La Noche Blanca nunca terminara

After dinner at the hotel on Saurday night, we began to make plans out of this thick broshure with all the events going on that night. So during la noche blanca, there are museums, activities, movies, and tours free and open to the public from about 9pm to 7am. This night only happens once a year (also in other cities than Madrid). But millions of people come out to experience this from Spain and all over the world. So Nikki, Matt and I wanted to stick together since we have common interests and again it is waaay too difficult to go anywhere, especially in crowds, together with more than five or so people. So we got dressed for the night and started walking on the main street from the hotel to where everything was happening. We walked through a great little park with beautiful old ruins and a lake. Then we get to a round about in the road with a big statue of arches in the middle and it is foggy/misty at the bottom and rising- so sweet.
This is about the point were we start to see huge crowds. Looking uphill, we see the main road filled with people on both sides of the street like sardines in a can! We stopped at one of the plazas with the Banco de Espana building on one block and the city hall and a huge museum on the others. There were tv news crews, bright lights reflectin goff one tall ancient building with certain patterns, like a modern form of art, an outdoor movie playing in spanish and the roar of the people around us. Surprisingly it was not hard to move in the crowd unlike concerts or anything because people were calm and strolling along looking around.
We kept walking maybe ten blocks and there were still the same amount of people in the streets in all directions. And it was about that time that we saw drunk women riding their vespas and motorcycles around out of control! But we were safe the whole time! On the way to La Plaza del Sol (sun), there was a huge screen with a video playing and words underneath, I get closer and see a man singing the words. Karaoke!!! It was like a concert with the music video in the background, this guy was so good and at the end he got a huge round of applause! He must be famous by now.
After hanging out at the plaza del sol and meeting up with my friend John and his Italian roommates, I convinced Matt and Nikki, who are not huge soccer fans, to go to the Real Madrid stadium in San Bernabue. We took the metro around 2:00am at this point to the stadium which is in northern Madrid. There were not as many people here, but still people are out until at least 3 in the morning every weekend.
So we find the stadium a good walk away, at this point rainning a little (the only bad weather all weekend) and we get to the back of the line which is oh, let's say 4 blocks long- maybe the weather was trying to tell us something. And just as we find out place in line a man comes up to us and says they are cutting the line off before us! WHAT! I have waited my whole life to see this stadium and took the metro and a 5.5 hour bus ride to get here, you are kidding me!!! Not really but i was really bummed. So I grabbed Matt and Nikki and we went into the bar to go to the "bathroom" and when we went back out I just walked in line towards the front and some people noticed we cut but after a while they just went behind is! It is a free tour, what are they going to do tell on us? So we made it in and walked through the threshold to the opening of the green soccer feild with the letter "REAL MADRID" on the stands. How amazing...to see the ginormous empty stadium. I felt like I was the only one there. Then, as if it wasn't cool enough to see the stadium, we went through the teams' locker room and showers, they even have a jacuzzi!! It was so sweet. I could definitely picture myself next to Beckham on that bench tying my soccer shoes! Oh ya! Then after walking a full cirle around the field and taking a bagillion pictures and standing behind the goal, we sat in the seats of the players and coaches on the sidelines, and then went though the VIP trophy and history rooms. Great reading material I must say!
So two hours later and after a free night we took a taxi back to downtown since the metro did not run until 6am and walked around the younger district where literally it looked like riots were happening. There were teenagers running around all over crazy with beer bottles in every hand! An interesting site. We hung out at a park for a little bit waiting for our friends to meet us, but who ended up getting lost, so we left when the metro opened back up and went back to the hotel for breakfast at 7am!! Then two hours of sleep and off to our Sunday adventures!
So Sunday, nobody was lookin so hot! Breakfast was a blast, with coffee and hot chocolate everywhere! You could definitely tell who had slept some and who had not! I heard many angry stories of people getting lost and not having a good time, but it is all about planning, perserverance and having fun!
We headed straight out to the Museo Prado downtown in Madrid. It was a nice museum but very large. I kinda gave up walking around and looking after Velasquez and some of the most famous paintings. It did have some beautiful sculptures from the 16th century and onward. Then Nikki, Matt and I discovered this Thai restaurant, which I think was the best food I have had here in Spain, not to say the food I have had has not been great. I was definitely craving some diversity since I pretty much only eat vegetables, eggs and potatoes here, but no complaints. One thing I miss about San Francisco is the diversity of food. I am craving sushi and mexican food the most surprisingly. After a great lunch and a little touristy shopping, we went to the Reina Sophia museum with all contemporary art. It has Guernica de Pablo Picasso and a lot of his other famous works and sketches, as well as Miro and Dali. I could have spent all day there literally but we had to get back to take the bus home.
That 5.5 hour ride was not as bad as the first, since it always seems quicker on the road back. Again I sat next to smelly boys, but not by choice! A great ride to reflect and think of how great the weekend was and what I learned about Madrid and to watch a horrible movie in spanish, that does not translate well to me called "The Village" with Joaquin Phoenix...ya fun....
Anyways I came home to find out my host mom's brother, who was in the hospital for liver cancer and who was about to die (a prediction from Conchi) was doing significantly better. Apparently he woke up on day from being very sick and said, "give me a sandwhich, I want to read, why do all the letters look like H's? Tell me where I am..." Juan Carlos is a funny man with little teeth, I only had the pleasure of meeting him once and found out the hard way is is very good at Parcheesy. But things at the apartment have been definitely more pleasant and Conchi has started singing again...and dancing...not pretty...but entertaining.
So I have classes this week like normal and actually I found out, with much surprise, that the KING and QUEEN and the PRINCESS are coming to the University of Deusto tom., wednesday, for a visit to comence the official school year, since he attended the University. I didn't beleive anyone when I heard it was a prestigious school, because every school says that, but now I do beleive. Well, I will when I see the King. Be prepared for pictures!
ALso, I am headed to Rimini, Italy this weekend to work at an event called Squisto. I am working with Roots of Peace, the organization I volunteered for all last year through my social justice program. They remove landmines and replace them with sustainable agriculture or soccer fields or schools in war torn countries. They have worked in Cambodia, Croatia and Angola, Africa previously. I am really excited to meet up with Heidi Kuhn, the founder and CEO while I am there. She actually is having a private audience with the POPE, while in Italy, to talk about landmines, her organization and try to raise money/awareness. Their website is www.rootsofpeace.org!!!
wow enough for now...
By the way Mary Heffernan had her baby girl Francie, who I was thinking about all weekend..I am just bummed it was not on my Bday, but I had a close guess! Congrats Mare, I love you so much and am incredibly happy for you. You are so strong and brave!

