Week Five: Relaxation

Hello!
Let me first make a special shout out to my friends back at Stonehill who harassed me because I did not update this Monday, HEY KELLY, KAITLYN AND CAROLYN! Sorry if that was obnoxious but I do miss my friends!
Alright so let me start off by saying that this week was pretty uneventful.  I did not have any trips planned for the weekend so both Lisa and I decided to make it a productive weekend. The week went by quickly, as most of them are by now and once Friday arrived we decided to spend the day at a coffee shop doing homework all day. We honestly got so much work done and we felt so productive! I also Skyped some of my friends from home and who are abroad and it made me so happy to see and hear from them! But at the same time it made me miss them dearly. Friday night the weather was kind of a drag so we decided just to stay in and catch up on our sleep.
Once Saturday rolled around we were feeling super ambitious and went to do homework again. As the hours rolled by and the rain poured we left at around 4 to call it a day. I skyped again with my abroad friends and just caught up with them for the next hour which was awesome! So Saturday night Lisa and I decided to be social and go out, well we ended up watching the soccer game between the two Madrid teams at a place called Dubliners for roughly, 30 minutes. Basically we suck. But our night was not over because we went out with two other kids in our program and got gelato and boy was it yummy!!

Churros from Thursday night!

Gelato!

NEW FRIENDS LEO AND LISA

Dani and I from Thursday night!

So then came Sunday. We woke up early and attempted to go to a flea market but that sadly failed as the one we wanted to go to was coded on Sundays.  So we went back and waited for lunch. OH MY GOSH LUNCH WAS INCREDIBLE. Lisa and I met up with our friend Becca and we went to a place similar to Moe's and got the biggest and most scrumptious burritos ever. We obviously ate way too much and we forced into a food coma upon our arrival back to our rooms.
So yea, this was a pretty boring week but it was a much needed time for relaxing. That's all for now, I'll write back in a week!
xoxo,
Michelle

Week Four: I Went To Portugal!

Hi!
So I'd tell you all about my week and how my classes and teaching is going but I'm going to be quite honest, that is all irrelevant because I went to Lagos, Portugal this weekend! Let me  say that I may have had the best weekend of my life so far, no joke.
So to start, we left at 1am on Friday morning on a bus to Sevilla which took a grueling 6 hours. Then once there, we hopped on another bus, provided by Discover Excursions, the travel agency for study abroad students that we used, for another 3 hours. Yes, traveling was awful but it was so worth it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!
Once we got to the hotel we checked in, put on swim suits and headed out to the marina to catch a boat for which we had a sangria cruise. Roughly 30 kids were on this sailboat and we just listened to music, saw the amazing cliffs of Lagos, got a private tour on a smaller boat of the grottos and were able to jump off the big sailboat and swim on the coast! It was by far my favorite part of the trip! Here are some pictures!

The cliffs!

Me and Lisa jumping off the boat!

So after that we explored the beach at our hotel and honestly you might all hate me when I show you the view that we had...

So then we went out for a night on the town! Since we were all really tired, we were most pumped for the American restaurant we chose for dinner.  After shoveling food in our mouths, as we are used to terrible food in our residencia, we met up with some other API kids and hung out in the middle of town for a bit before heading to our very own party! The party itself was not really my scene as there were many sloppy drunks, and biddied out girls but I hung out for a little with Lisa, and another girl Dani before we decided it was time to head home! 

The next day we decided to beach it up and utilize our breathtaking accommodations.  We explored a bit and here is a picture of me on top of the cliffs!

I know these pictures are pretty awesome right? Well here's something fun we did that night after going to both the beach and rooftop pool, we saw a sunset at was once considered "the end of the world". All of the kids on the trip piled into the buses and went to the cliffs. The cliffs were astonishing. My mind couldn't handle the amount of gorgeous things I saw every time I turned my head! Here are some pictures from that night!

This was the most incredible sunset I ever laid eyes on.

Here are all the API girls who went on the trip in front of the cliffs!

After that we went to town for the night and got dinner, shopped and ventured in the cute little beach city of Lagos! I purchased some souvenirs and postcards, as well as some jewelry from a local merchant. It was such a fun night but as everyone knows, I need my sleep, so we called it a night at about midnight and headed back.

