All Done

So it has almost been a month since I lasted posted anything, and TONS has happened during that time that I´m having trouble remembering everything.

I had forgotten what NICE people were like until I went to Lisbon, Portugal awhile ago. Even though my friend Bridget and I couldnt speak Portuguese, everyone was so sweet and helpful, even if they couldnt speak English. We needed directions to get to a market that was a ways out of town, so thjis little old lady with no teeth tried to give us directions. Her son kept telling her that we didnt speak Portuguese, so she just talked louder and used hand motions. It was so funny and so cute. We still didnt get her directions, but it was a great experience none the less. Lisbon had the first Christmas lights of the year...the whole town was stocked with them. And the weather was GORGEOUS! Blue skies all weekend , even though it was a bit chilly.We walked around the Alfama, Barrio Alto (where all the bars are..which was cool. People went out in sweatchirts and crappy jeans and everyone just hangs out in the sreets. The bars werent big enough to spend any amunt of time in them, so they just give you a plastic cup and away you go), we saw the oceanarium, which was thge 2nd largest in the world, ate amazing portuguese pastries in Belém, and just hung out. It was wonderful.

People were also very nice in Dublin when I was there last weekend. Cat and I decided to go on Sunday night, we bought tickets on Tuesday, and left Thursday. Our hostel was the old recording studio for U2, Van Morrison, the Cranberries, and more people that I dont remember, so it was really cool. Nicely decorated. Terrible dirty bathrooms, but what can ya do_? Can´t win them all. We had stopped to ask for directions and the person was so nice to us...shockingly odd considering we had been living in Spain where people are not nearly so friendly. We stayed right on River Liffey by teh ha'penny bridge, 2 minutes from temple bar, o'connelle street, and 5 minutes from Trinity College and Grafton street. Took a tour of the guinnes factory and had a beer at the top at he Gravity Bar, a big glass room with an outstanding view of Dublin) Got coffee to go (so shocking because it doesnt exist in Spain) and Bewley´s, the home of my first coffee so many years ago. Originally we didnt want to leave Spain on our last long weekend in the country, but we´re just plain TIRED of seeing Cathedrals. Straight up. I dont care anymore. They´re all looking the same. And it worked out well because there were lots of Spaniards at our hostel, so we made friends and got to practice! It all worked out in the end.

And I´m such a lucky girl because I´ve had such wonderful visitors! My family was here for the week, and we Spent some time in Madrid, Bilbao, and Burgos. It was cold, but I hope yáll enjoyed yourself! Good wine, good tapas, good company. That was a very exciting week because the President Dunn, of WMU, came to visit to celebrate the programs 10th year of collaboration with the University of Burgos. So the family got to participate, too, and all the faculty were so happy to meet thm. President Dunn was recruiting Caitlin HARD CORE (go broncos!). We´ll see =). Buuuut anyways. There was a nice brunch with coffee, OJ, and typical Spanish brekfast foods (sugary croissants and bread), during which the Presidents of both univserities spoke and said nothing but nice things. Then we had ameeeting with the Mayor of Burgos, although he seemed completely unenthused with us, in his office. It was intersting to a point, but at the same time, it was obvious he had no idea we were even IN BURGOS, and that he had plenty of other things to do. In the offfice, there was a crucifix on the wall with Jesus wearing a lime green skirt and he had 5 eggs t his feet. I asked Hermana Paula about it later on and she laughed saying ¨Cristo de los Huevos¨but couldnt explain it to me. So i´m still clueless. Maybe I´ll google it... But moving on. Later that night was a ncie little ceremony with all out profs and the presidents and all that good stuff, where they said every nice thingin the world about us, although they really had no idea. Most of our teachers think we´re idiot americans,mso it was funny when the VP of INternation Relations kept saying that we are the ¨best students inthe US.¨ It was sweet of her regardless. Following was a concert that should have bee STRAIGHT out of Monty Python that draggedon and on, but afterwards was a reception with free appatizers and wine. It was wonderful. All teh servers were like ¨come o! drink more! why not? its free!¨so we did. Most of the Michiganders were drunk. We are wondrful representations of American students, let me tell you. Also, my professor, Diego,looks JUST LIKE my brother, Dan. So we asked him to be in a replacement for him in our family pic, which he did, and thought it was quite funny. The next day, the Cheevers cooked Carmen and Elena Thanksgiving dinner (a day early) because we´d be on the road during the real thing, and beacause they had never experieced it! We had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce from a can, ensalada de Carmen, croissants, corn...tons of good stuff. We educated Carmen on the wonderful dessert that we call Brownies, which she fell in love with. She had never had them before, and of course wanted the recipe. Funny thing was though, is that it was from a box, and i dont know how to make brownies from scratch. By the time I confessed that it was from a box (frowned upon in Spain) she had already googled a recipe. Overall, i couldnt have asked for a better time. My biological family with my Spanish family: Carmen, Elena, and Catherine. I got to practice translating, too! Mom, Caitlin, Cat, and I went to the homeless shelter one day, and all the hermanas just LOVED them Seriously. They still ask how they´re doing. That Friday, we met Kim in Madrid, took a bus tour of the city, and saw an incredible famenco show. Overall it was a vry porductive week.

