Dublín, Mérida y Trujillo

In a radical attempt to not do my homework I'll let you all know about my long weekend in Ireland and a small day trip I had with my professors from Kalamazoo.

Dublin

A couple of weekends ago, Mauro and I went to Ireland to visit Maggie my cousin. She is studying abroad in a small city outside of Dublin called Maynooth where we stayed with her in her flat. On Thursday we flew out of Lisbon and after many delays and long taxi rides we made it to her place and talked for another 3 hours. It was good, and really weird, hearing so much English spoken around me even if it was in an Irish accent.

The following day we all took a train to another small city called Howthe that's on the other side of Dublin. We hiked all through this small peninsula and saw a bit of those beautiful Irish cliffs. On top of that we were able to talk with a bunch of local townies and they were extremely friendly much like the people in Cáceres, but I could actually understand everything they were saying for once. We had lunch at this pub in the middle of the trails and had this amazing chowder, aptly named Howthe Chowder. It may have been because we had been hiking for a while or that I was still tired from sleeping, but that chowder was phenomenal. It had two or three different types of fish and other seafood in there and then with a big pint of milk...couldn't ask for something better.

 That night, Maggie took us into downtown Dublin to the Temple Bar district with one of her flatmates. The Temple Bar district was exactly what I had imagined drinking at pub in Ireland to be like. It was where I had a my first true Guinness among other things. The whole district was packed, which added to the fun. Towards the end of the night we stopped by and got some taco chips (stellar french fries) and headed back on the 40-minute-long bus ride to Maynooth.

The next day Mauro and I woke up relatively early and made our way back into Dublin to tour the Guinness Storehouse, and boy did it deliver. There were seven stories talking about how it's made and all of the advertising over the years. One of my favorite parts were in the taste testing room where we got a mini pint and were told what to look for when drinking Guinness. It was really cool because they had this fog machines that had a concentrated version of the esters, hops, malts and other things that are evident in their beer. It helped pick out some different tastes, but the thing is, Guinness just tastes different in Ireland. It's so strange. It's just smoother and, well, tastes better. After looking through all of the other artifacts they had, Mauro and I received a free pint to continue 'taste testing.' It was amazing obviously and I thought it was just an awesome experience. Also on the way back we talked to a bunch of teenage Irish kids who wanted to know anything and everything about the States. They were in that funny age where they want to be super cool but are still really cute with how excited they are to meet foreigners haha.

The Black Stuff

We had a pretty chill time, just watching Christmas movies and making some enchiladas before we headed out. Lisbon was a trainwreck again getting back, partially because the Portuguese refuse to speak Spanish. Imagine that! We got back to Cáceres fine but I wish I could've stayed for longer. 

Mérida y Trujillo

This past week we had twelve or so professors from K come to Cáceres and eat at our houses and go to our cultural project sites. I never had any of them for class, but I have talked to the two chemistry profs before so I was able to meet a ton of awesome people. Everyone that came was very excited to be there and see some of us that they knew.

Their last day we went to two towns that are very close: Mérida (the capital of Extremadura, the "state" I live in) and Trujillo (a small town somewhere around here). Mérida is very rich in Roman history with many of their structures still standing and it reminded me a lot of Rome. No matter where you dig in the city there are Roman ruins and a lot of the city is under constant excavation due to that. We visited the amphitheater, the theatre, and an old Roman bridge. Up until recently, cars were still driven over the bridge but they stopped doing that to try and preserve it. After an exquisite three course lunch of paella, pork and chips, and a homemade cake we made our way to Trujillo for an hour and half.

Trujillo appeared to me to be much more interesting for some reason. It was very foggy and damn near nighttime but we toured a bit of the old city. The thing that I found to be the coolest part was that this city was the birthplace of Francisco Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana. For those of you who can't remember history of the Americas, they were two of the fiercest conquistadors who conquered the Incas and traversed the Amazon River, respectively. We saw what they're wealth was able to build with them and how there lives were beforehand. For example, Pizarro went from living in a small home in the old city to constructing a massive palace on the Plaza Mayor because why not? Our guide told us that these guys were basically insane, but I have to imagine you had to conquer a people over an ocean away that you didn't even know existed 20 years before. I just love being in cities where there's history even semi-related to the us and I thought it was surreal walking through the same streets as these men.

Well after these cool little cities we went to tapas with the profs and got to know one another even more over some drinks. Although I didn't know these people that well beforehand I hope that I can get into some of their classes if I have free time in my last year. 

All in all, I'm doing well and excited to see my fam that's coming next week. Miss everyone and if you still want a postcard, let me know! 

