First of all, last week I posted my pictures from Valencia and Granada on my picture site (http://picasaweb.google.com/clairemusica/). Go check them out!
Secondly, I have to tell you about Granada and this weekend’s trip, Salamanca. Tim, who is from Chicago and is a Poli Sci and Music major, wanted to go to Granada because he had friends who are studying there, so in the middle of the week we decided that the two of us would go down to meet them. We didn’t make any hostel arrangements because Tim had had trouble booking hostels online before, so we just decided to get a hostel when we arrived in Granada, like true backpackers. On Friday the Fund had a sponsored trip to El Escorial, which is a monastery and summer palace built by Charles V and lived in the most by Philip II. We had a very long tour of El Escorial, but we couldn’t go into the most famous part, the library, because they were filming a Spanish period film that Friday. After El Escorial, the bus dropped Tim and me off in Madrid before going back to Toledo. We got to the bus station and bought bus tickets for the 5.5 hour ride to Granada and then had dinner. On the bus ride, we called all the hostels listed for Granada in my guidebook and none of them had room for two people for Friday night. We arrived in Granada around midnight and walked into the center of town from the bus station, which is about a 5 mile walk. We walked into 13 hostels, hotels, and pension houses before we finally found one that had a room at 2 in the morning. That was our 19th hostel. After that adventure we were exhausted, so we went right to bed and then got up at 7 to get tickets to Granada’s main attraction, the Moorish palace complex called the Alhambra. We spent much of Saturday touring the Alhambra and then met Tim’s friends and spent the evening with them. Sunday we went to mass at the cathedral and then met up with Tim’s friends again before hopping on the 4pm bus back to Madrid.
This week the only two really exciting things that happened were that I got my first grade back of the semester and I met the love of my life. The grade was an A, from an oral presentation in my Cultural Heritage class. Out of the whole class the professor only gave out two As, and I was awesome enough to earn one of them. The love of my life is a soccer player on Toledo’s local team. His name is Pedro. I met him at my job at the tv station because he was there to film an interview on Monday. He told me my Spanish was very good and that I should come see him play sometime. I tried not to swoon.
This weekend the Fund sponsored a trip to Avila and Salamanca. We left early Friday morning and toured Avila, made famous by St. Teresa of Avila. Most of our tour centered around a very old church and the city walls. After Avila we went to Salamanca, where we stayed in a 4 star hotel and got guided tours of the city’s monuments and the university complex.
All of these trips are really fun, and I love the opportunity to get to know my way around cities all over Spain, but I have to say I’m really glad I get to call Toledo home. It’s small enough and has so much character that it really feels more personal than the cities, even small ones like Salamanca. Next weekend I’m going to Barcelona with Tim and some other kids from the Toledo program and meeting up with Rebeca, Eileen, and Jessica, three of my best friends from Notre Dame who are studying in London, London, and Rome, respectively. As I’m writing this, I’m trying to avoid the fact that I have a 1000 essay due Monday (tomorrow) morning to work on. I should really switch over to writing that.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Madrid and Valencia
A lot has been going on since I last updated everyone! On Friday the school took us to Madrid in the morning and we toured the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) where the King and Queen visit occasionally (royal weddings and state dinners and the like) but which is mostly a museum. After the Palacio, we walked up to one of the main plazas and then had lunch at a restaurant. After that we got free time, and I just walked up and down Gran Via (Madrid’s main street) with some boys from Notre Dame. After all our walking we went home to Toledo on the bus with the school, and then Emily, Kate, and I went to the huge and amazing mall outside of Toledo to see Hairspray, which premiered here on Friday. That was really fun because the mall is crazy and Hairspray was all in Spanish except for the songs. Saturday morning we took the AVE high speed train in to Madrid and ran into the President of Brazil in the Toledo train station. We still don’t know why he was coming to Toledo. In Madrid we met up with some of our friends who had stayed overnight and saw all the famous paintings in the Prado. After touring the Prado we went to Reina Sofia, the modern art museum that houses Picasso’s Guernica. For dinner Saturday night we got Chicago-style hot dogs at a restaurant called Chicago Style Hot Dogs Madrid and then made the trek to the famous 7-floor discoteca where we had planned to spend the night, since we didn’t have a hostel. The club was crazy, and we literally partied there from about 2am to 6am, when we went back to the other kids’ hostel to pick up our bags and walk to the train station to catch the first train back to Toledo.