Toledo and Men

Saturday was so great as well. We went to Toledo in the morning. Toledo is about 70 kilometers away from Madrid, and is known for being the cultural crossroads of Spain. Spanish and Arab influence are huge in the architecture and history of the city. We went to the fourth largest Cathedral in Europe, the Cathedral of Toledo (obviously). It was magnificent and somewhat hidden in the downtown close buildings on the top of this hill. Then you walk through a narrow pedestrian street and there is this huge pointy gothic building. We had a crazy tour guide, he as so funny, saying things like "hurry up! roaylty is here, the VIPs are coming through" referring to us in his broken English. And things like "wow and look at this it only took the painter 546 days to finish this one, and over here jesus is crying, you won't see those tears anywhere..." The paintings were very rare and i forget all the artists names, but apparently they are all very important. In the XV-XVII centuries they were all religious painting and the most famous ones were here. The guide would also say things like this is the only cathedral to have the (place any religous term here) and in my opinion it is the best and i have seen all the impotant cathedrals and even been on their roofs. Crazy man.
I saw a young man on the street with a booth who made wax string bracelets, and I stopped to talk to him and told him a lot of people in San Francisco make crafty things like this. So I bought a brilliant bracelet and he said he would have to pass through San Francisco sometime. He was obviously poor with a dog but very nice and I really enjoyed talking to him, I felt like I was in san franscico for a moment. I miss the city but it is so great to be here.
So after being huge tourists and stopping at the one main tourist spot with the huge group and bus and million cameras and being embarrassed as people drove by we left to go back to Madrid for la noche blanca.