Then Kim was here! And the snow! We just hung out, walked around Burgos, went t class, and caught up. It was terrible weather, but we trekked through it and had a darn good time.

So that´s basically been my life. I had 2 finals this week, which i did well on. We had out little goodbye ceremony today, got my diploma, and that IT. I´ve spent a lot of time at the homeless shelter befause I´ve gotten pretty close with some of the people. The hermanas made Cat and I lunch today and so ate with them in their little kitchen. 8 nuns and 2 american girls. It was incredile, I couldnt ask for a better experience with them. They´ve taught ups so much and have been such a huge part of my experience here. We hug out with them after eating conejo (rabbit...all i could think of was our bunny rabbit PJ...but it tasted good!), took some fotos, had coffee and chatted. Tomorrow is the last day,and I will probably bawl my eyes out. A ver.ç

Then I´m home Sunday! I cannot believe how fast the semester has gone...like a blink of an eye. But! I´m excted for the xmas season at home, and see all my friends and family. It´s definitely a mixed emotion.

Welp, that´s all for now. And that´s alot. Hope you´ve enjoyed. See you soon!

Love,
Cara

my how time flies when you're having fun!

I just ate that. Calamari. That I watched Carmen dismember and fry. And then as I nervously popped one (and I mean the ones with 8 legs) into my mouth, one of the little legs curled around my lip, and I had to suck it in to my mouth. YUCK. Carmen likes to offer me gross, new things to eat because she knows I promised to try everything, at least once. (Bad idea). But then again, I've started to like Octopus, Murcilla...and TOMATOES. (gasp!)

Ok, sorry for grossing you all out with that picture. It's really quite disgusting to look at.

The semester is winding down! Class for about 3 more weeks, and then exams, and then home! 1 month and 2 days, to be exact.

I went to a Real Madrid Futbol game last weekend and let me tell you...those people are NUTS. We walked up to a parking lot FILLED with motos and overweight men wearing leather pants. And they though they looked a lot better in them than they really did. It was against Malaga, who is the purple team, and we passed one dude wearing a purple frilly dress. If you're ever seen Greenstreet Hooligans, you get the idea loud and clear about the enviroment at a game. We sat in the Malaga section because those were the best seats available, although they were still in the nosebleed section. People were chanting in spanish and I just couldnt understand a word. Cat, Ernesto, and I went, although none of us know how to play soccer, so we just cheered and booed when everyone else did as a general rule. There was one play that everyone was cheering for, so we did too, but when I asked Cat what happened she replied saying "i dont know! but everyone else is clapping, so I am too!" and it turns out the guy sitting nect to her could speak English, and he thought that comment was pretty funny. Belly-laugh funny. Before the game, Cat and I realized that we didnt know what color Real Madrid is, so we had to make sure we figured that out before the game actually started. They're white. Just so you know.