On Tuesday I filmed my first interview for the tv show I work for here. I was told on Monday I’d have to talk about Ramadan in the United States, so I was really nervous, both to talk about Ramadan in a country that is immensely racist towards Arabs and Muslims of all kinds and to speak extemporaneously live in Spanish on television! It was horribly nerve-wracking and I forgot all my grammar and got flustered and sounded awful. My boss told me it was just my first time and I’d be a pro soon enough, but I was still embarrassed. Then when I got home Tuesday night my host family and I watched it on tv and I did just as badly as I thought I had, but they were very excited and proud to have a “local celebrity” in their house.
Friday about 12 of us went to the coastal town of Valencia, famous for its sunny beaches, the America’s Cup sailing competition, its oranges, its paella, and Agua de Valencia, which is made of champagne and fresh-squeezed orange juice (like mimosa). It rained the entire time we were there, but I got to go to their world famous aquarium (their dolphin show was way better than SeaWorld’s) and we did swim in the Mediterranean Sea even though it was rainy at the beach. We also tried paella valenciana and agua de Valencia and I bought fresh Valencian oranges at an outdoor market. Our hostel was a clean and safe, but the best part was the kitchen on the top floor with the rooftop terrace that looked out over much of Valencia. We met lots of people from New Zealand, Canada, Bristol, Sweden, Belgium, and Singapore. We all cooked dinner together in the kitchen both Friday and Saturday nights, and I felt like a cast member of the Real World, swapping hockey talk with the boys from British Columbia while helping the Swedes and Peter the Slovak make spaghetti sauce. If that happens every weekend I’ll have friends from literally every country in the world!
On Tuesday I filmed my first interview for the tv show I work for here. I was told on Monday I’d have to talk about Ramadan in the United States, so I was really nervous, both to talk about Ramadan in a country that is immensely racist towards Arabs and Muslims of all kinds and to speak extemporaneously live in Spanish on television! It was horribly nerve-wracking and I forgot all my grammar and got flustered and sounded awful. My boss told me it was just my first time and I’d be a pro soon enough, but I was still embarrassed. Then when I got home Tuesday night my host family and I watched it on tv and I did just as badly as I thought I had, but they were very excited and proud to have a “local celebrity” in their house.
Friday about 12 of us went to the coastal town of Valencia, famous for its sunny beaches, the America’s Cup sailing competition, its oranges, its paella, and Agua de Valencia, which is made of champagne and fresh-squeezed orange juice (like mimosa). It rained the entire time we were there, but I got to go to their world famous aquarium (their dolphin show was way better than SeaWorld’s) and we did swim in the Mediterranean Sea even though it was rainy at the beach. We also tried paella valenciana and agua de Valencia and I bought fresh Valencian oranges at an outdoor market. Our hostel was a clean and safe, but the best part was the kitchen on the top floor with the rooftop terrace that looked out over much of Valencia. We met lots of people from New Zealand, Canada, Bristol, Sweden, Belgium, and Singapore. We all cooked dinner together in the kitchen both Friday and Saturday nights, and I felt like a cast member of the Real World, swapping hockey talk with the boys from British Columbia while helping the Swedes and Peter the Slovak make spaghetti sauce. If that happens every weekend I’ll have friends from literally every country in the world!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Clases
Hola hola hola y ¿que pasaaaaaaaa? Today is the second day of classes here at the Fund, and I have much to report. So far I´ve only actually had one class, because I have one on Tuesday (that only meets once) and then one on Wednesday that meets twice. Here, because our professors teach at the university in Madrid, each class only meets one day a week, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The class I have today, the Cultural Heritage of Spain, met in the morning but I didn´t go because I had my welcome interview at my job. My job, for those of you I haven´t told, is with La Tribuna TV here in Toledo, which is a local television station attached to one of the main newspapers. (La Tribuna just means The Tribune.) I´m working on a news magazine show called Más Madera (More Wood, I don´t know why). One segment of the show interviews me every week in Spanish to get the perspective of a North American student on various topics. I´m going to be on tv once a week at 10pm here. It´s very exciting, and the people are all super nice. I almost fainted with excitement at my interview today because I was standing in a real newsroom and discussing with the editor which editing systems they use here. (We also talked about the NBA, but I know less about American basketball than I know about film production, so that part of the conversation wasn´t that exciting for him.) I start work there Monday evening, and I go on the air the first time Tuesday.
