my travels- Rome, Ireland, Sierra de Francia, Toledo, El Escorial,Cuidade Rodrigo, Granada, Madrid, Barcelona, Portugal

Rome. The Trevi Foutain. I think I must have visited the fountain everyday when I was there and of course I threw in coins for wishes.

                                                   Ireland/ The Guiness Factory
Ireland is one of my favorite places that I have visited. The people are very friendly and the country is very green and beautiful. While my friend and I were supposed to land in Dublin, we landed in Shannon instead because the airport had to close due to a snow storm. This excited us because we got to see another part of Ireland that we had not planned to see. On the bus back to Dublin, we got to see the whole countryside of Ireland. It was beyond beautiful. I felt like I was in the movie ¨P.S I love you¨. For those of you who have not seen it, the movie was filmed in Ireland and it depicted how beautiful Ireland is. Of course I loved Dublin, but most cities are always the same. While we were in Dublin, we took a trip to visit the Guiness Factory. As I walked in to the factory,  realized that I was standing in a big beer bottle. The whole factory was shaped like a bottle. There were many levels to the factory and as we went up we learned how the beer is brewed and about the factory´s hisotry. When we reached the last floor, we were able to see an amazing view of the whole city of Dublin.

                                                           Sierra de Francia/ Spain
This mountainous town is on the border of Portugal and Spain. One morning, all the students of our program decided to wake up early and go hiking. As we arrived, we were each given a map of the trails to follow. Of course we got lost right away, but I enjoyed it. Some students were scared, but it just gave us another reason to keep exploring. Through the trails we saw some animals, some little houses between the mountains,and some little lakes. We walked so much that I did not need to go to the gym that whole week because my legs were very sore. When it started getting dark, we went to have dinner at a nearby town.

                                                        Granada/ Flamenco show
You can´t possibly go to Spain and not see a Flamenco show, that would be like visiting America and not going to see a country concert or perhaps worse. The Flamenco dancers at the show were professional dancers. They took the dance very seriously and let their bodies follow the music. The history of flamenco music is supposed to be a morning, sad kind of music, and the flamenco dancers portrayed it well by the expressions on their faces. I remember being in the audience and wanting to know how to dance like them so badly.

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Granada/ Spain. 

The above picture is a picture of a Muslim palace called the Alambra. This palace was enorous and had many rooms. Beautiful Muslim art was displayed in every room. It took us the whole day to see the whole palace, but it was definately worth it because we learned alot about the history behind it as well as what some of the writings on the walls meant. 

                                              Toledo/ Spain( The medieval city)
On the 2nd day of being in Spain, our study abroad program coordinators took us to an amazing, breathetaking little city outside Madrid. They called this the medieval city because all the buildings are medieval- looking. All the buildings were so tall and looked like castles. This city was small and had many narrow streets. The city was located on hills because as we were walking through the streets, we would have to keep walking up and down, unlike the flat streets I am used to in New Jersey.

One year in Spain. My personal experiences

¨Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become¨

For the past 9 months I have been living in Salamanca, Spain. and I will leave tomorrow to go to Marid, Barcelona, Portugal, and then back home from where I started. This has been a long jorney. And the best part is that it was completely spontaneous. Til this day I´m not sure why I decided to come to Spain, I mean I could come up with a list of potential reasons, but I would just be making excuses. The truth is, there is no reason why I decided to come to Spain. and thats the beauty of it. It is okay to do things for no reason. Maybe it was an escape from reality, or a way to find myself, like everyone says when they go abroad, but I have discovered that Spain has become my reality, and a home to me. And about finding myself, well I´m not sure what the requirements are to finding yourself  but  I think I just discovered things about me that I had been too busy to see before. In America, I was always busy, I never had time to just stop and realize who I am, what I truly like to do, or just have time for myself. I was always too busy focusing on what everyone else wanted me to focus on. I never just stopped to admire the little things in life, nor take the chance to see how wonderful life is. Spain has taught me many things. And it has given me many things. It taught me to be free, to accept everyone and judge no one, it has taught me to love myself, to be open-minded, and most importantly it has taught me to live in the present. I think this was very important for me because I was always living in the future. I would always be making plans for ¨tomorrow¨and never be enjoying ¨today¨. In addition, Spain had given me the chance to find love( the real kind :p), the opportunity make friends that have changed my life, the priveledge to study at The University of Salamanca and study alongside Spainsh students, and the chance to be part of such an amazing culture.  

