Christmas Time!

A few of us went to see the Christmas decorations in the Plaza del Sol tonight then stopped for a cup of coffee. I'm feeling the holiday spirit... home for Christmas in just THREE short weeks!

Thanksgiving in Madrid

I celebrated Thanksgiving this year at T.G.I. Fridays (haha) with four of my girlfriends here in Spain. It was a really fun girls night out, we got our fill of greasy American food, and we ended up hearing some great live music- way to go T.G.I. Fridays! Here are some pictures of our night!

The restaurant!

My token food picture...

Us girls!

Happy Holidays! :)

Updates, updates, updates

I haven't been doing very well about updating my blog... Here are some updates from the past week and a half or so!

Friday, November 12th- Visit to the Royal Palace, as well as a tour of the inside. Very cool to see and learn about the places where big political events take place- so much history. Also, my roommate Lindsey's 21st birthday at midnight! Lots of fun celebrating the night away!

Palacio Real

View of the royal gardens

Birthday girl :)

Lots of fun!

Saturday, November 13th- Visit to the Reina Sofia Museum, a modern art museum with an AMAZING Picasso collection. The best was Guernica, one of his most famous and biggest paintings. The building itself is a piece of artwork. After seeing the collections and exhibits, Lindsey, Alex, and I sat in the skydeck area watching the sunset and chatting. Lovely afternoon!

Entrance to the Reina Sofia

Picasso's Guernica

My favorite piece of art at the museum: "Figures by the Sea." This is why modern art is so great ;)

The skydeck-ish place on the top floor of the museum

A picture from that night, after going to the museum. You can't quite read it, but the restaurant I'm standing in front of is called "Nebraska!"

Sunday, November 14th- Made another visit to the huge flea market, the Rastro. I didn't do any buying but a lot of looking! So much to see. Then I took a run back home and spent the rest of my Sunday just relaxing.
Monday, November 15th- Study session with some of the people in my program at the boys' house for the "midterm" exam that we took on Tuesday morning in our DePaul class. It was pretty much the first time I've really sat down and studied since I've been in Spain... Feeling a little nervous about going back to real life school in January!
Tuesday, November 16th- Another birthday celebration for our friend Lauren!
Wednesday, November 17th- Trip to Toledo with the Drs. Boeck (our DePaul professors) for our art history class. Saw three different monuments in the morning then returned in the afternoon for classes at Complutense. Quick but fun trip!
Thursday, November 17th- Yet ANOTHER birthday celebration (so many November birthdays!), this time for our friend Erica. We went to the same place all three times to celebrate- they pretty much know us there by now.
Friday, November 18th- Stayed home and watched the Little Mermaid with Lindsey. Also developed a new addiction to these Spanish sweets that are kind of like Reese's peanut butter cups except almond... I don't know how to explain them, I just know they're GREAT. Yum.
Saturday, November 19th- Another trip to Toledo, this time with CEA. We saw different monuments on Saturday than we did on Wednesday, so it was well worth making another trip there. It's a really interesting place to go because there is so much religious history- it's one of the only places in Spain where the three major religions functioned together, at least for a while. Then we went out at night to watch the soccer game!

Toledo. I have developed an obsession with doors.

One of the two remaining synagogues in the city- Toledo is home to two of the four in all of Spain.

The cloister of a church. Beautiful little courtyard

Outside of San Juan de los Reyes

View of the river that surrounds Toledo on three sides as well as the hills that the city is built into

Street view!

Sunday, November 20th- Morning run then HARRY POTTER with Alex. I forgot how much I liked going to movies! And I fell in love with Harry Potter all over again. Such a great movie!

The theatre!

So much excitement!

Now it's the start of a new week; happy Monday! I only have FOUR WEEKS left in Madrid- crazy how fast time flies!

Home Sweet Madrid

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved going to Rome. At the same time, I was definitely homesick for Madrid! There's just something about coming home after a vacation to clean laundry (thank you Blanca) and a neat and tidy room. I just love it. Yesterday was a great day back in Madrid; it feels so good to be home.

Started off my morning in the park- first a run with Jesus then a bike ride with Alex. I love to make her snap these ridiculous pictures of me all the time.

Yesterday was a holiday (one of the 17 million that Madrid has celebrated since I've been here) for the Virgin of Madrd. We made it just in time to the plaza of the Palace to see the procession into the church before the mass started.

Tolling bells

The Virgin

Then we went out at night for our friend Nick's 21st birthday! Picture of the girls...

And picture of the boys!