Before I forget, I´m taking 5 classes: Spanish Cinema, the Cultural Heritage of Spain, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Art in Toledo, Spain since 1936, and the externship class that goes along with my job.
I can´t think of anything else to tell you at the moment, but I´ll update again on Tuesday and tell you all about our trip to Madrid this weekend and the rest of my classes and my job!
Before I forget, I´m taking 5 classes: Spanish Cinema, the Cultural Heritage of Spain, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Art in Toledo, Spain since 1936, and the externship class that goes along with my job.
I can´t think of anything else to tell you at the moment, but I´ll update again on Tuesday and tell you all about our trip to Madrid this weekend and the rest of my classes and my job!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Pictures
I finally uploaded my pictures from the first couple of days here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/clairemusica/ToledoPart1
That album includes a map so you can see approximately where I took the pictures, too!
I have to go because I have to run to mass at the main cathedral for all of Spain (ours!).
http://picasaweb.google.com/clairemusica/ToledoPart1
That album includes a map so you can see approximately where I took the pictures, too!
I have to go because I have to run to mass at the main cathedral for all of Spain (ours!).
Friday, September 7, 2007
Hola de Toledo!
Typing on Spanish keyboards is hard.
Hi! I´m here! So the plane ride was fine, but I didn´t sleep at all, so about when we were getting in (7 here, 1am EDT time) it started to hit me that that wasn´t a good idea. We arrived at the airport and met the Fund people (they had a sign) and found out that the Chicago people were getting in way later
than they were supposed to, so we went on ahead of them. Buses can´t get very far into Toledo proper because the streets are so narrow, so we loaded our suitcases on a truck (this is when I started to think I brought to much) and then walked to the Fund. Toledo reminds me a lot of Italy in the color of the stones and the narrowness of the streets,
and of Assisi with all the hills. Once we got to the Fund (you should have seen me trying to drag my suitcases down the narrow street and
into the Fund. It´s like I couldn´t have packed more comically if I tried) we had some free time, so we (the JFK kids, we bonded on the flight) trekked out in search of cell phones, even though the Fund people are giving us a presentation on them later. We didn´t end up getting any, but we found the ATMs and walked around. We got back to the Fund just before the Chiçago kids arrived, and then had a ton of orientation to pay attention to (in Spanish and I was soooo tired) and then we met our families and they took us home for lunch. I then took a 4 hour nap, because at that point I had been awake for 29 hours
straight and couldn´t even think anymore. My family lives in Poligono, which is the suburb, so I take the bus in to the Fund. My mom´s name
is Ana, and I have a 20-year-old brother, Luis Miguel, who is very cute but very shy, hardly ever in the apartment, and doesn´t talk. But he helped me put my suitcases in the elevator. I also have a 12 year old sister, Cristina, who´s a big talker, and a small dog named Tobi. Tobi loves me and spent the whole time sitting in my lap. He also slept with me after he went for his walk with Ana while I unpacked. My room has just a bed, desk, and wardrobe in it, but everything fits, even my suitcases.