   

¨Our Fingerprints dont fade for the lives we touch¨( Into the Wild).  Throughout this year, I have met many people, but only a few changed my life in some way. I truly believe that everyone comes into my life to teach me something either in a good way or bad. I won´t name those people who have taught me many things and made this year significant to me because they know who they are. Without those ceratin people, this journey wouldn´t have been the same. I laughed with them, cried with them, partied with them, and most importantly they were always there when I needed them. It is sad to leave all these wonderful people behind. My Austrian roommate said something to me the other day that sums this all up. She said: ¨We arent only leaving great friends, we are closing a chapter in our lives that we can never go back to¨.

¨Each of us shines in a different way, but this doesnt make our light less bright¨( Albert Einstein).

-Culture differences-

When I first arrived to Spain first semester, there were alot of different customs that I was introduced to. Granted the Spanish culture isnt so shocking as if I were to study in the Middle East for example but I was suprised by some little differences. 

First: their Meal Times. - Spanish people usually have breakfast at the normal time and eat something light like madalenas( mini muffins) and either cafe solo or cafe con leche. Then they eat lunch around 2pm. This is supposed to be the biggest meal of the day. Then between lunch and dinner they go out for ¨Tapas¨, which is where you go to bars to eat appetizer- like food and drink a glass of wine or a caña( beer). Then dinner time starts anywhere from 9-11pm. This  is was what took me the longest to get used to because I usually eat dinner at 7pm in the U.S. The Spanish culture is more of a ¨sit down¨meal kind of culture whereas in America there is alot of snacking and they don´t exactly obey meal times as they do in Spain.

Second: Some Spanish habits: 

a) It is typical to see a Spanish person walking home with a big loaf of bread in their hand before lunch time. 

b) Spanish people tend to speak very loud( not everyone of course, but in general). 

c) It is rude to enter a shopping store and not say bye to the sales clerk.

Fourth: One thing that I truly miss is my dryer machine. I have to hang my clothes outside and its just not the same. Of course in the beginning I thought it was so cute and very European but now I just get annoyed when my clothes dont smell as good and when I find bugs in my clothes.

Fifth:  okay this one is my favorite culture difference. When you go out for Tapas, you see everyone throwing their garbage on the floor. ( this includes used napkins, crums, seed shells etc). And the funny thing is, the people working at the tapas bars want you to throw your garbage on the floor. This is because their theory is, the more garbage people see on the floor, the better the tapas bar is supposed to be. In addition, it is okay to litter on the streets. This is because they have an overnight cleaning service that sweeps all the streets in town. I would have to say, mostly all the streets in Spain are pretty much clean.

 Sixth:Spanish people are obsessed with JAMON! in every conner you see a jamon shop, with a million pork legs hanging from the ceiling. At first I didnt like it at all and now I am also obsessed with it. I started to eat Jamon at least once a week. I barely recognized myself!

Seventh: On Sundays, no supermarket is open. and there are no 24 hour eating places like in America. So you learn to be a responsible citizen and buy food on Saturday in order to have it on Sunday. In Madrid, they do have some supermarkets open because it is a city, but in the little religious town of Salamanca, nothing will be open on Sundays. Also, Salamanca still practices the ¨siesta¨. This is when places close from 2-5 for people to nap. But nowadays not everything closes for the siesta.

Also not everyone goes to take a nap, they usually eat or do other things. The places that will close are small shops, the university offices, the pharamacy etc. This could get annoying when you want to get things done.