Winter trip- Santander, Barcelona, Berlin, Paris

Santander

Over winter break I took a trip around Europe I will never forget.  I never thought I would say a vacation that didn’t include a beach and margaritas could be the best vacation of my life.  But it was.  The trip started here in Santander with Brad, Steve, and Katie.  It was good to see familiar faces and be able to show them the life I have been living for the past few months.  I showed them the school where I teach, the beach, the sea lions and penguins, and a few delicious restaurants.  We ate lunch in one place that overlooked the beach and ocean.  One night we ate dinner in a typical Spanish “bodega” restaurant that served empanadas (fried dough stuffed with meat or fish), croquetas (fried ball filled with meat or cheese), more cheese, and of course, bread.  I took them to the plaza where we hang out on weekends drinking “cañas” outside.  Cañas are small beers that the majority of people order- cost about 2 euros.  One night we went to the store and bought baguettes, 50 cent boxes of wine, sausage, pasta, and goat cheese and made a typical Spanish dinner.  And of course I introduced them to the kalimotxo- a large glass of half wine and a half coca-cola, one of the most preferred alcoholic drinks of young people in Spain.  They were also able to experience a true Spanish piso (apartment)- electricity turning off if more than 2 things are plugged into the wall, cold showers, and paper thin walls.  So after giving them a taste of Santander, we were ready to go to Barcelona- the most beloved city in Spain. 

Barcelona

After a quick plane ride, we landed at our destination.  We set off to find our hostel- to say it was a challenge would be an understatement.   But that is another story.  The first thing we did was explore Las Ramblas, the large, crowded street that runs through the center of the city.  The street is filled with performers, tourist shops, and restaurants.  Because we traveled during the Christmas season, there were many lights hanging from the trees on both sides of the street, it was very pretty.  Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, has some incredible work in Barcelona.  One of those places being La Sagrada Familia-  It was worth the 13 Euro it cost to enter.  It is a huge Catholic Church Gaudi started in the late 1800’s and is still unfinished.  It is has huge spires and is just a massive, beautiful building.  Besides La Sagrada Familia he has the “birthday cake” house- La Casa Mila.  We went and snapped photos of it, but did not go in.  Another awesome place is Park Guell.  The Park overlooks the city, and you can see La Sagrada Familia sticking up like a sore thumb.  We also saw the runway that the models walked down in an episode of America’s Next Top Model.  Another very cool place is La Boqueria- it’s a huge market with every type of food you could think of from fruit to fish to lamb brains.  Everyone in the market was walking around with freshly squeezed fruit smoothies, so we grabbed one of those.  After a long day we went back to the hostel to get ready for New Years Eve.  We hadn’t made any plans on where to eat dinner or where we were going out…so we ended up at a Chinese restaurant for dinner.   Afterwards, we went to where we thought the huge party was going to be- there were about 4 people within a mile radius.  So, we rushed to Plaza Catalunya where there were hundreds of people and champagne flying.  At midnight everyone with bottles started throwing their empty bottles into a “baracaded” area where there weren’t any people.  It didn’t take long before people were lifting up those baracades and running around with them…that is Spain for you.   After midnight we went to a shot bar with over 250 shots…you basically just randomly choose from the list if you wanted a “boy scout, creep show, harry potter, gato negro”, etc.  The rest of the night we spent in an Irish bar.  The next day Steve and Katie left early to head to Valencia and me and Brad checked out the beach as well as the Gothic neighborhood.  We saw some very intricate sandcastles, one being of La Sagrada Familia, and one being of Homer Simpson laying on the couch…nonetheless, they were both really good.  Barcelona was a very fun city, I can see why it is many people’s favorite city in Spain…but it was time to head to Berlin!

Berlin

We arrived around 11:00 p.m. into Berlin-Schoenefeld airport.  I put on every layer I had as I prepared myself to enter the freezing cold.  I had never been to a country where I didn’t know a word of the language, but that made it all the more exciting.  And German is just a cool language to listen to.  Of course once we arrived at the airport, we had no idea how to get to our hostel.  On the printout of the reservation there were some obscure directions.  We found the train station a few hundred feet from the airport…it was dark, cold, and not a person in sight.   We saw the train tracks and basically hopped on the first train we saw.  Somehow, we made it to our hostel- The Generator.  It was a building the size of a hotel overshadowing the train station, much unlike our hard to find, tucked away hostel in Barcelona.  When I kept hearing Germany described as “hip”, I had no clue what that meant.  But now I do…the words “The Generator” were lit up bright blue and attached to the back was a bar, also lit up with neon blue lights.  Upon entering the hostel, we saw the whole interior was also lit up by neon blue lights.  The lobby’s floors were made out of this weird metal- as Brad described it, it felt like we were about to play laser tag.  The numbers on the room doors ran vertical and took up the whole door.  This was my first taste of Germany and I liked it.  Since it was about 1 a.m., we had two choices of dinner: Burger King or a Doner Kebab place (gyros- obsessed with them in Europe).  We chose the Kebab place which turned into our late night dinner for the next three nights.  Of course we needed to try every beer in Germany while we were there so we ate a kebab and enjoyed some oversized beer bottles.

