These past few days have been an absolute blur. I have done so much it seems impossible that it has been only 4 days. It is amazing how much time I have on my hands to do whatever I want and how productive I have actually been with that time. There is no doubt that I am experiencing the “honeymoon” stage of my study abroad – reality is on the verge of slapping me in the face.
Thursday I had my Spanish classes – grammar and conversation. Since being here, my ability to understand conversations and what people are saying definitely out weighs my speaking capabilities. I love the school we have classes at. It is right by la plaza Cervantes which is the center of Alcala. My conversation teacher, Christina, is really fun and young and literally asks us random questions about boyfriends, girlfriends, Olive Garden and Alabama. We had a group tour organized to go to Madrid and see the main sites so we would also know how to get around. I was incredibly camera-happy. Everything could be made into a beautiful picture. During the tour was when I became better acquainted with Ashley, Jared and Kip. The Fab Four. We broke off every once and a while to hang back and take pictures or just admire something the rest of the group walked by. Madrid has the real Haribo store – gummy bear brand everyone buys. We got lunch close to la puerta del Sol where Ashley and I shared our first real paella. We walked everywhere from the Opera house and back to the plaza mayor. The street vendors in Europe are pretty clever and funny too. The have headless men and floating monkeys – weird stuff. My favorite part of that day was the end of the tour when Ashley, Jared, Kip and I were just sitting in the plaza mayor watching people, taking pictures and taking our surroundings in. We ordered churros con chocolate caliente which is literally a melted chocolate bar. We ended up dipping the churros in it because it was too thick to drink - it was heaven. So for future reference if you wanted hot chocolate, order caocaolate not choclate caliente like they teach us at NCHS. Also don’t say quiero trotar when you want to say “I want to go for a jog” because they’ll laugh and call you a horse.
On the train back to Alcala, we talked about our trip to Barce. We needed to go pack and then get back to Madrid for an overnight train. While we were talking we all saw the weirdest thing – a mom holding her daughter up to pee on one of the trees along the sidewalk. We all just stared and could not believe what we saw – it was hilarious. Once we got back, packing and getting everything ready took longer than planned of course. (Side note: Carly called me when I got back saying Antonio had made her eat something that had nuts in it and she was having an allergic reaction. I sprinted back to the house and had to stab her with her Epi Pen. That was a really interesting experience.) Jared went ahead on the metro to try and get tickets on the next train or bus out of Madrid to Barthelona while Ashley, Kip and I slowly made our way. We got to Atocha (the main station in Madrid) and called Jared for the next move. We spent the next hour or so running around on the metro trying to get tickets in time and trying to find one another. The first hilarious event that happened on this spontaneous excursion was when Kip just jumped off a random stop on the metro and said he would meet up with us once he bought tickets (which was everyone’s goal at the time). You would need to get to know Kip in order to understand the hilarity of that decision of his. I also learned that Kip can not go 5 minutes without tripping on something. But anyway, Ashley and I were left roaming the metro and finally found Jared at one of the stops. It was like tag/hide-and-go seek on the metro which might actually be really fun if we didn’t have somewhere to be. Anyway, we had no luck buying tickets for the overnight train. So, if we still wanted to go to Barcelona (which we obviously did), we would all have to throw down an additional 70 euros to take the bullet train. The bullet train would leave at 5:50am from Madrid and arrive at 8:30 in Barcelona – perfect. We decided to go to a club in Madrid until we needed to get to the train. We went to the puerta del Sol to figure out which club we should go to. It turns out that people literally hand out flyers and deals to advertise for clubs that night in Sol. That’s where we met Suzie from Germany who was able to put us on “her list.” She was actually really helpful because we each had our backpack filled with things for the weekend that we didn’t want stolen. Suzie assured us our things would be safe at the coat check of the place she was advertising for. It happened to be international night at this club which is pretty well-known : club Joy. We met tons of other students studying in Madrid for the semester and they played American/techno music the whole time. Kip ended up dancing in the cage in the middle of the dance floor. Jared also convinced him it would be a good idea to try and dance with one of the professional performers there and he ended up being kicked out – unbelievably hilarious. While we were there we got thirsty and asked for Cokes that turned out to be 8 euros a piece for 200 mL (tiny). We refused to drink/pay for them and could not figure out why we were being robbed for a coke without any alcohol in it. Later we learned from a friend on the train that people bring in flasks and buy Cokes as chasers so our innocent request for a non-alcoholic beverage at any club is going to be assumed as a chaser. We knew it was time to go when the locals started coming in and they were somewhat reckless at that stage. The Spanish are much more confident and outgoing and will smile, wink at you, introduce themselves, grab your hand to dance etc. One person I talked to throughout the evening was Carlos/Javier. My favorite quote from him was: “You’re beautiful, I’m beautiful – we are perfect for each other.” Anyway, we left the club and wandered around Madrid to get to Atocha. It was really fun though to walk through the city at night. Through observation, I’ve noticed they have a lot more “civil services” here. What I mean by that is they make remarkable efforts to keep their streets and sidewalks clean by constantly power-washing everywhere! They use a ton of water but I guess it’s worth it.
We got to the train station and waited for it to open at 5. While we sat outside the office we talked to the security guard for a while. Kip and Jared are both fluent in Spanish so they make friends whereever we go. Ashley and I try to keep up but they have to translate for us sometimes. Apparently to the security guard, I look even younger than I am which is great. Out of the group of four I am the youngest. Ashley is 21 and is from San Diego. She is on the BYU track team. We hit it off great: she’s hilarious and we’re very sarcastic together. Kip is really interesting: he went to high school in Ghana, went on his mission to Argentina, goes to BYU now and enjoys dating non- U.S. citizens. Jared is from California has had tons of adventures everywhere and served in Honduras.
