Fallas!

I put up a bunch of pictures of Fallas!
Make sure to check out my link.

Granada and Cordoba

This week was an exciting week for all of us. We are almost halfway through our trip and the time is really starting to fly. We spent four days this past week in Andalusia, the most southern region of Spain. We spent our time in two major cities, Cordoba and Granada. Granada is about a 6 hour drive from Denia, a fairly normal amount for traveling in the United States, but a very long time for a Spaniard. For all of our trips so far, we have had awful weather. This time we had rain and wind. We tried to protect ourselves with umbrellas, but with the wind, most of the time our umbrellas would turn inside out, completely defeating their purpose.
Our first night in Granada we spent our time walking around the city to get the lay of the land. The first major site that we visited was the Capilla Real. This mausoleum, attached to a chapel, was built by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The mausoleum has the remains of Ferdinand, Isabella, their daughter, Juana, and her husband Felipe. The chapel and the Capilla Real are both amazing structures. The cathedral is huge with large pillars and an incredibly tall ceiling. The cathedral as an amazing organ decorated with gold and ornate trimmings.
After visiting the Capilla real, we spent our first night in Granada exploring the city and heading to bed early to be prepared for our early day at the Alhambra. We had to leave our hotel at around 7 AM to make sure that we could get into the Alhambra. We waited for a long time in the rain, but we eventually made it inside. There are many reasons why the Alhambra is the most visited site in Spain. It is situated on the top of a hill and was originally an entire city. Within the walls there were enough supplies to maintain an entire city. The walls of the Alhambra are covered with carvings in stucco of flowers, birds, and of course, writing from the Koran. The intricateness of the carvings and the details in the ceilings and arches is incredible. We were also able to visit the Generalife, which was the summer house for the king and queen when they wanted to spend some time away from the court. Despite the rain, the gardens, architecture, and carvings of the Alhambra are amazing.
In the afternoon we had some free time to spend in the city. Some students visited the arabic baths, while others visited a monastery and an old hospital.
The final day, we drove about 2 hours to a city called Cordoba to visit the Mezquita. For me, although I've seen pictures of the Mezquita in art history text books, it is incomparable to the real thing. I know I've over emphasized this point already, but it's an incredible monument. The red and white arches do look as if they go on for miles. There are so many things to look at at once, the arches, the columns, the ceilings, and the inscriptions on the wall. My eyes were continually jumping from one thing to another while my brain was registering the amazing things I was seeing. It is another worthwhile site to see.
Although we had very poor weather on our trip, overall we were able to see some fantastic things that made it all worth it.

Exciting things

1. We had a surprise birthday for my Yaya, she turned 70, it was exciting. It was all seafood, lobster, shrimp, calamari, salmon, etc. And they were all worried about me since Yaya announced to EVERYONE that I didn't like seafood. So every other minute someone was asking me if I liked the food or not. I did, and I ate enough.

2. I dyed my hair back to blonde, well kind of, it didn't go so well. It's kind of an odd color right now.

3. I had my first test this week, I think it went well.

4. I bought my ticket to go see my sister in York for spring break. AWESOME.

5. I am going to the opera in Valencia this weekend to see "Peter and the wolf", I am excited.

Whoopsie... dropped the ball.

Alright, so I totally have been dropping with this whole blog thing. It's been a crazy week starting classes and after a visit to Barcelona, it's been hard to find time to update. But, I will update now! 

Back up a week and a half, to Wednesday, January 28. We left after classes to go to Barcelona, it was a long, long bus ride with a bunch of high schoolers... they were students from a local high school and it definitely enforced my not wanting to teach high school, or go back to high school myself. They played dance music for the entire 6 hours and it was so annoying. But anyways, we got to Barcelona and at night we explored downtown Barcelona. I really like Barcelona by day, but at night, it's a little scary. I got offered drugs a couple times, and cat called, but I definitely did not like it.

On Thursday we went to many, many tourist sites. First we went to Gaudi's Casa Mila. It's a great building. The roof is definitely the best part of the structure. We spent more time than needed at the house, since there is only so much you can see in the one apartment. The roof gave you a great view of Barcelona and some of the other sites. With the extra time that we had, my friend and I visited some of the swanky boutiques that we could never afford. Stores like Chanel, Lois Vuitton, Hermes, etc., etc. It was fun just to look at the things that we couldn't afford.

