, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them! Perhaps I will start up again during a future trip. Bye! ☺

~ Brianna




with my host mom and host grandma!












me at a French cafe. very typical














Alexis (15), me, Thibault (says he's 18, but really won't be 18 until October)

France Part I

Here are two blog posts from a couple days ago - I didn't have access to wifi in France until now, so my posts were trapped on my computer for awhile. I will hopefully be writing more about my stay in France later, but thought I'd put what I have up now to avoid a complete dump of info in one day...

August 17, 2010
7:10 AM
I’m in France! Not quite to Paris yet, but will be there in less than an hour and a half. Right now I’m lying on the bed in my compartment, listening to Owl City and watching the end of the sunrise out my window. There are four beds in my compartment, but I’m the only one left at this point. There was an older woman and another girl in here with me, but they both got out at earlier stops. The girl was from France but spoke Spanish without even any accent, and we got along really well. The older woman however, also from France – apparently she’s lived in Spain for quite some time, but I don’t know how she possibly gets by, because her Spanish is horrible! It was also a mistake to tell her that I was trying to learn some French before I got to Paris, because she took that as a cue to speak to me entirely in French. I did more smiling and nodding incomprehensively then I have in two months in Spain.

I’m not sure what I think of night trains. On one hand, I found the bed really comfortable and sleeping took up time. But on the other hand, you’re stuck in a small compartment with three other people, and if someone smelled, or you didn’t like them… things could get bad fast! Also, no TV. During my six hours in Madrid, all I could think about was how excited I was to watch a movie on the train – so far on trains and buses I have watched The Devil Wears Prada, Where the Wild Things Are, Up in the Air, and a couple random movies – but alas. No TV. I was pleasantly surprised to find an outlet in the compartment though (those things are as scarce as cold milk here), so I was able to recharge my dead computer and take up time there. Would have been nice to have Wi-fi, but I did find a couple TV shows I had downloaded ages ago and never watched, so I watched the LOST Survivor’s Guide and this show about life at 25. Now if I ever decide to watch LOST, I’ll already know what is going to happen… yay.

Speaking of life at 25, I have been mistaken for being older than I actually am several times in Spain! This is a change, as I have been mistaken for being younger than my younger brother several times in the past in the US. Alejandro, my future Spanish lover, thought I was much older than 19 (but he’s 10, so I guess he doesn’t really count), and the other girl in my apartment wouldn’t believe me when I told her how old I was. She said it made her feel old to talk to me, even though she was only 23. Haha. I think I’m still at the point where I want to be appear older than I actually am, right? Not for much longer though… the show on 25 year olds was talking about the “quarter life crisis” and it freaked me out. What if I’m already through a quarter of my life? I think I’ll probably make it past 76, but who knows. I think the train is encouraging my morbidity right now, because it is going very fast and rocking around a lot, making me think more about death than I might if I was, say, sitting on a porch swing drinking lemonade.

Lemonade… I’m not even that big of a fan, but I have definitely wanted to order a lemonade a couple times here and it doesn’t exist! Only lemon Fanta, ick. I’ll make a list of things that don’t exist in Spain (or, that technically exist, but that I haven’t been able to have):
• Well, lemonade
• Cold milk
• Peanut butter
• Cereal
• Marshmallows
• Bread with BUTTER
• Cheddar cheese
• Any kind of good breakfast food, at least not for breakfast… fried eggs are a strictly dinner food here, etc
• Goldfish (I only mention this because they have things that look similar but taste more like ritz crackers)
• Chewy cookies! Only have these sweet biscuit things that you eat for breakfast to make you feel gross and fat for the rest of the day
• Deli ham. All their ham has lots of fat and is super flavorful. Apparently Americans usually love it, but I’m not really a fan.

Also, Papa, you were right. I could have cut my journey by quite a few hours by going to Valladolid and from there to Paris… but how was I to know? I trusted the guy at Madrid when he told me I had to go through Madrid. I’m telling myself that the faster way was probably impossible with the eurail pass, because that is very possible, and it makes me feel better. And honestly, I didn’t mind the traveling much, it was only the time in the Madrid train station that got me. Especially since the luggage locker refused to work in the station, and the bathroom didn’t have toilet paper. Waiting to get on the train to go to the bathroom seemed kind of counter-intuitive to me, but so I had to do. The only good thing about being in the train station for so long was that I got to do something I have been secretly wanting to do for awhile: sleep on my luggage. It was great, actually quite comfortable.

