Saturday, November 27, 2010

Spanish Plays...Ayy yi yiiii


Scene from El Mal Juventud

My program has an assignment called the “Cultural Passport” where we have to do all different things around Madrid to receive credit. By the end of the semester you need to have at least 7 items in your passport.  This sounds great in theory, but the annoying thing about it is that the events have to be things a typical tourist would not do. For example, going to a bullfight does not count. Going to a Real Madrid soccer game does not count. Going to a see a Spanish movie does not count. Going to certain museums that seem too touristy/don’t have a Spanish focus do not count. So, because they decided to make this somewhat frustrating for us students, they have an employee, Pablo, who is in charge of organizing activities to places that are allowed for the passport. With the program I have gone to 2 different plays. One was a series of small stories thrown into one play and the other told the story of 6 different characters and involved romance, alcoholism, as well as suicide. I have gone to plays in America, none too risqué, but I have still seen a decent amount. I don’t know what the norm is for plays in Spain but because of these 2 plays I have now seen 4 grown Spaniards completely naked. And, every time it surprises me.  In the first play I went to, these 2 couples were having lunch and then one of the couples left and the man pulled his pants off and did the dirty deed. Later on in the same play the woman is playing a person on the beach and gets completely naked. Shortly after a male actor walks around the stage…completely naked. Also, side note, I was sitting front row for that one. Scarring? Yes, probably. For the second play, called "El Mal Joventud", there were several dancing numbers.  During one of the songs, one of the actresses took her top off and made sexual movements on a bed.  Then, later on, two of the girl actresses get into a fight and start crying, which then leads to the two women taking their tops off and making out. Normal?  Finally, to end the play, an actress gets into a fight with one of the actors and is yelling at him to hit her.  As they are fighting it suddenly turns into a “let’s rip each other’s clothes off” scene.  They both got completely naked and then proceeded to have sex on stage.  Although I do appreciate the arts, I really thought it was just unnecessary for the actors to take their clothes off during certain scenes.  It seemed like the play was created by a boy who was trying to put all his hopes and dreams about what girls do at sleepovers into a 2-hour performance.  It just got annoying after a while.  I think that after these 2 theater experiences, I am going to take a break from Spanish plays for a while.   

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Beautiful, beautiful Paris

To start, my trip to Paris was amazing. It is such a beautiful city. Amanda and I lucked out and happened to have a hostel that was 2 minutes off of the Champs-Elysees. We were given a private room, which included a bathroom, and provided with breakfast.  AND it only cost 28 euro a night! It was fantastic.
Unfortunately, due to the France strikes, Amanda and I had issues with our flight. Two days before our flight we received an email from Ryanair saying our flight was canceled due to the strikes. Great. Just super. Quickly we go to skyscanner and start searching for flights. Luckily, Vueling still had open seats for a flight leaving Thursday afternoon. Then comes Thursday afternoon…our flight got delayed. Almost all of my flights while abroad have been affected by the France traffic controller strikes. It is getting VERY frustrating.
Finally we arrived in Paris. We took the train and then the metro to get to our hotel. Lucky us, two 20 something men chose to use the area between the two cars on the train to “hot box”. For those of you that do not know what that means, it means to smoke marihuana in a small space so you get even more high. The overwhelming smell of marihuana was not pleasant and the older women next to us we not pleased. Once we got off the metro we couldn’t quite figure out how to get to our hostel and there weren’t any street signs, which made it even more confusing. We knew it was 6 minutes walking away (thank you googlemaps) so we found a bicycler and hopped on in! It was actually really fun.
Friday morning we woke up early and went to the Eiffel Tower. As a child I always thought it was a silver color, but soon discovered that it is more of a brown color. Oh, the things you learn in Europe. We got in line and waited our turn to take the elevator to the top. Once we got up there we realized just how windy it was. We walked around the entire top part, looking at all the different views of the city. It was truly stunning. Very similar to the view from on top of the TV Tower in Berlin.
view of the Champs-Elysees from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Next we headed to the Musee D’Armee where we saw all sorts of weapons, clothing, and automobiles using during the wars. It was really neat to actually see all the items. I have never been in a museum with so many physical items. One area was just halls and halls of guns. Another room had soldiers and there horses, all dressed as they were for the war. To end the tour we went into the church and saw Napoleon’s tomb. It definitely grabs your attention immediately. In the center of the church there is a huge hole that shows the floor below with Napoleon’s enormous tomb (probably could have fit 20 Napoleon’s in it). 
Next stop: Jardin du Luxembourg. I have decided that if I marry a European, we are getting married here. It was absolutely beautiful, especially with the fall colors on the trees. There is a pond in the center where people were playing with their remote controlled sailboats.  Chairs line the bond and the other areas for spectators to take a moment to look around and relax. After the garden we met up with 2 of my other friends, Alison and Gabi. The 4 of us walked back towards the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc du Triomphe that is the focal point of the Champs-Elysees.
At Jardin du Luxembourg

