Tales of a Pilgrimmage, Abuelos, the Emerald Isle, and Fish!

I can hardly believe that I come home in less than three weeks!  I can’t wait to see everyone for Christmas. I will miss Spain very much, but I know that I will be back.  If there’s anything I have learned over here, it would be that Spain is a country that needs to be rediscovered every day. There is always something new to see and new people to meet!

Here’s a little recap of what’s been happening on this side of the pond for the past month. 

*First, my grandparents came all the way to Spain to visit!

*Second, I went on a pilgrimage with my friend Anny in Galicia!

*Lastly, I explored my Irish heritage in the lovely land of Cork!

Dwama and Dwampa Fish:

Dwama and Dwamps Fish would be the names I used to call my grandparents when I was little.  I’m brining the name back Gram! ;) My grandparents arrived in Toledo on Nov. 12^th and stayed the entire week.  They had quite the journey from Chicago to Toledo.   Since I wasn’t sure which bus they would manage to hop on, I waited in the main plaza for a while so I wouldn’t accidentally miss them.  While I was sitting on one of the benches, I bumped into a friend from St. Norbert who is studying abroad in Madrid and just happened to be exploring Toledo and happened to be in the exact plaza as me.  He was supposed to come the day before and we were going to explore together, but he ended up not being able to come.  So I was super excited to bump into him.  Since he was traveling alone, I  think he was quite stunned to hear his name being shouted across the plaza in a foreign country.  What a small world we live in.

I called my grandparents before they left the states to give answer any last minute questions they might have and I ensured them that Toledo is a very tranquil city so they shouldn’t have too many problems.  Of course there happened to be a very large protest/walk starting at about the exact moment they got off the bus to meet me in the plaza.  It was a bit difficult to meet up with them in the plaza, especially because my grandpa had mistaken a protestor as myself.  My grandma said he was absolutely convinced that it was me.  After this little incident, we headed to the apartment that we stayed at which is owned by a friend of my host family.  My host family gave us the grand tour and welcomed my grandparents with Spanish hospitality.  I tried my best to prepare my grandparents for the road ahead (i.e. cobblestone, EVERYTHING uphill type deal); nevertheless, it was a bit difficult at first.  They were quite the troopers though! Later in the trip, I think my grandpa may have even been trying to race me…or so it seemed. 

Grandma wanted a picture of the cobblestone as proof of their accomplishments!

            My grandparents married at the age of 18 and moved to Germany directly after when my grandpa joined the military.  They lived in Germany for one year, and ever since this my grandpa has been promising my grandpa that they would be back in Europe.  About 45 years later they made it, and I could tell they loved every minute of it! My grandma was like a little kid in the candy store during the entire trip…stopping every ½ second to take pictures of everything, and stopping at EVERY store to buy Christmas presents.  Between my grandma and I, I think we may have covered every street of Toledo with our picture-taking.  Although the majority of my pictures have the back of my grandpa’s head in them, since he was such a speedster down those streets.  :) Thanks Jess for letting me borrow the camera…after about 2 months of not taking pictures, I think I went a little picture crazy.

Grandpa leading the pack

            ATTENTION TO EVERYONE WHO IS A FRIEND OF MY GRANDPARENTS: Grandma and Grandpa slept in PAST 10am two nights in a row!!!! I was in shock! If you know my grandparents, you know that they are always up at the crack of dawn.  My grandma told me that that was the first time she slept in to that time since she was a teenager.  As you can see, they adjusted very quickly to life in Spain.

            We had mostly gorgeous weather in Toledo.  I loved showing my grandparents all of my favorite little places.  They even discovered a few of their own.  My grandma was practically best friends with a woman who owned a cute hand-made jewelry/accessories shop.  I guess it’s not hard to make new friends in Spain when you practically buy out the entire store.  Oh typical grandma.  If you are reading this blog, chances are you will probably receiving a present from this store from my grandma.  All in all, my grandparents loved the city and commented on how unique it is.  My grandpa and I passed the nights watching old Western movies (in Spanish of course), and I helped my grandpa learn useful phrases in Spanish from the dictionary.