To explain the luggage locker thing a bit further, because it’s so typical of the kind of difficulties you run into in Spain: I decided to store my suitcase when I got to the train station so that I wouldn’t have to lug it around and could possibly go out and explore the city for a couple hours. When I get to the luggage storage place, there are no bottom lockers available (and no way could I lift my bag up to a top locker!), so I waited around. Finally one opens up. I put my bag in and go to pay, but it only takes exact change, which I don’t have. They don’t have change and their change machine is broken. I leave my stuff and run back over to the station proper to buy something and get change. The first place I go doesn’t have any change. The second place doesn’t have any 50 cent pieces, but at this point I have €5 in coins, and my locker costs €4.50 so I figure I should be okay anyway. But no, it won’t let you overpay, and spits my coins back out at me. Finally a guy gives me 50 cents. Success? No. This time the locker refuses to take any money and keeps giving me the message that my “deposit is impossible.” I go and explain the problem to the guy working there, who is texting and doesn’t seem inclined to help me. When I finally get him to pay attention, he doesn’t believe me and keeps telling me to try again. After another couple of minutes, he decides that he has to come do it himself, at which point he stands there perplexed for another couple minutes. After a while of that, he tells me to get another locker, which as I said before, was impossible because I couldn’t lift my suitcase high enough. He laughed when I told him that… ☹… but then said he would help me. At that point though, I was so annoyed by the whole experience that I just left. 30 minutes and ultimate failure for something that should have taken 5 minutes tops. So typical here! You can stand in line at the grocery store for 20 minutes to buy a pack of gum because the cashier decides to go talk to her friend in the middle, or just doesn’t care about efficiency. Not that the US is always efficient, but I feel like in general it’s much easier to get things done there.

Okay, well half an hour until I get to Paris and the guy just knocked on my door to give me my passport, so I think that’s a cue to get ready.

Au revoir,

Brianna

August 20, 2010
4:06 PM
Well. My time in France has been interesting, to say the least. I have had next to no time alone and am constantly exhausted from touring all the sites. Also, I have definitely gained at least a couple pounds from food being forced upon me – I hate it, eating fatty food that I don’t even want! But I can’t refuse, every time I try I’m met with a “But it’s necessary that you try this food while you’re in France!” etc., etc. Hence I have eaten dessert, wine, and bread at every meal. I feel so disgusting. I already have my workouts and diet planned for when I get back to the States, and I cannot wait to start!

Speaking of the States, I hate how I have to defend the United States at every turn. I like the United States. And not everyone in the United States eats McDonalds and is fat and drives a big car and can only speak one language. Yet people constantly mention things like that as justification that the US is a bad country, and seem to expect me to agree! I’m FROM the United States, do you really think that I’m going to agree with you that it’s a horrible place? I think that it is rude to say something like that in the first place - I wouldn’t go around insulting someone’s homeland, and I don’t think that it’s justified to insult the United States to me just because I don’t fit the stereotypes. Which, by the way, ARE just stereotypes. I have traveled around the United States, I’m from the United States, and almost everyone I know is also from the United States, and I can bear testament to the fact that we are not like that (well, at least, there are a substantial number of people who are not like that).


Okay. that's all for now. More later from my hostel in Madrid!

Brianna

Oops, lied, not in France yet.

August 16, 2010
2:54 PM
I really need to work on the “looking-at-tickets-before-you-leave-thing.” First, as mentioned in my previous blog, I was under the impression for weeks that I was leaving on Tuesday instead of Monday… figured that one out just in time! But apparently double checking the ticket for the date didn’t prompt me to recheck the time, hence I was at the train station over an hour before the train ended up arriving, because I had in my head that it left at 9 AM instead of the real departure time of 9:35. That makes a difference when you’ve been out saying goodbye to everyone the night before til all hours of the morning… but I guess at least I erred in the direction of being early rather than late.

