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Sorry for the Lack of Posts …

May 26, 2013 No Comments

There hasn’t been much to have gone on this past week/I never got around to just sitting down and writing about stuff. So here is my catch-up post. 🙂

Monday we went to this place where we learned to make food like the Romans did 2,000 years ago. Let me tell you, that stuff was disgusting! The only thing I liked somewhat was the chicken. We drank this really gross rose wine … which was also served HOT, making it even more disgusting. Let’s just say for dinner that night I pretty much had gelato and some Magnum ice cream (Pau forced me).

Tuesday was pretty boring. The class I’m in didn’t have any activities to do that afternoon, so we just slept for a while. That night a few of us went to a mojito bar and I got a watermelon mojito! Yum! After that we went to this Irish pub that has different nights every night and that night it was salsa night. I didn’t dance at all but it was really interesting to see the people who know how to do it really well. Melanie and I didn’t stay for long though because we started our first week at the hospital and we had to wake up super early the next morning.

At the hospital, our day starts at 8:30 and ends at 1. It’s a pretty long day, having to walk around the hospital all over the place and trying to comprehend everything the doctor is doing and saying. Sometimes you get patients that prefer talking in Catalan better, so I have no idea what they are saying. It’s definitely not something I enjoy and I’m not liking this in-patient type of physical therapy, but I only have one more week left to go.

Continuing on our adventures, Wednesday’s previous event was cancelled. We were supposed to go do water sports at La Playa Larga, but the weather in the earlier portion of the week was chilly and we didn’t want to have some bad weather while at the beach. Ironically, it turned out to be a nice day, but I was glad they postponed it so the water can warm up more. Instead, we went to the see The Great Gatsby, or El Gran Gatsby, here. I could follow the movie, which helped by the fact that I read the book, but I really want to see it in English, especially to hear Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey Macguire’s voices. And the “old sport” by Gatsby was just “compañero” in Spanish … but at least I have seen the movie!

Thursday night we took a dance class with two people who are on the Spanish version of Dancing with the Stars. We learned bachata, salsa, and meringue. Bachata was definitely the easiest and I liked shaking it. Salsa was definitely the most difficult. I don’t see myself dancing salsa at Highland’s anytime soon! It was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. After that, myself and two of my friends met up with our host brother and went to a discoteca in Tarragona. It didn’t match up to the one in Barcelona, but let’s just say that night was verrrrrrrry interesting!

Friday we left for La Mora. It’s a beach kind of in Tarragona. It’s about 20 minutes or so from our house here in Spain. Unfortunately, it was pretty windy, so we didn’t go out on the beach at all this weekend. The good thing though was that there was a really nice pool area that we hung out at all day both days. I am now more burned than I have every been before. My back, my chest, my stomach, and my face hurt so bad right now! 🙁 At least I’m going to be very tan! We stayed there until today so now we are back in Tarragona.

Tonight we’re going to eat dinner with another family in the neighborhood who also have kids from JMU staying with them. It’s really nice outside so we should have a good time. We’ve already hit the halfway mark in our time here, and I’m very sad about it! We have some really great adventures coming up this week, so hopefully I’ll blog more frequently about everything! ¡Hasta luego!

Study Abroad, Uncategorized

Barcelona!

May 20, 2013 1 Comment

What a weekend. We were only in Barcelona for two days but we did so much. My feet still hurt from walking around so much and I’m glad to be back in Tarragona, but it was a fun little weekend.

Our trip started off great … not. We missed the bus we were supposed to take to get down to the meeting spot because we were on the wrong side of the road. We were running down the street with all of our things to make sure we were there on time. Lucky for us, we made it on time, but there were two boys who woke up late and had to find their own way to Barcelona.

Our first stop in Barcelona was the Camp Nou (pronounced Camp No), which is where Barcelona CF plays. As a Real Madrid fan (una madridista!), it was a bit hard having to look at the trophies they have and all the history. Going out onto the pitch was pretty cool though, especially knowing all the Real Madrid legends who have played there. I also liked admiring the pictures of Piqué, although he has since shaved his head and he isn’t as good looking anymore!

After the Camp Nou, we went to a little park just outside the Barcelona Zoo, which was a nice place to eat our lunch. We spent about an hour and a half just eating and soaking up the sun since it was such a pretty day. One of the girls on our trip fell victim to some gypsies that stole 90 euros from her in the park. You have to be very careful in Barcelona because they pick pocket like crazy!