The next morning began our journey.  We may have spent the good part of our day trying to figure out the metro system and how to get to our destination.  But the adventure was fun.  Once we got to where we needed to be, we stopped for lunch at a typical German restaurant.  Feeling the need to try each country’s typical cuisine, I ate potato soup and we sampled more German beer.  The first thing we saw was the Kadave- one of the largest department stores in Europe.  We realized it was Sunday, and it was closed.  But nearby were Christmas markets that were so cute.  They were little brown huts selling everything from jewelry to crepes to hot wine.  The hot wine was delicious.  We walked around and took some photos.  We realized we weren’t too close to the area with all of the famous buildings.  However, we were very close to a church that was bombed in WWII, and saw the remains of it.  Afterwards we headed back to our hostel for a pub crawl the hostel was hosting.  It was a good time, they took us to some unusual places.  It was cool being able to walk to different pubs while passing massive, beautiful, famous buildings…. A little different than the pub crawls in Champaign.

The next day we saw pretty much the whole city.  We went on a walking tour with a funny Irish guy as our guide.  It was very cold, but it was definitely worth it.  We started at the Brandenburg gate.  The first, most important site he showed us was where Michael Jackson hung the baby over the railing…had no idea that was in Germany.  After that we saw the Berlin Wall as well as stood above the underground area where Hitler shot himself- pretty cool to see places I have read about for years.  We also saw the Reichstag but couldn’t go up in the dome because of terrorist threats.  I really liked the Jewish Memorial- it is a bunch of slabs of concrete that are different heights.  Our tour guide said it was built as a place for people to be able to come and eat lunch and enjoy themselves, rather than feel sad when looking at it.  It is a very controversial memorial though.  I also really liked the Berlin Dome Cathedral- from the outside it was intentionally made to look super old.  That night after the long day tour we wanted to find a typical old German pub.  We found a recommendation online, followed that person’s directions, and ended up in the middle of nowhere.  Finally, some nice German man on a bike pointed us to a German pub.  We made friends with the bartender and enjoyed the horribly translated English descriptions of drinks.  I don’t know why two random drinks even had English descriptions but the menu read: Black Death-“not only bad boys choose for a bitcher.”  Not entirely sure what that means, but of course Brad had to try it.   

The next day was Brad’s birthday.  We moved from our cool, hip hostel to an even cooler hotel.  It had a huge fish tank running up the center.  It had a really nice lobby bar/restaurant and elevators with glass windows so you could look out at the fish tank as you went up.  After getting settled there, we went back out and explored a little.  We went to the KaDave, the huge department store that was closed before.  On the 6^th floor they had an array of people cooking every type of food you could think of.  We choose a place where people were eating fish and potatoes.  The plates came beautifully decorated with different colored sauces and all.  Everyone sat around a huge grill watching them make it.  That place was fun.  That night we checked out the Sony Center, which is a huge complex full of restaurants, cafes, Legoland, a movie theater,  etc.  We also went out for Brad’s birthday dinner- It was super late after we woke up from a nap, so we ended up somewhere with sand for a floor and lots of tropical drinks- not too bad. 

Germany, to me, fit its stereotype perfectly.  Lots of tall people, stocky ladies with fuzzy hats, and sausages over a foot long sitting in regular sized hot dog buns.  I loved Germany and would definitely go back. 

Paris

Paris was just how I imagined it would be- narrow streets, lots of people riding scooters, quaint.  This time we were staying in a hotel, because it was cheaper than any hostel.  The doorman told us to take the “lift” up to our room.  I have never been in a smaller “lift” in my life.  The two of us could barely fit, but it felt like something I would see in a movie.  It was in an old, cute little building.  The room was pretty decent.  We headed out to get lunch- crepes of course.  I tried ham and cheese- I don’t know how they can eat those things for meals.  Nutella and Banana crepes on the other hand are to die for.  The first day we walked up to Sacre-Coeur, which is a Catholic church that is located on the summit of Montmarte, the highest point in the city.  The inside of the church was gorgeous and the view outside was incredible.  After that we went to see the Arc de Triomph all lit up.  Around the arc is about a 6 lane wide roundabout, cars coming from every direction.  I really don’t understand how I still haven’t seen an accident in Europe.  After that we went to see the Eiffel Tower.  It was lit up and every once in a while it sparkled- so cool to finally see it in real life.  After sightseeing we went and enjoyed some French wine at a few different places.  Only downside of Paris is that it is much more expensive than Spain and Germany. 