The next day we went to the beach again and then it was time to say goodbye to Lagos. Mark my words, I will go back to Lagos again in my lifetime, I will. So the trip home was long, hot and sleepless, but hey, like I said, I'd do it again in a heart beat! So that's all for this week, I'll be sure to write next week!

xoxo,

Michelle 

Week Three: Exploration!

Hello!!!! So clearly this is my third week here in Spain, and don't worry I'm still just as pumped about it as I was in my last posts! A lot happened this week and I want to tell you all about it so here it goes!

Well first of all, classes are going great. I had to work on a group project and I am so fortunate to have a great group for the semester in my business class! I've had to pick some topics for my term papers in my other classes but that's pretty much it school wise. 

Oh! I started the workshop which gives me a certification in teaching english as a second language so I'm super excited to have that experience starting up. As I said before, I feel that teaching children English will be a great opportunity for me to grow as a person, and for those of you who know me, maybe I'll even warm up to the children seeing as I don't mesh/click well with them.  (But we'll see.) 

On Friday I had an extra credit trip to the beautiful part of Madrid called Alcalà. It was a hike to get there but it was downright gorgeous. From the grass to the beautiful architecture, my eyes were bugging out of my head!  In high school I learned all about Don Quijote so we were able to visit his house and that was probably my favorite part of the day! Obviously, I took a millions pictures both of him, his house and the archeological museum that we also went to that day. My professor whom I went with pointed out that he could differentiate the schools we all went to back home quite easily saying that Stonehill College students and Chapman University students strive for excellence more so than the actual Suffolk students so he can tell who we are which made me feel a little bit proud of myself. While there are a ton of kids from different schools studying at Suffolk Madrid, most are actual Suffolk kids and Chapman University with always a few Stonehill students.  

Alcalà!

Just me being weird at the museum

Outside Don Quijote's house!

Alcalà!

Ah, my other friend, Becca, who also goes to Stonehill and was here last semester is back for an internship and Lisa and I visited her apartment that same Friday night and it was lovely seeing another familiar face. For most students our age a Friday night would consist of going to a bar, getting hammered and going to club, but as you may know from my last post, Lisa and I are not about that so this past Friday we went out for some late night churros and chocolate which were amazing!!! It was so nice to have Becca show us some neat little spots are shortcuts around the city that night!

Churros con chocolate

Stonehill girls!

Saturday during the day I did some homework and relaxed, then Saturday night all of the API met up at a place called Dubliners where we caught up and just had a great time! Of course a few girls were headed to the club later but Lisa, Sam and I headed home where our doorman gave us a bit of a hard time about not being "partiers", but that's fine.  

Sunday our friend Becca showed us the biggest flea market in Spain and it was AMAZING! It had everything you could have possibly thought of and there was honestly no way we could have seen it all, when I say it was massive, it was just OMG. That was a nice way to start off our Sunday morning. Then later on we went out for Tapas with another girl in our program, Dani, who is doing a home stay. The place we went, El Tigre, had great prices and it is definitely a spot we plan to hit up again.

El Rastro, the flea market!

So, that's it for this week! I'll be sure to get in touch next week!

xoxo,

Michelle

Week Two: Settled In!

Hello!!! So this is my second week here in Madrid and I am still absolutely IN LOVE with this place.  There's so much I want to say I don't even know where to begin!
Well first I will start off by saying as much as I adore it here there are some people from home, school and who are also abroad that I miss dearly.  (Pup&Kit).

Enough of that though. So our classes started and I am pretty satisfied with my classes! I am taking a History of Spain course, Ethics, Business Foundations and Environmental Science.  Three of those four classes listed help either my minor or knock off inquiries we need to fulfill at Stonehill which is great!  I don't want to babble on about classes because we know I'll probably do enough of that once I start getting assigned projects and such.

Okay, so after becoming an expert on the metro here I can confidently say that I am NOT a people person or a city goer.  Also, what I have noticed here in Spain is that everyone smokes cigarettes, and when I say everyone I mean EVERYONE.  Guys, girls, teens, kids and the elderly all smoke here and to be quite frank, it is absolutely grotesque.  Every time I see someone smoking, which is roughly every five minutes, I have the sudden urge to go up to them, pull the cigarette out of their mouth or hand and inform them of how harmful it is to their health.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you feel, I do not have the guts to do that and simply walk past them with a sly disgusted look on my face.

