December 2012
20 posts
Becoming a Madrileña
These past few months have flown by faster than I could possibly describe, and as I’ve previously mentioned, Madrid has truly become a second home to me. Though I’ll always be an LA girl, Madrid has stolen my heart. If you are planning to come visit, whether for your first time or for your tenth, here is a list of my favorite places to go and things to do. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but...
118 Days...
…away from home, and I’m leaving this morning to fly back to Los Angeles. I cannot believe it right now. 9 countries and 18 cities later, I’ve studied abroad and I’ve loved every second of it. What a mix of emotions- I’m so excited to return to LA and see my family and friends, but at the same time I am devastated to leave Madrid. I don’t know when I’ll be back next, and it feels like I’m leaving...
Favorites
This semester has been an incredible whirlwind of new experiences, new cultures, and new places that have opened my eyes to how diverse and beautiful the world is. I feel that I have learned so much about myself throughout this journey, and couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to have done what I have this semester.
I thought I would make a sort of list, full of my favorite things from...
Things I Will Miss Hearing
“Atención: Estación en curva. Al salir, tengan cuidado para no introducir el pie entre coche y andén.”
“Es que…”
“¡Qué raro!”
“Vale, vale, vale.”
“Chicos! Look at this. Look at the bull.” -Paco
“Have fun. Enjoy life.” -Vicente
“WHY? Because…” -Arancha
“En español, en español!” -Loli
“Bueno…” -Michael (with hand motions)
“I really went wild on Instagram.” -Priscilla
“I’m confused.”...
Just Touched Down in Londontown
Our flight from Amsterdam to London Gatwick was short and sweet, and my cousin Richard picked Lindsay and I up from the airport and drove us to my cousins’ house, just outside of London. Lindsay and I had originally planned to stay with my cousins for a couple nights, head into London and stay in a hostel for a few nights, and then head back to the cousins’ for Christmas. However, we ended up...
British Speak
Quick notes of a few vocabulary words that are different in England than in America! I loved learning some new terms while I was there :)
Trousers- pants Pants- underwear Jumper- sweater Body warmer- vest Vest- tank top Trolley- shopping cart Buggy- stroller Nappy- diaper Bum- diaper change Dummy- pacifier/binky Cot- crib Grow- onesie Cling film- Saran wrap Kitchen roll- paper towels ...
Amsterdam
A quick flight from Prague to Amsterdam later, Cynthia, Lindsay and I were riding the train from the airport into the city to meet Katie! Lindsay and Cynthia’s housemates from Leeds, Tom and Emily, were also in Amsterdam the days we were there, so we met up with them outside of the train station at the same time as Katie. We easily found each other at the enormous Christmas tree outside the...
Czechin' Out Prague
As all of my close friends left Madrid to go home to Los Angeles, I embarked on a 12 day trip with Lindsay to see a few last cities that I had been dying to go to before returning to the states. On the morning of December 15th, I frolicked happily out the front door of Eugenia’s house (bye bye!) and set out for Madrid Barajas. First stop: Prague.
The majority of the USC Madrid group were on...
The Final Weekend
Sitting on my bed with fuzzy socks on and my notebook next to me, I thought I’d escape my studies for a minute to write a post. Today is Sunday, December 9th, and it is my last Sunday in Madrid. Where has the semester gone?!
True, I don’t go home for three more weeks, but I will be traveling for two of them, and when I’m back in Madrid, it will be for a short few weekdays. I don’t think I’m ready...
Segovia & Salamanca
This past weekend, we took our last group trip with the USC program to the region of Castilla y Leon, in northern Spain. We stopped in Segovia on Friday before continuing on to Salamanca for the weekend, and rounding out our trip with a quick visit to Ávila on the way home. Here’s a bit about my trip!
Friday, 30 November
Bright and early Friday morning, we met at school with our luggage,...
Las Palabras
Different Vocabulario
1. Zumo: instead of using jugo to say juice, Spaniards say zumo.
2. Sitio: meaning place, instead of using the word lugar.
3. Hombre! : obviously the word hombre means “man,” but they use it in the form that we use in English, as an expression of sorts? Not sure how to describe it. Example: “Hombre, estoy cansada!” would translate to “Man, I’m tired!”
4. Conducir:...
Andalucian Adventures
I’m behind on blog posts and finally have the chance to write about my trip to the southern region of Spain called Andalucía, where I went three weekends ago with my program! The trip was fabulous and I really enjoyed the cities we saw. So here we go:
Thursday, 15 November
We left early Thursday morning from Madrid via the AVE, Spain’s high speed train. The trip to Sevilla was about...
It's A Small World
Last week, while trying tapas and shopping around Mercado San Miguel with Katie, a guy our age heard us speaking English and asked where we were from. We replied LA, and he asked whereabouts. Of course, with the world being as tiny as it is, he was from Westlake, went to Oaks Christian, and was visiting Madrid but studying abroad in Barcelona. I love these instances when our planet seems so very...
Questions
Questions I still ponder every once in a while, despite having been here for more than three months: Why doesn’t milk have to be refrigerated before opening it here?! Ditto for eggs?! Why doesn’t our metro line have air conditioning 90% of the time? Why do Spaniards stare so much? Where do Spaniards think I’m from? Why is the wedding ring worn on the right hand here? Why does the...
November 2012
7 posts
Katie is here!
She is visiting me in Madrid this weekend and I’m so excited! Besides writing two papers that are preventing me from spending the whole weekend with her, I’m super stoked to show her around and be a tourist in my city for a few days! :)
Happy 21st Birthday
to the fabulous Madame President Dayna Berkowitz, who has become one of my best friends here during our time abroad! Yay for both of us turning 21 this semester in a country where 21 has no specific meaning! #presidentberkowitztakesmadrid
1 tag
Bonsoir, Paris!
