14 April - 18 April: On the search for pasta sauce

First stop: ROME, ITALY

For Semana Santa, I started my trip with three other girls in Rome, Italy. We were so excited to go everywhere and anywhere. My first impression of Rome was that it was an interesting mix of touristy and historical. There would be people from all over the world, with their sun hats and cameras in the fondo of beautiful historical ruins. 
I believe we were very good with hitting all the hot spots. Furthermore, we were very lucky because we happened to be traveling during "Culture Week in Rome," where all the municipal and state museums and monuments are free. We saved a lot of money this way. 

On the evening of our very first day, we immediately headed out to find the Trevi Fountain, after walking past the Spanish steps (which I had no idea, but is the widest staircase in Europe). My host mother told me that the fountain will be located in a very nonchalant, un-monumental area, and it was true. We were using this very detailed map and we were in an area with tall buildings and narrow streets. Then we turned the corner, and there it was! Finding important sites was like this a lot in Rome because the city was filled with them at every turn of the sidewalk. 

Trevi Fountain

Close-up

 Did you know that about $350 in worth of coins are thrown into the fountain each day?! They use the money for the needy. It shows just the incredible number of the masses of people that visit the fountain each day. I think that's also why there's always police standing around there..so people don't jump into the fountain to steal coins. jaja It's said that people must make two wishes for the fountain. The first is a personal wish and the second is to ensure that you will return to Rome. We didn't do it this day, but we made the two wishes on our last day.


DAY 2:The next morning, we walked around and ran into what we thought was a really huge and pretty building, which turned out to be National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, a very sacred place. We understood the importance of it when we got yelled at by security by trying to take a piggy-back picture in front of it.

We entered the Pantheon, which is this tall domed building. We were ashamed to realize that we did not know anything about the place, but we found out it was built to be a temple to all the gods. The center of the ceiling opens into the air. Kings are also buried here.

for lunch, we had good pizza again!! @

<-- Piazza Navona is a plaza that attracts a lot of artists from all over the city. We saw tons of painters selling their artwork and people getting their portraits or caricatures drawn. But truthfully, I thought it would be a prettier plaza from what I've heard, but it wasn't that gorgeous. After roaming around for a bit more, we headed back to our apartment. Except the store that we planned on going to was closed, so we didn't have pasta sauce! So we walked into a pizza store and, after much confusion and mix of words, asked if we could buy their sauce. We weren't able to, so we made do with a can of tomato chunks and we added flour, wine, salt and sugar. We also had wine and wine cookies to crumble over our meal! It was pretty good for our first cooking. Afterward, we went next door to buy two scoops of gelato each.

our very decent home-cooked meal =)

Pickpocketing: We were always warned, every city, every country we went, about pickpockets. By this point, we could have turned a blind ear to all the advice, but luckily we were on the more paranoid side. On our way home, the three girls and I rode a very crowded bus. I had both my hands grabbing the handles to avoid losing my balance. Before I knew it, the guy in front of me, who had his coat over his hand, had gone past the button on my messenger purse and had already opened the zipper all the way. I caught him just as he was trying to grab something in my purse. I was freaked out and told my friends, "Hey, I think this guy just tried to pickpocket me." Another friend, who becomes audacious during these situations, grabbed the side of his pants pocket and yelled, "I think this guy has your camera!" She proceeded to stick her hands down the guy's pocket and took out a cellphone, that wasn't mine. I followed suit and stuck my hand in his  pocket too, and took out a wad of 50 euros and yelled, "I don't think this is mine!" The guy took his belongings and stood there awkwardly until the bus stopped at the next stop. It was scary and funny, but...always watch out for pickpockets.


DAY 3: This day was a big day for us. We were to visit the COLOSSEUM!! All of us were so excited. The one uncomfortable thing about Rome was the subway system. There were only two lines, red and silver that ran on opposite diagonals across the city. The bus system was too confusing for us to learn within two days, so we opted to walk. Sometimes it was hard, but the exercise was good for our gelato-ridden bodies. Because it was free, the line wrapped around the Colosseum. But the people were let in pretty quickly and before we knew it, we were inside the Colosseum, the largest amphitheater ever built in the Roman Empire. It was the site of gladiator battles, executions, and performances. It seated up to 50,000 spectators. It was huge. 

Now, a lot of the amphitheater is ruined. The seats and stairs are so weathered down so that now they look like slides. A whole side of the wall is gone. But they're doing a lot of reconstruction and they even have a mini museum area on the second floor, so I'm curious to see what it will be like in the future! 