La Capital: Madrid y Turkey Day en España

So I decided that after about two weeks since being there that I should right a bit about my weekend in Madrid. We started out with a 3 hour "scavenger hunt" of sorts where we had to go around the central part of the city and find random bits about everything and anything. We went down to the Prado Museum (just the outside...) and el Parque Retiro for a bit that same day and it was all very pretty. I was completely surprised to see how enormous the park was. I also wished that I could've been there a bit earlier in the year to see the leaves change because it would've been soooo beautiful, but hey you can only do so much in six months, right?

After going on this scavenger hunt we finished in the Plaza Mayor and waited for a our director for about an hour which wasn't exactly cool considering it was close to freezing out. The minor annoyance subsided pretty quickly when all of our Spanish friends from years' past along with our Kalamazoo friends that were studying in Madrid showed up. We caught up for a bit before our director came and then went for some awesome tapas at El Tigre. It was nice to catch up with all those hooligans. We all went back to the hotel and got ready for a night on the town, and let me tell you it was something. We went to this seven-story...yes, seven-story discoteca and had a great time. I have never seen such a big club in my life but that may because I've really been out to them in Cáceres and Bahía isn't much to brag about.

The next day we got a absolutely delicious brunch (I guess that's what you could call it?) at this place called Miranda on la Calle de Huertas. In fact, I'm sure if you ever ask Mauro what his favorite part of Madrid was, the honey mustard pork we had has to be in the top three. We went through the Prado museum which was pretty neat, but it was more like a race to see as many painting by Goya and Velázquez as was humanely possible in 2 hours. All of that on a long day of walking the day before and going to bed early in the morning didn't exactly make it easier, but there was some very impressive things to see. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the other huge museums around the corner because we ran out of time which is a bit said considering they contain some very important Picasso paintings.

Finally, we went through the Royal Palace and my Lord is that something. We didn't have a guide per se, but our director did a pretty good job of explaining everything along with the little plaques that were in every room haha. We only saw about 10% of the entire thing, but I'm pretty sure that everyone of the little 25 square meter rooms could've been valued pretty close to a million dollars. There was a room with 5 violins and cellos made specifically for the Spanish royalty by Antonio Stradivari. If you're not exactly sure who he is, he made string instruments in the 1600's which are still regarded as THE best in the world and every instrument he made is priceless. Then the fact that they're custom made for the king and queen makes them even crazier!

I enjoyed my time in Madrid, but I still don't know how to describe it. There weren't any cultural sites like in Granada or Salamanca but everything still felt impressive in some way. Obviously it is the capital city so it is special, it just didn't feel like the Spain I had been accustomed to in Cáceres I suppose. I'm planning on exploring it some more, but as of right now I would say that there are other places you need to go to first before you go to Madrid.

This weekend I'm going to Dublin to meet up with Maggie and I'm getting pumped! I haven't seen that chick forever and I finally get to go see the land of some of my ancestors. I'll let you know how that is after this weekend so be on the lookout for another post.

So I had Thanksgiving here, obviously, and it was very...different. I can't say that I've ever had duck patê at any of my dinners back in the US (Rowley and Schultz families feel free to back me up) nor only one plate of turkey. Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious and I still was able to get ahold of both sides of my family during their respective dinners. It was kinda hard to not be around a ton of family for the huge holiday but my friends and professors made it a worthwhile and memorable experience.

The following day I had to teach at my elementary school which is called Licenciados Reunidos. It's a semi-private (I don't understand it either so don't ask haha), bilingual school were I teach English, History, Biology and basically anything else the teachers don't feel like teaching on Fridays. My mom sent me some photos from some of the Thanksgiving dinners and I was able to make a Powerpoint and teach a bunch of classes about our cool holiday. All of the kids (and professors) were astounded by the amount of food that they had made and eaten during the day. That same day I got a history lesson about Spain's conquest of the Americas and also interviewed in Spanish about American stereotypes. We really need to stop making movies where cheerleaders and football players are the most popular students in school because that's what Spanish middle-schoolers think that high school is like haha. They also think it's weird how we always sing the National Anthem at sporting events and fly flags everywhere because they have so many protests that more flags are burned in the country than are ever put on a flagpole. The only time that many European countries seem to be proud of their country and national anthems seem to be during international sporting events, so the World Cup basically. We talked about a ton of other stuff as well, but feel free to ask me about that because at this point I feel like I've written more than anyone would want to read. Hope everyone is doing well Stateside and there's still time to get postcards if you want one! Love all y'all.

¡Hasta luego tíos y tías!