leaving on a jet plane

i'm going home on saturday!  that's in THREE days!  hard to believe that it's already time to fly back to the states.  there was a point in time where i thought the day would never come, and now i'm finding myself a bit sad to leave.

that past few weeks have been pretty great.  the weekend after my trip to scotland, i flew to paris where i met up with katie, emma, katie's friends from scotland, and a few other kids from brown.  we had a looovely weekend that included kanye west, cheese fondu, and plenty of crepes.  it was great to see so many familiar faces, though i wish we had done more sight seeing.  i ended up going to the eiffel tower and the arc by myself on sunday before my flight home.  definitely not as exciting as sharing the sights with someone else!  but that just means i'll have to go back to paris...

clancey and her parents came to madrid the following weekend.  pants and i had so much fun!  i was really happy to see her and hear all about school and things that i've missed.  she saw the main tourist attractions in madrid (though there aren't too many...) and we just chatted and chilled out the rest of the weekend.  it felt like a vacation to me because i actually got out of my apartment and did things, plus i stayed with her family at their swanky apartment for two of their three nights, and i hope clancey enjoyed her stay too!  weird that she won't be around school next semester.  she graduated two days ago.  happy graduation pants!  she's a real person now.

that thursday was thanksgiving.  IES hosted a dinner for us at the hard rock cafe which was not so tasty but definitely fun and made everyone think of home.  missing thanksgiving with my family wasn't as upsetting as i had thought it would be, probably because clancey was here.  i was glad to hear that i didn't miss much at home, though.

now i just need to get through three more exams and one final paper before i pack up my backs, say my goodbyes, and head back the new jersey.  i am sad to leave my roommates, who i've come to love, so it will probably be a teary goodbye, but i am so so so excited to go home.  i miss my parents, my dog, my cat, my bed, oatmeal, movie rentals, the movie theater, small world coffee, driving, my cell phone, my best friends, cuddling on the couch by the fire, international food, princeton university campus, thomas sweet, brown, american radio stations, home-cooked meals.  i'm just ready to go home.  i've had an INCREDIBLE experience: my spanish has drastically improved, i overcame absolute and complete homesickness, i met some amazing people, and i've gotten a taste of a really cool culture.  this is something i'll never again have the opportunity to do, and i am so thankful that i came to madrid.  

but now, after almost three and a half months, it's time to go home!

scotland!

dear loyal readers (that's YOU, carhoa)

this week has been an adventurous one!  after doing a whole lot of nothing -- watched a few movies, did laundry, registered for classes -- i flew off to scotland early last friday morning for a beautiful, fun filled weekend, as you can easily see in the picture i was able to upload below...hmm

i flew into edinburgh to visit my good friend from school, katie.  our third roommate from summer in nyc, emma, flew in from paris for a visit, too, so it was a wonderful little reunion.  we wandered the streets of edinburgh, saw some historical sights (like where they nailed criminals to the wall by their ears), and drank coffee in the cafe where j.k. rowling wrote harry potter!

on saturday, katie, emma, katie's friend molly and i took the train up to st. andrews to visit katie and emma's friend from high school, sarah, who is studying there for the semester.  the train ride was absolutely beautiful!  i've never seen grass so green in my life.  our stay at st. andrews was perfect -- dinner, a few pubs, and a good night's sleep to prepare for an early sunday morning.

after coffee and a muffin, emma and i hopped on a 10 am bus to glasgow, where she was catching a flight back to paris and where i met kaylen, my good friend from high school.  glasgow is a big city, much bigger than i had imagined.  we walked around the downtown area for a while before heading 20 minutes outside of the city to her flat.  a decent walk from her flat is an adorable end of town lined with quaint cafes, shops, and lights for the christmas season.  after a day of chatting and meandering around the city with kaylen, i headed back to edinburgh where katie greeted me with tea and banana bread (delicious, of course).  

the weekend was PERFECT!  scotland was more beautiful than i ever imagined, and it was so wonderful to see so many great friends.  it made me even more eager to come  home to see everyone that i miss to much!

this weekend i will see nearly everyone that i saw this weekend, plus a few more, in paris, and i couldn't be more excited!

will report back next week.  bonjour, merci, e parlevous english.

love love,

lauren

It's unlikely that anyone still reads this, but just in case...

I'll update you all.  Apologies for the extreme delay in writing.  It's been over a month since I last posted, and SO MUCH has changed!  I've been having such a great time in Madrid and elsewhere - last weekend I traveled to Amsterdam and several weeks ago I spent a weekend in Sevilla.  