          After enacting a couple of scenes from the Gladiator, we met up with a friend and her friends and ate paninis at a famous, hole-in-the-wall kind of place. I ordered the panini with mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled chicken, and red peppers. It was delicious...all the flavors coming together, mmmmmMM mm. 


As a closing to our day, we piggy-backed on a group of visiting Spanish students and got into the Capitolini Museum, which is located in the Piazza del Campidoglio, designed and created by Michelangelo. The museum held the famous statues of the Capitoline Wolf suckling the siblings Romulus and Remus. It is said that Romulus founded the republic before it became an empire.


So, what is SPQR? We saw these initials or acronyms everywhere, from engravings on Ancient Ruins to government walls and even on manhole sewage covers. I finally looked it up when I got home and it stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, which means the Senate and its People, the ancient republic government of Rome. 


DAY 4: Time to meet the pope! We got up at 8 AM and left the house by 9 to go to the Vatican to meet the Pope. We were careful to dress somewhat conservatively, because we heard that we wouldn't be allowed in if we were scantily clad. On our ride towards the Vatican, we kept wondering to ourselves what kind of Spanish accent this group of chicos on the subway was speaking with. We guessed all the regions of Spain, tried to also identify the flag they were holding up, and gave up. Of course, we realized how dumb we were when we found our they were from Mexico. We also wondered for the longest time what were these large plants that people were carrying into the Vatican, and of course, we happened to be visiting during Palm Sunday, and everyone was carrying palms. It's good to be aware and knowledgeable about stuff.

view of the Vatican from afar

Thousands of people came to see the Pope. It's amazing how much influence he has on so many people. We each received guides for the session and it was a pretty thick booklet. It was an experience seeing all the speeches and just the masses of people. 

ending the day with drinks

In the evening we finally found the aperitivos place, Freni e Frizoioni, that we were looking for! Aperitivos are appetizers, and here we pay for a drink and basically have an appetizer buffet. It was sooo good. You could tell it was a popular place because there were lines of people waiting to get in.






DAY 5: Move-out! We packed all our backpacks and suitcases, moved out of the apartment, and set out to explore Rome for one last day. We couldn't miss the Sistine Chapel so we headed in that direction. Before we could even see the chapel, we came across a very very long line. After passing time with more gelato, we finally got in, four hours later. Maybe it was because the long wait and the built-up anticipation, but the Sistine Chapel didn't astound us. We did rush pass the Vatican museum just to reach the Chapel. It was very beautiful and it was so cool to be able to look upon Michelangelo's artwork; I suppose we were very tired and whatnot.

This last day was a rush of trying to do everything we weren't able to. For example, after the Sistine Chapel, we trekked across the city to find the best coffee in Italy. 

Italy's version of the iced coffee

Then we trekked across the city again and had our last meal at a family place called Osteria da Olindo, where we saw the mom in the kitchen cooking our last pasta. It was home-made and delicious, like all the pasta and pizza we ate in Italy.



Rome was a feast for all the senses.  I loved hearing Italian on the streets. It almost sounded like music, with its melodic ups and downs. It was strange looking upon the same ruins that people walked through a thousand years ago. We came across tourists and languages from all over the world. The food of course, was incredible wherever we went. And I will miss the gelato forever. 

Enseñar, aprender, dar y recibir

I was talking with my Spanish mother over lunch about how I was doing with speaking the language and making friends here. I told her about how I met some Tufts alumnus who had also studied abroad here and were now working in Madrid, teaching English. When she asked if I ever wanted to come back and perhaps live and work here, I realized I never asked myself that yet. But I said that I'm very interested in coming back, but I don't know how or when.

She then began talking about a student she hosted about three years ago, through a different exchange program. The student was only 16 or 17 years old, and she was from Japan, and she was blind. But despite being blind, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and going out with friends and could find her way around the city without the mother's help. She also apparently had an amazing singing voice. One day, the little girl made Maria José (my host mother) sit down and sang 'O Sole Mio and it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever listened to.


Maria José kept on repeating, with her hands on her heart, that she doesn't know about us (meaning study-abroad students), but she learns so so much by hosting us. "I don't know if you all learn anything from us, but we learn so much from you." I almost burst into tears >.<, trying to say that we also learn so much from host families and that we're given such a valuable experience.

Agua de Valencia

This is late!