But speaking of being early, I also need to stop being so worried about being places early, I really do. Three and a half hours in Madrid would have been PLENTY, but instead I decided to go for six! Two down, four to go… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if there were free wi-fi, but it’s €6/hour or something. Anyway, I’m blaming my dad on this one. He gave me the genes for being early, it definitely wasn’t my mom! I honestly think I spend just as much time sitting in airports and train terminals when I’m traveling as actually physically moving from location to location.

My fears about the weight of my suitcase are pretty legitimate by the way. I can barely lift it up the two steps to get on and off each train, and that is NOT because I don’t have muscles… I took the “bodypump” weight lifting class religiously at the gym in León, I’ve got some strength ☺

Yesterday I went to a pueblo with my señora and the abuela for the day, where I hung out with a bunch of little kids and attempted to understand 4 year-old Spanish. Let me tell you, it’s difficult. I also got the chance to explore more of the mountains around León, which are gorgeous. Also fell in love with a Spaniard named Alejandro, although he unfortunately is only ten years old (I’ve decided that I’ll come back in 20 years and our age difference won’t matter anymore). Oh and while in the pueblo I was so tired that I ended up falling asleep on one of the beds in the house for an hour. I had a dream where my mom told me “Brianna! That’s so rude! Get up and go talk to your hosts!”, at which point I got up and went to talk to my hosts… haha. Turns out most of them were sleeping as well though, so there was really no need to worry, Mom!

Well. Not really done but going to post this now. More later!

Brianna

Leaving León :'(

August 15, 2010
12:07 AM
I was talking to my dad online just now and came to an interesting realization – I’m leaving León tomorrow (Monday) instead of Tuesday as I thought! I tried to blame my misconception on the different calendar here (starting with Monday instead of Sunday), but I think in reality it was just a dumb mistake. Anyway, it’s all fine, except that now the end has come up on me extremely fast. I’m going to a pueblo with my señora and her mother tomorrow, so I’m pretty much done with my time in León. So strange.

I’m almost positive my suitcase weighs about 50 tons instead of 50 pounds… this might be an issue… everything fits, but I’m afraid that I’m way past the airplane weight limit. I think there should be a “total weight limit” which takes into account your checked bags, carryon bags, and weight of your body. Because that’s the main reason there are weight limits, right? To limit the total weight of the aircraft? Maybe I’m wrong. But it’s a nice thought, and I would be so on the right side of that rule if it ever comes into place! As it stands, I’m thinking I might have to buy a bag to use as a carryon to carry some of the weight.

I also keep thinking about the trek from the airport in Boston to Harvard, and how horrible it is with heavy luggage. Not looking forward to it! Not to mention that my room won’t be open yet, so I’ll have to camp out in someone else’s room for a couple days. And also not to mention all the moving in I’ll have to do afterwards into my dorm! I was lucky enough (ha) to get a room on the 5th floor this year, without elevators. That’ll be a change from the 3rd floor, with elevator set up that I had last year. And I have a futon and ginormous chair to move.

…I think I’m going to die.

As a tangent on the subject of weight limit and suitcases: I want to just throw away all of my clothes and take back a suitcase filled with exclusively European apparel. My mom said it’s normal to want to burn the clothes you take with you when you travel, but it’s so true – I’m SICK of everything that I brought with me. I’ve worn everything about a million times. Plus, the laundry process here has done horrible things to my clothes, so everything is in pretty bad shape in addition to having been over-worn for months now. It’s a good thing I don’t buy expensive clothing, otherwise I would be much more annoyed than I am already. And I’ve bought some clothes here, but I am SO EXCITED to get back to Boston and have access to more of my clothes (and more shopping, without the limits of luggage space). I guess the bright side to all this is knowing that I packed well, didn’t bring too much stuff or anything.