Flamenco, Graffiti and Futbol

What a geat weekend! I was in Madrid from Friday to Sunday and had the best weekend in a long long time! To start out, Friday was the day after my Birthday and we has to meet a metro stop away at the dorms to leave for the 5.5 hour bus ride to Madrid at 8 in the morning! So of course I was running late and my host mom, Conchi is like no you have to eat breakfast here, no eating on the street or you will never get married. I eat a couple peices of bread and she shoves three peices at me and a huge bad a cookie/crakcer things. So I am rolling my small backpack suitcase down the cobblestone street with peaches and cookies in my hands hurrying to the metro, about 3 blocks away. The blocks in spain are a little bigger than at home I might add.
Well I get there just in time and there are only seats in the back of the bus with the guys, which is fine until 5 hours later when they smell like feet and old socks and I have only slept about an hour! Quick a journey with 45 students on the bus. Carlos the bus driver is crazy and awesome!
So we arrived at a nice hotel in a good location close to a lot of things, however nothing is really close to anything in madrid. We went straight to the Royal Palace after lunch at the hotel. I remembered going there when I took the eighth grade trip to Madrid, which was cool. It was beautiful with portraits and paintings from the 16th century of kings and royalty. Every room has a different theme with different colors and beautiful decorations. We took a tour and the woman guide just spit out amazing information; it is crazy to think she does that everyday and remembers it all. There was this great courtyard in in one of main buildings like a secret garden. I took a picture even though i wasn't supposed too, how scandalous! They do have guards all over the palace though starting people down who are even just thinking of taking their cameras out of their backpacks.
There were so many turists in Madrid and at the palace, i wish you all could have seen them, so crazy really with the socks and sandals talking in all different languages.
There was this one room, out of some that they still use for special "royal" occasions, that had a huge long dinner table that seat like 250 people, but it is like one of those tables where the king sits at one end and the king at the other. I could picture myself sitting there! The main plaza in el palacio was so great with old architecture, you can almost picture yourself there in 1778! I was just sitting there on an old statue int he middle with the sun shinning (the whole weekend we had great weather except on saturday night when it was a little cooler and drizzles some but it was perfect) and it felt soooo good to sit since we had already been out and about for 4 hours.
After the Palacio we walked to the Plaza Mayor, the main square in Madrid and had some great sangria! We kept walking and got a little lost but now i know the metro system which is great! Nikki, Matt and I broke off from the group since it is extremely hard to go anywhere with more than like 5 people.
One of the people who works in the CIDE (the University of Deusto's international program) office is abotu 22, his name is Guillermo and he took Matt, Nikki and this woman named Pricess out to a discoteca which was so amazing. We were right by the Atocha train station in Madrid (the one that was also bombed in September i think from terroists attacks). Princess is hilarious, she is think big big black woman from Michigan who says they funniest things in the greatest accent. At one point when we were there. We were getting drinks and she is so impatient to dance and says I have been waiting three weeks (the whole time we have been in spain) to dance, lets go! Funny, so we danced until three in the morning! Guillermo is this small little spaniard who couldn't hurt an ant if he tried, very cute. So that was our Friday night. Basically all weekend i was with Nikki and Matt, who is gay if I haven't mentioned that. They both are so charismatic and kind and extremely funny. I really haven't laughed this much in one weekend!