Grandma, Grandpa, and I on the San Marín bridge

            On Tuesday, we woke up at 4am to take the 5 hour bus to Granada, Spain.  Granada is in the southern region of Spain and is home to the famous Alhambra palace.  The city of Granada played a crucial role in the history of Spain.  During the Reconquest, Granada was the last Moorish city to be captured by the Christians in 1492.  The Alhambra palace highlights the power that the Moors once held in Spain.  As is customary, my camera died as soon as we made it to the Alhambra palace.  My grandparents did take pictures though.  Pictures cannot do justice to this incredible palace.  Granada is one of my favorite cities that I have visited in Spain thus far.

            On Thursday night, my grandparents and I said goodbye to Toledo and slept overnight in the airport.  I met up with my friends who went on the pilgrimage with me at the airport.  My grandpa is so sweet.  He stayed up all night while my grandma and I slept on the chairs to watch over us.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for visiting me.  It’s not the same without you two here with me.  I walk our same route to the plaza now and wish you two were here with me.  The Iro lady got her new shipment in Grandma! :)

THE PILGRIM DIARIES: 

*Albergue 5 euro

*nutella: 2.50 euros

*hiking boots: 15 euros

*camino: PRICELESS

 DAY 1: 11/19/11

One would think that starting a pilgrimage after sleeping on an airport bench isn’t the best start to such a journey.  However, I was very surprised that I felt very well rested and alert the next day.   For the first time, I actually fell asleep on a plane.  This never happens.  I woke up suddenly upon realizing that I forgot my pilgrim passport that certifies that I am seeking to complete the pilgrimage.  It gives one permission to sleep in the church-operated hostels called albergues.  I am usually not this forgetful, but luckily I was able to purchase a new one once I made it to Sarria (our starting point for the pilgrimage).

We started off in Sarria with 113km (70.2 miles)  ahead of us.  We knew we only had 2.5 days to complete this challenge.  Once we got there, we took off.  We kept up a very fast pace and realized after the first mile-marker that we would have to keep up this crazy pace for the entire camino if we wanted to make it to Santiago de Compostela without missing our flight.  I think my friend Anny and I get along so well because we both like to do crazy (not dangerous) things.  Anny lives for challenges.  We are a good combination, but when you get two people together who like to defy the odds, you’re sometimes asking for trouble.  To be honest, at times I doubted that we would be able to continue at such a fast pace, but we encouraged each other the entire way.  We kept telling each other to try our best and forget the rest. 

Just 80km more to go!

            I believe we walked about 20 km the first day since we didn’t arrive in Sarria until 2pm and it gets dark at 6pm.   It also rained for the second half of the day.  Thanks to my host dad, the rain didn’t stop us. The first night we slept in a church-operated albergue for only 5 euros.  We were not aware that blankets were not provided.  We had to use our jackets to cover up and managed to get a descent night of sleep actually. We picked up some food for the rest of the journey (nutella and bread of course). 

DAY 2:

We woke up with sore bodies and began the entire process all over again.  It was more difficult to start day 2 since we knew we had a long journey ahead of us.  We knew that if we wanted to complete the pilgrimage and receive our certificates, we would have to hike a total of 40 km on day 2.  We stopped every 10km for a 5 minute break to collect our sanity.

I would describe our daily routine like so:

1) We wake up extremely sore from the day before and question our sanity and if we should even do this.

2.) Once we start covering some ground with the fresh mountain air surrounding us, our spirits pick up a bit. 

3) We make it to our first major kilometer-marker (every 10km), and we literally jump  for joy (actually more like a hop since we were pretty sore).  The end feels a little bit closer and our positive thoughts return.

4.) Ok now we’re at about a little less than the half-way mark for our day’s goal.  This would be the most difficult time.  This is when we start focusing our attention on our newly formed blisters. We’re not quite half way and our bodies are not doing too hot.  This is usually when we each gave our personal pep talks.  As the kilometers dragged on, the pep talks became even funnier.

5.) Once we made it past the half-way mark we were running on adrenaline all the way to our albergue where we would sleep for the night.