The bullet train was incredible. The train systems here are extremely well-developed. There was a TV which played The Blind Side and a nice enough bathroom for me to get changed, brush my teeth and everything. Once the sun rose we were in awe of the city we were rolling into. Barcelona was about 15 degrees warmer than Madrid. We hopped onto the metro to the “Old Town” portion of Barce. The first thing we did was walk down Las Ramblas which most tourists roam around in this area. There are stores, hostels, hotels, lots of vendors all along the road which leads down to the port. We dropped our things off in a hotel and leisurely walked down the remainder of las ramblas to the port. The sun was shining on the beautiful Mediterranean with tons of sail boats. We walked along this bridge and found a nice restaurant to eat outside in the beautiful weather. It turns out we sat and talked for around 3 hours – it was amazing and relaxing. This is probably my favorite part of Spain: being able to sit, watch and embrace everything around you. Every minute was relaxing and amazing. Plus I was doing my favorite thing (sitting in the sun) so practically nothing could go wrong.
We finally left the restaurant and decided to walk along the pier for a little. We kept taking pictures, pointing out interesting things, and getting to know each other really, really well. We stopped by these stone circles that were fun to stand on and look at everything. It started off as us lettering “BYU” with our arms standing on these stones. It made a cool picture with silhouettes of everyone. Jared thought it would be cool to get a picture of him doing a handstand too. It came out really well, and nothing was going wrong until Jared dismounted and landed on his leg and broke his tibula and fibia. Luckily there was a nurse nearby that witnessed him fall. A taxi was close by and we carried him into one and took him to the hospital only 5 minutes away. I didn’t know what to think at first – I didn’t want to think too much because I knew once I started thinking about the worst possible situation my thoughts would keep getting worse and worse. When we got to the hospital, the male nurses came out with a wheel chair to get him into the hospital. I know that being a lifeguard is only minimal experience compared to being a hospital nurse, but I knew as soon as they came out with a wheelchair that this was not U.S. medical care in the slightest. One nurse pushed the wheel chair while the other held the leg – Jared obviously yelled out in pain; probably because their method made no sense at all. Anyway, Ashley was able to stay by his side throughout the rest of the evening while Kip and I wandered around outside. We made some friends – Chelsea and another girl who goes to Lehigh and are studying in Barcelona. Chelsea had been feeling sick/throwing up for a week and finally decided to come to the hospital. The doctors assumed Chelsea was pregnant and took blood samples as well as ultrasounds. I ended up going back to the hotel so I never ended up finding out if she was pregnant or not…
Ashley and I went back to the hotel off of Las Ramblas while Jared and Kip were switched to another hospital in Barcelona. On the walk back we walked along the beach which was beautiful and got kebabs (Turkish type of fast food that was amazing). We were planning to meet up with her friends from high school and go to a club by the port called Opium. Once we got showered and changed, we sat down and could not get out of bed - we were absolutely exhausted. We fell asleep and didn’t wake up until Jared called us at 11:30 the next morning. Jared ended up getting surgery so we packed up everyone’s things and met them at the other hospital in Barce. It was a really nice place where he got his own room with a tv and an awesome view of the Barcelona stadium. We wanted to stay for the game which is today (Sunday) but obviously couldn’t because of the fact that one of the group members was in the hospital.
While Jared was in surgery, Ashley, Kip and I went to the grocery store and bought food for the entire day so we didn’t have to spend any more money. We then went to el parque Guel. The park was stunning – it was high up so you got a view of the entire city. There were beautiful buildings and architecture throughout the park as well. We spent several hours there shooting and talking to people. We started to head back to the hospital when the sun was setting and found out Jared had just gotten out of surgery. He was incredibly drugged up but it would good to see that he was okay. Kip was asked to stay with Jared until they spoke to a doctor to see how long it would be to recover and other details. Ashley and I booked an overnight train back to Madrid. There were actually 4 other Americans in the same car of the train as us and around the same age. The guy we talked to the most was Benny. He and his roommate were grad students at University of Miami studying physical therapy and were visiting Spain on break. They had travelled all over staying in hostels, doing “pubcrawls” and other funny things. Benny shared lots of his travelling stories and tips on how to save money in the future. We talked until pretty late and started to fall asleep in the cafeteria area. The conductor came out and asked if we wanted a new car or anything and then offered us a first class car. We gladly accepted and went to the car – the seats literally all reclined into flat beds so the four of us slept like babies the rest of the way. Once we got to the Atocha station, Ashley and I had an easy time of getting back to Alcala in time for church.
I thought I would be pretty tired for church and it would be hard to get through, but it turned out to be the complete opposite. I had enough time to shower and get ready for the first meeting at 10:30. It was incredible to me how I speak a different language yet I was able to understand and feel the emotions of the speaker. The Spirit was definitely present and it was amazing to me how I was able to take away things from the service like I would be able to at my home ward. It was tough describing to everyone in the program what had happened in Barcelona. Despite the fact that Jared is still there in the hospital, it was still an incredible experience. I have never been able to navigate this independently before especially in cities I have never visited in my life. I can already tell that my “dependency” characteristics are disappearing. Although we were very stressed for several hours on Friday, the amazing time we had before on las ramblas and by the port as well as after in el parque guel definitely outweigh the bad (at least for me… I’m not sure about Jared). Barcelona is a beautiful city, very different from Madrid. Madrid has the more traditional, classical European city feel to it while Barcelona it is very easy to find someone who speaks English, there are many younger people there and it is even more laid back than Madrid. I am counting down the days until we return with the group in several weeks. In the mean time, I have lists of places I need to scope out in Madrid on weeknights.
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