Next we went to the Sagrada Familia and let me tell you... wow... it is awesome. The inside is really not visible since it's under such construction. But again, the roof is really the coolest part. You could pay to go up into the towers by elevator (they don't let you walk anymore because it's too dangerous to your health). They view is even better than the one of Casa Mila. It's an amazing structure that will be even cooler when it's done. But one side is very old and almost drippy looking, and the other is very square and block like. The contrast between the two sides is really cool, and they make for a really interesting structure.

The next thing that we did was go to Gaudi's park. If you like mosaic, this is the place the be. I took tons of pictures of the mosaics that are in the park. There are benches covered in mosaic and lizards covered in mosaic. And also tons of really cool rock structures and tunnels and what not. It was a cloudy day so it wasn't the best day for spending a day in the park. 

Finally, at night, we went to the National Museum of Catalonia. It was a huge museum and unfortunately we didn't get to see much of it. We only saw the parts that we were going to study in class. Which is kinda lame.... but anyways, we spend awhile there and then continued on.

The night activity was probably the best. We went to a soccer game between FC Barcelona, a huge team, and a smaller Barcelona team. The sports arena is amazing! I think it's the biggest in the world... or at least one. Even thought it was a smaller game, it was filled. It was kinda scary because there are so many people. But we kept together as a group and kept mostly safe. One of the guys in our group did get his wallet stolen...  but he was kinda stupid about where he put it. He lost a lot of money though, which isn't good.

The next day we had another day full of stuff. We first visited an old cathedral and then after that we went to the Palau de Musica. It was by far one of my favorite things that I've seen so far. It is a music hall that has like the most fantastic interior. It's full of mosaics and really interesting sculptures. With amazing acoustics, I would love to go to a concert there.

In the afternoon we went to Picasso's museum and just walked around the city. The Picasso museum is another thing that is on the must see list. It's full of his work from the beginning, more formal paintings, to his work in cubism, to the work that he did on stage sets. It was awesome.

Saturday was a day of wine tasting, at 11 in the morning and paid for by Calvin College. :D We spent another 6 hours in the bus and then home again. It was definitely good to be home. 

Finally! This past week was the first week of classes. It's been weird adjusting to classes. Yes, they are all in Spanish. The cool thing about this semester is that I really don't have classes on Friday. Which gives me many free weekends to do whatever I like! Good! Well that is enough for now, I will update more later!

Off I go, again

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, this weekend has been crazy. Presentation, paper and test plus homework on top. Today we are leaving to go to Barcelona for 3 days, and I will be in Tarragona for a day. I am really excited, we are going to see some awesome museums and I am going to a soccer game! I will update when I get back.

Love you!

Skype

It's rare that I get a chance to go on Skype, but I will work on that. Let me know your Skype names by commenting on this post. That would be great. 

My name: Katie DeVos (obviously)

Skype name: kathrynrosedevos

I think I'll be able to be on tonight for awhile, probably from about 10 PM my time, till later.

If you are going to be around you should go on Skype so we can chat!

To make up for the last one, this one is short.

I almost walked out the door without pants on this morning. 

Good times.

WARNING: This is really long, you may need caffiene to finish

Just a note to begin with: If you notice any spelling errors, I apologize, but I do have justification. Occasionally when I’m writing my thoughts collide, the results of said collisions are either a new compound word that hasn’t been discovered, like ‘thend’, which is a combination of ‘the’ and ‘end’, or the usage of a completely different word then intended, like ‘I bought a new scary’ instead of ‘scarf’. I don’t know where ‘scary’ came from, to be frank, but I must have been afraid of something at the time. I am also constantly changing from Spanish to English, so the language conversion does take an affect on my brain. Ipso facto, I apologize for the spelling errors.

