San Sebastian (capital of amazing food)

spent forever in SAN SEBASTIAN, but it was really relaxing.. the beach was beautiful (i was tempted to try surfing again) and the food was to die for. i wish i could bring it back for you guys. anyway, all trips have their ups&downs. so i'll start with the worst.

not so great:
1. we decided to overnight it to save money/time. so we got to San Sebastian at 6am...and i didn't sleep really well on the bus..however, we were awake to see the sunrise (even though we were at the wrong beach..) still a cool view though.

2. my first hostel experience. overall, okay. the negative is we had noisy roommates that checked in at 4am the first night. good thing, i sleep like a rock.

so-so:
1. BILBAO - a rainy day.. =/ The Guggenheim Museum was pretty cool from the outside, but it was currently about FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT.. from the US..so not so special. It did have this really cool iron artwork that we walked through called LA MATERIA DEL TIEMPO.

For lunch, this pizza place had some BOMB nachos. it was chips baked in mozzarella cheese, fresh out of the oven. At the end of the day, we walked across town to see the bull-fighting ring, which was closed, so i only saw it through the window... We decided to practically run back to catch the bus back to San Sebastian.. but we missed it by a few minutes. Hence, we found another PASTELERIA. I tried a dessert made with rice.. It looked like a Chinese egg custard and it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure i would go back to Bilbao. I think once is enough for me.

AMAZING:
1. the food, food, food!! i had the best tapas so far in San Sebastian. They call them PINXTOS (pin-chos) instead. I had fried fish and calamari, goat cheese in a pastry, a king crab tart, artichoke sandwich... i tried la OREJA de CERDO. (look it up lol) it was crispy, but sorta fatty.. don't think i'll order it again, but it wasn't bad. and we had the BEST TORTILLA ever! it's only made at 1pm and 8pm at NESTORS BAR. we were talking to the guy and the bar was featured in a lonely planet magazine for a 3 page spread.

2. took the tram to the top of a mountain. they called it a FUNICULAR. lol fun word. anyway, view was worth the pay and sketchy ride.

3. hiked up a different mountain.. the view was breathtakingggggg. loved it. my pictures are so awesome. LOVE LOVE LOVE the camera btw. =)

4. even though the weather was overcast. we came on the weekend of two festivals. saturday night, everyone was dressed up as gypsies and they had performances and everything. sunday afternoon, they were dressed up in country clothing.. if you want to see what i'm talking about.. check out the youtube: CALDEREROS

Mi Casa

it´s been about 3 weeks since i´ve been here.. and i feel like i have a new home

had fun in san sebastian and got some amaaaaaazing photos of my trip. but, i couldn´t wait to get back to madrid and sleep in my bed.

home is alameda, berkeley, and now, madrid.

Oh, spanish boys.

as I was on the way home from school on the train, i had a good laugh with Vanita about an encounter from last night.

So first of all, I wore my new boots, and i pretty much can't walk quickly in heels. aka there was no escape.

anyway, as we were walking to the metro and out of a bar, these guys start smiling/trying to talk to us and we try to walk away fast.. but, as i mentioned, i couldn't really walk any faster. lol so we get inside and we're on the escalator to get onto the right train and one of them stops in front of me, turns around to face me:

him: what's your name? (smiling, of course)
me: uhhh.. no. (FAIL)
him: do you speak english?
me: yeah... do you speak english?
*end of escalator ride*
him: you are very beautiful, ciao!
me: ciao...

HAHAHAHA *awkward* now that i look back. that was a pretty dumb response. i was pretty flustered and didn't want to meet a guy in a metro station... at first i was wondering why he asked me if i spoke english, but looking back. it all makes sense...

and he was pretty cute too, SIGH.

The weekend has started!

Thursday is the new Friday. 

anyway, i'm just trying to get all my homework done before i leave. just gotta write about some poems. here's a a few things before i depart to san sebastian this weekend (hoping there's no rain!!!)

so i'm starting to actually really like my classes. well, i mean... the content is pretty interesting. my teachers are all fairly animated. and the work load is fair. it varies from class to class.. i either have a lot of reading or nothing due for 2 weeks.

in my spanish class, to review how to say things like, "do you want to go to the movies?" we've been practicing with real places in Madrid. so i learned that CHUECA is the gay district and LAVAPIES is the multicultural district. aka where i can get my fix for spicy food.

for my cuento class, even though i don't really understand the stories, our first assignment is to write a short story using the first-person. sounds lame, but the scenario is.. i'm a 70 year-old, middle-class man who is justifying the murder of my wife because she makes too much noise while i'm trying to sleep. hahah should be kinda fun..

journalism is super chill. we're making a blog about food (go figure) and it's worth 1/2 my grade. if you want to see it (there's not much right now), click here: LOSCALIS

not gonna lie, haven't done much in my environment class. just learned about mountains and different kinds of rocks... thrilling, i know. but i actually did learn that on one of the canary islands, there is a volcano.

finally, we're doing poetry in my other lit class. not into the whole syllable counting things, but the theme of love is fun. so romantic... guess i have to find a lover in Spain, move here, and live in a mansion. well, you know, that's the plan. =)


hasta luego, leaving at 11pm. won't be back til late, late, late sunday night.