Then we went to La Sagrada Familia. It is a basilica that started construction sometime in the latter part of the 19th century and still isn’t complete. Gaudí, the designer of the basilica, died before he could finish it. It is scheduled to be completed in 2026, one hundred years after Gaudí died.

Words can’t express how amazing this building it. There is so much detail to it. There are three main sides to it: one representing the nativity scene, one representing the passion of the Christ, and the Glory scene. This scene is going to be the grand entrance to the basilica, to showcase the importance of the Catholic Church in Spain. From the outside it is absolutely beautiful, but the inside is just breathtaking. The stained glass is perfectly made with all different colors which casts in light and makes pretty colors all around the inside. I can’t put into words how amazing this sight is.

As if it didn’t seem like we did enough on the first day, we finished the day off by going to Montjuïc, a mountain in Barcelona. We went up in these cable car things; like little pods that took you up into the air and up to the top of the mountain. Once up there, there was a little castle. The dictator, France, killed the president of Catalonia there, but it was still very beautiful. At the top, you’re able to look over all of Barcelona there. I have decided that I want to get married up there. 🙂 😉

We stayed the night in a hostel. It was actually pretty nice and very modern, but it was very small. There was a mishap with the reservations because we were supposed to stay in another hostel, but they cancelled all but two rooms because they are doing renovations. Safe to say, I didn’t spend much time in the hostel.

The next morning, we went to see another one of Gaudí’s works: La Casa Mila (also known as La Pedrera). It was very extravagant. The lines he created with his art were crazy. The house looks wavy and at the top, it has a bunch of crazy structures. It kind of reminded me of Across the Universe when they do drugs and see things. 😛

After this attraction, we were free to do whatever we wanted. This girl Katie and I went shopping. Unfortunately most of the shops were super expensive; Tiffany’s, etc. The only thing I bought that day was a dress from H&M and some souvenirs.

Katie and I decided we wanted to go to Park Güell, but we had to take the metro to get there. We didn’t know where exactly to go, but we ran into some girls from Wisconsin who were going there, too, and they said they knew the way. Guess what. They didn’t. They had us get off at the wrong stop which was very far way and we had to pay another 2 euros to get back to the right stop. After climbing a hill that was almost 90 degrees, we arrived in a park and were trying to find our way to the cool Gaudí stuff. By the time we got there, Katie and I were so hungry we didn’t appreciate the park enough.

That night, we ate a paella place, which was pretty good, but my host mother (Cruzma) makes it better. 🙂 Melanie, myself, and a few other girls went to a discoteca that night. Let’s just say we saw the sun coming up on our way back. Yesterday was our day of rest and today we were back at school-y stuff. Boo. Overall, Barcelona was a fun experience, but Tarragona just feels so much more comfortable.

Study Abroad, Uncategorized

Reus

May 16, 2013 No Comments

Today felt very long but also very uneventful. Our day started off with a three hour advanced medical Spanish class. We learned the names of different tools commonly used in medical practices. We also learned CPR in Spanish. In case you were wondering, I understand almost everything. 🙂

This afternoon, we went to Reus, a city about 15 minutes away from Tarragona. This is the city where Gaudí was born; he was a famous architect and has a lot work in Barcelona. We went to the Gaudí Center today, which showcased some pictures and replicas of his art. I think it could have been a lot more interesting, but we forced to do a “worksheet” with over 80 questions on it. After walking around there or an hour and struggling with the questions, Belkys told us we didn’t have to do all of it, so we all did a mass exodus out of the museum.

After the museum, we walked around Reus a little. There were some cute shops there, but I didn’t buy anything … I’m saving my money for Barcelona. We were back in Tarragona by 8:30, but then it took forever to get back to our house because they dropped us off in a different place than where we were picked up. It was a disaster trying to navigate the city … When we were walking through the Old City, the way we normally go was blocked off due to construction. It was like a maze trying to get through the city.

It’s weird here because even at 9 PM it’s still sunny! We didn’t eat dinner until after 10:30, but Melanie and I talked to Pau a little, so that was good. It’s cool to have someone around our age to talk with. Pau kept asking if we wanted to eat earlier because he didn’t know when his parents would get home, but we honestly love eating dinner with the entire family because it’s so fun!

We learned today that Big Bang Theory in Spain is called “Los Freakys” (freakys means geek here). I really want to watch it here to see how the jokes transfer over. They talked about “Knock knock Penny!” and the episode where Kripke gets Siri and she can’t understand him because of his speech impediment. It’s so interesting how similar people are here to us in the US.