Writing this weeks after the trip might be difficult, but I wanted to try to sum up my fabulous trip to Paris with Dayna in a short blogpost! We left Madrid on a Thursday night, and by the time we flew to Paris, took the train to our hostel, and checked in, it was already about 11pm. We had originally planned to go to a late dinner and the Eiffel Tower, but we were just too tired to do so, so we...
Blogging Struggles
I know I’ve been horrible at keeping up with my blog since fall break, and I really want to try to catch up on what I’ve been up to! In the past few weekends I’ve been to Paris, stayed in Madrid, and gone to Sevilla and Cordoba with my USC program!
With the end of the semester quickly approaching, I’m buried under a pile of research papers and essays. We’re heading...
Ciao, Italia!
Following our four amazing days in Greece, we flew to Rome to start off our Italian adventure. With two full days in Rome and a million things to see, we made a plan for each day full of jam-packed touristy visits. Day One (Tuesday) began with a visit to Colonna Traiana, the Vittorio Emanuele monument, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After that we bought tickets for the Roman Forum and the...
October 2012
10 posts
Adventures in Athens
I’ve just returned from the most incredible week in Greece and Italy, and have no idea where to begin in writing down everything that has happened. I’ll start with Athens, where I spent four fantastic days with fabulous friends. After arriving in Athens on Friday evening with Rayven and Priscilla and witnessing a violent mugging on the metro, we were a little scared for what the city...
Week Seven
I came here to Madrid to take classes and learn more about the Spanish culture and history. My classes and cultural activities have reflected these themes, and I already feel like I’ve learned so much since arriving in Madrid seven weeks ago! BUT. Learning these things and being tested on them are two different things. Week 7 marks Midterm Week, and this week I have three papers due and...
Lisboa, Days 1 & 2
When I decided to study abroad in Madrid, I began making a mental list of all the places I wanted to travel to in my spare time. Since I’d never been to Europe before arriving here on September 1st, I knew I wanted to go to the big cities I’d heard about all my life; somehow, I had never thought about going to Portugal, despite it being Spain’s next door neighbor. However, when...
Lisboa, Days 3 & 4
The next morning, Saturday, we woke up at 7:30am to get ready and have breakfast before our 9:30am departure. Our hostel had various day trips available, and we decided on the one that would take us to Sintra and Cascais (pronounced kind of like “keshkaish”). Our driver, Pedro, led us and four other guys from our hostel out the front door and around the corner, where our Mercedes van...
Notes on America , from Europe
After being in Europe for an entire month (wow, Hayley, you must know everything since you’ve been there a whole month!), I’ve observed a few things about the United States from a slight outsider’s perspective that I felt like writing down. They’re not very interesting, but here they are:
America is the only industrialized country that is not on the metric system. Everything in Europe is of...
Back in Madrid
So I feel like I haven’t really written about being in Madrid for a while- probably because I haven’t been here much the past few weeks! Between our trip to Toledo, to our weekend in Barcelona, to our midweek/weekend trip to Belgium, I was beginning to get homesick. And yes, by homesick, I mean for Madrid, not for LA. Madrid has already begun to feel like home for me, and I’m...
Belgium
As part of the USC Madrid program, we have specific trips planned for us by our program directors and coordinators. Our first trip- to Belgium- was this past weekend, and it was an amazing four days with our group. Since we did so much in four days, I think I’ll break it down by day.
Day One
Priscilla and I took a taxi to the Madrid Barajas Airport at 7:30am, and arrived around 8 to find...
Five Most Popular Spanish Words
(As observed in my first few weeks here.)
1. Vale: My favorite of the phrases, hence why it is going first. Vale is used for a variety of different things, but it generally is a word of affirmation, meaning true, right, yes, I agree, of course, etc. You can basically used vale for anything you want, or repeat it as many times as you feel, just for emphasis. 2. Claro: I learned this phrase in...
September 2012
8 posts
Barcelona
My group and I travelled to Barcelona, Catalonia this past weekend for our first real trip outside of Madrid! Out of the 14 of us going to Barcelona, 12 decided to save a few euro and fly out on Thursday night. Of course Priscilla and I had to be the outliers and fly out Friday morning, but that way we didn’t have to pay for a hostel Thursday night. Somehow it probably evened out with...
Real Madrid
Last night was a true night of immersing ourselves in the Spanish culture- and no, we weren’t out at a club or a bar! My group of friends and I went to the Real Madrid game, against Manchester City, at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. Soccer, aka fútbol, is such a national pasttime here, so we decided we couldn’t miss out on taking part in the culture in this way.
We bought our tickets last...
Fighting On From Abroad
Last night we all went out to an Irish pub to watch the USC football game! They play a variety of American NCAA and NFL games on various days, so we got to watch the Syracuse game live around midnight our time! It was so much fun, and clearly everyone in the pub figured out that we went to USC fairly quickly, based on our incessant cheering and wearing of USC gear. This might become our game day...
In-Flight Fun
LAX —> PHL
Neck pillows are BOMB.
I was wrong about there being only Americans on my flight to Philly! Two Germans are sitting next to me in my row, the people in front of me are speaking Portuguese, and there are a variety of accents and languages floating around the cabin!
The overhead bins were full by the time I boarded the plane, so of course they made me check my carry-on....
August 2012
3 posts
Two Weeks
That’s it. Two more weeks until I’m leaving America!
July 2012
9 posts