We have had an eventful last few days here in Denia. Friday afternoon we took an excursion to the castle here in Denia. We had another overcast day, so it wasn’t as brilliant as it could have been, but it was very exciting. The castle is really well kept and there are lots of trees within the walls. There are actually 2 large outer walls, and one smaller inner wall. As most castles go, this one was build for defense and still has holes from cannons and things like that. There is a lot of flora inside the castle walls and it is really well kept to look good for tourists. If you look on my Flickr site there are some pictures of the castle. I plan to make another trip there on a nicer day to get some better pictures.

Saturday morning we had to get up bright and early to travel to Valencia. Valencia is about an hour and a half north on the bus. It’s a lot bigger than Denia. Denia is like living in Holland and Zeeland, but push everyone together in downtown Holland, and put them all in apartments. Inwards and upwards. Then add more stores to the downtown, because lets be honest, downtown Holland, although very well kept, is lacking in the store options department. Valencia is more like Chicago but with older buildings and less electricity. Hopefully now you get the picture: Holland and Zeeland = Denia, Chicago = Valencia. Valencia is a beautiful city with an interesting mixture of old building and new stores. It is shoppers heaven with everything from Rolex, to Mango, to El Centro Ingles, to Tous, to anything else your heart desires. I didn’t go on a spending spree although I could have easily blown my savings and my parents annual income in a few hours. (By the way, I am accepting donations for the purchasing of what I like to call “souvenirs” of Europe. E-mail me at krd22@students.calvin.edu if you want to contribute to this wonderful charity ☺)

The highlight of our day in Valencia was visiting the Oceanografico, which in English is an Aquarium. But not just ANY aquarium, the biggest aquarium in the world. I don’t know how to put this so you can comprehend how amazing it was… but I will try. Ready? Okay.

¡ ¡ ¡IT WAS FLIPPING AWESOME! ! !

It was beyond phenomenal. The architecture was cutting edge, they had animals and birds from all over the world, and it was massive! They had areas according to climate types. Here is a list of the areas you could visit:
1. Temperate
2. Oceans and Sharks
3. Artic, Belugas and Walruses
4. Antarctic and Penguins
5. Dolphinarium
6. Islands
7. Tropical
8. Mediterranean
9. Aviary

I was like a kid in a candy store. It was the most exciting thing I’ve done in months. It was so awesome to see so many types of animals, in all different climates. We watched a dolphin show, which was the best one I’ve ever seen. You should check out some of the pictures I got on Flickr, but they do not compare to what it was like to be there.

We got back kinda late and so I ate dinner here and then went to a friend’s house. I dyed my hair an awesome color. It’s a little red, but it’s mostly brown. I really like this color. I was going to dye my hair back to blonde, but at the last minute, I decided to just go dark again. Otherwise, I’ve been relaxing and doing homework, not too exciting.

Funny story though. My Spanish mom, who I will now refer to as Yaya, since that means Grandmother, came home on Sunday and was all worried. I had spent Saturday night at a friend’s apartment, and when I got home on Sunday she was gone. I took a nap, and while I was napping she came back and left again. But apparently all this time she had been trying to call me on my cell phone to get a hold of me, but couldn’t. So she walks in the door at 9:30 at night and says “Where have you been?! I’ve been trying to call me and you haven’t answered! You need to tell me where you are! I haven’t seen you all day” on and on. All this time, I was sitting in shock wondering what in the world she was talking about. All day I sat in the apartment doing homework, and then I took a nap, got up, and did homework again. So I told her that I had been here since 1 PM and hadn’t left. She pulls out her phone to show me that she’d called my twice and left voicemails both times. I told her that I hadn’t received any missed calls that day or any voicemails. So she says, “I’ll call you right now to see what the problem is.” She calls “my” number, and some guy picks up. She asks who it is, and it’s Juan, not me. So she asked me what my number was and I told her, and all the sudden she stopped and calmed down. She had been calling the wrong number. So HA! It wasn’t my fault! I was here all the time! I apologized, and so did she. I told her that if she calls me, I promise I will call back.

Anyways, time to start another day. Wow… I am long winded. But I guess I am the same way in person. If you made it through that in one sitting, I’m highly impressed. Next time I write a lot I will write a warning at the beginning, something like ‘WARNING: Reader may need nap caffeine to finish’, the other option is adding an “Intermission”, which I find intriguing. Anyways! Check out Flickr!! Love you all, thinking of you always.