And as I write this blog, I’m downloading Glee- the best! Lazy morning. One class this afternoon with Francisco, one of my favorites. Then I have teaching tonight; I think we’re going to go pretend shopping and work on our dictionaries while listening to a little Justin Beiber and High School Musical (obviously some of my favorite pastimes… for real). Such a shame that I only have six more weeks- can you believe it?! Time flies!

I just feel as though everything is going so well at the moment, everything is just as it should be. So pleased with my life! Happy, happy Wednesday!

Rome- Day 3

Sunday in Rome. So so so busy! Started at 11am.

We started out in the Roman Forum, which are the ancient ruins of the city of Rome. There are houses, government buildings, etc. Really really crazy to see

Stadium in the Roman Forum

One of the statues in the museum in the Roman Forum. The entire building is filled with pieces and parts of different sculptures that were found in the area

View of the city from Paletine Hill- the highest hill in Rome and where the Forum is

Colosseum. Was it bad that all I could think about was Gladiator, the movie?!

Amazing. So many of the sites we visited in Rome were just incredible to see. I can't believe I actually stood the Colosseum!

After all of those things, we walked to the Tiber River to see the Tiberian Island, which is just a small patch of land in the middle of the river. Fall suits Rome really well- the trees were all golden along the river. Lovely

Another view of the island

Hazelnut gelato, again. This weekend=gluttony

We walked through the Jewish ghetto after seeing the Tiberian Island. This is the ruins of the synagogue. This was one neighborhood that I would love to come back to- tons of yummy looking and completely kosher restaurants. Very picturesque area.

Area Sacra, on our walk toward the Trevi Fountain. Apparently these ancient ruins also house a million and seven stray cats. There was a cat museum/house next to it. Strange

Monument of Vittorie Emmanuel II. I wish i had a monument that looked like this...

Trevi Fountain. Probably my favorite site that we saw in Rome. It was so exciting to make a wish here- so monumental! It's something that I've always wanted to do and something you always here about, so it was so much fun for me!

Throwing the coin over my shoulder! YAY!

Then to the Spanish steps, where we sat and relaxed for a while

There was an airshow that day so different planes kept flying over. These plans blew colored smoke- colors of the Italian flag. Very cool

Pastries we bought as a thank-you gift for Vincenzo. YUMMM, totally jealous of him for getting to eat all of these! We headed home to give them to him just in time for... rain. But other than that one little moment, we had great great weather. We waited out the rain then headed back toward the Trevi Fountain area to have dinner with Alex and Julian.

This is where we ate- SO CUTE and fun! Wonderful last meal in Rome with the four of us!



This weekend was so exciting and such an amazing experience. I loved loved loved Rome- if you are thinking about traveling or studying abroad I highly recommend it (it's second best to Spain though, of course). I wish I could have spent more time there; there is so much to see and do!

Simply wonderful.

Rome- Day 2

We seriously saw and did SO MUCH this weekend- there's no way I can blog about all of it! So... I'm just going to go through each thing we did and put a picture with it! If you want to see more, check out the million and seven pictures I put on my facebook!

The bathroom in which I took the coldest shower of my whole life. Such a great wake up call at 7 am.

View from the Piramide metro station right across from Vincenzo's apartment

Yummy breakfast where we got free chocolates for being "bellisima"

Gardens of the Vatican. We got there at 9am and had bought tickets in advance. We got to skip all the lines outside- best 12 euro spent in my life.

Hallway to the Sistine Chapel. Couldn't take pictures inside of it but it was amazing. The whole experience of being in the Vatican was just amazing and overwhelming. We spent about 7 hours in there- and it could have been longer. So much to see, so incredible.

One of the many exhibition type rooms in the Vatican

St. Peter's Basilica. We got lucky and had absolutely beautiful weather in Rome. Such a beautiful plaza.

Tombs of the popes in the basement of the Basilica

The church itself. Again with the overwhelming. Amazing architecture!

Between this and the next picture, we saw the Pantheon, which was first a temple and then became (and currently is) a church. It is a large dome structure with one open circle at the top which lets in all the light  for the space. It was really cool to see but unfortunately my camera had died. So you'll have to imagine! Or look up a picture on google...

We took a nap after our long day and then headed off to dinner at Vincenzo's friend Adriano's house. Such yummy Italian food. Needless to say, I ate a ton of gluten and was/am so sick. But, when in Rome!

 

We ended the night with dancing; Italian people happen to be CRAZY dancers. We drove around in Adriano's car, too- something I would have never gotten to do had we not gone couch surfing.

And there is my Saturday in Rome in a nutshell!