But anyway, back to traveling. My mind is already at school and going back to the US, as you can tell, but I am also excited to travel to France! I’ve been dutifully reading my “Francés para viajar” book that I bought in Barcelona, but I’m not sure how much more I’m going to be able to cram in the 50-some hours I have until I set foot on French soil. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to remember a couple phrases back from when I last took French in 7th grade though! And trying to learn some basic French has also shown me how fluent I really am in Spanish, another pleasant surprise. Plus I feel very cool learning French by reading a book in Spanish ☺

Funny anecdote about buying the book – as some of you may know, I am a horrible bargainer. If someone quotes me a price, I pay it. I’m never going to be able to buy a car alone, I’m sure I’ll get completely ripped off and pay sticker price plus some. Charlene, however, took the role of arguing down prices very seriously while we were in Barcelona. She was able to haggle the price of a pair of sunglasses down from €29 to €6, and then do the same for me when I was too nervous. And in souvenir shops, she would get the price cut in half or more just by looking uncertain or saying she would come back later. So when I bought the book, I decided to take the initiative and try to get a lower price. It was a success in that I was able to get the price lowered… but I had a reason (the strap was broken), and it was only lowered by 5%, which ended up being a negligible amount of cents. I’m pretty sure I could have gotten them to go lower, but I was so scared to ask that I accepted the discount on the spot. I’m not sure what I’m really afraid of, although from my bodily reactions it seems that I am anticipating physical violence. Because the person will be so frustrated at their lack of profit that they will attack me? I have no idea. But anyway, I will never be a good bargainer, and I’ll accept that. I’ll just have to make enough money in the future that I can pad other people’s pockets without making myself broke.

In other news, today I was looking at a girl that I met in Barcelona’s facebook and saw that she had a blog. Turns out reading about yourself from a stranger’s perspective is pretty interesting! Haha. I decided to follow her blog, so I guess it’s quite possible she’s reading this entry now as well… Sarah, if you are reading this – so glad we met in Barcelona, and hope the rest of your trip went well! Sarah’s from Oregon, which is cool for me, as I had met a grand total of one person until her from a western state other than California while in Spain.

Anyway, almost 1 AM here and I have to get up early to get in some last-minute shopping that I was planning to do on Monday… haha! Just glad that I realized my actual departure date today instead of, say, halfway through Monday. Next time I write I’ll be in France!

Brianna

Barcelona

August 9, 2010
7:56 AM
Due to my and my friend Charlene’s needs to be early for all forms of transportation, I am currently sitting at Barcelona Sants Estació with over thirty minutes until I can even enter the train platform (then another half hour until the train actually leaves) at a ridiculously early hour of the morning. No wifi, so I decided I would start work on what is sure to be a long blog subject: Barcelona.

I decided to go to Barcelona with a couple things in mind: One, the beach. Two, the desire to see my friend Charlene from the SIHS program who was going to be there. And Three, the need to be able to say that I had visited all of the major cities in Spain while over here. I got the last two (and saw the first), but I also got a lot more than I bargained for.

The two words that come to mind when I think about Barcelona are: money and pickpocketing –

Shoot, spell check just told me that the second is actually two words. Okay, three words: money and pick pocketing. ☺

First, money. Everything about Barcelona is extremely expensive. Charlene and I paid €26/night each to stay in a hostel room with six other girls, while in Madrid you can get a single room for less. The city is filled with beautiful hotels, expensive shopping, and high-class restaurants. It’s almost impossible to eat a meal for less than €20, even a menú de día (most places in Spain the highest price for the daily meal is €10 or €11). To give another, perhaps more important point of reference on price in Barcelona, ice cream is nearly double the price there as in any other part of Spain! I discovered this with horror, because ice cream is one of the cheap pleasures of traveling for me... The only area in which Charlene and I were able to find ice cream for under €2 (and many places were as high as €3) was in a random residential area far from the center of town, and as soon as we got to our destination (a Gaudi park a little ways past), the prices went right back up. It turned out to be a good thing that I ate something bad in León shortly before leaving and had almost no appetite the entire weekend! Barcelona is a rich person’s city: filled with tourists and tourist money, and without much resemblance to the rest of Spain.

