Gran Canaries

This was our last trip as a group and it was awesome. We stayed at these bungalows that were pretty much across the street from the beach and the sand dunes. We had to walk about 200-300 yards through sand dunes to get to the ocean. The Canary Islands are off the west coast of Africa. The first day at the beach it was windy so sand was getting every and it hurt when it pelted us. The wind kind of sucked, but we just went swimming in the ocean and made the most of it. We all went out later that night to a club and had a great time dancing and drinking. The next day we made breakfast at our bungalows and headed back to the beach and there was no wind this day so it was much nicer. The beach was a nude beach, so we saw some stuff that we probably wish we wouldnt have. The part of the island we were at had a lot of draw for retired people on vacation and gay people. There were also a lot of swinger clubs. There were probably at least 100 miniture golf courses with-in a 5 mile radius and a lot of the buildings and shopping centers were build to look like miniture golf courses. It was pretty weird. We pretty much just hung out the whole time at the beach and at the pool at our bungalows other than the one night we went out. The weather was great and all of us got burnt. I probably got 14 hours of sleep the whole weekend so when we got back on Monday I was beat. I slept for 12 hrs and it took me all weekend to catch back up on my sleep. It was an awesome last trip with all my new friends and now I have my last week at school and finals. Today is my last Sunday in Madrid. Im starting to get bummed out, but it has been such an awesome experience and I am definitely fortunate and blessed to be able to have had the opportunity.

San Sebastian

I went to San Sebastian this last weekend, and so far it is my favorite place I have been to in Spain and possibly out of the other places as well. San Sebastian is in the north of Spain and its just this smaller town that is right on the ocean and has two different beaches. One is more for surfing than the other. There are 2 mountains on either side of the cove/beach that have amazing views of the city and the countryside. The weather the first day was cloudy and it lightly rained, but the next day we go lucky and the weather cleared out so for the afternoon we had sunny blue skies and went to the beach and jumped in the ocean. The water was freezing, but refreshing. San Sebastian is pretty well known for its pinchos or tapas. At pretty much at all of the bars there is just trays of tons of different types of pinchos or tapas sitting on top of the bar. You just grab 1 or 2 and eat it standing there at the bar. It is a really cool setting. On saturday the town came alive and there were people everywhere on the streets and tons of soccer games going on on the beach. There were also a lot of crew teams out in the ocean. This is the first place that I have thought that I could actually live. Northern Spain is much more green and has way more trees and you could live in the country and have a 15 or 20min drive to San Sebastian. Awesome weekend.

Salamanca

I have not been good about keeping this updated so im going to try to catch you up. Two weeks ago I went to Salamanca with the school. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain and is a fairly big college town. It is not a huge city, but it is very authentic. There are many tapas bars, the plaza mayor, the university, and the big cathedral that has influence from both the gothic and roman era. There is also a river that runs through the town. Salamanca was cool, but i was told that it is better to stay the night to get the experience with it being a college town, but i did not do that cause I went only for a day trip with the school. The university was cool because after you received your Phd your name would get written on the wall with some kind of blood and after so many years there was faded writing on the walls of blood. Also there used to be a saint named, Padre Lucero, i believe, and he taught at the university and was know to be very intelligent. After he died they put a statue of him in the cathedral and you can sit in a chair and put your feet on his statue and it is a superstition that you will receive his knowledge. I guess many students do this even to this day before finals and exams.

Portugal (Spring Break)

Im sure you all think im just traveling and not even doing school, but just so you know I recieved A's on both my midterms. Portugal was probably my favorite place yet. We started in the north of Portugal in Porto and stayed there for 3 days and then took the train to Lisbon for another 4 days. I thought as a city Porto was much cooler than Lisbon, but in Lisbon went to 2 different little towns about 30min outside the city by train that were amazing. They were the town of Cascais, which is just this little coastal town with cliffs all along the beach. We went to this place called "boca de inferno" or "hells mouth" and its right on the cliff and we watched the sunset there and the whole time waves are just crashing against the cliffs. The other place just outside of Lisbon was Sintra. Sintra is basically a huge mountain that has a few different castles on it from the 16th or 17th century. It was awesome cause we hiked to the top of the mountain and from the top was 360 degree views of the countryside of Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Back in Porto we went and did a few wine tastings and just walked the streets. We went out to the beach as well in Porto cause here in Madrid we all miss the beach. Its the only thing Madrid is missing. In both of our hostels we met all sorts of cool people from all over the place and would go out every night with everyone. Spring break in Portugal was awesome and I recommend going if you can.