In my opinion, I think our daily journey is comparable to the daily life.  It taught me the importance of taking breaks for silence and stillness in my daily life (even if only for a very short time).  Even though our 5 minute breaks every two hours seemed very small, we strived toward those little breaks with every muscle in our body.  These short breaks did wonders for our spirits and energy.  In real life, I’m guilty of taking the least breaks when I’m the most stressed until it piles up and I forget the meaning behind what I am putting all of my energy into.  Now I realize that breaks are essential.  Stillness and silence is what I have been missing most post-pilgrimmage.  We stopped for a few minutes just to listen to the stillness of it all.  Without the swishing of our jackets, it was so still.  Although I don’t think about it much, this is pretty rare to find since if you live by a city you are bound to hear cars and other shenanigans going on at all hours.

...see what I mean about the peacefulness

We were directed by yellow arrows.  Usually, they were just painted on trees and concrete. The shell is the symbol of the pilgrimmage

 I’ve always loved nature and I’ve always been a nature-girl (minus the bugs and insects).  Since I’ve lived in the beautiful state that is Wisconsin for mostly my entire life, I’ve been fortunate to get out into nature frequently.  What I loved about the pilgrimage was how close we were to nature and how much we depended on it.  I would not recommend doing the pilgrimage if you are afraid of dogs…especially dog slobber.  My jacket started off a crisp, clean blue and did not end this color with all the dogs that slobbered all over me.  Every farm had at least two dogs running around herding the cattle.  We even got to follow a herd of cattle for a while on the trail.  We saw sheep too…I believe this was my first sheep encounter.   The colors of the entire camino were strikingly beautiful.  We definitely had our fix of beautiful sunsets setting over lush green hills and rolling mountains.  The peacefulness gave us much time to think deeply without the normal everyday distractions or frustrations that get in the way of things you really want to ponder in life.  Not that this is what I really want to ponder in life, but my head was so clear that I thought of the perfect Christmas presents for a few people on my list this year.  We were not silent the entire time, although there were a few times where we were both so beat that we had 0 energy left for talking.  At the beginning of the camino at the height of our energy peak, I learned all about Anny’s interesting life.  She is from Taiwan but went to high school in Alabama and currently goes the same Alabama college that was in Forrest Gump.  I am so impressed with Anny because she is able to keep 3 languages straight in her head (Chinese, Spanish, and English—and Southern English to add!)

On the camino, cows have the right of way :)

waiting patiently for the herd to pass

 We met such kind-hearted people on the camino.  One woman was feeding her chickens and insisted that we use her bench to get readjusted before finishing up the day.  We also kept running into another pilgrim who slept in our albergue the night before.  Although he took restaurant breaks, he always seemed to catch up with us.  I was quite impressed! We also met a British man who was teaching at the Univeristy of Santiago de Compostela. 

When we went to bed on day 2, we slept well knowing we reached our goal for the day and only had 49.5 km to go.  I purchased a foot massage for 2 Euros…BEST purchase of my life!

DAY 3:  49.5km to go!

We started off bright and early on Sunday morning.  Actually, it wasn’t too bright outside and it was drizzling.  In a short while, the rain went away and the sun came out.  It is a strange feeling when you can see your breath yet you are sweating.  We started off each morning wearing many layers and ended up taking off almost all of our layers leaving just a t-shirt and pants after about an hour each morning.  Taking off layers is easier said than done when you look like a stiff elderly woman.  This was a painful experience.  The last morning we learned our lesson and started off with less layers.

Our last major day seemed to fly by!  We covered our goal of 40km for the day and I felt in better shape then the last two nights.  Poor Anny developed serious blisters on the bottom of her foot during the last 10km of our Sunday trek, but she didn’t let them bother her! Go Anny!

Since we knew day three was the last difficult day, we were in pretty high spirits.  Day three really made me miss my home state of Wisconsin and all of its beauty.  If anyone knows of any Wisconsin pilgrimages/ bike journeys across the states, please contact me J I now have a new appreciation for Wisconsin farmers and all farmers who work so hard to give us delicious food.  We talked Spanish with various cows on day 3.   We finally made it with only 9km more to go on Monday morning and slept VERY well! My feet weren’t doing too hot, but we gave our feet the royal treatment once we made it to our lodging.  After almost an entire bottle of lotion, they looked a little better.  Anny took pictures of her feet to show her host family, but I didn’t want to put our relationship in jeoparday. I promise they were that ugly!