And with the abundance of money and tourists floating around come the people who want the first and prey on the second: pick pocketers. Before coming to Spain, I had to attend a couple “international safety” meetings at Harvard, in which we were given advice about how to carry our money and belongings around: always carry a purse with a zipper or clasp, have the zipper opening at your front, never carry your wallet at night, and always keep an eye on your surroundings. During the SIHS program, those that carried backpacks were often told to wear them in their front, although we mainly just made fun of those that did. I thought that I had a good idea of how to avoid being robbed. But Barcelona is a whole different story. During my weekend there I witnessed one robbery and heard more about pick pocketers than I have in the entire rest of my time in Spain. I also managed to have my wallet taken from me while I was coming out of a subway – although they threw it back at me after I made a scene and they realized that I wasn’t carrying any money (lucky for me that I was out of money – I was about to take out more, but had decided to wait a while longer). And every single person I saw was wearing their backpacks in front and clutching any sort of purse or bag they happened to be holding tightly to their side. Traveling around Barcelona made me so incredibly paranoid. Except paranoid isn’t quite the right word, because all of the tension and distrust of those around me was completely justified. When my friend and I walked around, we buried our wallets under several layers of bags and zippers, and one of us still walked behind as a “guard.” I’ve been to several big cities – New York, Boston, Madrid, Chicago – and never have I felt as unsafe as I did in Barcelona. Barcelona made me realize just how easy it is to take something from someone without them being able to do anything about it… I honestly kind of wonder why there isn’t more pick pocketing everywhere.

Aunt Diane, if you are reading this, thank you SO MUCH for the travel padlocks you gave me. I use them in the US and love them, but they are even more useful traveling around Spain. The only way I was able to get to the train station today without being constantly on edge was because I had the security of knowing that my backpack pockets were locked and inaccessible to any robbers. I have no doubt that I have avoided a couple of potential robberies by using the locks – I swear I saw one suspicious character cross over to my car on the subway after seeing my backpack and then look disappointed upon seeing my precautions.

It’s probably not surprising to hear that along with pick pocketing, other types of crime are quite high in Barcelona as well. After my first night, in which I felt unsafe walking home as early as 11 (in a city where most clubs don’t even open until 2), my friend and I decided not to go out anymore, and were back in our hostel by 10 or so for the rest of the weekend. We weren’t alone – many of the other people we talked to (especially other American girls) got taxis every night that they went out, even if their hostel was close, and were prepared to bail in the case that the taxi driver was not reputable. I have never felt that unsafe in any other Spanish city, not even Madrid or Sevilla. Part of the difference was the lack of guys to accompany us, but that was definitely not the only reason for my apprehension at walking around Barcelona.

Barcelona wasn’t all bad, however. Our hostel introduced us to the wonders of the Travel Bar, a company that offers various tours and excursions for young travelers. I was slightly disappointed that everything was in English, but wasn’t very surprised… I barely spoke a word of Spanish the whole weekend as everyone speaks English in Barcelona. Charlene and I started off our weekend by taking a free walking tour, which turned out to be a way to lour us in to the various other, more costly, activities of the Travel Bar. We fell for it, but I think we got good deals for our money, especially for Barcelona! We went to a Spanish cooking class one night for €19, which offered tapas, paella, and unlimited sangria, then took a 3 ½ hour bike tour the next day for only €15. We then took advantage of a free dinner offered by the bar for those staying in nearby hostels... all in all, I think we spent most of our time at the Travel Bar or Travel Bar events. The other cool thing about the bar was that we were able to connect with other Americans traveling around Europe. We saw two girls from Florida and another from Oregon at pretty much every activity we went to, and it was fun to talk to some Americans other than the ones I have been with for a month and a half now!

Although we filled much of our time in Barcelona with the tours and class, we also had time to go to a bull fight, something I hadn’t thought I would see this summer. Neither Charlene nor I support bull fighting, but we rationalized our decision to spend €23 to view one in a couple ways: we wanted to see what they were like, it was a part of typical Spanish culture that we had not yet seen, and bull fighting had already been voted to be banned in Catalunya in 2012, so we weren’t supporting the institution (and also probably wouldn’t have another opportunity to see bull fighting in Barcelona ever again). The bull fight turned out to be just as horrific and gory as I had expected, and we left after only two of the six bulls were killed. For those who don’t know, I’ll give a basic description of the treatment of the bulls prior to and during the fight, based on what I have learned from various tour guides and other people I have talked to. Prior to the fight, the bulls are kept in a small, pitch-black room for 24 hours. Immediately before the fight, the tendons in the back of their necks are cut to prevent them from being able to lift their heads much above parallel to the ground. They are also stuck with an initial barb to start them bleeding. When they are released into the arena, they are dazed and blinded by the light, not to mention confused and in pain. Once in the arena, they are forced to run around in circles, goaded by men with capes who jump behind the wall every time the bull is near. Next come men who run up to the bulls and stick long white barbs into their backs. As the fight goes on, the barbs turn red with blood, and blood mats on the backs of the bulls and stains the capes and sand underfoot. Finally the matador comes out, facing an already extremely weak and injured bull. After playing around with the bull for several minutes, the matador kills the bull by spearing it in the heart. Or so it supposed to happen. Often, however, the lungs are pierced instead, leaving the bull to drown in its own blood. Or, as we saw happen once, the spear falls out, and the matador is forced to try again. Our tour guide told us that one of the reasons that the ban is being instated is due to the number of spearings and respearings that sometimes occur – sometimes up to nine are needed with inexperienced matadors. In our case, the bull collapsed before a second spearing could be completed, and was speared in the head instead. The spasms were horrible to see… All in all, I think I’m glad that Catalunya is banning bullfighting.