Pictures

Check out tons of pictures at on Flickr.

(Just click on the word, it's a link, if you don't understand how links work... you should Google it)

Here we go!

It's been a little over a week since I've been here and I am adjusting more and more each day. I have class each day from 9-1 then lunch at 2 and then relaxing. I've been shopping a couple times and have bought a few things :) Don't worry Dad, I haven't bought a lot. Everything is on sale right now for like 2 euros, which is awesome for us turistas. So I have 2 new scarfs, some earrings, a purse/backpack. It's been awesome.

The weather has been improving also. When we came here it was about 40 and raining. But the last couple days it's been in the 50s and sunny. Just a light jacket when you go outside and you are set for the day! They don't have central heating in the buildings, which does make a big difference. For instance, it's warm in our classrooms, but really cold in the hallways. Warm in the living room of my apartment, but cold in my room. Very strange.

I am still not used to the European showers. As I'm sure my parents would contest, I like long, hot showers. But here it's practically impossible. My shower is a large square, two walls made of plastic with a point in the middle where then bend, kind of like closet doors. You open these and step in. They go all the way to the floor and meet a little plastic strip which is supposed to keep all the water inside (but it rarely does it's job). The other two walls of the shower are the walls of the bathroom and they are covered in tile. The first time I took a shower I practically drenched the entire bathroom because I didn't close the doors/walls all the way. I've discovered a technique where I don't create a monsoon in the bathroom. Showers are definitely only for cleaning yourself and not for relaxation. Showering for me consists of the following steps: 

1. Disrobe 

2. Step in shower 

3. Make sure the walls/doors are closed 

4. Point the shower head at the wall and turn on the water to let it warm up while shivering in the cold bathroom 

5. Once water is warm, drench entire body and try to reclaim lost heat 

6. Reluctantly turn off hot water 

7. FURIOUSLY shampoo hair

8. Turn on hot water

9. Breathe a sigh of relief

10. Rinse hair

11. Reluctantly turn off hot water again

12. Condition hair and wash face while dancing in the shower to keep warm (pardon the imagery)

13. Turn on hot water

14. Dance a happy dance for the existence of hot water

15. Rinse conditioner out

16. Turn off hot water

17. Grab towel and dry off

I think once I get back to the United States I am going to take an hour and a half long shower, so be prepared for that water bill, mom and dad.

The food is still really good, very, very nutritional. The other night we had pizza with goat cheese, and it was so delicious! She also made a rice dish with duck, artichoke and red peppers. It was really awesome. Last night though, the food took a turn for the worse. We had fish sticks (ew) and calamari (ew times 10000). I tried both, to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I can't do it. My Spanish mom tries to get me to eat fish, and I try, but I really don't like it. I have yet to be blown away.

This weekend we are going to the castle in Denia to explore it. That should be really exciting! It's one of the most attractive feature of the city for tourists. On Saturday we will be making a trip to Valencia for the day. We are going to go to some museums and explore the city a little more. That should be really exciting too!

Funny Spain things:

1. You can buy wine in juice boxes (I laughed in the store for a really long time)

2. Nudity is no big deal, we watched a movie in class with a sex scene... one word to describe it: awkward.

3. I almost brushed my teeth with face wash, but I caught myself before.

I think that's all I have to say for now. Oh! If you want the link for pictures, here it is: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31336772@N02/

A new week

Just a quick update.

If you have questions or comments on things you want me to write about, just e-mail me at krd22@students.calvin.edu

Gracias!

Vale!

Decidí que yo necesito escribir mas en español, y por eso voy a escribir en español y ingles. Jenny, va a ser muchas errores y lo siento! Voy a incluir mas detalles en ingles para las personas que no hablan español. Vale? Bueno! Ayer fuimos a una montaña y la subimos. Hace dos horas arriba, y una hora a bajo.Pero, la profe no dijo que fue mas de 8 kilómetros. Estaba llevando unos tacones y hoy mis pies me duelen mucho. Hoy yo fue a compras con unas de mis amigas. Compre unas gafas y una bufanda. Hay muchas rebejas ahora despues de navidad. Solo costaron 11 euros, estuvieron tan baratos. No se que voy a hacer esta noche. Pero pienso que voy a ir a una restaurtante para postre.