DAY 4: We made it to the Cathedral!

We finally arrived at the cathedral with about 1.5 hours to spare and explore the city.  We made it to the cathedral, snapped a few photos, and I had to run to catch a bus to make it in time for my flight.  Anny’s flight was later than mine so she hung out for a little bit longer in the city.  Amidst all of the craziness, I forgot to get my certificate of completion.  0-2 for me!  I did pick up a postcard though so it all works out in the end :)

In front of the Cathedral with some of my rain gear from Manolo :)

I took a bus back to the aiport  which was about 15 or so minutes away.  It was really cool to see how much we walked just that Monday while driving.  Then it was back to reality.  Although I had quite the pile of homework waiting for me at home, I seemed to have a new sense of focus and managed to finish fairly quickly (for me at least).

And what have I learned from this experience? I think that this experience is one I will reflect on frequently.  I do find myself thinking back on it already now that it is final exam time.  I keep telling myself that if I could get over my own weaknesses through the camino, I can persevere through exams.  Above all, I keep reminding myself about the importance of breaks, silence, and just time to be free and enjoy the beauty of each day.  During the camino, we had to pretty flexible and this is something I hope to improve in my hectic college life.  I still enjoy writing out my “to do lists” that help me reach my daily and personal goals, I am realizing that it is not the amount of things you can accomplish, but the way in which you can accomplish them.  The camino reminded me that relationships, not personal accomplishments, are most important.  It is helpful to be reminded that the main thing in life is to keep the main thing the main thing (the main thing being relationships). 

CORK, IRELAND:

And now to completely switch gears…Ireland! I returned from the pilgrimage late Monday afternoon and left for Cork, Ireland very early Wednesday morning.  I was bit tired.  I fell asleep on top of my clothes while starting to pack and woke up to my friend calling me to wake me up.  Her host mom offered to drive us to the airport and they were already waiting downstairs for me.  I quickly threw a pile of clothes in my backpack and grabbed my passport, boarding pass, and toothbrush and ran outside.  Lucky for me I have sweet friends who let me borrow some essential items.  I actually managed to pack a few matching outfits…I probably could have done without the Real Madrid jersey in Ireland though.

I traveled to Ireland with the greatest travel companion Laura.  We both slept on the entire plane ride.  From the airport we had to catch a 5-hour bus from Dublin to Cork.  The entire ride was through the countryside.  We saw SO many sheep!  I attempted to work on homework on the way there, but it was difficult since the whole driving on the opposite side of the street thing made me quite car sick.  Although I was too car sick for homework, I did make many lists.  Maybe the car sick thing was just an excuse not to my homework.  In any case, I wrote down everything I want to do for and with host family if possible during my free week with them.  When I return from Prague on Dec. 12^th, I will have an entire week with my host family without any schoolwork or other commitments. They told me that I can do all the cooking that week because they want to try American food.  I also made a list of everything I still want to do in Toledo before leaving.  Why does time have to fly by so quickly?  At this point I was on a roll, so why not start a bucket list? A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die.  We even watched the movie Bucket List in Ireland.

We visited two friends from St. Norbert who are studying in Cork, Ireland.  I hadn’t seen these girls since the end of sophomore year.  I was so happy to finally get to see them in person.  They took us out to “fish and chips” the first night.  Chips are what we consider fries, and I had chicken.  We splurged and got the chips loaded with garlic sauce and cheese. Those chips probably had more calories then what I burned during the entire camino.  Well worth it!  We spent the first night catching up.  It was wonderful.

They made us a Welcome sign :)....Don't worry we do know how to spell Thanksgiving.  Katie was distracted at that moment

The next day was Thanksgiving! Although I missed my family, we had a splendid day.  The girls gave us a tour of their campus, took us to the little grocery store, we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, we witnessed another Packer victory, we ate a Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the church, got to see a view of all fo Cork from their roof, and we finished the night off dancing all around the apartment to Christmas music.  Our friend Laura is the biggest Christmas music fan (she started before Halloween). 