September 20th

So my first Birthday abroad was a success! I had such a great time. So in the morning when I woke up I found a little arroz (rice) pastry on my plate with my breakfast made, like it is every morning, from my hostmom. It had a cute little pink candle sticking up out of it. She leavs for work before I leave for class, but that was nice and enexpected! The classes were normal but I was sung to in three different languages in front of everybody! English, Spanish and Euskera, which is the native Basque language here in northern Spain.
So I went shopping with my good freind Nikki and Andrea around the old quarter (Casco Viejo) and just walked around. After dinner, I went to my friend John's apartment, from San Francsico, and he had a little party there with the people we have been haning out with for the last three weeks. Tommorrow, Tuesday marks the third week I have been in Spain! Exciting! Throughout the day i got facebook messages, emails and happy birthdays all day which was very nice! So we had like three pastry cakes at johns and some wine to celebrate! I got a cute purse and neclace from John's adorable italian roommates. After that we went to a popular bar called Dubliners near the Guggenheim downtown and danced and talked! overall a great birthday, simple and around great people and in a great place, I am very lucky.

My First Weekend in Bilbao

Here are som pictures of Bilbao!


We had the first rain of the season today, and they say that the weather here can change like the flip of a coin and that is very true! I went out on the metro today with my two friends, Nikki and Matt and we were walking looking for two things specifically, a mall and sangria and found neither! Anyways we came back to Deusto where we live and walked around the big park and had some gelato. But it was hot all day and kinda muggy and then it started pooring! So I got home just in time before it was crazy. The thunder here is amazing too.
This weekend a lot of my friends went to San Sebastian, a little beach town an hour or so closer to France. Some people also went to the Atletico club game at the stadium here. The soccer games here are huge for AC since they are all basque players born in the basque country (which is mostly northern spain). I am going to wait until AC plays Real Madrid in a week, because that is going to be a great game!
Going out to the bars and discotecas is a huge thing here and people don't come home until 5 or 6 in the morning which is crazy! But I met some really nice people from France and Germany who are completely happy to talk to Americans and who both speak English and Spanish pretty well! Well it is pooring here and will be rainning for the next three days, but i love it! This week of classes was great, however it is wierd how i have class in the morning from about 10-12 or 1 and then siesta until 4 and an afternoon class. It is really interesting learning other perspectives in Europe regarding world politics and history.

I left my heart in San Francisco! But I love Bilbao!

So my parents just started sending me voice messages through emails and it is so sweet! I just download it from the email and hear their voices! Callan was talking to me through mj's cell phone and is so cute...he was teasing my dad that he is from the stone ages and has scars on his body was sword fights! oh 7 year olds!
I was excited to get one message from the fam, then I look down the page and get like 10, yah!! thanks. My parents just picked up Bailey, our dog, from my grandparents house since they were in Ney York for the weekend and my grandparents apparently counted that when I pick up my dog he is so excited to see me i get 12 jumps where as my dad only get 7! how funny is that!! I get 5 more jumps than dad huh! thats pretty exciting!
I have a picture of bailey as my background on my computer! ohh that furball!
I did some exploring yesterday with my two guy friends from California and we found a pastery shop that our professor told us about that is half off on tuesdays, so you can imaging how happy we were, especially since the guys try to cook their own food in their apartments and the euro is half as much more expensive as the dollar. There are plazas and parks everywhere! as well as churches and statues!
Walking to the pastery shop, and having to turn around a couple of times and look like extreme toursits with maps, we crossed a large playground. So this was about 6 or 6:30 when the light is still great like as if it were 3pm at home, and i swear all the kids in spain were outside. They are playing basketball and in their cute uniforms and with their families, but they were everywhere like a swarm of bees. The schedule here I figured out is pretty much two or so hours later. They eat lunch two hours later and go to bed two or more hours later, sadly enough, however, still wake up early in the morning for work and school (but then take the siestas)!
The weather is fabulous, it is nice in the morning with pretty clear skies then gets warmer around 1-5 and is about 75 degrees then cools off a little at night but not enough to need a sweater. People are in general pretty individualistic and private here and not very open or very friendly but they are extrememly freindly and flexible with their community. If they see people on the street they know they will go do something like drink coffee instead of coming straight home from work.
My host mom, Conchi is great about makign me feel at home and says this is my house and all that nice stuff but she is very blunt. She told me yesterday when i was going to be late to class and wanted to bring my banana and little cookies to school that if i eat on the street, i will never get married! Well i guess i am not getting married! Potatoes, olive oil, eggs, rice and alcohol are the most common ingredients in everything! I love it!
Hasta luego

