Me Gusta Comer!

One thing I have not talked about enough is the FOOD! The food in Spain is FANTASTIC, DELICIOUS and just plain YUMMY! There are so many places where you can eat; ranging from different local bars with tapas to just regular restaurants. Here are a few tapas places I highly recommend if you are in Madrid.

•       El Tigre –One drink = free tapas!
•       100 Montaditios
•       Granada – located in Cuatro Caminos
•       Taquería mi Cuidad
•       Casa Alberto – restaurant where Cervantes wrote half of Don Quixote
•       Fosters - "American" style food  

Additionally, there is one place in particular that I have patronized that I absolutely love, that is, El Mercado de San Miguel, a gourmet food market situated near la Plaza Mayor. The food here is phenomenal. They have everything from paella, burgers, sushi to sangria and seafood. I have been quite adventurous with my palate while in Spain. At El Mercado of San Miguel I have tried so many delicious new foods like oysters and sea urchin. Enjoy the photos!

I would  like to give a special shout out, a mi amiga espanola, Maria, for being the first person I have ever seen eat a hamburger with a fork and knife!!!

Chao for now! 

A little bit of Disney Magic

Next stop,Segovia!  Since my arrival in Madrid, people have been talking to me about Segovia, a quaint, architecturally magnificent and historical town located only about an hour away from Madrid. My Spanish teachers in particular have recommended that all of the foreign exchange students (ERAMUS) travel to Segovia at some point before they leave Spain. So at their suggestion, I decided to book a one day trip  to Segovia with one goal in mind: to see and tour the castle that inspired Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty! So, I along with two of my Erasmus traveling friends/buddies/companions boarded the 9am bus two weekends ago to Segovia!

 Segovia is a small town like Cuenca. Like most if not all Spanish cities, Segovia has architecturally rich buildings; but Segovia is special due to its large Roman architectural influence. This city is well known for two important landmarks; the "Román Acueducto " and the "Alcázar of Segovia." The Alcázar was the castle that inspired the castle in Walt Disney’s animated and much beloved film, Sleeping Beauty.

As soon as we arrived in Segovia we immediately headed towards the Alcázar. What a castle! It was everything I had ever imagined! Just like in Sleeping Beauty, it had one especially tall tower complete with a steeple surrounded by other smaller towers and steeples and a great moat at the entrance. Inside was as extravagant as one would think! The castle has been redecorated to match what once existed.  Every room was adored with lavish details. Two rooms in particular that caught my attention were the Throne room and the Arms room. In the throne room (which sadly did not photograph well because of poor  lighting) the walls were decorated with huge paintings of the King and Queen of Spain ( which ones ???). and a small staircase. Atop this staircase was a red carpet with two huge plush and majestic golden chairs.  Looking at the thrones, one could just envision royalty seating there. The arms room was just as impressive, covered in flags from wall to wall displaying various coat of arms and different types of armor and weapons dating back to the Middle Ages. This room also led to a terrace with an amazing view and a yes .... real wishing well. Totally awesome! Being in Sleeping Beauty's castle took me back to my childhood...a memory I will not soon forget!

After exploring the lower areas of the castle, we decided to explore the Tower of Juan II.  This tower is the tallest of all the towers in the castle. It led to two separate scenic viewing areas; one area just above the moat and another at the very top of the tower. Only two flights of stairs are required to arrive at the first sightseeing landing area. As we climbed another flight, we arrived at a room with a small carved out door that was outlined with red LED lights. We thought, this must be the way to the top of the tower. So we started to climb, and climb and climb. This was no ordinary staircase. It was an old cement spiral staircase with no windows and stairs that got steeper and steeper as you continued upward. For a moment,  I felt like a knight attempting to save a princess who was locked away!  Finally, 152 steps later, we finally arrived at the top...to a breath-taking view of Segovia.

After touring the castle we decided to grab lunch in the plaza by the Roman Aqueduct.  Per normal, I ordered the menu del dia which happened to include one of my favorites  loxs as the second entree. It was delicious! (But, if you are ever in Segovia, I highly suggest you order Cuchinillo. It is a Segovian delicacy. Unfortunately I did not get to try it because I was not feeling all that well during our trip. ) After Lunch, we decided to walk along the Roman Aqueduct. This Aqueduct is the best preserved roman monument in Spain. It was used to transport water from the Fuente Fría river to a gathering tank called El Caseron.  It is an impressive must-see historical monument.