So I havent mentioned the Spanish point of view on the Obama victory!!! It was so funny. After being interviewed for the newspaper, and on TV (let me tell you, that was SO awkward. I felt like SUCH an idiot. SPanish media is so strange.), another woman called me to ask if I'd come down to the TV station for a live interview on an american student's perspective of teh elections, and sit in the little chairs and everything for the interview. But I had class, and I'm afraid to miss it because Lena is scary and crazy. That would have been cool, but I would have been crapping my pants in fright. But everyone is so happy Obama won! When I walked in to the homeless shelter, all the nuns greeted me and Cat and the door saying "ganas! ganas! ganas!" "you won you won you won!" we proceeded to jumped up and down and squeel for a few moments like little girls in the lobby of the shelter. I wish I had had a camera. Even the gentlemen and lunch kept talking about it! And still do! The would ask us "Have you voted? Have you voted? For Obama?" Which I thought was cool. Especially from one man who had just spent 7 days on a rowboat in the ocean traveling from Africa to Spain (it normally only takes 3, but he had gotten lost)...between our questions of how he got here and what not, he kept talking about OBAMA! it was magical. I couldnt believe the pics I saw of Grant Park. If I had been in teh states...I would have been there, too!

Family is coming in 10 days! I'm so excited. Can't wait to show everyone around Burgos and Madrid. And make you eat fun things like octopus and calamari...but I'll treat you to some excellent patatas bravas and croquetas, too. And then Kim comes the following weekend! I cant even believe how fast the time has gone. Lisboa this weekend, family, then Kim, then Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and then I fly home Sunday of that next weekend! It's crazy!

Ok well i'm exhausted. I'll see you all, soon though!

Besos,
Cara

PS: more pics up!

Back from Barcelona! So pretty! We saw lots of Antonio Gaudi, went to Park Guell, La Pedrera, saw Casa Batllo, and the Sagrada Familia. Saw the Olympic Stadium from 94 and hung out in the barbor. It rained all day, almost everyday, but regardless it had lots of life and energy.

Before we left, Kiah and I were interviewed by the newspaper in Burgos regarding the presidential elections (all in Spanish obviously, a bit nerve-racking) and it was in elMundo, one of Spain's largest newspapers. She misquoted me a bit, but in reality, I sounded better after she fixed it, haha. I know most of you cant read it, but its still cool:

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/11/02/castillayleon/1225637921.html

Camino por la Sierra de la Demanda

So instead of studying for the exam I have today or working on the 4 papers that I have due in the next 4 days, Carmen and I went on 25 km hike in the mountains. And let me tell you, it was more than worth it. We took a bus with about 40 other Universidad de Burgos students/faculty to the Sierra de la Demanda, about 45 minutes outside of town. Here are a few pictures:

After 14 kms, we had lunch at the top on some rocks overlooking the valley
The first Cara and Carmen picture on record. She's so cute.
Doesn't matter where they are, Spaniards take a siesta after lunch.
Angela and I at the top!
Crystal
The pretty colors of Fall


You can see Burgos in the distance



This is at the first peak - and a picture of the first snowfall in the province of Burgos.

And this is how close we got to those mountains. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but the other picture was zoomed. It was far, trust me.

Overall, pictures don't really do it justice, but that seems to be a general trend. It was just plain incredible!

So now Carmen and I are in incredible pain. We keep wobbling around the apartment like old women, so I'm sure it's pretty funny for Elena to watch. We were zombies afterwards, asleep by 9pm. And today, we're recuperating by cleaning and catching up on TONS of homework. Wish me luck with week!

La Vida Buena

So I will be home in less than two months...and that makes me heart hurt a little. So much to learn and see still!

On that note, Rome was fantastic. Seriously. It was a trek from hell - literally, hell. After the 8 hour bus ride, we ended up in Barcelona thinking we could catch the next bus to the airport, which was 1.5 hours away. Turned out the next one wasnt til 6 hours later, at 330 am. So we just sat around the bus station (there was a group, dont worry) until we got kicked out at 1am so they could clean. So we wandered around Barcelona for 2 hours with all out bags, exhausted and pissed off, until we could buy our tickets. Then we got to the airport, checked in, and slept til our flight left at 8:30 am. Then in Ciampino, we waited in like for 2 hours for a bus to take us in to Roma. It turned out to be 48 hours of traveling (both way) for 72 hours in Rome. And 200 euros in transportation when all was said in done. So lesson learned: Ryanair SAYS its cheaper, but in the long run - NO! f-you ryanair. you suck.