Valencia is famous for its paella and oranges!! (unfortunately, I never got to taste the famous agua de Valencia, which I think is a mixture of champagne and orange juice and vodka)

 Last weekend, I went on a trip to Valencia with the program. The city is like a cross between Alcalá and Barcelona because it's has a bigger city-feel than Alcalá, but it's less "cold" and cosmopolitan than Barcelona. For our tour with Professor Arturo, we visited a lot more cathedrals and towers with beautiful views of the city:

View of Valencia from Torres de Serranos

Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe

One part of Valencia that's so interesting is the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias. It's like this futuristic looking group of buildings that has a science museum and Europe's biggest aquarium, El Oceanográfico:

hello there =)

 ...and then my camera ran out of batteries. =(

P.S. SPRING BREAK PEOPLE: Hope all of you are having a GREAT and AMAZING TIME!!! <3

벌써 지나간 48일...남은 89일

어느새 내가 3개국어를 하는 사람이 돼었다. 물론 그 정도는 아니지만, 사람들은 나를 그렇게 본다. 그리고 어느새 나에게 미국은 외국이 돼었고, 한국은 내 본국이 돼었다. 어느새 내 입에서 "안녕"이 아닌, "hello"도 아닌, "hola"가 생각없이 나온다. 그렇게 낯섰던 길도 난 이젠 혼자 잘 다닌다. 자주 가는 카페에 웨이터도 이젠 나를 알아본다.
지금, 나란 사람이 또 한번 변화가고있다.


haha trying out my Korean for the first time in a long time...and enjoying Big Bang's new album too. =)

Tiritas

Ripe blisters and a cracked heel are good signs. It means I walked a lot. hahahaha =D


I found myself in Madrid two days in a row, walking for hours and hours. The first day, I skipped a trip to the Royal Palace in Madrid (Yes, I know but I'll go there on my own very soon) because I was sick. So, with another sick girl in our group, we decided to spend the day relaxing and watched a movie instead. PRIMOS (Cousins) was a really funny movie, even though I barely understood anything. Luckily, all the comedy was not in the language. But I really hope to watch more Spanish movies! It was a fun challenge for me. I also went to the post office in Madrid, which is in a gorgeous white building called the Palace of Communications. There, I sent my very first postcard!! How exciting!!

Then the next day, an intercambio Aura wanted to show us El Rastro in Madrid, something almost like La Rambla in Barcelona or Dongdaemun in Korea, except more crowded. I thought I was going to suffocate from claustrophobia. El Rastro is a long, long flea market that opens up every Sunday with thousands of vendors. I definitely liked the visit and I saw the Spanish way of bargaining, but it took us an hour to walk through the whole market. It's a good place to go buy trinkets like earrings or scarves. 

El Rastro

Man making music with water and glass

Afterward, we went to the Plaza Mayor to eat bocadillos de calamares (calamari in baguette bread)! I really liked how there were so many people with their bocadillo in one hand and a coke can in another eating on the streets. After a quick lunch we ended the day at the Retiro Park, which is so much prettier now than it was in January.

P.S. I swear it was SNOWING this morning. The weather is strange today..

La ciudad global

Sleeping on cold marble floors at the airport before our flight! 0.o

Barcelona definitely felt like a more cosmopolitan city compared to Madrid. Well, we were staying at hostels where travelers from all over come and go, but I got that global vibe everywhere we went. Barcelona is a city in an area of Spain called Catalonia. So here, Catalan is the common language, but they do understand Spanish. Not that it was evident, though. Whenever we tried to speak Spanish with waiters or shop owners, their replies were always in English. Frustrating, but understandable.

Our hostel was near La Rambla, this long street famous for its various stands and moving statues. It was a touristy place, which we unfortunately found out after eating at one of the pricey restaurants on the street. 

Guess how he's floating?

Acrobatic dancers performing for restaurant customers

One of my favorite places: a market off of La Rambla that sold everything from fruits and vegetables to sweets and pig's heads.

Our first cultural visit was to Picasso's Museum. It holds most of his earlier works, before he started cubism. It was so strange to see how his paintings slowly started changing and becoming more childlike. It's often said that he had to prove that he could paint like an adult when he was a child, but when he became an adult he painted like a child. "Desde niño pintaba como Rafael, pero me llevó toda una vida aprender a dibujar como un niño." 

Entrance to Picasso's Museum

Petra

  
After the museum visit, we found this hard-to-find restaurant called Petra for lunch and it was deliciousss. Their menu was printed on wine bottles and the restaurant had a very antique and quirky feel. 