Tomorrow morning, we head off to Barcelona. We are going to do so much there! I won’t be bringing my laptop along so it doesn’t get stolen and I don’t know if I’ll have wi-fi (called wee-fee here), so expect a lot on Sunday! ¡Buenas noches!

Study Abroad, Uncategorized

Rain Rain Go Away

May 15, 2013 No Comments

We actually got to class on time today! Yay! It was a practical type of class. We learned the different terminology of some instruments in Spanish and we learned how to give shots and draw blood. That didn’t really matter to me because I won’t be doing that kind of thing later, but it was good to know some more about medical Spanish.

After class, we went to another café. I just had water, but I also had this croissant thing with chocolate in the middle, which was really good.

It rained almost all day here. After we ate lunch and went back to our houses to get ready for today’s activity, it was really hot and I regretted not changing into shorts or capris. Today’s activity was a tour of Roman Tarragona, called Tarraco. The Romans built a giant wall around the city, which still exists to some extent today.

One cool part of the tour was when we went into the museum and under the chariot racing rink. The museum had a lot of artifacts. One cool thing was how they built the statues of the emperors; they used one body and just changed the head when they got a new one. Haha! When we were inside the museum, it started to pour, so we missed it. We then went to the place where they did the chariot races. Most of the track doesn’t exist anymore, but it was still cool. We went underground, which was both creepy and cool.

After that, we walked over the Coliseum, but it started to pour rain. We only saw a little bit of it because it started to rain really hard. A lot of us waited in the bathroom for the rain to let up, but it wasn’t stopping. Elizabeth, Katie, and I decided to just walk home because we didn’t want to waste our day in the bathroom. That was kind of a bad idea, though. By the time I got home, everything on me was soaking wet. My host mommy felt bad for me and gave me chocolate pastel, like a mix between chocolate cake and a brownie.

After taking a nice, steamy shower, I felt better. There wasn’t a lot to do today after that. I took a siesta because I’ve been really tired and we ate dinner. They eat fruit for dessert after dinner. We ate strawberries that were sitting in orange juice. Pau also put this heavy cream stuff on it and whipped cream. His dad was like “That’s a lot of calories!” They also found out today that I like Real Madrid. Pau told me to leave! HAHA! Apparently their older brother, Xavi, likes Real Madrid. They told me Cristiano Ronaldo is chulo, or arrogant, and that Sergio Ramos is stupid. 😛

Right now, we’re watching Game of Thrones in Spanish. I know what’s going on because it’s the end of the first book. I think it’s pretty heavily edited, but I’m not sure. Jordi, the dad, and Pau have gone to bed, and Anna looks like she is about to fall asleep, but I’m not very tired because of my siesta! We’ve got a long day tomorrow. We’re going to Reus, a city about 15 minutes away from Tarragona.

Study Abroad, Tarragona, Uncategorized

I Did It.

May 9, 2013 No Comments

I did it. I packed my suit case for Tarragona! Yes, I did use my biggest suitcase, but as of right now it only weighs about 40 pounds! (I have a 50 pound limit.) I don’t know how someone packs to go abroad for four months … It’s a good thing my program is in summer so the clothing is lighter and I’m able to pack more clothes!

It’s really amazing that my trip is only two days away now. I’ve been wanting to go on this trip since my freshman year and now it’s happening. I’ll be flying out of Norfolk on Friday morning and having a seven and a half hour layover in Newark (yay me!) before I depart to Barcelona. Once we reach Barcelona, we’ll be driving an hour south to Tarragona.

Most people have never heard of Tarragona. Like I said, it’s an hour south of Barcelona. It’s a small beach city on the Mediterranean Sea (so be looking forward to a super tan Erika!). Tarragona was at one point the capitol of the Roman empire, so there are some cool Roman ruins around the city.

Now I’m not just going to Spain to vacation for a month, I’ll also be doing some learning! I’m going there to finish my minor, Medical Spanish. We’ll be attending classes at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. I’ll be taking Advanced Medical Spanish and Practical Medical Spanish, so I’ll get to spend half my time working in a medical setting. I’m really hoping to become more comfortable and more fluent with the language while I’m over there.

Some other details: I’ll be staying with a host family, although I don’t know much about them right now. Each weekend we’re there, we get to take an excursion; we are going to Barcelona, the South of France/Northeastern Spain, and one weekend is dedicated to just going to beaches in Tarragona. I’m really looking forward to being able to explore some European cities … if only I could make it out to Madrid! ¡Hala Madrid!

So keep tuned to this page where I’ll update more about my journey to Spain! As my mom says, I’m the first Downing to go to Europe since they came over to the United States, so it should be a great adventure.

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