I forgot to mention that the last night in Lisbon we threw a mustache/unibrow party in our hostel so there is also a picture of that

Las Fallas, Valencia

We only went to Las Fallas for the day on Friday and it was out of control. We left Madrid at 9am and had to be back on the bus at 2:30am on Saturday. Las Fallas is a celebration for San Jose who is a saint in Spain i guess, but for me it was a celebration with fireworks and fire. Artists spend a year constructing these huge statues called "fallas" and only one of the statues wins... the others get burnt to the ground. Some of them are as tall as a 6 story buildings. They are all made out of foam, paper, and wood and the detail of the fallas is crazy. I was able to buy fireworks to throw around the street so i was stoked. I was like a little kid in a candy store. My friends that i was with didnt like me playing with the fireworks to much, so at one point I kinda split ways from them so I could play with my fireworks. We watched the 3rd place winner of the contest get burnt to the ground and before lighting it on fire they had a firework show for it and then within a matter of minutes the whole thing was up in flames. Firemen were hosing the thing down to control the flames and everyone was getting ashes rained all over them. We had to run back to the bus to make it so we didnt get left in Valencia, but it was worth it. Las Fallas was awesome!

Barcelona

This last weekend in Barcelona went by way to quick. We definitely needed more time to see everything. On thursday night my buddy and I stayed in a hostel where we met someone who claimed to be Jesus and said he was from heaven. To say the least he was a pretty interesting guy. The next day we walked around the gothic part of Barcelona and then through a park and then down along the beach. We got lucky again with the weather because last monday in Barcelona it was snowing and both days this weekend was sunny and hot. We met up with our other friends from San Diego later on friday and then went to a few bars that night. On saturday, since it was only my friends only full day, we did a bus tour of Barcelona all day so we could most of the city. We went out that night as well and ended up going to bed at 5am and had to get up at 9am to head to the airport. We were all exhausted the next day. If you go to Barcelona DO NOT fly into the Girona Airport cause its an hour and half from the city by bus. Anyways it was a cool weekend and im looking forward to going back with my mom

Tanger, Morocco (Africa)

Where to begin with Morocco... It was an awesome experience. I went with my friends Heather, Katie, and Steve and we all had a blast. It was supposed to be raining the whole weekend and we lucked out because we had awesome weather the first 2 days and then the 3rd day was not that great. The hotel we stayed at was about a 15 min walk to the beach and about 15 min walk to whats called the Medina, or where all the little markets are. The first day we just wondered around and since Heather and Katie were the only 2 blonds in all of Tanger we were getting all sorts of comments. We thought it was smarter to just keep walking instead of talking back. We only had one person that was a kinda of hostile, the others just made remarks. We ended up on this cliff that overlooked the port of Tanger and we could see across the straight of Gibraltar to Spain. It was a sweet overlook. The next day we hired a cab to take us to a place called Grotto Hercule and its a cave on the Atlantic Ocean that was naturally shaped in the form of Africa. It was a really cool drive to the cave through the mountains and at the top it overlooked Tanger. The next day we went to a town about 2 and a half hours away called Chefchaquen and its a town that is right at the base of the Riff Mountains. It was a very cool little town. While we were on the mountainside overlooking the town it started to rain and by the time we walked back to the town center it was pouring. There were legitimate rivers flowing in the streets within 5 mins of this downpour. We were all soaked from head to toe. The whole time we ate at these 2 different restaurants because they were so cheap and we could get whole pizzas. We did eat some authentic food like kebabs and in the morning at the hotel they had what i think was authentic food. The 4 of us just hung out at night in the hotel cause we didnt feel like wondering the streets other than to the store and restaurant. Morocco was definitely an experience of a lifetime.

