Ciao Bella!

Has it really been almost an entire month since my last blog entry? Life has been happening a lot here leaving little time to reflect. I kind of like it that way though.  This past month has been a whirlwind of exciting excursions, exams, new people, amaaazing food, and new adventures.

Here’s a recap of what you may have missed:

My shoes finally broke in the worst possible way!  I knew this day would come eventually since it happens to me everywhere.  However, there I was with my broken flip flop at the beginning of the school day about to take my exam.  This just goes to show how much walking we’ve been doing in the streets of Toledo.  I’m sad to say that my second pair are not holding up either.  Even though I am so stubborn with money, I think it is time that I invest in a good pair of shoes, especially since I’m going on a pilgrimage…..

I’m going on a pilgrimage!!! I still can’t believe this.  Spain has one of Europe’s most famous pilgrimages in the northern province of Galicia.  The end destination of this pilgrimage is the city of Santiago de Compostela where it is believed that the remains of the apostle St. James are buried.  Before I came to Spain, I knew that I wanted to make this spiritual journey.  I was only worried that I might not find anyone who was also interested in doing the pilgrimage with me.  However, I met two wonderful girls at my school who are pumped about the pilgrimage.  Since our time is limited, we will be trekking the minimum 100 km necessary to receive a certificate saying that we are pilgrims.  My host dad is so sweet.  When he found out I will be doing the pilgrimage, he hooked me up with camping gear that would allow me to survive in ANTARTICA if necessary!  The bag pack full of camping gear is almost as big as I am! He insisted that I try on all of the gear so I know how to use everything.  The bag comes with a tarp in case of rain, a sleeping bag, rain pants, a rain jacket, a poncho, flashlight head gear, a hard hat, 3 water canteens, and many other little gadgets that I need to learn how to use.  My family got a good laugh when I tried on all the gear.  Although we only have two weeks before the pilgrimage, the girls and I are planning on training for the pilgrimage at the track this week.  I’ve also been going on a lot of long hikes around the city so I hope my legs do not fail me.  Please pray for me as I start my pilgrimage on November 18^th.  :)

I will start at the city "Sarria" and end in Santiago de Compostela.

My friend Anny and I at the end of our 10 hour hike

I find it funny that I thought time would slow down once I got to Spain.  Although I do have more time to relax, I just can’t seem to get a hold on time.  My time has filled up very quickly, but I am happy about this.  I am now up to a grand total of THREE intercambios (language partners).  I really enjoy hanging out with local Spaniards on a one-to-one basis, so it’s hard to say no when people ask me I would like another intercambio.  Anyway, my newest intercambio is Gloria and she is the secretary at the school where I help teach English.  Since I want to be a teacher, I thought it would be interesting to hear her perspective on the educational system in Spain. 

Barcelona.  Although Barcelona was not included in my original list of travel destinations I nevertheless hopped on the 8-hour overnight bus with my SNC friends Laura and Meg to Barcelona last Thursday.  Oh the things college students do to save money!  I tell ya…I can write an entire book.  To save a few Euros, we took the overnight bus that left Madrid at 10:35 pm and arrived in Barcelona at about 7am.  When the bus arrived in Barcelona, it was still dark out and it was pouring.  Not the best welcome, but the city became increasingly beautiful as the rain decreased and the sun came out and we woke up a little more.  We only stayed in Barcelona for 2 days and one night, but I felt that we thoroughly explored the city (even if we were in a zombie state for the first day). 

In Barcelona, we visited Barcelona artist Gaudí’s famous park called “Park Güell.” It is an enormous park with beautiful mosaic-decorated architecture.  We really got a work out here.  I felt like I was in candy land.  I find it fascinating that architecture constructed so long ago had such a contemporary and fun feel.  We also visited Gaudí’s famous Sagrada Familia church that is still being completed after his death.  Like Toledo, the Sagrada Familia church is also declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.