On Saturday, we woke up early and hit up the museums. First was the Louvre and next Musee D’Orsay. The Louvre is ginormous. We spent over 2 hours and still didn’t get a lot of it done. The 3 different sections are just too large to do at one time. Any of you that have done it all in one day: you are insane. We did see the Mona Lisa though which was cool. It surprised me by how tiny it is. There are so many amazing pieces of work in the museum that the Mona Lisa seemed somewhat insignificant to me. At Musee D’Orsay we saw tons of impressionist artists, such as Monet and Renoir. I absolutely loved it. It is probably one of my favorite museums. It was the perfect size where it had a lot of art to take in but was not overwhelming. They also had an exhibit with a variety of works by Van Gogh that I really enjoyed. 
The light show on the Eiffel Tower
After grabbing a bite to eat and relaxing in our room, we went to the Eiffel tower to do the nighttime bike tour with Fat Tire bikes. I have become obsessed with bike tours. I think they are such a great way to see a city and are a lot of fun, especially when you get to wear a light-reflecting vest! We biked to Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, the Louvre and other places, stopping at each and learning a little bit about the history. We then took a 1 hour-long boat tour and were provided with lots and lots of red wine. Seeing Paris at night was absolutely stunning. After the boat ride we all had to get back on our bikes, which after a few glasses of wine was somewhat difficult. We the saw where Princess Diana’s car crash was- there is a huge gold flame above the tunnel. It was weird to see the area that I saw plastered all over the papers and television 14 years ago.  
One of my favorite things about this bike tour was a 30-year-old man that joined my group. He was ridiculous. As we were going down a hill one time he yelled, “Watch out mother fuckers!” Another time when he was talking about Texas, my guide asked him, “Oh, did you go to UT?” to which he replied with, “Nah man, I didn’t go to school. I went to jail.” He was a character and had us all laughing the entire trip.
The Hall of Mirrors
Sunday morning, we woke up and headed to Versailles for the day. Versailles was something everyone has to see. Although the lines are long to get tickets, it is definitely worth the weight. The Hall of Mirrors, along with many other rooms, was so elaborately and elegantly decorated. My favorite part was the gardens. They are HUGE. We probably spent an hour walking all around outside. It really looks like something out of a fairytale. We then went to Mary Antoinette’s little town and saw her cottage. It was really cute. She had a farm/zoo in the town too- pigs, donkeys, goats, sheep, and other animals surrounded the little houses.

Monday morning Amanda and I woke up and went to the Champs to grab some crepes before our flight. I have now fallen in love with nutella and banana crepes thanks to Paris. They are beyond delicious and I could eat them for any meal. I am determined to learn how to make them when I get home. 

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Just for fun :) Some more photos from Berlin

Kristin with the Currywurst truck
Me "jumping the wall"

Danke and Ausgang

Kristin and me on the roof of the Reichstag
Danke and Ausgang. The only 2 words I know in German. They are quite useful though. Danke means thank you- i.e. I said it every single time I had to ask for directions because I was lost. Ausgang means "exit" another very helpful word when you are trying to figure out the crazy metro/tram above ground and underground system Germany has. It quickly became my favorite word. From October 9- 13 Kristin and I frolicked around Berlin together. On Saturday morning we both got settled in to Swisshotel, a great hotel that Kristin booked, right by the Zoologishter Station. We then walked around Berlin and went to Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (the Parliament building). Luckily the line wasn't too long so we only had to wait about an hour to get inside and do a guided tour of the dome. The view from the roof was great and we were able to get a sense of other possible sights we might want to visit during our trip.

The next day we did a bike tour with Fat Tire bikes from about 11-3. It was sooo much fun. Our guide, Tam, was also quite the jokester. In his tutorial about how to ride a bike he said, "Now you want to place the bike seat facing forward, unless side saddle is your preference...who knows." On the bike tour we went to about 20 or so different touristy sites in Berlin, including Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, and Tiergarten (the huge park in Berlin). We both had not been on bikes in a while so we were a little rough at first, but after a few almost collisions and lots of laughter, we got the hang of it. We also had a husband and wife pair that were on a tandem bike. It was great entertainment to hear the wife scream and reprimand her husband for going to fast or turning to sharp. Our bikes also had names so that we could find them easily after stopping at each location. My bike was named "Shakira" and Kristin's was "Wesley Willis." We at first thought that Wesley was a child of Bruce Willis' but after some blackberry searching we discovered he was actually a singer/somewhat of a schizophrenic. Interesting that Kristin "accidentally" chose this one. Our bikes also had bells and squeaky toys on them which was great. The last person in the group who made sure none of us got separated, named "The Ass Man" was a military man living in Germany. He was insane and whenever we reached any stop would yell "Your ass is here!" or just simply announce his arrival by yelling "Ass Man!" I am so glad we did the bike tour. It was a perfect way to see the city and the tour guide was really friendly...and cute. He was born in England but then lived in Australia for the majority of his youth so he had a australian/british combo accent. I don't think an accent can be any sexier than that.
Kristin and me having dinner at the top of the TV Tower
During the rest of our time in Berlin, we visited several museums, especially the fantastic museums on Museum Island. One of my favorites was the Pergamonmuseum where they had the actual ruins from Roman times. It was as if we had just entered a giant's castle the archways and columns were so big! Kristin and I loved going from museum to museum looking at all the different works of art on display. We also went into the Berliner Dome and climbed to the tippy top where you are allowed to go outside on the roof. In addition to all the sight seeing, Kristin and I ate extremely well during this trip. We managed to find great meals everywhere and the service was great as well, even at the restaurant where Kristin broke the curtain holder! hahaa. I think the best meal was the one we had at the TV Tower. You take an elevator to the top and after your ears pop 3 or 4 times you have arrived at the top. The restaurant rotates slowly and after about 45 minutes you have made a full rotation. We had a great dinner there and had a silly waiter to make it even more fun. It was a beautiful view of the entire city lit up at night time. Berlin is a fantastic city and I am so glad I was able to spend 4 days there with Kristin. We had a great time! Love you Kristin for flying all the way from NYC to see me!