Katie and Jenny at their University.  Notice how no one is walking on the sidewalk through the grass.  It is said that if you walk on that sidewalk you will fail!

            Those Irish ladies cooked up a storm! We mostly ate in and made home-made meals together.  We also made home-made dessert every night as well.  My favorite dessert was Katie’s famous cookie crumble.  You know how there is the crumble part on top of Apple Streudl? Well, imagine an entire bowl of just the warm, crumbly part! AMAZZINGGG!  We also ate something Irish everyday since Katie invented the 25 days of Irelandepic where we must do something epicly Irish. During our visit this was all in the form of food which was fine with me.

The amazing chefs making ze meatballs

           

            We also went to the Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney stone that is supposed to give ladies elegance.  I told my host family about the stone, and they said I have to get over my fear of eating fish first to be elegant.  My host dad likes to make fun of me because I don’t like fish, pop, or ketchup.

beautiful Ireland

The gang at Blarney

            Cork was so Christmasy!  Everything was decorated and playing Celtic Christmas music.  One of my favorite places was the English Market.  It was a food market kind of outdoors where they sold all fresh produce, meat, dairy, etc.  We bought fresh eggs and meat from here.

            After five days in Ireland, we had to say goodbye to girls.  We helped them study for a test before they left which was very entertaining.  We were all a little bit stressed about the work we had put off while enjoying ourselves in Ireland.  And when Katie Riesterer is stressed about schoolwork, she is hilarious!   We left after a grand goodbye.  Katie and Jenny dropped us off at the bus station and shouted goodbye ot our Spanish names “Laurrddaa” and “Leeeesa.” It was hard to say goodbye to the girls after such a great time in Ireland! Laura and I took the bus again to Dublin and had to sleep in the airport since our flight left at 7 in the morning.

Until next time Ireland...

My new favorite song "Galway Girl" : http://youtu.be/i3V-oXwCWL4

JUST IN CASE THIS BLOG ENTRY ISN'T LONG ENOUGH...

This week has been my week of goodbyes.  I taught for the last time at the school I help out at.  I was only there for 2 months, but it was still sad to say goodbye.  I honestly don’t know how I am going to handle goodbyes as a teacher. I stink at goodbyes.  I am thankful for the experience to help at a school in Spain.  It was an unforgettable experience. I also had to say goodbye to one of my intercambios.  I will miss her very much.  For our last time together, she wanted to see where

Third Graders :)

My intercambio Elisabeth and I

Lots of great news! I got into all the classes I needed to next semester.  I  will be finishing up my Spanish major next semester.  My host sister just switched her major to English and said she is seriously considering studying abroad in America! My host mom said that my host sister can live with my family and help take care of the babies since she lovessss babies.  I showed my host family pictures of a Wisconsin snow storm  and my sister really wants to see a white Christmas.

Next week is finals week and I have all but one of my finals on Tuesday Dec. 6^th. I have my last final on Thursday morning.  I am brining my things to that final because directly after my final I am hopping on an airplane to visit a good friend named Vaclav and his family in the Prague.  I cannot even express how excited and thankful I am to have this opportunity to visit him and his family.  As you know, my Tuesdays are a bit carazzy.  So each Tuesday, I have this little tradition where I do a little victory dance when I walk out of the door of my school. It’s nothing great, but I think this Thursday when I am completely finished with classes and am on my way to visit Vaclav in Prague I may have to do a big victory dance!

I have been pretty adventurous  over here for the last few weeks.  I tried liver and FISH!! I ate the entire bowl.  Robin Wabalickis and mom if you two are reading this, I would appreciate that $10 ;) It was quite the event. My host mom cheered me on and my host sister and dad took pictures of me.  I don’t where it came from, but I just wanted to prove to them that I could do it. They were very proud, but now I only worry that my host mom will want to make fish more often now.  My sister gave me the best reward: a Cola-Cao MILKSHAKE! I’m glad that she waited until I’m almost going home to introduce me to this heavenly drink or else I might not have been able to fit in all of my clothes.  I shall be brining A box of Cola-Cao home for winter break.

and here's the proof mom! Maybe just maybe I'll try it when I get home, but NOT lobster!