Gaudís Park Güell

Gaüdi's Sagrada Familia

We also explored the Olympic grounds where the 1992 Olympics were held in Barcelona.  It was cool to see little kids taking swimming lessons in the actual Olympic pool.  We were tempted to go for a run around the Olympic stadiums, but it was a bit difficult with our backpacks weighing us down.  Although we didn’t see any famous athletes practicing on the Olympic grounds, we did see real, live FC BARCELONA PLAYERS when we went to the Camp Nau stadium which is where the team plays.  They had an away game the next day, so the entire team and coaches were coming out of the locker rooms and hopping on the bus.  Many little boys were running up to the players to get a picture with them, but my friends and I just stood there paralyzed.  My friend Meg is a huge Messi fan, and I’ve never seen her smile so big!

Me in front of one of the Barcelona Olympic stadiums

Just some FC Barcelona players

As cool as it was to be inches away from probably the most famous soccer team in the world, my favorite part of Barcelona was the beach.  It was like another world.  In fact, Barcelona was more like many cities in one since each part of the city was so unique and had a different feel to it.  It was quite chilly when we went to the beach, but that didn’t stop the surfers. There were many restaurants right on the beach and cute shops.  Now I really want to go to Venice beach in California.  After two jam-packed days in Barcelona, Laura, Meg, and I flew from Barcelona to the airport in Pisa, Italy……

The memories made in  Florence, Italy.  Let me just say that if food is the way to this girl’s heart, Italy has totally captured my heart.  I am currently in the withdrawal stage, I think, since I even had a dream that I was eating a Gusta Pizza the other night. Words just can’t do justice to this food.  I made sure I tried pizza, pasata, calzone, and gelato (plenty of it) in Italy. Ok Ok  I guess I should describe other aspects of the trip besides food.

I have three friends from St. Norbert who are studying in Florence, Italy.  It was so great to spend time with friends in Italy.  Even though we are on the opposite side of the world, for a few days it felt like we were all back at St. Norbert.  We even had a nice home-cooked family dinner the last night we were there.  Those girls have become quite the chefs since studying in Italy!  One of my favorite parts of the trip was cuddling up on the couch together with nutella and watching Hocus Pocus.  But my absolute favorite part of the trip was our nightly (or sometimes 2X/day) outings to get Gelato.  It’s a tough call, but my favorite gelato flavor is pistachio.  It’s always sad when you discover something that you love when it is too late.  This very thing happened to me in Italy. On our last gelato outing, I tried the dark chocolate gelato with Orange swirls.  It was OUT OF THIS WORLD.  Oh well, just another excuse to come back to Italy.

Laura, Meg, and I enjoying our first Italian gelato on the old bridge

We also visited the famous Duomo which is one of Italy's biggest domes with an absolutely stunning cathedral as you can see!

A little more about Gusta Pizza.  If you ever happen to be in Florence, Italy you MUST go to Gusta Pizza. It is this small little restaurant where they cook the pizza right in front of you in a wood-burning oven.  It is reasonably priced and it is to DIE for.  Trust me, I even ate two dinners one night because I couldn’t resist the temptation of Gusta Pizza! 

The Gusta men at work making some Gusta magic!

Megan and Britt cooking their special alfredo sauce

My real family in the United States is Italian.  My grandma is actually 100% Italian, and her mother and father emigrated from Italy before she was born.  Growing up, I have heard countless stories about my great-grandma’s famous homemade noodles, sauce, and meatballs.  It is a constant debate in my family about whose sauce comes closest to my great-grandma’s.  Since my mom is a contestant in this contest, I am parcial.  Sorry Auntie Gina! You are still the best baker in the family and you know I’ll eat your Raviolis any day! J Anyway, to end this dispute once and for all my mom gave me the mission of getting an original sauce recipe from a little old Italian lady.  I almost worked up the courage to knock on the next-door neighbor’s door and try out my Italian language skills, but it didn’t end up working out.