Sevilla was beautiful (see for yourself in the picture).  A river divides the city in two, and my friend Deirdre and I stayed on the quiet side.  It was just a short walk from our hostel across the river to central Sevilla, where we visited an enormous cathedral (the third largest in Europe, I believe) and an old palace where los Reyes Catolicos dispatched Columbus.  We also saw Columbus' tomb, which was pretty amazing, and spent most of the rest of our time wandering through the narrow streets, sipping cups of coffee, and enjoying the warm weather.  It felt like such a vacation.  Sevilla is the 4th largest city in Spain with about 600,000 residents, but it felt like a tiny little town compared to Madrid.  

Around the same time that I went to Sevilla, my computer broke.  It had been acting up for a short while and then one day refused to start.  My brother kindly sent me his laptop to use for a few weeks before I replaced my Dell with a brand new Apple, from which I am writing now, and that I LOVE.  That one computerless week was quite the struggle, but now I'm back in action.  

The week after my trip, my parents came to visit.  It was so great to see them, and though we didn't do too much, I think they enjoyed their trip, too.  We took a bus tour of Madrid, visited El Museo del Prado and the Thyssen museum as well, took a walk through El Parque del Retiro, and ate some delicious tapas.  I was sad to see them go after their relatively short stay, but was back to my normal upbeat self in no time.  It was a true test and, well, I aced it.  I had overcome my homesickness!

After a week of midterms, which were nothing to worry about, my brothers visited.  They reserved a suite in the Melia Santa Ana which was absolutely beautiful.  I slept on the pull-out couch bed every night, so we spent as much time together as possible.  One of the first nights of their stay, we had some of my friends over to the hotel for some drinks before we went out in the city.  It was a very memorable night all around -- everyone had a lot of fun!  The next day, Matt, Phil and I took a long, leisurely walk through Retiro.  It was a gorgeous day, perfect for a stroll.  Another night, we saw a flamenco show at a place called "Casa Patas".

The performers were absolutely amazing.  I can't believe the passion that they all put into each performance.  We left the show in awe, and called it a night.  On Sunday night, Matt and P

hil's last night in Madrid, we sat first row at the Real Madrid vs. Atletico soccer game.  The Madrid rivalry made the game a great show, and it was really exciting to sit so close to all of the action.  I never realized how dramatic soccer players can be, however, until Phil pointed it ou

t.  I think I could take those slight injuries much better than they do.  Still, all of that acting made it fun(ny) and a great time.

Matt and Phil left on Monday morning, so it was back to my apartment for the week!  After so much time eating out (mmmm DELICIOUS FOOD!) it was a pain to have to cook for myself again, but nice to be back in my own bed and with my roommates.  

And last weekend was Amsterdam.  I went with my friend Monica, who goes to Kenyon with an old friend, Ninah, who is Dutch and is studying in Amsterdam for the semester.  The three of us, along with two others from my program and another of their friends from Kenyon, had such a great weekend.  Amsterdam 

is a wonderful city!  The canals and skinny little houses and bicycles made it feel small and quaint.  The weather wasn't so wonderful -- it was COLD and it rained all day on S

aturday -- but we still had a good time wandering around the city.  We visited the Van Gogh museum and the Rijks museum, spent a lot of time hanging around, catching up in Ninah's dorm, and wandered all around the city to a few different markets and shops.  It was so nice to see my ol

d friend, and, again, great to get out of Madrid.  One of the best parts was the food!  Madrid has very little international food but Amsterdam is full of it.  We ate Chinese one night and had pancakes for lunch a different day.  That's right: pancakes for lunch.  I had the tastiest pancake filled with chili and cheese.  It sounds disgusting but I think it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten.  Halloween came

 and went while we were there, which made me a bit sad (no costume, no trick-or-treating, no candy) but the rest of the weekend made up for it.

This week, so far, has been low key and relaxing.  I am looking forward to spending this upcoming weekend in Madrid, cleaning my room and getting things organized.  The rest of November I am traveling to Scotland, Paris, and then celebrating Thanksgiving with my friend from Brown, Clancey, so it 

should be a VERY exciting month!

Miss you and love you all.  I will try my best to update more regularly!

xoxo Lauren

A trip to Valencia and my sick week

This past week was rough. But before I get to that, I'll start with last weekend--my trip to Valencia.

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, about 4 hours from Madrid by bus. It's a beautiful city, right up the Mediterranean coast from Barcelona, and I think all 48 of us that went had a great time. We stayed in a cute little four star hotel a short walk away from lots of shops and restaurants and the hustle and bustle.