Granada

My trip to Granada was awesome. The weather was finally better, about 70. When we got into Granada we met up with a couple friends from San Diego and they took us up to this place called Albacin which overlooks all of Alhambra, the Sierra Nevadas of Granada, and part of the city. The views were awesome. Later that night they took us to a massive botellon. There was probably around 1,000 people there and it was crazy. The next day we spent all day at Alhambra. The views from Alhambra were incredible. We could see the entire city and all the snow covered sierra nevadas and its something you have to see in person because the pictures dont do it justice. Alhambra itself was very interesting and the arabic architecture and design was really cool. I think Granada has been my favorite place that I have traveled so far. On sunday, my family took me out to this place called Casa de Campo which is just on the outskirts of Madrid and its where the civil war took place here, but now it is a huge park. We just went on a run and my host senor was showing us all the old trenches and bunkers from the war. It was really cool. From Casa de Campo you could see a lot of the skyline of the city which was cool.

Weather

The weather here sucks right now. I guess Spain is having its 2nd worse storm in 50 years. It rains every day, which sucks because I have a 10-15 min walk from the metro to campus. Hopefully it will clear up soon! Tomorrow my buddy John and I are going to Granada and then coming back Saturday night. Ive heard a lot of cool things about Granada, so look for pictures soon. Also, my new family has a house in a town called Burgos in northern Spain and they said they would take me there sometime soon so im stoked, but for the next 5 weeks i have trips planned for every weekend. (Granada, Morocco, Barcelona, Valencia, and then either Lisbon or Malaga for spring break)

Toledo and Kevin Costner

Yesterday a group of us went to Toledo, which is about 30min by train from Madrid. It was a very beautiful and cool city. All the streets are very narrow with cobblestone and the architecture is awesome. There is still a wall that goes around the city. We went into a few different museums and other than that just cruised around the city checking everything out. We had lunch at a little cafe and in Spain it is very popular to get a hamburger with a sunny side up egg on it. It is really good. I recommend you try it at home. We walked down along the river as well for a little while checking out these old abandoned buildings or something of the sort. Then once we got back to Madrid, Jenna, John, and I all met up and went to Kevin Costner's concert. We got hooked up with free tickets to show thanks to my aunt and her old friend, who is friends of Kevins'. After the show was over we got to go backstage and down into the dressing rooms. We got to talk with Kevin and took pictures with him and then hung out in the room talking to my aunts friend Tim for awhile. While we were inside we got to talk to some of the other band members as well. All of them were really cool and nice. It was an awesome experience. Yesterday was a long, but awesome day.

New Family

Week 2 of school is over and tomorrow we are going to Toledo. After we get back from Toledo I am going to Kevin Costner's concert here in Madrid, so tomorrow should be a pretty cool day. Last night a few of us met up before we went to an intercambio to have a botellon, and then later we went to a bar/club. I changed families a couple days ago and so far it has been awesome. I am now living with a girl and guy who are dating and are in their mid-late 20's and they live with her father who I believe is 73 and retired. The girl used to teach spanish at the university I am attending so she is very helpful when correcting me and helping me say things correctly. Her boyfriend is from Canada and really cool. We try to talk to each other in spanish, but its easier to talk in english with him cause we both arent very good at spanish. I just met her father today but he is really nice guy. He helped me get my computer set up to the internet because it wouldnt connect, so we had to call their internet provider and he had to talk to them in spanish for me and then have someone call us back to speak in english. He was very helpful. I believe he has a house in Valencia as well, and was there this past week... Im hoping that maybe they will all go again and take me with!