We can't miss out on the night life, can we? We went to a bar called Chupitos (I think it's a chain of the same kind of bar) that sold over 200 different kinds of shots. The eleven of us (by the way, it was SO difficult traveling with eleven girls) ordered a shot called Harry Potter. hehehe of course we would. The bartender filled our shot glasses, then placed slices of oranges on top of each. He sprinkled some kind of seasoning on them and then lit them on fire. After blowing out the fire (which we were all awed by), we took the warm orange slices first and then had the shot. It was surprisingly sweet and GOOD. 

At the Chupitos bar

During our last full day in the city, we went crazy for Gaudí. Antonio Gaudí (I wikipedia-ed him when I got back because I knew almost nothing about this guy) was a Catalan architect from the Modernisme period. His works are pretty noticeable throughout the city and he has a very unique style. 

 

One of the first works we visited was Park Güell, a place that was like a mix of Alice in Wonderland and Hansel & Gretel. 

The view from outside

Then we visited THE place to go for Gaudí, La Sagrada Familia. The girls and I stepped off the metro and looked up at the cathedral and the first thing we said was, "It's so ugly that it's amazing." The cathedral is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Inside, it was more astounding. The place was like a distorted stone forest. It surprised me that they actually hold mass in this place! One girl described it as being like the work of a child who was playing with clay. But you knew that it wasn't all just random. It was all planned out. I think it'll be a while before the cathedral is finished being built. Gaudí died before he could finish it, so it's still under construction (supposedly until 2026). 

During our last night in Barcelona, most of us were pretty exhausted. The few stupid ones (like me) decided to go out for the third night in a row to a pub crawl hosted by the hostel we stayed at. So we spent our Sunday night at a small bar and then headed over to a club called Opium, near the beach. OH I almost forgot to mention the beach! It was beautiful. We walked along a boardwalk with palm trees and the sound of the ocean was so nice to hear. It's unfortunate that I only got to see it at night, but after dancing for hours in Opium, a friend and I walked barefoot in the sand and it was sooo relaxing. I forgot how much I missed the beach. =)


All in all, Barcelona was a successful first-trip for us. We learned what NOT to do (like try to go see all the sites with all ten girls) and what to bring (towels, extra socks, a BRUSH for goodness sakes). It's a huge city that was lots of fun but it can also get very tiring very quickly. It was nice to return to quiet Alcalá. And I say we're pretty prepared for our next trip, wherever that may be!!!

¿Oyes lo que oigo yo?

Today was the kind of day where I wanted to ride a Ferris wheel by myself and just go around and around...

On my way to grammar class, I always pass a large old building near the Calle de Infanta Catalina. And around that exact time, I hear a large band/orchestra playing inside. They don't sound very professional or anything, but I wonder what kind of group they are and if I can go see them perform. I'm missing music these days and I really really would like to find a place where I can play the piano too. Hm..

 
Post about BARCELONA, coming soon!!

¡¡¡Arre!!!

Something I love about learning Spanish is the sounds. It's so fun and challenging to try to pronounce sounds that I usually never make. In grammar class today, we started playing around with the double r sound, which I still can't do. So everyday on my way to class, I practice rolling my r's while looking like a crazy person muttering under her breath. I have definitely improved, but I'm not quite there just yet. Another sound that I find myself choking on is the j (jota) sound, which sort of sounds like someone coughing up a small hairball. Hahah that's the only way I can describe it. Something a little more difficult is the subtle t, which is a softer t sound than I'm used to. It sort of sounds like, or could be, a lisp.

Miguel, our grammar professor, showed us a funny wine commercial that uses a million r's:
In English:

In Spanish:

AND...this was a sort of reflection activity we did with Clair Jasinski, a psychologist who talked with us during orientation:

SO FAR...

 1. I can appreciate...the honesty and forwardness of Spanish people.

2. I still can't understand...why people like to call me china so much.

3. Listening to and understanding Spanish and making Spanish friends...is easier than I expected.

4. Going to the next level, challenging myself, getting out of my comfort zone again...is more difficult.

5. Right now, I'm in a stage of acceptance with moments of enchantment and disenchantment.

 
TONIGHT, I'm off to the airport to spend the night there with my friends before our early Friday morning flight to Barcelona. We'll be spending three days in the city and hopefully seeing and doing a lot of things! ¡Hasta pronto!