Picture Post Numero Uno

Hellooo, all! I have finally gotten a breather and decided to update this little blog, as promised. For those of you who might know as much about geography as I did only a short while ago (i.e. close to none), I thought I'd help you out with some maps:

(Spain is highlighted in red) FYI, we're 9 hours ahead of CA here.

I'm studying at SLU (Saint Louis University), Madrid Campus, smack-dab in the center of Spain.

However, for my orientation trip, a group of 32 of the visiting students flew to the Canary Islands, which are considered part of Spanish territory but are off the coast of Africa:


The island we stayed on was Tenerife, which is shaped like a duck!:

So I arrived in Madrid on Wednesday, had a bit of time to settle into my host-family's house, then went to orientation the following morning. Right after orientation, we were whisked away to the airport and flown to the Canary Islands (sooo much air travel in the span of three days, ick.) We arrived in Tenerife in the early evening, checked into our hotel, and were set loose to explore the city, which is gorgeous. Some examples (all photos are clickable so you can see larger versions):








The next day, we were supposed to go on a five-hour boat tour of the island, but strong winds caused the trip to be cancelled. Instead, we went to Loro Parque (you can see it on the map of Tenerife), which is a Sea-World-type theme park. We rode a cute little train there:

Penguin! :D

We saw a very entertaining dolphin show

and a less entertaining, but still fun, orca show.

had to check out the tiger, of course

aaand ride one!

In this picture, Becky is sitting behind me and Sarah is in front. I met Sarah in the Chicago airport, where my LAX flight connected to the SLU group flight, and we became fast friends. Becky is her best friend from SLU home campus (in Missouri, obviously), and we also get along fabulously.

we saw a cool leopard, cheezing for the camera.

Loro Parque was fun, although I was dissapointed about missing the boat tour. Later that night we went exploring some more and found tons of "discotecas," haha. Here's us at "Enclave," where the bartender was really awesome and nice:

Too bad we stayed out pretty late, because we were pretty tired the next day, during which we went on a freakishly long hike (three, four hours?)
The sights were gorgeous, although the steep hike made me realize how out of shape I am, haha. The following pictures were taken from the trail

We took plenty of breaks along the way:
From left to right, Michael (whom I also met at the Chicago airport), Erin, Marion, Sarah, me, Becky.

We came across a HUGE herd of goats about halfway up:

Seriously, that is a ton of goats right there.

This is the view of the banana plantations from the top of the mountain we climbed. All in all, it was a good hike, I guess. Except that the weather kept changing, from sunny, to cold and foggy, to rainy (!) back to sunny. Eesh. At least I got to exercise a bit!

So, obviously, we all survived the hike, took long naps, then went out to enjoy the night life again on our third day in Tenerife. The last day we were there, Sunday, we went up to Mt. Teide (also on the "duck" map) and explored the national park up there.

Mt. Teide, covered in snow.

The entire group on this particular orientation trip

We were queens of the hill, obviously. :P

Sunday night, we returned, exhausted but happy, to Madrid, and went our separate ways to our respective host families. School started immediately, the next day.

My week has been pretty hectic because I found out right away that I did not like finishing classes at 8 pm every day, and some of the courses I was taking were not going to be as interesting as I had hoped. So I went through a lot of schedule changes, but I've finalized it now. I'm taking only four courses (woot!) and they are:

Communicating in Spanish II
History of the Modern World
History of Spanish Art II
Archeology of Mediterranean Civilizations

My schedule is much nicer now, and I don't get out as late as before. AND I don't have class on Fridays, which will be very nice because I plan to travel most weekends.

My classes are cool, the people and teachers are cool, the group of friends I have made are cool, the weather is cool. Literally, haha. I really miss the weather on Tenerife, which was much warmer (in the high 60's and low 70's) than here, where it's been in the 40's and 50's. But, today, for the first time since I've been here, it is SUNNY! I will definitely break out the sunglasses later when I go exploring the city.

As requested by a few of you, here are some pics of my housing situation. I live with a single señora, I have two roommates who are in a double on the far side of the house, and I have a single and a small bathroom to myself. My señora's name is Carmen and she's very nice, although she speaks rapid-fire Spanish that can be overwhelming. My two housemates, Sara and Alison, are also nice and I appreciate their company in the house -- I think we'll have lots of fun together. We have breakfast and dinner (which Carmen makes) together, and so far, I'm liking Spanish food! Ok, less talk, more pictures:

My teeny single, with the meager decorations I brought.

No desk, unfortunately, but there's a study room next to Sara and Alison's double where I can work.

closet, obviously, heh.

I really like having my own bathroom, but the shower is tiny. And I ain't tiny. :P

Aaand, because I'd rather not finish a post with a picture of a toilet (hah), here's a picture of a store name that I found rather amusing:

Phew, this post was a lot of work. I hope you enjoyed it though.

Hasta proxima semana!

ETA: Haha, silly people I won't name, you don't have to create a blog in order to comment. You can select "other" as your identity when leaving a comment. :P