My first day of classes

As I learn more Spanish I find that my English gets worse! So I am taking a 10 credit Spanish course composed of a grammar, conversation and composition section. I like my Professor, his name is Francisco and he makes funny jokes in English, which is all he knows how to say. He says "oh god" in English a lot too which is hilarious in his accent. I am also taking a class called Europe in the world, as well as contemporary Spanish politics and civilization- although i have no clue what that latter will count for since i have a focus in Latin America in international studies, but that's okay.

The way people spend their time is so different here. On Sunday there is really nothing to do but sleep and go to candy stores (since they are the only stores open!) I met these two Italian girls who are my friend Jon's roommates...they are great, typical Italians. They dress up for class and speak like 4 languages!

So I start classes at 9 or 10 in the morning and then have a break for siestas from 1-4, which is always needed, especially since everyone comes back at like 4 in the morning on the weekends and stays up till 12 at night on weeknights!
Hasta luego!

happy days

hey! I am good! It is so weird that I am the international student and that I am living abroad! It is great here though, my host mom usually takes off for the weekends to hike and stuff in Burgos and party but she prepares all my meals it is cute and has them ready on the stove even if she isn’t home. She makes bomb potato pancakes and vegetables here! She was telling me last night about how she only hunts sick and old animals under a controlled environment because I made a comment about being a vegetarian and having dead animals on the wall and she said “oh no one has ever said anything!” Then she was laughing a lot.
She says that some people think she is crazy but she is really just happy and smiley and that as long as you have happiness and that as long as you are responsible that’s all you need in this life. I really like her. She has a good work ethic too. She was making fun of herself that she does not have a boyfriend or husband and I said I don’t either and she was like well, friends and studying now and boyfriend later and that all the women that she hosted like me broke up with their boyfriends at home.
I have been walking a lot a lot here! School is a good ten minute walk and downtown is a little further! The German guys I was on the plane on my way over here were in the cafe I was at with my friends near the Guggenheim. So there were like 30 of them and then they did a demonstration near the museum with whips (cracking them) and dancing with clapping and then threw their partners in the air and spun them around.
I went to the Guggenheim museum today. It reminded me of my 8th grade Spanish trip to Bilbao and all over Spain. I did not remember before but being at the museum reminded me of the trip.
I am trying to decide if I want to buy a phone here…hmmmmm

so i am a vegetarian!

Something very funny i forgot to mention! So i am the only vegetarian in the international group and so conchi says that she, over the years, always accomodates the vegetarians because it is easier for one person to cook food for another instead of cooking for the entire family and the vegetarian. So yesterday when i went into the living room to watch tv i looked on the walls and there were DEAD ANIMALS everywhere! She has stuffed heads of deer, a bobcat, birds and skulls everywhere! oh my gosh. She lives with vegetarians year round and has dead animals all over her house! how wierd! I am not offended tremendously but i bet others definitely are. She is quirky let me tell you!





Also, the first thing i notice when i walked into the apartment, was the naked pictures of women in the hallway. No they are not just Botero art (the famous spanish man who paints fat men and women naked), but they are portraits of spanish women naked. She has a daughter so i know she is not a lesbian, which would be fine, but again, it is just wierd and i dont want to ask....

Day 3

well, we have orientation this week and classes don't start until the 10th (which is even early because the spanish students start in October!). So yesterday we met in the morning at 10, after sleeping in, and took a tour of the school. University of Deusto is on the river right across from the museum and practically right downtown! So i met all the other students, mostly from Chicago and U of I with funny accents.