I would say we spent a good amount of time lost in Paris.  Once we found our destinations they were great though.  However, the map they gave us in the Paris airport was terrible.  Landmarks were miles from where they actually were, so that explains why we walked around for 2 hours one day looking for the Catacombs.  When we got there though…it was “cool”- Brad thought it was cool.  You walk down a narrow staircase very far below ground, and then walk through underground dirt tunnels.  Finally, you come to the bones…thousands and thousands of bones of dead people.  It was pretty disturbing and I could not believe they were real.  I think after a plague they buried people here because of overcrowding.  Skulls and bones line the walls and there are A LOT of them.  I was freaked out, but it was an interesting experience.  That night we just walked around and found cool little buildings/statues that are less famous. 

The next morning we woke up “early” to get in line for the Eiffel Tower.  We couldn’t go to the very top, but still we were very high up.  Cool views in every direction.  We also went to the Notre Dame Cathedral which is amazing.  One of the highlights of the trip was when we saw one guy, thug like, yelling at another young guy dressed in a suit.  I’m pretty sure he accused him of stealing “his” phone.  They were standing in front of us on the train, and the scary guy was standing behind the other one with his arms crossed just staring at him with a crazy face for about 10 minutes…I was scared.  Then Brad and I got off at our stop, and so did the two of them.   The one guy was following the other very closely behind him, and obviously the suit guy was very aware.  They were walking super close to the tracks, but our train was still there.  The train went “ding, ding, ding” as in the doors were about to close, and the guy in the suit dove into the train, getting stuck in the doors but managed to get in, and the guy following started screaming and yelling.  It was really like something out of a movie, pretty exciting.    

But that was the trip! It was a great time and being able to see three countries all in a row was so fun- to notice all of the cultural differences, see the different architecture, and try all of the different food and drinks was awesome.  I think everyone should definitely travel around Europe sometime during their life- okay, finally got my 3^rd blog done, wooo          

First Dinner out in Santander

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Tradition to put these figures pooping (many times famous people) in nativity scenes..

Tapas bar in Barcelona

Las Ramblas in Barcelona on NYE

One of the "street performers" on Las Ramblas

Generator hostel in Berlin 

Hot wine!

Cute Christmas market in Germany

Sunset in Santander

Sparkling Eiffel Tower

Paris Seine River

Bones..

Santander

Boqueria in Barcelona

250 shot bar

Runway in Americas Next Top Model

Jewish Memorial in Berlin

Berlin Dome Cathedral

Read Black Death

Fish tank in our hotel

Interesting place haha

Germany obviously..

La Sagrada Familia sandcastle

Halloween

Sorry, I do not seem to be a very good blogger! I am approaching the end of my 5^th week already ahh.  So much has happened.  First of all, I want to mention this place in Santander, it is my favorite place in the city.  It is called La Peninsula Magdalena- it’s about an hour walk from my apartment, but when it was nice out it was no big deal to walk there, because I would just walk on the beach the whole way.  Now that it’s getting colder/rainy/windy, I haven’t been able to get over there to take photos.  But anyways it is a little peninsula in Santander that has a castle, a “zoo”, and incredible views.  The castle belongs to King Alfonso XIII who made it his summer home for him and his family in 1913.  I haven’t taken a tour yet of the inside, but it’s pretty cool that I can take a morning jog to a castle that belonged to a king in the early 1900’s.  As well as the castle, there are some penguins and sea lions swimming in small pools on the peninsula…these are the only animals, which is why I referred to it as a “zoo.”  However, it is almost like an “infinity zoo.”  You know those infinity pools they have at fancy hotels, where the pool overlooks a larger body of water and it looks like the two are combined?  Well this is sort of the same, the bodies of water the animals swim in are right next to the sea, it is amazing.  Also on the peninsula are big wooden ships on display that went on expeditions in the early 1900’s.  The peninsula is almost like one big hill, with the castle at the top.  But along the walk to the top are random benches between trees, and you can sit on one and overlook the sea for miles and miles.  And THIS is why the peninsula is my favorite place…so everyone should come visit and see for themselves!!

