Winning London

Hey people,

Before I say anything else, yes this is titled after the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie because that was my weird first response to seeing London. Anyway I went to London this weekend and had the most amazing time with my friend Caroline!!! After a series of airport mishaps (don't ask) I made it to Caroline's flat. The first night, which was a shock to my system as it's actually cold in London, we went for a short walk before going to bed because my flight was so late. The next day, Friday, Caroline had to work pretty much all day and being me I was freaking out about going places by myself. I actually ended up having a wonderful day despite all the walking. I first went to the British museum and walked around there all morning. There were so many cool things there like the actual Rosetta Stone and parts of the Parthenon. I also had lunch there before going to look for souvenir shops.

British Museum

After finding one and being too indecisive to buy anything (leading to another story in which I never made it back to buy souvenirs and was depressed for like half an hour before Caroline said we could get food) I wandered down to the Thames River, which was gorgeous.

I found a boat tour place and did that, which brought me all the way down to the Tower of London and the Tower bridge and also passing lots of other cool stuff on the way.

Tower Bridge

Getting off the boat I decided to do one more thing before heading back to meet Caroline, so I ventured off again to find the Winston Churchill museum. They had an awesome audio tour of the museum and the exact replicas of the war rooms as they were when WWII was going on. It was so cool and I was being such  a history nerd that I didn't notice I only had 15 minutes to get to the other side of the city until I was almost done.

One of the War Rooms

After that I pretty much sprinted/ limped back to Caroline's flat, only getting lost once thanks to my handy dandy map. I was only half an hour late but of course that meant more running to get to the movies on time (we were still there 20 minutes early thank you very much) Caroline got us in for free with half off of drinks and chocolate because she works for the movie theater company- coolest job ever! We saw About Time, which was sooo good and then we headed to dinner at a pub called Shakespeare's Head. I got an actual hamburger with chips and almost died I was so happy. That was pretty much the end of the day with the next one just as jam packed.

Food!!!

Emily (also from Stonehill) joined us for the morning as we headed out on our adventure starting with a ride on  a double decker bus!!!

Double Decker Bus!

We made it to Buckingham Palace and got tickets for a tour, so we walked to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey while we waited. Here's where I get really jealous of the London people because we ran into not one but TWO groups of other Stonehill people. How crazy is that?

Big Ben

Telephone Booth Pic

Anyway we headed back for our amazing tour, with a special exhibit for the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. Next we walked past St. Paul's Cathedral, over Millennium bridge, past the Globe Theater, and to lunch at the Anchor, a pub that used to be where Shakespeare's dressing room was. I got a salad with actual salad dressing on it (hint hint Spain) and it was amazing.

Buckingham Palace

Globe Theater

Emily left us at this point but Caroline and I journeyed on to the Sherlock Holmes museum. We had to wait in the cold for over half an hour but it was worth it. Inside was what 221 b Baker Street would have actually looked like based on descriptions in the books and historical facts of the time period. So cool!

221 b Baker Street

Sherlock Holmes :)

After this we of course went to Platform 9 3/4 where they have a trolley sticking out of the wall that you can take pictures with. I don't know weather I should be insulted or not by the fact that I was the only Hufflepuff there that day (and for the past 7 years joked the scarf guy), there is clearly some unjustified discrimination going on here. All I can here in my head right now is Caroline quoting Team Starkid for like the fifth time, "What the hell is a Hufflepuff?!"

Off to Hogwarts

After that we were going to walk to find the Tardis, or a police box for you non- Doctor Who people, when I realized that I would actually have felt better if my feet were cut off, so we went back to her flat (cue earlier story where I was depress followed by food). We ate actual Italian food and it was amazing. After that we hung out with some more Stonehill people before going to a cool bar/club (I don't actually know which). Finally we went to bed at 2, woke up at 6:30 and I was back in Madrid before I knew it (following more unfortunate airport problems because I just can't win). Ultimately I had the most amazing weekend seeing London and hanging out with Caroline who was the best host ever!!! I can't wait to see her and hopefully my other friends when they come to Madrid to visit!!

Love,
Sam

You Only Lagos Once

Hey people,

I just got back from my first trip out of the country to Lagos, Portugal. It was literally the most incredible weekend I could have asked for- I loved every second of it!! (well except for the bus rides). We left Madrid at 1 AM Friday morning for a 6 hour bus ride to Sevilla- it was freezing and I barely slept. That was followed by a half hour walk to the Discover Excursions bus pick up site, followed by a 2 hour wait. When the Discover Excursions guys finally arrived we loaded onto another bus for a final 3 hour journey to Portugal. When we finally arrived and saw the view of the beach we were staying at I realized it was so worth it.

Jealous?

That first day we went for a quick walk on the beach- the water is as amazing as it looks- and ate some lunch. After this we went on a sangria boat cruise (with unlimited drinks heehee) While there we also got to go on a small speed boat tour of some awesome caves and we dove in the water right off the boat. That was definitely my favorite part of the whole weekend.

Me and my sangria :)

We hung out in a cool Irish bar until dinner when we went into the town center- super cute with lots of restaurants and shops- a perfect little beach town. For dinner we went to a diner where they had special menus just for us Discover Excursions people which included a meal and 2 drinks and I got fajitas!!!!!! After that we went to a bar with Benny, one of the guys in charge (he was British!) and then went back to sleep. The next two days were spent wandering from the beach to the pool either laying in the sun or swimming. Pointing out right now that I got a tan for the first time ever!!