Less than 3 weeks until I’m back in the homeland and get to see you wonderful people!

Blessings,

Alyssa

Coming Soon...

Hello to my wonderful family and friends,

As much as I want to write pages upon pages about my experiences over the past month of November, time keeps getting cut short over here.  I returned from the camino de santiago pilgrimmage in the northern province of spain late last night and I am heading to visit friends in cork, Ireland very early tomorrow morning. Talk about jet lag! Hopefully I will snap out of the jet lag quickly since I haven't seen these great friends since before the summer!   

I will return from Cork on Monday, Nov. 28th and can't wait to sit down with a big glass of Cola-Cao to write pages and pages of tales from my pilgrimmage, my grandparent's visit, and life's daily moments with Manolo and the gang.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I am so thankful to have such encouraging  and warm people in my life even while I'm here on the other side of the world.

Thanksgiving blessings,

Alyssa

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 

The one where I booked trips to Ireland, Barcelona, Italy, tutored two little Spanish boys, and my fabulous aunt visited me from London

Greetings!

I apologize that it has been so long since I’ve written.  The busy part of the semester is approaching.  I also signed up for many activities in the beginning of the semester that I have been very busy with for the past week.  I know I’ve said this before, but this post may be the most random post so far. There’s just so much to say, and I already know that I will be forgetting to mention important things.

I have been doing a lot of exploring of Toledo with friends.  The other day (well actually this was about two weeks ago now), I went with friends to six of Toledo’s important historical monuments.  It was really neat to learn that Toledo’s history is unique in that is has one of the longest periods of peaceful coexistence between three cultures.  I found it fascinating that even though I am in one city, I could walk around and feel like I’m in many places since the Christians, Moors, and Jews lived in such close proximity when they shared Toledo as their homes.  My favorite stop on our scenic tour was the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes.  It was beautiful to say the least; however, learning the history behind the monastery is what really stuck with me.  My friends and I decided to sit in the pews for a while to take it all in, and when I looked up I saw a rather large Pikachu balloon.  After exploring many museums and monuments, we felt that we deserved a little dessert.  At this very moment, I tried my first chocolate with churros at café de las monjas (the nun café).  Notice how they are called chocolate with churros….this probably has to do with the fact that they gave me a huge cup of steamy, creamy, milk chocolate.  This chocolate was so good that I didn’t even mind when I got the bill, the chocolate was double the price of the churros.  Interestingly enough, my favorite part of the café de las monjas was not the chocolate with churros.  My favorite part was the cute little old lady who worked there.  She struck up a conversation with my friend and I.  She gave us a hug and pinched my cheeks (very hard) when we left the restaurant.  After this, my friend and I went on a hunt for the most authentic marzapan in Toledo since she is heading to Germany and wants to torture her German friends with a few samples of marzapan that they obviously cannot eat every day like I do.  We scored! We stumbled upon a little marzapan shop owned by a married couple in Toledo.  They run the business together and wake up everyday at 4am to make fresh marzapan for the day.  And to end this day, I’m pretty sure my friends and I are extras in a Spanish T.V. series that was being filmed in Toledo.  Since we did some serious hiking through the city, we seemed to accidentally run into the heart of the action when they were filming at many of our destinations.  I told my family to keep an eye out when watching tv ;)

  