Afterwards, we strolled through the Plaza Mayor to see the Cathedral. When exploring any European city going to see the cathedral of that town is a must. The cathedral was built in the 1500s in a Gothic style. It is, aside from the Alcázar, one of the most prominent buildings in Segovia. It is extremely large and elaborately detailed. After visiting the cathedral and the plaza mayor, we decided to visit Segovia’s many different gardens that outline the city.  In sum, Segovia is a beautiful city with a lot to offer and an easy one day trip from Madrid. 

Segovia is a beautiful city with a lot to offer! My next journey will take me to Salamanca! Until then, Chao!

Cuenca

In between school and studying, I have been doing as much sightseeing as possible. I recently went to an observatory deck on the 8^th floor of the Palacio de Comunicación near Plaza Cibeles. For 2 Euros you are can ride up to the 8^th floor patio which has breathtaking views of Madrid.

 Two weekends ago, I was able to travel outside of Madrid once again to Cuenca, a small town known for its architectural beauty. Cuenca is two hours by bus, south of Madrid, so I and 2 of my friends booked 8 am bus tickets. Of course we could have taken the AVE (RENFE Trains), which is only a 50 minute ride, but we are poor Uni students and the bus is significantly cheaper.  

The day of our trip we sleepily boarded our 8 am bus. We arrived in Cuenca by 10am slightly confused because our surroundings were not quite what we expected.  Not only was the city average looking, but there was not a single person on the street. Luckily, my friend had brought along her guide to Spain which included a map of Cuenca and a list of all of its historical marvels. On the map there was something called a mirador. Due to its name,(Mirar in Spanish is the verb to look); we wanted to start our day with a view of the city. We asked a local for directions and he told us to take the next bus to the last stop. As we rode the bus, we seemed to be moving away from everything.  We shortly arrived at our destination, the end of the bus line, which turned out to be a huge glass building. We quickly asked the driver where the mirador was and he pointed to the building.  Confused we asked, “Where is the observatory tower?”. The driver chuckled to himself and said “Oh that’s the other way, this is the mall called el Mirador.”  So we decided to make the best of it and go into the mall but, with our luck it was closed.  We all started laughing at our mistake and as we waited for the next bus, it started to rain….. What luck! We laughed and didnt let it ruin our day! Well, lesson learned: a little research goes a long way.

 Finally, after waiting a few minutes, we boarded the correct bus to the Plaza Major, the historical area of Cuenca.  Once we arrived in the Plaza, we immediately saw the beauty and architecture we had initially expected. The plaza mayor is relatively small in comparison to Madrid’s but is absolutely beautiful. The brightly painted houses and thin streets immediately reminded me of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 We started the day at Our Lady of Grace Cathedral.  The Cathedral was constructed between 1182 and 1270 in Gothic-anglo-Norman Style. It is filled with small chapels that are each elaborately adorned.

 After visiting the cathedral, we decided to check out Cuenca’s claim to fame, the Puente and Las Casas Colgadas. After navigating our way through the winding streets we came upon a small opening that led us to exactly what we were looking for, Las Casas Colgadas.  This touristic sight refers to houses that are hanging off a cliff over the Huecar River Gorge.  These houses are paired with el puente de San Paulo which crosses over the Huecar River. The original bridge was a suspension bridge but it fell down in the 20^th century and was replaced with a bridge made of wood and steel.  The view off this bridge reveals an amazing view of las Casas Colgadas as well as the  rugged  landscape of the quaint town.

Interestingly, different parts of the bridge are full of padlocks with names and dates written on them. My friend informed me that they were love padlock/love locks that “sweethearts” lock on bridges to symbolized their love for each other. This became a popular trend in Europe after the Italian book was turned into a movie called Tre metri sopra il cielo.

Since Cuenca is surrounded by mountains, we decided to do a little hiking. After hiking we, spent the remainder of the day walking around and exploring every nook and cranny of the town. Overall, Cuenca is a relatively quiet calm town and being there was so relaxing. I highly suggest visiting Cuenca especially if you love the outdoors!

Chao for now chicos!

Ole! Vamos a la Capea!

     
       I have been in Spain for almost a month now and I have done some pretty awesome things. So far, I have attended Madrid’s Olympic Host City Festival, Vogue’s Annual Fashion Night Out as well as visited various museums and tourist attractions.  There is one event, however, that stands out from the rest. In fact, it has been one of my wildest experiences thus far!