We also really enjoyed walking around the open-air markets. Everything was so pretty! I was a little turned off from actually eating anything due to the flies that kept landing on all the uncovered food, but did buy some mixed fruit that was covered, and wanted to buy a lot more! I also wanted to buy some sort of typical Barcelona food to bring back to my señora, but was told that such food didn’t really exist.

1:08 PM
Sitting in the Madrid train station now, waiting for my 2:30 train back to León. I’ll be glad to be back, although this weekend was definitely a change from everything. I sat next to an extremely cute guy on my train over here, although unfortunately I didn’t aprovechar (Spanish word that I have a hard time using enough, as it doesn’t have a direct English equivalent – it means something like “take advantage of”) the situation beyond the initial hello. I think it was because I’m now a little distrustful of people from Barcelona, especially young men (plus I was tired). Also just talked to a dad and his young son from Minnesota in a restaurant here – funny how traveling makes you connect with people so much more… but here when you hear English you can’t just ignore it! Haha. They were extremely grateful for my Madrid subway map, which made me feel better about accidentally leaving my map in León and having to get a new one when I got here. And I felt so knowledgeable telling them about the subway, the Cercanía trains, and sights to see in Madrid. I’m such a seasoned traveler. ☺

Well, think that’s about it. I reserved the last of my eurail tickets, which was only €50.50 instead of €77. I think they thought I had a different type of pass, but I wasn’t going to argue! It’s ridiculous how expensive it is to reserve tickets. They make you think that all you have to do is buy the pass and everything’s free from there on, but far from it. Charlene has had to detour all over Europe because of trains that are “full” (meaning, they don’t want any more eurail passengers) and you have to reserve (meaning, pay more for) everything except for the least used and most inconvenient trips. I thought that buying a eurail pass and traveling across Europe was supposed to be cheap, but Charlene and I calculated it last night, and we figure you have to have at least $5000 to do any sort of significant traveling. So glad my travels are almost done, because I’m running dangerously short of money!

Brianna



Charlene and me our first night in Barcelona
















the open air market
















me with our dinner and sangria we made ourselves!















the bullfight

3 More Weeks..

August 5, 2010
7:07 PM
My time in Spain is feeling like it’s beginning to wrap up, even though I won’t be in the United States for another three weeks. Tomorrow I head to Barcelona for the weekend, where I will be meeting up with one of the girls from my program who has been traveling for the past two weeks during the time I have been doing archeology. Then only have six more full days in León and three more days of work before heading off on my final mini-adventure, France.

Didn’t really think I’d be going to France during this trip, so I unfortunately left all my beginner French books at home, but after the schedule for the internship was set, I discovered that I had two weeks free before my flight back to the US. I don’t have lodging in León after the 20th, so I was a little concerned (make that a lot concerned) about what I would do with the rest of my time. Everyone else doing programs in Europe is long gone by the end of August, and I couldn’t find any international friends around during that time to visit… but my grandpa came to the rescue with the offer to stay with his friends in Auxerre, France. I’ve never met them, and I don’t know a lick of French, but it should be fun! The only thing I’m worried about now is getting to and from all of my destinations until the US – I’m hoping to buy a Eurail pass tomorrow in Madrid and book all of my trips, but I’ve heard that it can be hard to get on the trains you want during the summer and that making reservations can be expensive. I think the Eurail pass is probably more suited for those who don’t have any set plans and can just jump on the next train to wherever… which I would love to do at some point in my life (next summer???), but can’t do at the moment. Also, there is talk of an airline workers strike during that time, which would probably complicate matters further. But I’m crossing my fingers and reminding myself that my parents will not let me die penniless in Europe with nowhere to stay. haha ☺