Hmmm, let me tell you about the highlight of my week.  As you all know I am rooming with Lisa, who is AMAZING, and while we aren't picky eaters, white bread and cream cheese sandwiches aren't really our thing, so we went out to TGI Friday's for nachos on Thursday night after class.  Normally at home they would do nothing for us, just another meal but here I felt like I had heaven in my mouth, no joke.  Never again will I take our Sudexo dining hall for granted, NEVER.

Another cool thing I did this past week was sign up with this volunteer organization to teach English to Spanish children which I am really looking forward to! I think it will help me with not only my Spanish but also with just growing as a person in general.  After this week I can definitely say that I have learned so much about myself that I never even knew!  As time goes on I can't wait to see what more I'll be able to discover about myself.  But for those of you at home, like my family and close friends, don't worry I'm still that weirdo you love.

Let's get to the good stuff though, what I did this weekend!  I am finding out that "going out" actually is not my thing at all.  I need my sleep and I would much rather be out discovering new places to visit as opposed to "going out".  I'm really proud and impressed with myself for this.  So this weekend a bunch of the girls in our program wanted to go out in city, and of course Lisa and I wanted to be social so we went with them and met at a different restaurant both nights but when everyone else started to get ready to go to the club we went back to our residencia.  It was really nice hanging out with the girls though, I couldn't have asked for a nicer group of girls to spend this adventure of a lifetime with! Here are a few pictures of our nights:

Some of the people in our program, they're such a lovely bunch!

This is the beautiful streets of Madrid at night! 

This is a restaurant we went to that was actually in a cave!

This is our nightly roomie picture!

So the pictures above were taken during the nights of the weekend but let me tell you about what happened during the day on Saturday! Lisa and I decided to do some exploring and we came across La Plaza de España.  There we found the famous Don Quijote monument as well as a cute little flea market! Ahhh, it was so adorable and fun just being there looking around and taking in the culture!  We wandered a little further and found Temple de Debod, an actual Egyptian temple that was brought to Madrid! Unfortunately we needed to get back to our residencia or else we would have stayed longer.  I am looking forward to this weekend when we don't have classes so we can explore the city a little bit more!

This was the flea market!

Temple de Debod.

Don Quijote!

So that's about it for this week, I'll be sure to update you all on my adventures from week 3! 

Xoxo,
Michelle

Week One: COMPLETE!

Hello everyone! So it's official, I have finished my first week in Spain and I honestly could not be happier!  This past week was a mix of every kind of emotion one could possibly imagine.  I experienced excitement, sadness, exhaustion, etc.  I can definitely tell you that living here has been quite the adjustment but as every moment passes I could not be more pleased with my decision to embark on my journey here.
I haven't really done much this week because classes start tomorrow or else I would have more to blog about it but I know my Grandma Dander will get on my case if I don't.  We went out the first couple of nights and explored the city which was magnificent!  The night life here is definitely not something I will get used to.  I am used to getting tons of sleep and going to bed a reasonable time.  However, here that is simply not possible.  People don't go out to the city until around 1am.  I'm not quite sure I'll be able to do this...
Here are a few pictures of this past weekend when my roommate Lisa, other API students in my residencia and I went out.  I cannot describe how thankful I am that I came with such a great person to experience all of this with, Lisa!

So the next thing I wanna tell you all about is the amazing park that I found here.  It is HUGE!  I don't think I'll ever be able to find my way around it in the four months that I'll be here.  So far, we've gone everyday and gotten some good exercise in as well as taking breathtaking photos which you can see below! Its name is Parque de Retiro.

Besides this, my life as of this week has been pretty boring.  We explored our campus for the first time yesterday which was a bit nerve wracking but I anticipate a great semester!  We also went out last night and got gelato which was DELICIOUS! Here's a picture of Lisa and me on our first day at Suffolk University and the gelato I enjoyed last night!

Well I guess that's all for now! I'll be sure to talk about my first week of classes soon!

xoxo,
Michelle