Olympic City Host Festival

Vouge'sFashion Night Out

  If you ever find yourself in Spain and someone asks you, “Quieres ir a una Capea?” Say YES! Three weeks ago while walking through campus I noticed a student organization selling tickets to an exclusive event for erasmus (foreign exchange) students. The event was advertised as “a traditional Spanish party” called a Capea. I bought a ticket to the all day event not really knowing what I was getting myself into. The 30 euro ticket included round trip transportation, unlimited paella, drinks, DJ music and dancing all of which would ultimately add up to a pretty unforgettable day.

      So, on the following Saturday, I arrived at school at 11 am (which is fairly early considering Spanish night life usually ends around 6 am) to attend the Capea.  I boarded the huge plush luxury bus headed to an unknown destination outside of Madrid with 79 half-asleep Erasmus students. An hour later, our bus was traveling down a lone dirt road approaching a farm in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.  As I disembarked the bus, I was a bit confused as to what we were doing at a farm. All of the sudden, the gates to the farm opened, revealing a plaza lined with tables and chairs, a DJ booth and a bar. After getting a beverage, I started to explore the plaza and a nearby farm house that was decorated with pictures and autographs of bullfighters as well as taxidermies of bull heads. It was then that I thought “how cool! We are going to see a bullfight!” Little did I know, that I was about to be the entertainment for the day. Shortly thereafter, a loudspeaker announcer asked us to make our way into the Plaza de Toros; an area outside the main plaza. 

        I walked into the Plaza de Toros area and saw a small scale bull ring  with stadium seating on either side. I then overhear someone ask a friend of mine if he was going to “get in the ring”. All of the sudden a torito ("baby” bull that’s really NOT little) is released into the ring and my friend jumps over the wall into the ring from the stadium seating area. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched my friend run across the ring with a torito charging after him.  

           If you haven't figured it out by now, a Capea is a traditional event where you eat a lot, drink a lot, and then try your luck in the bull ring with a young bull. The word  capea refers to the cape and the passes a bullfighter makes with the cape to tame the bull in a ring. What a tradition! After watching a few people nearly escape getting hit by the torito, I had an insane thought, “when will I ever have a chance to get in a bullring with a real bull ever again…. well hopefully never!”...and with that thought, I impulsively jumped into the ring myself.

     In Spain, bull fighting is a very traditional, almost sacred, historical and cultural event. In the end the bull is tragically killed but thankfully that is not the purpose of the Capea. Rather, it is a joyful tradition pitting man against beast for sheer entertainment. No animals are injured or harmed. Basically, in order to get into the ring, you climb over the side wall of the ring and stand behind a small wood partition that is open on each side. For some reason, this waiting area is never attacked by the bull. In fact, the bull stops short of hitting the waiting area or the side of the ring, making anywhere along the edge of the ring and behind the partition, safe zones. 

      As I was waiting for an opportune time to run out from behind the partition wall and into the ring with the bull, I thought, "This is nuts." My heart was racing rapidly in anticipation. What if I got hit? First off, no one had gotten hit yet so I would be so embarrassed as well as, most probably, in considerable pain? Oh God....Off I go before I lose my nerve. I walk out from behind the box and just start running ...it felt like, running literally for my life. When I made it to the next safe zone alive, I was so excited. The adrenaline rush gave me the energy to keep going. What a thrill it was to be just feet away from such a strong and majestic animal!  As the day went on...we ate the most delicious paella,  listened to music, we danced, we laughed and we enjoyed each other's company....and yes, we ran with more bulls. What an incredible, exciting and fun day!   I survived a totally awesome, unique experience. It may be hard to believe but I would do it again in a heartbeat! Could say more, but for now chao! 

    Below are some videos and photos from the Capea!

  

La Vida en mi Uni

So today marks the beginning of my 3rd week at Comillas. I have survived 14 days, but, to be honest, I am still adjusting to my new life here

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Just a little background on my Uni (as they say here) , Comillas is a small private Catholic university that offers many degrees. It has 2 buildings located in the heart of Madrid; ICADE for business majors and ICAI for engineers. It also has one traditional campus outside Madrid called Cantoblanco for international studies. ICAI offers every class you could possibly need for an engineering degree so I only have classes in the ICAI building. Classes are small, approx 20 – 30 students max.  All Comillas students are required to be bilingual and take engineering courses in  both English and Spanish. Grading is heavily dependent on exams. In some/all of courses 50% or more of your grade is the final exam, thus homework is rare. The engineering elective courses and language courses are the only classes that require homework. There is a lot of in class group work, but other than that, most studying is independent. Additionally, unlike my home university,  attendance is mandatory; there is absolutely no excuse for tardiness, cutting or leaving class early or even cell phone use.  I have had some difficulty adjusting to this style of education. I am so accustomed to having significant hours of homework every day that now without homework I find it hard to study.  Luckily, I have good professors that are understanding of my situation and willing to take the time to help me outside of class. One other reason why it is difficult to concentrate here is because …I am in MADRID! There is always something cool happening.  I want to do so much while I am here, like attend special events that I will only experience once in a lifetime. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