So the other thing I wanted to mention is school…  I have 3, 4, 5, and 6 year olds, from 9:30-12:30 Monday-Thursday (pretty nice schedule huh?)  In the beginning weeks I’ve just sort of been figuring out how the classrooms work and what the teachers expect from me.  Since the school is brand new, they have never had an “auxiliar de Ingles” before, so no one is used to having someone like me in their classroom.  The headmaster didn’t really give any set instructions to the teachers or me about my exact role.  So basically each teacher has their own ideas for how I’ll help.  I have two 3 year old classes, and in one of them, the teacher likes to speak mostly Spanish and slowly introduce English words to them, while the other 3 year old teacher sits at her desk the whole time and wants me to speak only in English to them for an hour- this is my hardest class.  Imagine trying to keep 3 year olds calm for an hour in their native language, let alone in a language that means nothing to them.  The first days were pretty hectic, but now I’m getting used to them and switch activities immediately when I see they’re getting restless (which is about after 3 minutes).  The 4/5 year olds also need to be constantly doing something different and stimulating, but they’re not like the 3 year olds who are always pushing and grabbing each other.  And the 6 year olds are by far the easiest- well, there are only six 6 year olds in the class, so that makes  a huge difference.  But they sit at desks instead of in a circle on the carpet.  And they catch on to what I’m saying pretty quickly, so it’s nice to see that I’m actually helping them.  This week was especially fun, because we did many Halloween activities.  Many families carved pumpkins and they put them in the entranceway of the school.  Halloween just started getting popular here in Spain in the past 5 years.  Although every little girl told me she was going to be a bruja=witch, and pretty much every single boy said he was going to be “Eh-spee-der-mon”-Spiderman.  So they need a little work on finding new costumes.   I handmade a pumpkin (although it is almost impossible to find construction paper around here), and left off the nose, and then we played “pin the nose on the pumpkin.”  The 4-6 year olds loved it, the 3 year olds didn’t really know what was going on.  But it was a lot of fun.  I also brought in my laptop and played the Monster Mash video on YouTube-  this resulted in the 3 year olds all trying to climb on my lap at once to get closer, which resulted in them saying “I can’t see” “Now, I can’t see”, and soon they were just in a heap on the floor.  For the 6 year olds I brought in a Halloween word search- it was nice, because it was clearly the first one they had ever done, and it was in English!  I think all the holidays we have will get me through the rest of the year, at least I hope.              

My roommates, Tomy and Arantxa, are still doing good.  We pretty much always hang out in the common area watching TV together.  They are not from Santander, so they don’t know too many people.  I was explaining to Tomy last night all of the different sports people in the U.S. play.  He said when they were little, at recess the whole class would get one soccer ball, and that was it…so that is, obviously, what pretty much everyone plays.  And when I told Arantxa one day I just went for a jog, I thought she was going to freak.  I have seen a few girls running outside along the water, but it is very scarce… and they could have been foreigners, who knows.  So we’re liking the apartment, except for the fact that all the power shuts off usually about once a day.  It happens when there is a couple things plugged in to the wall at once…this place is obviously really old.  Also if you’re using hot water in the shower or in the kitchen, the faucet will get so hot you will burn yourself… I don’t think this place meets all the standards it would have to in the U.S…  But it’s all part of the experience so I’m okay with it.             

First weeks in Espana!

So…..my adventure here has begun.  I can’t believe it has already been more than 2 weeks since I’ve been here...although at the same time it feels like I have been here for years.  The trip over was a pretty long one.  Started with an 8 hour plane ride to Madrid, then a metro ride to the Madrid train station where I carried with me about 80 pounds worth of luggage down more staircases and escalators than I could have ever imagined, had a 5 hour wait at the train station, and then took a 4 hour train ride up to Santander.  Long day/days but it was worth it. 

The hostal seemed pretty nice upon arrival, the first group of people I saw were some Italians, who were discussing with each other how to say “elevator” in English as they saw me trying to, once again, drag my 80 lbs. worth of stuff up the staircase.  So they seemed friendly although we couldn’t communicate much beyond that.  The lady showed me to my room and it was what I had expected, single bed, TV, small bathroom.  I pretty much just put my stuff down and went to explore.  I headed straight towards the body of water I saw in the distance, because I really had no idea where else to go.  It was about 7:00 P.M. so the sun was just setting, and the sky was all different colors, it was beautiful.  A ton of people were standing at the edge of the water fishing.  The water, the Bay of Santander, was about a 10-15 minute walk from my hostal, so I felt very lucky to be so close.  As I walked on the concrete alongside the Bay (The beach is further down, here there is just the walkway and about a 15 foot drop to the water, nothing in between), I saw many old people and many people eating ice cream.  This kind of reminded me of Guadalajara, Mexico, because the exact same thing applied there too.  All of the old people, the abuelos, love to sit on benches and people watch.  And they are everywhere.  I later found out this is an “aging” city, haha.  I didn’t walk around for too long, because I was so exhausted from the trip.  So I went back to the hostal and went to sleep (although my body clock was so messed up so that is another story).