Climbing some cliffs

Saturday we also took a bus over to the west coast to see the end of the world sunset. They call it that because people used to think that was the end of the world. It was so beautiful none of my pictures can do it justice.

Finally we had to leave on Sunday unfortunately. The first bus ride was awesome- we watched a movie!! And the second bus ride was so hot I thought I was actually going to melt into a puddle on the floor. Even though I had an amazing time away walking out of the metro at 7 AM Monday morning I was so happy to be home. Then I realized I'm only going to be here for a few days before I'm off again- this time to London. Shout out to Caroline and Peter I literally can't wait to see you!!!!

Love,
Sam

Quick Update

Hey people,

So I don't have much to tell you other than that this has been a super stressful week. All my teachers gave me a mountain of homework all of a sudden an I had to do it all right away because I don't have the weekends because of all my upcoming travels. Aside from that my exciting news of the week is that I started the Canterbury English one week TEFL program (teaching English as a foreign language). I was the only education member there, which also means that I didn't learn anything new but that's ok. next week I will start teaching Spanish children English yay!!! I'm also getting paid like 15 Euro an hour so yay again!!! Anyway here's some pictures of my residencia because I don't really have any that go with this and I just realized I never put any here anyway.

Our front door

My room!

Love,
Sam

Settling In

Hey people,

I know I haven't been here for that long but it already feels like I've been here forever. The rest of the API kids have finally arrived (my program) and just hearing about them doing orientation now seems so weird- that was so long ago for me. I had my first full week of classes this week and at the very least I know that I will survive it. I love my psych class- so easy and the professor is super nice. I also love my history professor- I'm the only history major here so he always seems to direct class only to me and we talk in between the 2 classes I have with him. It's nice because I normally don't talk to any of my professors at all so yay! Finally I officially hate my American Lit class, I don't like what we're doing or how the class is run or anyone in it, clearly this is going to be the time when I'm glad all of this is pass/fail at Stonehill.

More about Spain in general- I'm a pro at the metro, I don't even need to look at the signs anymore, I just know exactly where to go. I finally went for a walk in Retiro park without getting lost. I think I'm getting used to the food here, some days it's good and some days I have come to the realization that I have to eat it or starve which makes things a lot simpler. I really like my residencia and all the people who work here- I am now friends with the cleaning lady, the kitchen lady, and the laundry lady mostly because I do things kind of weird apparently and that's how they know me :) I have also found a Starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts on Gran Villa that are super close to walk to!! It was at the moment when I found those when I realized just how much I love it here and how excited I am to spend a whole semester here. And yes I know that should probably not been the thing that made me come to that realization but oh well!

El Palacio de Crystal in Retiro

The one exciting thing I did this week was go on an extra credit field trip for my history class. We went to Alcala de Henares, which is a small town outside Madrid and is actually super cool and full of so many fun history facts. We took a train to get there and then walked around with Hector (my professor) giving us a very detailed tour. We saw the place where Catherine of Aragon was born, the place where Christopher Columbus asked Queen Isabella for money to go on his journey and Miguel de Cervantes house- he wrote Don Quixote. Then we went to the Regional Archeology Museum to see a special exhibit on Hannibal. The one thing I will never get used to is eating so late- I was starving the whole time and we finally got to get lunch at 2:30 because we begged even though that was apparently too early. I finally tried some tapas which were amazing and then we went home.

Hannibal

Plaza in Alcala de Henares

That's pretty much all for now but next weekend I'm off to Portugal so I will post again after that!

Love,
Sam

Let the Games Begin

Hey people,

So I've been here for like over a week now and there is just so much going on and so much that I've already done here. First things first, my classes have started at Suffolk. It's so weird going to a school that's so small (only 4 classrooms) and also one that has so many pictures of Boston everywhere. Of course the class I was most excited for, Mediterranean Societies, got cancelled and I had to switch out but it's ok. My classes now are Psychology, American Literature, World Empires and Globalization, and the History of Spain. My classes seem like they might actually be easy, by that I mean I only have 5 papers this semester. Guys that is like a miracle keep your fingers crossed they're nice and easy.

My usual days now consist of watching tv (I know I promised not to but did anyone really think it was going to happen?) and going for walks in Retiro Park. Every time I go there I see something new and I always find new paths to walk (including the time I couldn't find my way out for 1 hr and 40 min). I literally cannot get over how beautiful it is there. But I have also seen some other stuff, including a different park- Templo de Debod. This park has an Egyptian temple in it- I'm serious an entire temple was moved here from Egypt as a gift to Spain- so cool!

 

 

I have found some pretty cool bars to hang out in, well other people found them and I went too, there's Dubliners (an Irish bar), Pin Up (has super cheap drinks), and my favorite that I of course forget the name of that looks like you're inside a cave and drinks come out of the ceiling. My latest adventure was to the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium, which is I think my favorite thing I've done so far. They have so many cool animals- pandas, koalas, a baby elephant, lots of rhinos and a pretty good amount of sharks. They have a bear that will sit up and wave at you if you call hola and wave to him. My favorite part was the dolphin show, which was amazing!!

 

Bear waving at us

Dolphins jumping over the trainer



 Alright I think that's it for now, but I'm sure I'll have more things to talk about soon!

Love,
Sam