Aside from the specifics of how Comillas functions, the actual classes have been very interesting!  Every day I feel like I am learning so much. I am enrolled in 22 ETCs (European Credits), a total of  5 classes. I am taking Control Engineering, Renewable Energies, Spanish for International Exchange students, Habilidades Profesionales and lastly, I am participating in a research project with a Professor for credit. Control engineering is my hardest class by far. Originally, I was placed in the Spanish section of this class. That did not go too well. Math is supposed to be universal… but as far as I’m concerned that is completely false!  I thought words and phrases like Laplace transform, DC gain, overshoot and voltage could not be translated. Boy, was I incorrect.  So I switched to the English class but the course is still difficult because at Comillas my major, mechanical engineering, does not exist. Instead this class is geared toward electrical engineers. So we talk a lot about circuits and unfortunately, I have no idea what the professor is talking about at times. Luckily, there is another exchange student in this class with me who does understand and who has helped me a ton. Moreover, the professor is quite nice and meets with me after class to review the course content. Slowly but surely, I am finding my study/school work “groove” here at Comillas. This week brings additional excitement because I finally start my Research Project. I am really looking forward to getting into the lab! Sounds nerdy but true. I will keep you posted about my research experience as soon as it gets underway. 

On a side note completely unrelated to school, I have become slightly obsessed with the transport system here. It is just so fascinating! Car traffic here is a little less hectic because everyone uses the public transportation system as well as scooters, dirt bikes or motorcycles. As I walk to classes and other places I have been collecting pictures of different and /or unique vehicles I see on the road.  Last week I saw two vehicles on the road that I have never seen before (pictured below). I did some research and discovered that the speedracer looking vehicle is a GoCar and the black vehicle is called a Twizy. The GoCar is a vehicle that tourists can rent for GPS guided tours and the Twizy is an electric two-seated car. For anyone interested in these vehicles below are some links.

http://www.gocartours.es/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy

 As always...I could say more but for now, chao!

Growing Up is Hard

When people heard I was going to study in Madrid, most said… “You will have the time of your life!”, “Your Spanish will be so good when your return!”, “Madrid is a beautiful city!” All true but what some people forgot to mention is how difficult this experience might be.  Looking back, maybe some people did mention it and I just wasn't listening closely enough due to all of the excitement. Over the course of my 2 week residence here I have experienced challenges I had not anticipated. And it seemed like every time I fixed one thing, something else went wrong or not according to plan. It was a perpetual cycle of things just, not going my way. Resulting in stress overload for me!   If there are two things I don’t handle well, they are stress and unanticipated change.  Somehow, over the years, I have become what people call, let me say, a "planner." Most of the time my planning, isn’t a bad thing. It makes me a really good student and a great organizer of events but sometimes, I forget that life charts its own course. In other words, life just does not always go your way. My computer, my debit card, my course assignments and completion of my final project at my home university are just among some of the things I didn’t plan on not working in Madrid. In a weird way, now that those problems are almost all fixed, I am kind of glad that these problems happened to me. Dealing with all this stress and unanticipated change made me realize that I need to learn to go with the flow sometimes, or as I said in my last post,               "tranquilizarme." because that is what this experience is really all about. It’s about learning and growing from these experiences and being pushed out of your comfort zone. In fact, that’s why I came to Madrid, to make unforgettable memories and to grow as a person. I definitely came to the right place to learn to take things with a grain of salt! Madrileños are the calmest and most relaxed people I have ever come across. In the face of adversity they often say "tranquila," and "tenga fe" (have faith) that everything will be resolved. Their positive outlook on everything has been inspiring. I have learned so much from this experience already. Who knows maybe another issue lurks around the corner but for now I’m ready to approach whatever it is in Madrileño fashion. So much more I can say but for now, Chao!