The next day I walked around for probably 4 hours straight.  This city has a population of about 180,000.  Everything seems relatively close, but it is usually a little further than you think, so I just kept walking because I knew it wasn’t THAT far, and I ended up exploring the whole city in about 4 hours.  The part my hostal was in is called “the centro” or main part of the city where the restaurants and grocery stores are.  And about 15-20 minute walk east of the centro is “Puerto Chico”, where all of the bars are and everyone goes out at night, and about 25-30 minutes east of Puerto Chico is “El sardinero” where all the beaches are located.

So when looking for an apartment, I took all of this into consideration.  I really liked where my hostal was located, and wanted to be near “el centro” area.  I saw an ad on easypiso.com for a room open in an apartment a few doors down from the hostal.  I checked it out and it was pretty small, and the bedroom just had a bed and this random table in it, but the landlord told me two Spaniards who are university students were living there also, and they just moved to Santander from a different part of Spain.  Even though I really didn’t like the appearance or size of the place at all, I had a really good gut feeling about it.  I could live with two Spaniards and they were new to town so maybe they wouldn’t always be out with their friends, and instead stay at home and talk to me in Spanish, haha.  I saw two more places afterwards, and ultimately decided on the first one! And here I am sitting on my couch typing this.  And here they are sitting next to me hanging out.  We’re watching some quality Spanish TV- a competition where they build “torres humanos- human towers”- a bunch of guys climb on top of each other and they see who can build the highest tower of humans- pretty entertaining show.  My guy roommate’s name is Tommy, pronounced (Toe-me), and the girls named is Arrancha (Although I accidentally called her Adriana for a few days..).   They are both so nice, they didn’t know each other before moving in, but come from the same area of Spain.  So the gut feeling I had definitely came true.  We have already had a roommate dinner consisting of tortillas with beef, mushrooms, corn, and guacamole, also some chicken nuggets and wine.  The next morning we ate churros con chocolate, a typical Spanish treat on Sundays mornings…the best thing I have ever tasted. 

So since I came here to work, I should probably mention that part… Since I did not hear from the school EVER before coming here, I just showed up one random Monday.  They said they weren’t expecting me, I thought “of course not.” As everyone knows, things are a little backwards here.  I actually had to ask two abuelos (grandpas, or old people) where the school was, because you would never know it was a school from the outside.  It looks a little bit like a factory from the outside.  And upon entering, it looked like a hospital.  Long hallways, everything was white, but the school was just built this past summer so I think that is the reason it was so dull looking (since that day, they have added some posters.) The headmaster was giving some other woman a tour when I got there, so I joined in.  You can tell how proud they are of the school, I think it may be nicer than a typical Spanish school.  She said it cost around 6 million to build, and it has automatic lights which they loved.  After the tour, the headmaster, “Puri” introduced me to many of the teachers…I was very overwhelmed because EVERYONE was named Maria.  And in order to differentiate them, she would tell me their second or middle name.  I knew there was no chance I would remember all of these.  The best part was all of the teachers and students wear matching outfits.  They are called “babys” pronounced “bobbies”, and they are these plaid long apron looking things, but with sleeves.  Some of the teachers reminded me of Miss Lippy from Billy Madison, but nonetheless, they are all sooo nice.  I only made one embarrassing mistake while I was there…..one teacher asked me if I have worked with kids before, I told her yes, in a “campo”. what I was trying to say was summer camp –“campamento”….instead I said “campo” which means in the countryside.  So I worked with kids in the countryside.  She just nodded, sort of like I do when they’re speaking to me and I don’t have a clue what they’re saying.  But yes, I found out that mistake much later when my roommates told me what I actually said…So that first day I just toured around and got to know the school and people a little better. Since then I have been working with the kids, but I will talk about that in my next update J

So that is my update thus far… I wanted to immerse myself as much as possible, and here I am sitting with two Spaniards (who smoke like chimneys while we watch TV), I dry my clothes by hanging them out the window, and my breakfasts consist of pastries and coffee, so far I have been successful.