As for my “internship”: it has definitely been an experience! The week of working at the archeological site was probably one of the hardest periods of time of my life – next to no sleep, long hours, and roasting in the sun every day – but I’m glad I did it. The best part was definitely meeting all the other students. We had real Spaniards to go out with at night (not that we did that much, the having-to-get-up-at-six-every-morning thing was kind of prohibitive), and I learned lots of new phrases. I now have people to visit if/when I come back to Spain,

-- have to interrupt for a second. Just went into the kitchen for a yogurt and mistook my señora’s sister for my señora. How embarrassing. --

and look much more legit with all my pictures tagged with Spanish names instead of American ones!

This week I started work in the “laboratory,” which is really just a storage room with tables and chairs. Marissa and I are working along with two other University of León students who also worked at the site last week. They get to wear really official looking lab coats, while Marissa and I are stuck with aprons with cartoon cows all over them. All in all, not *quite* what I had imagined for the lab portion of the internship! But the work (mainly washing the pieces of pottery and animal bones that we found, sometimes identifying and categorizing them) is easy and not too boring, and we get to take long coffee breaks every day. Plus, we only have to work three days a week because of all the hours we worked last week, so we have lots of time off to travel and relax. Definitely can’t complain, and I’m so glad that I can sleep more and stay fairly cool during the day again.

In other news, I was excited to discover that watching American movies dubbed in Spanish makes the movies much more exciting and funny than they ever would be in English. I’m pretty sure that “La Segunda Vez” (“Rebound”) is pretty horrible in English, but we all thought it was great. And Toy Story 3 was pretty much the best thing I have ever seen… I’m definitely going to miss our Wednesday nights at the movies when I go back to the States. Going to the mall and watching movies is always an adventure (especially when you only have €20s in your wallet and the smallest bill the bus takes are €5s, but that’s another story, and one that I don’t really feel like reliving right now…), and clothes are much cheaper there than stores in town! Probably a bad thing to discover that, because it makes me really want to spend all my money on new stuff. Especially since a lot of my clothing was semi-ruined by the washing machine of my first señora..

I’m sad to be missing Sweet Pea this weekend at home. And I can’t wait to eat cereal again. But gotta savor these last weeks! Plus, still have more work to do deciding what classes to take this semester. ☺

Later, Brianna

Last Week of Classes, Madrid, & Archeology!

July 27, 2010
5:03 PM
Hello everybody! Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote. Part of the problem is that I’ve been traveling and busy. The other part of the problem is that I’ve recently had too much access to internet. At the end of last week I moved to a new house where there is very, very bad internet access. Instead of writing lengthy blog entries at night when I have nothing to do, I sit on the balcony (the only place you can get even a slight signal) and check facebook whenever the signal allows me to. Much less productive, although I do like not having to walk 15 minutes every time I want to check my email.

One thing that I realized I forgot to mention in my last blog post – Sanfermines in Pamplona. I wrote about it before I went, but not after. Let’s just say it lived up to all my expectations, and I have no desire to return! Thousands of extremely drunk people spraying wine everywhere and staying up all night is not my idea of fun. Also, it was COLD! I think it was the first time in Spain where I wished I had my jacket. At one point, around three or four AM, a group of us were huddled together on the (probably extremely dirty, but it was dark so we couldn’t tell) grass contemplating selling ourselves for a warm house and a bed to sleep in. But I made it through, and watching the running of the bulls was definitely an experience. We actually had a really good view as we got there two hours early, and it was a sight worth seeing.

San Sebastian, where we went next, was much more fun and relaxing. We got to lounge on the beach with a bunch of tourists and actually had places to sleep! My roommate and I took advantage of our bed by sleeping 15 straight hours. Definitely a personal record for me. Also completely unintentional, and I was sooo hungry the next morning after having slept through dinner.