In the end, it was worth it. Rome, when we got there, was AMAZING. Seriously. Amazing. I think I was in shock just about the entire time. We saw the pantheon, roman forum, colosseum, vatican museums, sistine chapel, the baths of caracala, st. peter's basilica, and we saw the pope say mass on sunday morning in saint peter's square! it was so cool! i just about crapped my pants with excitement when I saw michaelangelo's pieta and the birth of adam. and the Dali and Marc Chagall paintings, and all the scultpures in the vatican museum, and the trevi fountain, oh yeah, and the colosseum. and everything else. everytime i turned around there was something else AMAZING to see! Cat and I ate gelato at night by the pantheon and had a fantastic pasta dinner by the Pizza de Navarro. Fettucine with pesto. The best of my life. And when we were eating, drinking wine, and chatting, a music group came up and played music in the street. i was like out of a postcard. And then we asked for our bill after sitting there for 2 hours, and our waiter told us to finish our wine, first! As servers ourselves, it was an odd experience to be denied our bills in such a manner. And then, after we payed, he basically kicked us out because he wanted our table. It was a funny experience to say the least.



Some of the girls I went to Rome with outside the Colosseum!
Inside the Colosseum
Lauren and I haning out on a 2000 year old pillar. Cool.
I was just loving these guys.
Here am just about crapping myself with excitement after seeing Michaelangelo's Pieta.
The Birth of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. Its a big no-no to take pictures, but i snuck one it.

Cat and I hanging out in St. Peter's Square just after mass.


So there are a few highlights - the rest are online with the rest of my pictures.

Burgos has been good. We're resting/getting ahead with schoolwork this weekend, as we did last weekend. When one person gets sick, its like a tital wave of illness with out Western group. So we figured its a good time to let our immune systems rest. Lena, the crazy crazy crazy professor Lena, has loaded on papers and exams all of a sudden, so thats cool. Its not like I'm here for school or anything =) I got a 'notable' on my first exam, which kicked just about everyone's butts, so i can't complain about that. It was just plain hard. Spanish grading is a bit confusing and completely different that in the US. I got a 7 out of 10, but thats considered really really good. So thats good, I guess. Who knows.

Lately, I've been hanging out with Elena, the Chinese student who lives with us. She's really cool, and has been teaching me a little bit of Chinese! I've learned "north" "south" "capital" "hello" and "thank you" -- i figured ya gotta start somewhere! And i've been volunteering 3 times a week serving lunch at the homeless shelter, so thats been a lot of fun. All the sisters LOVE us, and we're getting to know the people who either live there or frequent it. And I started doing this intercambio where us WMU students work with small groups of spanish students our age who want to learn english. Its been cool getting know more people my age abd learning about spanish culture. Plus then I'm not the one making an ass out of myself everytime I open my mouth. It's a nice change =)

I'm just happy as a clam. Life is good. I'm so excited to meet Lauren in Barcelona next weekend, and then I think Cat and I are heading to Toledo, then to Madrid to see a Real Madrid soccer game. Then we're thinking about going to Lisboa, Portugal for the weeked, then parents are here! then kim! then we're going to Galicia to see Santiago de Compostela and A Coruna. The exams, then home! I can't believe how fast the time is going.

Well, its almost 2am, and I'm tired. Goodnight, love you all.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Update: I'm heading to Rome for about 4 days! And let me tell you, once I get passed the stress of GETTING there, I'm sure I'll be incredibly excited.

I'll be leaving my apt in about 20 mins for a 30 minute walk to the Bus Station. Then its an 8 hours bus ride (yuck) to Barcelona. Then we have to find a bus that can take us to the town of Girona, a "suburb" of sorts of Barcelona, and hour and a half from Barcelona, to catch our plane tomorrow morning. We're sleeping in the airport tonight because we dont want to waste money on a hostel that we'll spend less than 10 hours in. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning and we'll be in Rome Ciampano tomorrow at 10am. And then we have to figure out how to get to Rome. And then our hostel, haha.

But it'll be worth it, let me tell you!

And then the escapade starts again on our way HOME monday night. Bus ride to Ciampano, flight to Girona, bus ride to Barcelona (then we're staying in a hostel Monday night), then 6.5 hour train ride back Tuesday morning with and hour to spare before class at 4:30. Phew! How great.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

All the pictures are up from the South! Look at them!