Tranquila Chica

My first week here has been full of ups and downs and lots of unexpected mishaps. I have been attempting to go with the flow and tranquilisarme (calm down) as the Madrileños (people from Madrid) do.  I am not too good at it so far but I am trying to adjust as much as possible.  Aside from adjusting, I have been exploring my new home every spare second I have. Since, I am still without a laptop I haven’t had access to the internet until now so I am going to try to keep this post short and just cover the highlights and important information for anyone that wishes to study/visit/live here.

Miscellaneous

My first day here was a blur mostly because I was so jet-lagged. I spent my entire first day here doing errands that I needed to do before school started.

 Here are the important things I learned:

·         Vale means okay/sure/yea/yes

·         Orange is the cheapest prepaid phone company

·         Corte Ingles = department store with everything you could possible need except transformers

·         Try your new debit card in your home country first or it might not work here. (Another story for another time)

School

My next few days consisted of working out issues with my laptop and debit card and exploring the city as well as exploring my new school.

Thursday and Friday I attended orientation at Comillas. I was so surprised by how many exchange students there were! We filled up an entire auditorium! On the first day we learned about Spain through the ages and what Comillas had to offer to us as students. I was excited to find out that they promote Erasmus students (exchange students) getting involved in sports teams and clubs at their school. It became immediately apparent that Comillas is a school that really supports and takes great pride in their students studying abroad as well as the exchange program. It was exciting meeting people from all over the world, from Europe to the Americas and Asia. The next day I attended the orientation of engineers. This was slightly intimidating. Obviously as an engineer I am used to working hard and studying hard but the grading scale here is extremely different from what I am accustomed. The grading scale is from 1 – 10 and anything below a 5 is failing requiring you to retake the course. The grade relies heavily on your final exam performance and there aren't many assignments or opportunities to demonstrate knowledge in a form outside of exams.  I am not the greatest test taker so this was worrisome.  Otherwise, the Comillas student representatives were extremely kind and helpful and honest about the way the school operates. Enough about school for now. I guess I will just have to wait and see what it’s like.

Tourism / Museums

Madrid is a beautiful place and full of so many wonderful things like old world history, culture and PLENTY of museums. The best part about the museums is that almost all of them have free hours. Yes, while you have to wait in line, it is completely worth it especially when you can save 10-14 euros per museum.

Here are all the cool museums I have visited:

EN MADRID

El Prado – art museum featuring famous works of European Artists including El Greco & Goya.

El Museo de Reina Sofia – contemporary art

Museo en Retiro Park – more contemporary art/please touch style museum

EN TOLEDO (Original Capital of Spain)

El Museo del Ejercito – museum about all of Spain’s war history

Museo Santa Cruz – religious museum

                 

                   El Museo del Ejercito

Parque de Retiro

Innovation

Despite the fact that Madrid is an old historical city it is full of cutting edge innovation. For example, the Metro system is the finest public transportation system I have ever used.  It is an impressive series of interwoven bus and subway routes. The Metro can get you anywhere within Madrid. It is so easy to understand that you don’t need to speak Spanish to use the Metro. It is well lit and well painted that you forget you are hundreds of feet underground.  The most unique thing about the Metro aside from its extreme cleanliness is that fact that it is energy efficient. Madrileños  in general are the most energy conscious people I have met, so I wasn’t that surprised when not every door on the Metro opened at every stop. If you want to leave or enter the Metro you press a button and on some of the older models pull a lever.

Another impressive technological feat I have had the pleasure of using is the RENFE trains or as the Madrileños all them el Alto Velocidad. The RENFE´s are high speed trains that can take you all over Spain in half the time it would take by bus or car. For instance I took the RENFE to Toledo from Madrid in 30 minutes. Normally by car, this trip would take an hour plus traffic. These trains are extremely large and surprisingly smooth. While inside the train I did not feel like we were moving very fast but 30 minutes later, right on schedule I arrived at my destination. The seats inside are extremely plush and every car is equipped with a very clean and nice bathroom. Upon boarding and finding my seat I felt like I was stepping into the new age of faster smoother public transportation. (I would also like to note that the RENFE can also be an economical option especially if you book your ticket ahead of time. My 30 minute ride two hours before departure was 20 Euro round trip. Had I booked in advance it would have been less since they run specials from time to time. 

El RENFE at Atoche train station

Below is the RENFE link describing this cool new wave of Transportation

http://www.raileurope.com/european-trains/renfe/faq.html

There are so many wonderful things I could tell you about Madrid and the Spanish people but for now...Chao!