Segovia

This weekends trip to Segovia was pretty cool. We saw the Roman aquaduct there, 3 very cool and very old cathedrals that date back to the 1100's or somewhere around then, and the castle that Walt Disney got his inspiration from. A very popular dish in Segovia is Cochinillo, or baby pig, but we didnt try it, but i guess they will bring out a whole baby pig and then cut it up to serve how every many are sharing it. After spending the day in Segovia we ended up going out later at night in Sol, back in Madrid, for all the festivities of the Carnival. Right now for 2 weeks the big Carnival De Cadiz is going on, so we just went to the market and bought some beverages and had what they call a "Botellon" in the streets of Sol. We all ended up later at a bar called La Negra Tomasa and they had a live band playing, so everyone was dancing salsa and merengue. This is the best and cheapest way to have fun.

1st Week Of School

The first day wasnt as bad as I thought it would after the super bowl. Week one of school is over and so far it has been pretty easy as far as reviewing what i have already learned in previous Spanish classes. Our classes are in all Spanish... no English at all. The teachers hardly speak any English and dont really understand us when we talk in English, so we have to try to explain everything in the Spanish that we know... to say the least its difficult, but i am understanding most of what they say. As far as the home-stay and my host family, I am not super happy. The lady and her son dont every really like to talk and dont seem to want to open up to try to get to know me. The son comes home and locks himself in his room everyday and will say hello and goodbye, but thats it. The lady works from like 9-6 and doesnt show up at home till like 8... I have had a few conversations with her for about the 10min it takes to eat. I tried to tell her last night that I want to talk to her and her son more and she pretty much told me she doesnt have the time to because she works all day and then is tired. Anyways I am moving families sometime this weekend, so hopefully my new family will be around more and will want to actually to talk and get to know me. Tonight we are going to meet up with some Spanish kids to practice speaking spanish at a bar and then going to some flamenco or salsa dance place. Saturday we are all going to Segovia and I am looking forward to that. This week I have booked 2 weekend trips, 1 to Morocco and the other to the Grand Canary Islands. I am looking very forward to those trips. Other than that we are still trying to figure out our spring break, and are thinking about trying to rent a car in Italy and drive all over Italy. Not sure about that one yet though.

1st few days

The first few days in Madrid have been pretty fun. We had orientation on Friday and Im pretty sure I got placed in all the remedial spanish classes cause im not very good yet. Im looking forward to school so i can get better quick. I have been having a little difficulty conversing with my host mom cause they speak so quickly and i dont understand. Our group of students from SDSU went out together last night in SOL and just jumped around to different bars and pubs and i didnt get home till 5am this morning and then slept till 3:30 in the afternoon. Kind of feel a little lazy, but am trying to get used to the lifestyle here cause everything seems to start later. When i woke up today at 3:30 there was a few plates covered in the kitchen, I thought it was lunch, but after I ate it my host mom came and and told me that i eat dinner early. I had no clue it was dinner and people dont eat dinner here till 9 or 10 so i was on my own for my real dinner. My host mom went out tonight and i stayed in... i feel like i should be out too. I stayed in tonight because tomorrow we are going to some big market in Madrid, I forget the name, but its supposed to be huge. Tomorrow is the superbowl and kick off here I guess is not until 12:30am on monday morning unless we can find somewhere playing it earlier, so if i go out to the pub to watch it i wont be home until 5am and have class at 10 monday morning. It will be a fun first day at school.

Im Home

Just moved into my families apartment about 2 hours ago and am starting to feel situated. My mom is at work till 6:30 tonight and her son (my new brother) has been here since I arrived. Her name is Concha and his name is Marcos. Marcos is 17 and turns 18 in one month, so im hoping he will show me around. I arrived to a lady cleaning the apartment and after talking to her found out she works here for 3 hours per day cleaning, so I dont know if that means i have a maid or what. I guess i will find out in the time to come. Its a small little apartment, but have my own room. There is a small living room and little kitchen. I dont think there is a father figure in this house cause i asked Marcos when his mom and dad get home and he only said his madre(mom). Im off to go meet up with my friends John and Jenna to explore the metro and find out where school is cause we have to be there at 9am tomorrow morning for orientation.