As great as my week-long vacation to Barcelona and Italy were, it was also a time of deep reflection for me.  I know both Barcelona and Florence are big cities; nevertheless, I was shocked to see so many people (young and old) sleeping on the streets.  It was pouring rain, and there were young children sleeping with thin blankets on the cold ground.  As a tourist, I was fortunate enough to travel around the city and enjoy all the scenery and beautiful sites.  However, it just doesn’t make sense to me that such a beautiful city has so much poverty and sadness at the same time.  I know this happens in the United States as well, but it made me feel helpless.  The poverty carried over in Florence as well.  But the good news is that we’re not helpless.  Everyone has the power to add goodness and beauty to the world. 

On the way back to Toledo, I stopped in Madrid to visit another SNC friend who is studying in Madrid.  His host mother is almost 70 years old but has so much energy.  She hand-sews almost all of her own clothes, her children’s clothes, and her grandchildren’s clothes. She even hand-sewed her daughter’s wedding dress.  It was the same style as Princess Kate’s wedding dress—it was so elegant.  She was the sweetest woman.  She brought Paul and I a plate of cookies and a tray of coffee with 4 different kinds of sugars in fancy jars.  I also got to meet her granddaughter who is 7 months old and absolutely adorable.  Paul showed me some of his favorite spots in Madrid and gave me a new appreciation for the city.  It was great to see yet another SNC friend on this side of the world!

This coming week shall be a fun week.  Tomorrow I tutor Alberto and Marío and if I can find the ingredients in Spain, we will be making a pumpkin pie together.  The boys have never tried it before.  The part they are most excited about is scooping out the “goo” from the pumpkin.  Their dad is a tour guide for Toledo.  Since Toledo is very difficult to navigate by car, he takes his moped to work everyday.  Last time I ran into him before tutoring, he picked me up on his moped J.  As much as I love tutoring Alberto and Mario in English, I have to admit that it is quite difficult to switch from Spanish to English and vice versa.  For example, my host sister called me after I just finished tutoring Alberto.  She asked me for directions to the house and I explained the complicated directions of how to get to the house for about 5 minutes in English before realizing that she does not speak a lick of English.  I felt pretty embarrassed about this, but she just laughed.

Rice for niños.  (Rice for little kids).  My host sister was not feeling well the other day, so my host mom made her a soup that they call rice for niños that her mother used to make for her when she was sick.  All it was was rice with water, olive oil, spices, and whole garlic cloves boiled together. Believe it or not, this little kid soup is right up there with Gusta Pizza.  Since it has been very rainy in Toledo lately, I wasn’t feeling the best the other day.  I was hoping my host mother would make rice for niños for me again, but she whipped up another great meal.  If anyone cares to try this delicacy, I plan on making it every day this winter when I get back home. So feel free to come on over!

I have felt very comfortable with my host family from the beginning.  They are simply fantastic.  At this point in my study abroad experience, I feel like I am truly a part of their family.  They go out of their way for me even when they definitely do not need to.  They make fun of my quirks and I make fun of their quirks.  And most of all, they respect my distaste for fish and anything from the sea.  I will never forget the night when my host mother, my host father, my host sister, and myself sat together on my host sister’s bed in our pjs and talked about all the important things in life (and then we drank Cola-Cao which they and I both know is another important thing in life). My host parents are really just two kids :) 

Example of how great my host family is.  My friend Devan came to visit us in Spain from Lancaster, England.  Her plane arrived late and caused her to miss the last bus from Madrid to Toledo by ten minutes.  Once my host brother heard what happened, we hopped in the car and headed all the way to Madrid which is an hour away to pick up my friend.  Although her visit was short, we had a great time together.  We got together with our other girlfriends from SNC and went on a night-time hike since the cathedral and Alcázar are lit up on the weekends.  It looked exactly like the picture that is the background of my blog! Magical to say the least.  I’m hoping that my grandparents are up for this trek to witness this incredible view when they come THIS SATURDAY!!! I CANNOT wait to see them!!!!!

It is now 3pm here which means lunch is finally almost here! Hallelujah!  Thank you all for stopping in, and I hope this blog finds you all well.  As always, I miss you all very much.  I will be home in a little over one month and cannot wait to cook up a Spanish storm for a welcome back party :) 

Blessings,

Alyssa