I don´t know when I´ll have a cell phone, but there are lots of computers at the fund and they have wireless that I don´t yet have the password for. Today Ana bused me to the Fund for our placement tests, which were
easier than I expected. Now (11:15) I´m waiting for my placement interview at 12:30. Then I think we´re free for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we have a tour of Toledo, I think. I´ve already taken some great pictures, especially of this little boy who kept playing peekaboo with us on the plane, but I won´t be able to upload them here until I get wireless on my laptop, probably later today.
Hi! I´m here! So the plane ride was fine, but I didn´t sleep at all, so about when we were getting in (7 here, 1am EDT time) it started to hit me that that wasn´t a good idea. We arrived at the airport and met the Fund people (they had a sign) and found out that the Chicago people were getting in way later
than they were supposed to, so we went on ahead of them. Buses can´t get very far into Toledo proper because the streets are so narrow, so we loaded our suitcases on a truck (this is when I started to think I brought to much) and then walked to the Fund. Toledo reminds me a lot of Italy in the color of the stones and the narrowness of the streets,
and of Assisi with all the hills. Once we got to the Fund (you should have seen me trying to drag my suitcases down the narrow street and
into the Fund. It´s like I couldn´t have packed more comically if I tried) we had some free time, so we (the JFK kids, we bonded on the flight) trekked out in search of cell phones, even though the Fund people are giving us a presentation on them later. We didn´t end up getting any, but we found the ATMs and walked around. We got back to the Fund just before the Chiçago kids arrived, and then had a ton of orientation to pay attention to (in Spanish and I was soooo tired) and then we met our families and they took us home for lunch. I then took a 4 hour nap, because at that point I had been awake for 29 hours
straight and couldn´t even think anymore. My family lives in Poligono, which is the suburb, so I take the bus in to the Fund. My mom´s name
is Ana, and I have a 20-year-old brother, Luis Miguel, who is very cute but very shy, hardly ever in the apartment, and doesn´t talk. But he helped me put my suitcases in the elevator. I also have a 12 year old sister, Cristina, who´s a big talker, and a small dog named Tobi. Tobi loves me and spent the whole time sitting in my lap. He also slept with me after he went for his walk with Ana while I unpacked. My room has just a bed, desk, and wardrobe in it, but everything fits, even my suitcases.
I don´t know when I´ll have a cell phone, but there are lots of computers at the fund and they have wireless that I don´t yet have the password for. Today Ana bused me to the Fund for our placement tests, which were
easier than I expected. Now (11:15) I´m waiting for my placement interview at 12:30. Then I think we´re free for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we have a tour of Toledo, I think. I´ve already taken some great pictures, especially of this little boy who kept playing peekaboo with us on the plane, but I won´t be able to upload them here until I get wireless on my laptop, probably later today.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Contact info
Here are the ways to reach me while I'm in Toledo:
Snail Mail
Claire Musica
Centro de Estudios Internacionales
Fundacion Ortega y Gasset
Callejon de San Justo
45001 Toledo, SPAIN
Email
clairemusica@gmail.com
Skype
claire.musica
Snail Mail
Claire Musica
Centro de Estudios Internacionales
Fundacion Ortega y Gasset
Callejon de San Justo
45001 Toledo, SPAIN
clairemusica@gmail.com
Skype
claire.musica
Welcome!
I thought it would be a good idea to keep a journal to help me make the most of my Fall in Toledo, Spain. Keeping a written one that only I would read would be out of character, though.
I don't keep a journal. I write a memoir. There is very little that I do that I don't do with an audience in mind.
As soon as I get to Span, this will be a place to share news and pictures more easily than with a mass email list.
I don't keep a journal. I write a memoir. There is very little that I do that I don't do with an audience in mind.
As soon as I get to Span, this will be a place to share news and pictures more easily than with a mass email list.
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