I met this really nice girl named holly and i knew she lived close to me, about a five minute walk to school (which is sweet because a lot of people live 30 minutes away by metro)and so after dinner my host woman, Conchi and I took her crazy dog for a walk and then stopped at her sister's house who also has a student but i shocked when I saw holly there. So that means we are host cousins and two blocks away! funny

Anyways, i really like the days here. Their schedule is so different. I wake up around 9 and go to school for meetings and placement tests and what not then they give us lunch around 2, which is the main meal of the day and is a 4 course meal. All businesses and shops close from 1-4ish then we explore and come home around 7 or 8. It does not start getting dark out until 9. Then we eat around 9:30 or ten and either go out with friends or watch tv and stay in.

Today we went to Getxo and Plenzia, two towns north of Bilbao about 30 minutes by the beach and walked along the water. The little towns are so beautiful and remind me of a developed town in tuscany. The buildings are bright colors and so close together on strictly pedestrian streets! It is really great being in Europe and experiencing another culture not as a tourist really but as a resident.

Oh my gosh, i am soo happy right now i have wireless internet in my room from someone else in the apartment complex i am in!!!! so going through Munich with my two huge rolly suitcases was fun and then on the subway..which is super clean by the way..then i go to check in for my flight prepared to pay like a hundred euros in overweight fees but no i told the agent i was living there and she was like okay, so no fees and i checked my two bags!






so i was on a flight with about 30 young men who were in traditional German dress and they were the yodelers, but that's not what they are called, and they were crazy on the plane!
playing card games across the row taking up the whole back of the plane wearing the short leather shorts and suspenders and vests and green hats with fur coming out of them and special shoes and leggings!! so funny! that was an entertaining flight...but i was anxious the whole time and had like 3 cups of coffee, tomato juice and water! it was also funny because all the announcements on the flight were in German, English and Spanish!

The accents here are so different from what I have heard and learned but i will get used to it! You don't know how good it feels to be connected to the internet especially when I have no phone and no one i know here.

but that leads me to the other people in the program. i know 2 of them from my school and i saw one today but her family whisked her off at the airport. so there were about 8 of us, most living in the dorms and some in families. My host woman (i am not calling her my mom if you pay me) is kinda crazy but cool. she lives in an apartment complex that is nice and a five minute walk from school so that is sweet. she has a dog named betti that bites at my feet when i walk, it is a medium sized (a little bigger than bailey) black and white fluffy dog that is a little smelly... her apartment is small but it is just her here. I have a nice room; it is much smaller than a dorm room but has a nice closet space! Her name is Conchi and she asked me mine and i said Devon and after several bad attempts at saying it...sounding like bebon i told her she could call me irene which is much easier!


So Bilbao is in the Basque region and is kinda the capitol of the area. the native language Euskara has been around forever and that is what people generally speak in addition to Spanish. We are right near an estuary and rivers and the ocean is not far away. Bilbao until the 80's was a very industrial city and not it is moving towards some technology and tourism, with the Guggenheim museum.





The weather is like San Francisco but not really overcast. I like it, not too hot and i can wear all my cute sweaters i brought although of course i wish i could have brought more!

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DISCLAIMER: (This is still Dev's friend Mary posting these updates for her... so you can blame me for the cheesy pictures and clips added to her stories from Spain!! keep 'um coming Dev!)

Munich

Hello, I am in Munich.. got in this morning from 2 first class treatment flights which is really the only way to travel! However they did not have a good amount of vegetarian options...maybe i should complain. Anyways, I walked around downtown Munich and took the rail from the airport to the hostel then to Dachau which was a huge concentration camp from 1933 to 1945. It was crazy and reminded me of the killing fields I saw in Cambodia. Tomorrow I am going to take a free tour from the hostel maybe go out to lunch and find the central park and shop a little however there is absolutely no room in either of my bags! oh did i mention the airlines lost my checked bag! ha i was waiting forever for it then I was like okay they lost it so i went to the luftansa counter and they were like yah we dont know where it is. Hopefully i get it before i leave for Spain otherwise they will have to send it to me there! well euros are flying and so must i!

love you all,

dev

Devon has landed!

After three days in Munich Devon is in Spain, finally back online and settling in with her host family... (this is her friend Mary setting up a blog for our favorite Devalini!)

love you Devs, keep us updated and HAVE FUN!!