On Saturday, our program took us to the aquarium--the biggest in Europe, I think?--which was SO BEAUTIFUL! It was a lot of fun to walk around and look at not only the animals but also the really cool architecture in the area. I took a lot of pictures that I'll post as soon as I find my USB cable...

We stopped briefly at the science museum, which was also really interesting (highlights were the hatching chicks and the female body exhibit) before an enormous lunch of paella Valenciana at a restaurant across town. The food was delicious, and I left completely stuffed. A few of us walked around after lunch to digest, and after a short nap, I got ready for a night out dancing! It was a great day, my best in Spain at that point.

On Sunday, everyone went to the beach. The water was perfect, very refreshing before a 4 hour bus ride back to Madrid. Only when we returned did things start to go downhill. In preparation for my first day of classes on Monday, I ate dinner and went to bed early, only to wake up several times during the night vomiting and feverish. It was a horrible night, and I was still really sick the next morning and unable to go to classes. My RA called a doctor, who came to our apartment and told me I had gastroenteritis, which is basically a stomach bug. I stayed in bed all day and slept as much as I could, and luckily was able to go to school on Tuesday. I wasn't able to eat much all week and only started feeling better on Friday. I was SO HOMESICK while I wasn't feeling well! It's really hard being sick in a new country, and all I could think about was laying in my bed at home. It was a horrible week, but things started to turn around once I started feeling like myself again.

I'm adjusting day by day. The thought of being here until mid December still scares me, but I'm learning to like it here. In a little time, I'm sure I'll dread the thought of leaving. I've already learned so much about myself, more than I ever thought I would in just two weeks, so I know that 4 months will be completely worthwhile. I'm anticipating more bad days to come (of course there will be bad days scattered amongst the good, it's normal) but I'm looking forward to all of the amazing things I will do, see, and learn in the time that lies ahead.

I miss you and love you all! I hope everyone is well, wherever you may be. Please email me to let me know how you are doing!

Much love,

Lauren

First few days

Hi everyone,

I arrived, safe and sound, in Madrid last Thursday after a long and tiresome overnight flight. There were several other IES kids on my plane, so we met and chatted for a while before trying to get some sleep. IES staff members greeted us at the airport and helped us catch cabs to Hotel Husa Princesa, where we spent our first night. Everyone was completely exhausted during lunch -- we tried to introduce ourselves, see where people were from, but after an hour of that we were in zombie mode, slowly eating and staring around the room with heavy eyes.

Later in the evening, several students at La Universidad Complutense de Madrid took small groups on walking tours throughout the city. I was NOT prepared for the three hour trek my group went on, and though it was nice to get aquainted with some neighborhoods, all I could think about was going to sleep. I slept like a rock and woke up the next day feeling much better.

On Friday, everyone moved into their permanent residence for the semester, some to dorms, some to homestays, and some, like me, to apartments. My apartment is great! We have a nice kitchen, a large common room with a pretty view, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. I live in a decently sized double with Te'Niijah. Shauna and Alessandra live next door in another room, Andrea lives in the single down the hall, and our RA, Nuria, a recent graduate of Complutense, also lives next to me in a single.

Saturday was the most exciting day as of yet. Everyone met at our study center on Complutense's campus, where we boarded busses headed for Segovia, a historic town about an hour outside of Madrid. There, we explored old churches and learned about the architechture. We also saw the aquaducts and an old Spanish castle. It was very beautiful, and our enthusiastic tour guide, Mario, made it a great tour. We stopped at a beautiful and HUGE restaurant on our way home where they fed us course after course of delicious food. I took una siesta pequena when I got home--food coma.

Sunday was a day of rest, so I slept in and picked up a few groceries before heading to El Parque de Retiro, Madrid's Central Park, for a walking tour. The park is beautiful! There's a lake in the middle where you can rent row boats for relatively cheap, tons of sculptures and fountains, and a lot of people running and biking throughout. It's definitely somewhere that I hope to spend a lot of free time.

This week is the beginning of our orientation classes. We'll be placed into the appropriate Spanish class for the semester and learn about Madrid's history and culture. I'm looking forward to starting class next Monday and really settling in here, but so far, so good. I've met so many nice, fun, interesting people--I think it's going to be a great semester. I miss you all back in the states!!!

Lauren

This is my blog

Hi everyone,

Congrats! You've found my blog! Updates to come soon...

Besos,
Lauren