For the past two weeks, I have been meeting with my language partners.  Since there were more Spanish locals in need of language partners that weren’t able to find an American student at the awkward mingling dinner, I signed up to have two language partners.  It has been working out great.  Elisabeth is my younger intercambio in her lower twenties and Ruth is my other intercambio in her upper twenties.  Elisabeth works at a bank in Madrid and Ruth works with students with intellectual disabilities.  I think I am able to easily understand Ruth because she has such a smooth, calm voice.  They are both such warm girls.  Ruth even invited me to travel to Granada, Spain (which happens to be the one trip I really want to go on, but didn’t think would be possible).  Of course I will be in Ireland that weekend. Oh well, it was still so thoughtful of her.  For our next meeting, we are planning on getting together to cook up a Spanish feast.  I had a funny encounter after my meeting with my intercambio.  I was walking my intercambio back to her house since it was on the way to my bus stop to head home, and I heard a man’s voice call my name.  Well, it sounded similar to my name (pronounced: AlEEEEEsa -  stress the EEE).  I turned around to see my host dad Manolo standing outside of Pimkie which is a store full of fashionable girl clothes.  He took my host sister shopping wth my host mom.  She told me that he had been waiting in the store entrance since they got there, waiting for something (anything) exciting to happen.  He proceeded to tell me that they had been shopping in that tiny store for over an hour, but my host mom quickly asserted that they couldn’t have been there for over 15 minutes.  My host family picked out a scarf that they bought me.  It was quite a family debate about which scarf they should buy me, but my host mother ultimately decided to get me a very chunky blue scarf.  At the rate I’ve been buying scarves, I think I will have to wear 4 at once on the plane ride home to have space in my suitcase!

So I don’t bore you with so many details, here is a list of my life in Spain:

1.)   Great news! My host family has told me that they overheard me sleep talking in SPANISH!!!  Made my day

2.)   Manolo (my host dad) is now my personal guitarist.  He played classical Spanish songs on his guitar while I did my homework.  I have a few videos to share if I could ever figure out how to do so

3.)   My family gave me permission to answer the house phone when it rings and they are not home.  And as soon as they gave me this responsibility and headed out the door, there I was alone in the house with a ringing phone.  I don’t mean to be dramatic, but it is much more difficult for me to understand Spanish over the phone.  I worked up my courage and ended up having a conversation with Manolo’s good friend.  When I told him I was from Wisconsin, he told me that he had recently traveled to Appleton, Wisconsin of all places!

4.)   I skyped my family in the United States the other day, and they were eating dinner BEFORE me! 7 hours behind Spain and they ate BEFORE me (and quite a while before me too). I couldn’t believe it!

5.)   After not making any travel plans for the first month of my study abroad experience, I now have confirmed plans to visit Ireland, Barcelona, and Pisa.  Miraculously, every little detail came together (and very cheaply to add).  I will be heading to Cork, Ireland with my friend Laura to visit SNC friends for Thanksgiving.  On October 27^th, Laura, Meg, and I will be taking an overnight bus to Barcelona.  We will arrive in Barcelona at 7:35 am.  From Barcelona, we will fly to Pisa, Italy and take a train to Florence, Italy to visit other SNC friends.  I am still processing the fact that I am actually going to Ireland and Italy and that so many of my friends are in these countries at the same time!

6.)   My complete travel wish list is as follows:

*Italy

*Ireland

*Prague

*Barcelona, Spain

*Pilgrimmage of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

*Granda, Spain

All of these trips sounded pretty reasonable and doable except Prague.  However, I am thrilled to say that I will be heading to Prague, Czech Republic to visit Czech-mate (Vaclav) on December 8^th. I’ve heard that Prague is beautiful at Christmas time.  I should be purchasing my ticket tomorrow. 

7.)   My host mom bought my baby sister Emma a present. My host mom found the flamenco dress that I bought for my sister and surprised me with matching shoes.  So generous!

Goodness, I apologize for the length of this blog post.  I will not be offended if you honestly do not care about my baby sister’s shoes.  I just don’t like to forget things J

I am in a service learning course where we are learning about the immigrant experience in Spain since Spain has the second highest immigration rate after the Untied States.  For this course, I help teach English in a local school to 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th graders for two hours each Wednesday.  I had my first day last week and it was quite the experience.  First, as an education major I was really tuned into the way in which the teachers interacted with the students and vice versa.  All of the children were great kids.  I got the impression that the teachers do not have issues with unruly individual students.  However, as a whole the students were very loud.  I don’t mean to say that they were being purposefully disrespectful or unruly, I think they do not have the same understanding of raising their hands to talk or waiting their turn to talk.  Also, the teachers are very loose and do not seem to practice typical classroom management skills that I am used to seeing.  They are not bad teachers, it was simply interesting to observe the different cultural approach to education.  If I were these students, I would be exhausted by the end of the day since they are constantly competing for the teacher’s attention with their voices.  They all had good and important things to say; however, they all feel the need to say it at the same time.