Besos, Cara

i suck at blogging

ok! so i'm not so great with keeping this updated. but there has just been too much stuff going on to possibly write down everything! This is going to be a long one.

first and foremost - exams went well. good news Mom and Dad. =)
Second - The week in the south of Spain was HA-MAZING. I LOVED the south. It was warm and exactly the Spain that I imagined with the small, wind-ey streets, and Arabic influences in the food and arquitechture. I took over 700 pictures in one week, holy cow. The people were so friendly, too! But they spoke with a very Andalusian accent, completely no pronouncing the "s" and shortening words all over the place. Catherine and I were sitting on the Roman bridge in Cordoba and a group of people came up to talk to us and it was like a foreign language. We took an 8-hr overnight train from Burgos to Cordoba (Hell. The most uncomfortable kind of hell, without reclining seats). But I took a Tylenol PM and was out in minutes. We dropped off our luggage at the hostel when we get there at 9am, then went to see the Mezquita de Cordoba. OH. MY. GOSH. it was better than I imagined. The red and whtie striped pillars were gorgeous and it was like we we had studied in class. The Catholics ruined it a bit when they invaded and turned it from a Mosque to a cathedral. But the catherdral was very pretty, too. We also saw the Alcazar where the Catholic Kings stayed when in Cordoba and all that good stuff. We ran in to some type of religious parade with women dressed up and an altar of gold and an army following behind. i have no idea what it was celebrating, but it was very-spanish anyways. Catherine and I ate salmorejo for dinner, which is liek gazpacho, but thicker and richer and tomato-ey-er. Very good. We stumbled across a massive outdoor concert in Cordoba, too. The first band was good, but it was followed by a white, Spanish wrap group. Easily the worst thing I'd ever heard in my life, and it all culminated when one of them, wearing an oversized white t shirt and completely blinged out, grabbed his crotch and said "palabra." (word).

From Cordoba we went to Malaga, a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea. We went to the Picasso Museum and saw where he lived and all that, but overall, Malaga was not so great. The beach we were near was basically sand/dirt and all rocks about 15 feet into the sea. But we can still say we swam in the mediterranean sea so i can complain! The best part, without a doubt, about Malaga was the hostel. It set my standards SO high...we met so many cool people from all over the world. England, Australia, New Zeeland, South Africa, Ireland, and lots more. We all just hung out together on the terrace overlooking the mediterranean sea talking, drinking, eating, doig nothing. The second day were were there we all went to the beach together and then out for a nice dinner, watched a flamenco show, and went to the bar later on. We hung out by the sea afterwards, both nights, after the bars. Our friend Matt, from New Zeeland, played the guitar for all of us on teh terrace - coldplay and john mayer. how wonderful. The whole experience was just so cool.

From Malaga we went to Granada. The Alhambra was one of the prettiest place I've ever seen and is known for having one of the best views of the world. and for good reason. you have to book your tickets days in advance to be able to enter and we thought we were too late, but the taxi driver told us we could get up early and buy them at the alhambra itself. So Cat and I woke up at 6:30 am, tracked down a bus (not easy), and got in line to buy a ticket when the doors opened at 8am. we werent even close to the first in line. i cant even express how pretty it was - you'll have to look at the picture that i'll be putting online at that website. but even the pictures dont do it justice. I loved Granada in general. When you go to a bar and order a drink, you get a free tapa. Its a marvelous system, really. We went to a tapas bar called Poe and all took a shot of absinthe (160 proof - green fairy brand, bright green, diluted with water, and mixed with sugar that had been set on fire. burned by chest for about 1 half hour afterwards. no hallucinations, dont worry Mom and Dad) and we had some AMAZING tapas there, and had fun talking to the bartender. Then we went to an arabic tapas bar, which makes sense because Granada was thelast Arabic city to fall to the Christians in 1492. I dont normally like arabic food, but this stuff was GOOD. The hostel was really hard to find in Granada, even the taxi driver didnt know where it was, and they were diong some SERIOUS construction at 7am, when my head was basically out the window. Oh well...we met people from France, Italy, Germany, and some countryt that ends in "vakia" that i dont remember. One night we were all hanging out together and at one point there were about 5 different languages being spoken. It was a cool experience, let me tell you.