Escorial and Toledo

anyway, on friday, we went to see REAL MONASTERIO DE EL ESCORIAL. (wonder why it's not "del"). i totally wasn't ready for the weather and it was suuuuuuuuuuper cold. we were all freezing bc the wind was so persistent. the train stop was by a small town. so small that we walked around in a circle about 3 times deciding what we wanted to eat. we settled on sandwiches at a cafe. apparently it's pretty common for them to put an egg in the middle.. so it gets messy, but still pretty good. tip: if your sandwich comes on a plate, you're probably supposed to eat it with a fork and a knife. also we had this appetizer with mini-pickles and olives. not a big fan of olives, but the combination was really good!

tuna, vegetables, and egg sandwich

pickles and olives

eventually, after grubbing we walked up towards the monastery, which looks like a castle to me.. (when we asked donde esta el castillo, the park ranger was adamant about the fact that that it is NOT a castle..) anyway, the inside was pretty cool (again, not allowed to take pictures) but, they had an awesome library with texts from the 15th-16th centuries, a huge church, Felipe II's old wheelchair-thing, etc. the craziest part was entering the pantheon. anyway, it's where the kings and queens of the Bourbon dynasty are buried.. in these HUGE marble caskets. it was pretty chilling. there were also a bunch of tombs for the royal family, esp. children, that have died. the place was massive, but we couldn't really tell bc we were too close to it and only walked around 1/4 of it. on the way home, this crazy/drunk guy (who also touched my hair. GROSS.) got arrested for running across the train track while the train was coming... interesting way to end the day..

the big dome was where the church was

here's a view from the top that i found on-line

the next day we went to TOLEDO. an amazing city of cobblestone and history. at one point it was the capital of Madrid and probably housed the most diverse group of people (jews, muslims, and christians). we walked around the town and almost got run over a few times. the streets are so narrow, you wouldn't think a car would drive through.. but then you hear an engine and have to either run to an "open" area or flatten yourself along the wall. we took a train around to see the outside of the city and spent the day walking up and down the hills. it was like i was back in berkeley. lol we had a field day taking pictures by the fortress walls, tiny streets, and especially el PUENTE DE SAN MARTIN. another exhausting day, but at least it was finished with a cup of coffee. maybe sangria next time?

i wasn't kidding about cars..

the bridge =)

Spaniards likes Asians

so i have some funny stories from last week, but you should probably just ask me if you want to hear the juicy details. anyway, i've learned that guys here are pretty aggressive and i don't think they see asian americans very often. i went clubbing last week and it was an entertaining night... one guy came up to me and bowed. another just walked by, played with my hair, and smiled. i'm not sure if i should be offended....lolll but, i've decided it's pretty harmless as long as they're good-looking and there's a lot of people around so they can't kidnap or drug me. so no worries.

sidenote, i'm really into graffiti and this picture is perfect for this post. =)

Mi Horario

so i´ve realized i have a bunch of random readers and bc my mom was getting mad at me yesterday, i´m going to write about my classes. (so you can skip this if you´re not into reading about more school)

so, surprisingly i got placed in the top half of the students here studying spanish. i´m sure my grammar-writing pushed me up a level bc i still can´t speak very fluently, but i´m working on it. in fact, everyday i spend about an hour talking to my senora about anything. she knows a lot about history and what things to see around spain. she´s been housing people for 6 years and every morning she tells me, ¨buenos dias, carino¨ =)

anyway, mi horario (schedule) es:

LIT DEL SIGLO DE ORO - lit from the golden era (15-16 century)
teacher is pretty cool, really animated, but my reader is suppppeeer thick. so i´m going to have tons of reading with a lot of words i won´t understand.
CUENTO - short story
just switched teachers, but the stories i´m reading are super random.. very.. uh fantasty-like. today we read a story called el rio, by julio cortazar. it was about a married couple. the wife wants to commit suicide and the husband doesnt think she will. then he misses her and wants her and they have sex and she dies in the river. WEIRD.
ESPANOL avn. alto b - spanish..
funn so far. our intro was a spanish song from motorcycle diaries. it's really soothing, actually.
LISTEN. (not really sure what the video is all about...) but the song is talking about where his entire family is from.
PERIODISMO - journalism-media
will be writing another blog. probably about food. worth 50% of my grade. pretty awesome. we also watched man on wire. in english... but it was a really interesting documentary..
MEDIOAMBIENTE - environmental studies
so far i just learned some geography.. and i´m going to SEGOVIA with my class

overall, i´m a nerd and actually pretty excited for my classes. minus the reading.

the only thing that is unfortunate is that i have to commute to school, which takes about 45 minutes (walking, metro, train) so once i get on campus, i don't leave. the nice thing is on mondays i have a gap from  11-4 so i can actually leave and go do something, wednesdays i only have class from 4 to 6 (aka free afternoon) and thursday i finish by 2:30. and friday no school! (better for traveling. also, art was the only friday class. no thanks)