I started off in third grade and introduced myself.  I told them about my life in the United States and my favorite food, color, etc.  Next, the teacher handed out paper for them to draw me and include details after I described myself.  The teacher gave me the drawings to keep, and I took them out to look at them on my bus ride home.  At first, I was surprised to see that the first drawing had me with a word bubble saying “My name is Alyssa and I’m a multi-millionaire.” I didn’t recall mentioning anything about finances.  I was even more surprised to see the next picture that had a car that the student indicated to be made out of gold.  I received many drawings like this. 

I also started a job where I tutor two boys in English (7 and 10 yrs. old) on Mondays for an hour.  It was such a great experience! Their parents picked me up from my school to take show me the way to their house.  After tutoring the boys, they insisted that I ate dinner at their darling house. Honestly, they have the most home-y house.  We ate super salty meats and cheeses and finished the meal off with homemade chocolates with almonds (can life get any better?).  Also, they have a fat white cat named Pixie who likes to take naps in the garage on the dad’s (Mario) moped.  They are a great family. Mario is actually a local tour guide for Toledo, so between him and Monolo I am set for any Spanish history exam!  We finished the night off playing jamón (Spanish word for ham).  Jamón is the equivelant of the American H-O-R-S-E  basketball game.  I headed home and my family was eating dinner when I got home.  They said they knew I would be back to eat since they made Mexican tacos! How could I resist? I hope this 2-dinner Monday deal does not become a routine.

The two boys I tutor (Mario and Alberto). Mario is the one with half a head

And for the greatest news of all….my auntie Sue visited me this past weekend from London! I think I may need to have a separate future post about this trip.  It was such a special trip. 

Highlights:

1.)   We stayed in the most beautiful house in the old part of my Toledo!  It was my first time waking up in the true city of Toledo.  Unfortunately, I did not get up early enough for sunrise but I feel like I saw it after listening to my aunt describe it.

2.)   Life slowed down with my auntie Sue’s visit.  We had time to sit and talk for hours in the famous hammock room and catch up since we hadn’t seen each other since last January.

3.)   And I thought I had found all the hidden gems of Toledo…ya right!  Together we found the most amazing (and cheap of course) bakery called Benipan where I had my first  (of many) pan de chocolate.  I also took my Auntie Sue to Café de las Monjas where she had her first chocolate with churros.  The cheek-pinching lady was not there that day L

4.)   We went to Europe’s biggest flea market in Madrid and scored BIG time! Let’s just say I am almost done Christmas shopping.  I went to the flea market prepared to haggle (I think haggled is the right word?) prices since I saw a video about this exact flea market and everyone haggled the prices.  Everything was SO cheap though. I purchased a scarf for 2 Euros and a Cristiano Renaldo jersey for 12 Euros!

5.)   We went to the Parque de Retiro In Madrid. The leaves were starting to change colors there.  This was a happening park, yet very peaceful.  I don’t think I saw one person who didn’t seem to be having a good time.

6.)   We saw Pablo Picasso’s famous painting “Guernica” which depicts the brutality of the Spanish civil war.  Powerful.

7.)   To end our weekend, my host parents took my aunt and I on a nighttime tour of Toledo.  They took us to spots you would only know of if you lived in Toledo.  We got to see the luscious space where the cardinal used to live.  This truly completed my aunt’s Toledo experience since Manolo took us down thee narrowest Toledo street without question in his car.  The look on her face was priceless.

Café de las Monjas

Reading room of the house

Ahh the hammock room!

Living Room/ dining room

After the long hike

If you made it this far, you must really love me! ha! I miss you all very much.  I must go now because my host mom is telling me in Spanish “don’t work so hard Aleeessa!” 

Blessings from Spain,

Alyssa