From Granada we went to Sevilla, which was my favorite place by far. We spent 4 days seeing the sights, eating, drinking, taking pictures. The first night we went on a tapas tour with the hostal (which consisted of 1 terrible tapas bar) and then went to a flamenco show that seemed to be in someones basement. There was a HUGE room filled with picnic table and a huge bar, and a small stage. This dance was BIG and SCARY with passion. I was kind of afraid of her. There were 3 guys seeing/playing the music that she was dancing to, and one woman started tapping her toe and clapping in the front row, completely throwing off the beat. This woman had no idea though, and I thought the guy seeing was going to kill her. He had to little yell at her frmo the stage to shut up - i was scared for this old woman. The next day we went to the Cathedral and saw where Christopher Columbus is buried (cool, despite the fact that he was a terrible person). Saw the Real Alcazar which had some beautiful gardens in it. It started to rain on Saturday until sunday, which was a bummer. We had tickets to see a bullfight - we literally planned this entire vacation AROUND the bullfight - but it had been raining all day. We were assured it would not be canceled, though, so we trudged through the rain across town to the Plaza de Toros, went in, were sitting down waiting for it to start, teh sun shining at this point, when all the matadors entered on to the field to check out the conditions. The must not have like when they saw, because about 20 mins later a man ran around the edge of the ring with a sign that said "something, something, suspendida" and then everyone stood up, PISSED OFF, and started throwing their seat cusions on to the ring below and yelling curse words. I've never seen so many angry spaniards. Needless to say, the show was cancelled, and it was like our experience with the Price is Right all over again. So close, yet so far away. The price is WRONG, Bob. We did get our money back, though.

So that is a very brief synapsis of my week in the south. A lot of walking, a lot of sangria, and a lot os sightseeing. Classes started monday, and they're already kicking my ass. No joke. I've turned in a few papers already and have another big exam on monday, so im pretty excited about that. Not. But we've been studying Human Evolution because theres a site just outside of burgos where they found human remains from over a million years ago, and mammoths and saber tooth tigers and stuff. The figured out that these were the first humans in Europe, so thats pretty cool. But anyways, we'vebeen studying all that and I had to write a paper about it - human evolution is hard enoguh in ENGLISH, then throw a language barrier in there. And I checked wikipedia for some facts (they love wikipedia here) and our professor was one of the sources listed. That was pretty crazy - so there was quite the pressure to write a good paper on that one.

***Side note: people know A LOT more about the US than I do. Never have a felt like such an ignorant american - EVER. When we were in Malaga, people from New Zeeland and Australia wre like "oh, your from MI? isnt michael moore from MI? Flint, right?" and Cat and I looked at each other like ..."Uhhh..sure?" more than one person knew that. And Matt knew the exact years of Abe Lincoln's presidency. And people would KILLLLLLL for teh right to vote for the American president. No joke. Everyone was like "ARE YOU VOTING? GOOD! FOR WHO!? OBAMA?! OH GOOD!!!!"

*****Another side note: I watched Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric and laughed. A lot. Then I feared for humanity.

Ok...i had a pretty bad day the other day, and to cap it off, Carmen greeted me with fish. Still on the bone. And a face. Awesome. And WMU is amazing and making registering for classes next semester as difficult as possible - thank you Western, you suck.

When I came back from the South, we had another student living with us! Elena is from Beijing, China and will be here for an entire year. Yikes. She volunteered at the Olympics - isnt that cool? That're rhetorrical, you dont have to reply.

It has gotten tremendoudly cold here in Burgos. Its dark when class ends at night, so took ocupy ourselves, Catherine and I listen to Dane Cook on her Ipod on teh walk home. We must look like complete tools because we walk, huddled together, laughing hysterically over sometihng no one else can here.

I'm headed to Segovia this weekend to visit our friends Sarah and Alfredo! Im excited. And free lodging =) Catherine and I are headed to Rome next weekend for 4 days, and then we're meeting LAUREN SAPITA (!!!!!!) in Barcelona the weekend of Halloween! I'm SOOOO EXCITED!!!! Still trying to fit in Paris, Santiago de Compostela, and Toledo. And a friend and I were tossing around the idea of Greece today.


I'll uplaod all my 700 pics, soon. Girl scouts honor. Miss you all!