I decided that I needed to write more in Spanish and so I am going to write in Spanish and in English. Jenny, there are going to be a lot of mistakes and I'm sorry! I am going to include more details in ingles for the people who don't speak Spanish. Okay? Good? Yesterday we climbed up a mountain to see this old tower thing. I would have been excited except for the fact that I was wearing high healed boots. It hurt SO bad! It took us two hours to get to the base and then climb it, and one hour to climb down. Our professor didn't tell us that we would be walking for more than 8 kilometers so today my feet hurt so bad. 

Today I went shopping with some of my friends. I bought sunglasses and a scary. There are tons of things on sale here after the holidays. Both of them only costed 11 euros, they were really cheap. I don't know what I'm going to do tonight. But I think I'm going to go to a restaurant for desert. That's all for now!

A little bit out my life in Spain

We arrived at around 2 our time on Tuesday in Denia. We went from bus to Chicago, to plane to Madrid, to bus to another terminal, to plane to Valencia, to bus to Denia. Whew! The plane right was not very smooth but we made it safely. 

After we got to Denia, we went to the UNED (the university here) to meet our families. The President of the college gave us a little speech and then we got to meet our families. I live with a single woman in her 60s whose name is Juana. She is really nice and hospitable and has made the transition a lot easier. She is an awesome cook! It has been awesome so far.

The first day I unpacked my stuff, and discovered I brought more than I thought. Juana commented on the amount of clothes that I brought. Oh well! My room here is so neat, I will put up pictures later. The first day I slept in the afternoon for a couple hours and then slept again at night. Juana and her daughter Marie Jose took me out for lunch at an awesome restaurant. We had meat with tomato, spreads for bread and also a tortilla. A tortilla here is different than a tortilla in South and Central America. Here it is made of eggs and potatoes and stands about 2 inches tall. It was fantastic!

Yesterday I had class in the morning, lunch at 2 (which is custom) then took a nap :) I had a tour of the city from around 4 to 7. It rained SO much yesterday and was really cold. My pants were soaked after the 3 hours tour. After the tour a bunch of students and I tried to use the internet at the university. They have Wi-Fi but it is really really slow at night because there are so many people using it at the university. In the morning there aren't really any students here, which makes it work a lot faster. I had dinner at around 9, which is also custom. Then homework and bed and voila! Here we are!

Today we have class from 9:30 until 1, then lunch, then this afternoon we are meeting up with another group from Calvin which is in Spain for interim. We are going to walk down the beach. That should be fun! More pictures and things later!

Love you all!

Slow internet

There is Wi-Fi in the university but it is slower than slow. I will update tomorrow more in detail with some pictures. I am catching up on jet-lag and today we had a tour of the city and we walked in the rain for like 3 hrs. 

My madre is a really good cook and I am being fed well. I am still adjusting to the time change though.

I'm here

After two long days of traveling I am here. It's definitely strange being a new place and knowing I'll be here for awhile.

When I got off the plane I had an odd sensation to turn around and run back onto the plane, but I didn't.

I will post more about my home, room, and daily activities later.

I also forgot to mention you can look at pictures on Flickr under the user name Kathryn Rose.

Off I go

I'm all packed (well... 99%) and ready to go. Here are a few ways you can reach me while I'm gone:

AIM: fxycanadian2

E-mail: krd22@students.calvin.edu

Skype: kathrynrosedevos

Facebook: Katie DeVos

Blog (obviously): kathrynrosedevos.blogspot.com

If you e-mail me, I will respond to it sooner than most of the other means of contact.

Hasta luego!

Tomorrow it is!

Tomorrow is the day. I leave from Calvin on a bus to Chicago at 9:15 AM. I will be leaving the Chicago airport at around 6.

I would appreciate your prayers for the travel.

Miss you all already.

The time is near!

Well, this is just a test post. I don't really have anything important to say.

I leave on Tuesday, so in 5 days! I have lots of packing to do... oh dear!

I will post more later!