Madrid

In northern Spain close to the border of France was beautiful country. Very green and lots of hills and forest. Seeing it on train was very cool. Out one window you could see the coast and out the other you could see snow covered mountains. We went through Irun and San Sebastian, and i hope i can go back and check out those towns cause they looked very cool. We got into Madrid last night after 12 hours of trains from Paris and I am stoked to finally be here. My buddy and I are actually couch-surfing on my spanish teachers couches from San Diego State. When I took spanish at SDSU last spring she was my teacher. She is 23 and really cool. Her and her friend came and got us from the train station when we arrived and then it was off to the tapa bars. The first experience of tapas was great with a cana de cerveza. After that we went to the bar where she works here in Madrid. She is teaching english here and has the job at the bar as a side job. Today we have just been lounging which is nice cause its the first time ive actually got to rest a little bit. Where we are staying is about 30 min outside of the center of Madrid and I guess its a famous town because the author of Don Quixote lived here in the 1500's or whenever. Its weird to go into bars or restaurants here and see people smoking inside. I guess its something you have to get used to cause last night everyone was smoking inside the bar we were at... I might as well be smoking instead of getting all the second hand smoke.

Paris

The last 5 days here have flown by. We have pretty much covered all of what is considered city center of Paris and it was awesome. The Cathedrals (we got to watch part of a french mass service which was cool, but we didnt understand it), the Lourve, the Effiel Tower, Moulin Rouge, the Gardins, a cemetary, the Palace of Versaille, and more... everything was so cool. We walked a lot and would get lost just heading up and down side streets that had stores and markets. We actually ended up staying at the Korean homestay for the entire time in Paris which was cool cause we didnt have to worry about locking up out luggage cause its pretty much a families apartment and we just stayed in one of the rooms. We also got breakfast and dinner everyday so we got to experience a bit of Korean food, which was great. The day we went to the Palace of Versaille was pretty cool because the night before there was either some sort of a hail storm or a little snow because there was a thin blanket of white on the ground so it made all the gardins in Versaille look really cool. The last 2 days have been sunny with some blue skies but still pretty cold but not as bad as Amsterdam. Today we talked to a french guy who could speak a little english and he told us that he didnt like america and the lifestyle because he felt americans are to proud and not really excepting of other cultures and people. We kind of had the same conversation with the lady running the homestay about american culture and lifestyle. She feels that americans live in a cycle and dont really care to adventure and explore other things in life other than what they are used to. Anyways I enjoyed listening to their views and perceptions and i guess i could agree to a certain extent. Tomorrow morning we are off to Madrid! Unfortunately we have about 12 hours of trains to ride before we get there, but I guess I will get to see a lot of the country side so it should be cool. I will try to get more pictures posted asap. Au revoir (goodbye)

Paris

Our last day in Amsterdam we toured the Heineken Brewery which was pretty cool and just walked around another huge market and more of the city. We were staying right next to a park and all the ponds and creeks are frozen over so we were goofing off and running across the ponds. Probably not the smartest idea since we saw and heard the ice crack a few times, but we were just following some guy from amsterdam's lead cause he was riding his bike across the froze over pond. Today we arrived in Paris after way to long of a day of traveling on trains. We left our hostel in Amsterdam around 8:30am and didnt get into Paris until around 8:00pm. So far the experience has been nothing I would have ever expected cause we met a Korean kid on the train going to Paris as well whose name is Hanjin and ended up traveling with him the whole way and are now staying for the night with him in a Korean home-stay just below whats considered city center paris. We decided to do this cause we did not make any arrangements yet for hostels in Paris and it sounded like a good deal, and so far it has been. We had a curry dish for dinner, there is free internet, and the few kids here are pretty cool. Tomorrow we are off to go do the sight seeing and take the metro all over Paris. Not many people here speak english, but it has been fun trying to communicate with them using the basic French phrases.