But on to newer things. The week after finishing the Camino flew by with final exams, celebration dinners, and graduation ceremonies. I actually did really well in my classes, which was somewhat surprising as I decided I wasn’t going to worry about them at all. I don’t know if I’ll get credit for either of them or not, but knowing I did well is always nice! The week was pretty sad though overall, because our group had gotten extremely close over five weeks. It’s not unbearably sad though, because pretty much all of us go to either Harvard or Yale, and we already have a big reunion planned for the Harvard-Yale game! It’ll be fun.

This past Saturday everyone went to Madrid to leave for home or other destinations. Those of us who are staying (four people from Harvard) had the option to go with the others or stay in León. I am horrible with decisions and it took me forever to figure out which I wanted to do. In the end, I decided that a half-way free trip to Madrid (there but not back) was enough reason to go, so I went along with one of the other girls who is staying here. Both of us somewhat regretted our decisions to go in the beginning, because the whole ride over was filled with people talking about what they were going to do when they got home and the things they missed the most about the US. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with cold milk was one favorite… Maddy and I got SOOO homesick, especially when we were seeing everyone off at the airport, knowing that they would be home by that night. But we both ended up having a lot of fun in Madrid, and I’m definitely glad I went. I spent most of the day walking around and lying in a park, and the weather wasn’t even deathly hot like it normally is in Madrid at this time of year. That night, everyone still in Madrid met for dinner in the Plaza Mayor and we had a great time. The next afternoon, Maddy and I caught a bus back to León, which was surprisingly easy and comfortable. I love the Madrid metro system, I think it’s even easier to navigate than Boston’s… I was on the metro for over an hour going to the airport and back across the city to the bus station and I never got lost once! Haha. Plus, it only costs a euro, so it’s a pretty good deal.

Once back in León, I got a little bit of sleep (I was running on such a deficit), and then got up at 6 AM to start the next part of my program here, the “práctica,” or internship. So far, I’m really pleased with my decision to do archeology instead of teaching English, although getting up so early is not one of the perks. We leave León at seven each morning and start work in Lancia around eight. We work until eleven, when we have a break and food. Then we work for another two hours until lunch in a nearby pueblo. There are about 10 other students working there, all but one of them girls from the University of Salamanca (the remaining is a guy from the University of León). It’s been really cool talking to more people our age, and everyone is super friendly. The work is tiring though, and a little tedious. Today, for instance, my job (along with one other girl) was to dig down 50 centimeters along a piece of cord about a yard and a half long (way to go me, mixing systems of measurement). It took us the entire day, and tomorrow we get to do the exact same thing, only a little farther along.

We’re working in an old Roman trash site, from the 3rd century BC, if I understood the dates in Spanish correctly. We mostly only find broken bits of pottery and animal bones, but occasionally something cooler comes along. Very, very occasionally. As in, the only other thing I’ve seen so far is a tiny bit of metal. It’s definitely cool to think that you’re the first person to see the stuff for thousands of years though, and it’s also cool to find ashes and charred bits of wood that look like they could have just been burned. But mostly it’s just fun to talk to other students our age. That in itself makes the work exciting for Marissa and me, but as the other girls don’t have a new language to learn, I think most of them are pretty bored. Also, they have no more idea of what we’re doing than we do, so we all just kind of stand around confused for a lot of the time. It’s great. There are also some actual workers at the site, all guys, so we do a fair amount of gossiping about them. Other common topics of conversation are American TV shows, movies, and music. My Spanish is definitely getting better – if I listen to a conversation I can usually understand almost all of it, but listening to multiple conversations at once is still above me. My new señora’s mother, who lives with her, told me that my Spanish was better than the other students who have stayed or are staying with them, but instead of making me feel good it mostly just makes me nervous to talk and make mistakes now! (okay, it made me feel good too ☺)

This weekend we were hoping to go to the beach at Gijon, but unfortunately it looks like the buses are all full, so I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be doing. We are planning on going to Toy Story 3 tomorrow night though! I’m so psyched, you have no idea… hopefully I’ll be able to understand it all in Spanish!

Well, now I’m off to meet with my old professor who is now supervising our internships. More later...

Brianna



Marissa and me











us and some of the other girls











the site in Lancia