Amsterdam

Leaving London was the first stress of traveling i encountered because we showed up 30 min before our train left to Amsterdam and there was hundreds of people in line. We had to get though security and customs and somehow got very lucky and got on the train about 5-10 before the doors shut. Arrived yesterday in Amsterdam and it is not what I expected... at least weather wise. There is snow on the ground and it is freezing cold. We are staying at a hostel called Durty Nelly's and it is a little bit sketchy but I guess that is part of the hostel experience. Last night we went out wandering around to Rembrandtplein square where we ate at this place called FEBO. You bought hot food out of a machine like a vending machine that they loaded. After eating we were back to wandering and ended up in the Red Light District. Its pretty much everything I imagined as far as the prostitution in red windows go. It was pretty fun to look at them and then watch them start dancing and pointing at you to try to lure you into their rooms. I did not go into any rooms just to make it clear. There are a ton of pubs and "coffeeshops" on every corner as well. It was definitely an eye opening experience of nightlife. Today we walked around the town of Jordaan and there was a cool street market going on. A lot of clothes and fabrics. Tonight we may be going on a pub crawl but have not decided yet.

Last Days In London

Yesterday after our night out John slept at the hostel and I decided to go out and get lost walking around Central London. I ended up in Trafalgar Square in a protest about photography. Everyone was holding signs saying "Im a photographer not a terrorist". Britain's danger or terrorism levels have been risen to high since we arrived and I guess they are expecting a terrorist attack. I was told by a protester that the Britain police dont want people taking pictures of attractions anymore cause they think its a plot of some terrorist act. At the protest there were these 3 men dressed in all white nun like dresses with their faces painted solid white. They were wearing name tags that said "London House of Common Sluts" and were some weird freaking people. After that I walked around the National Art Gallery which was pretty cool and then we were off to our next hostel. We stayed last night in Palmers Lodge which is more north of central London and just hung out at the pub in the hostel with some kids from australia and kids who are studying abroad in Paris from Chicago. This hostel is much nicer than the last one, but its a completely different environment. Its so much bigger that it doesnt really force people to hang out, where in the last one the only place to hang out was the kitchen, and this place is run more like a hotel than a hostel. We have an hour now till we leave to go catch our train to Amsterdam.

More London

Yesterday we went to Tower bridge, London Bridge, Tate Modern, and St. Paul's Cathedral, as well and another cathedral and some street market thing. Pics will come soon, but im still trying to figure out the blog and how to put pics on it. Yesterday as well I got to experience the nightlife scene of London. We went out with all our friends from our hostel and went to the Ministry of Sound club and went deaf listening to techno and house music all night. Lots of fist pumping was involved in this place. Didnt end up going to bed till 6am, which I guess is normal for the nightlife over here. I am gonna have to figure out when I can sleep cause having to check out of the hostel at 10am is not fun with only 3 hours of sleep. I am now off to my next hostel and then seeing where the day leads us as we spend our last day in London.

London

Today we walked all over london and saw the some of the tourist attractions like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and the Westminster Hall and The Houses of Parliament. We then went to Camden town which is supposedly Europe's largest street market and it was awesome. I dont have any room in my suitcase to buy more stuff or else I would have bought a ton. I met a kid from Venice, Italy named Matteo and he came out with John and I today and walked around the city with us, he is a pretty cool guy who is just trying to practice his english here. In Camden we went to a little pub to have a drink and tonight are cooking spaghetti at the hostel. There are a bunch of cool people staying here from Sweden, Finland, and Australia, who are taking a bar tending course, so they just drink all day and then come back to the hostel and continue to drink. London is a very cool city, but pretty expensive (at least for the american dollar). We had a 9.20 british pound lunch today which comes out to like $20. Till next time.

San Francisco International Airport - The Beginning

Let the journey begin! I am sitting in the airport as we speak trying to figure out how to blog. It doesnt seem like it should be to hard to figure out. Im hoping my flight does not get delayed because I am sitting here watching thunder and lightening storms and the downpour of rain, but still have 2 hours till my flight. Anyways I will do my best to keep the most up to date information and pictures on my blog for those of you who want to follow my adventure. Goodbye America and here I come Europe