Ty, Linda from Sweden and I at La Mercé after the crazy Fire Run
Fire Run for La Merce
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Barcelona!!
It´s been one week in Barcelona and it´s quite an amazing city ... we´ve already been to La Sagrada Familia, the Picasso Museum, Las Ramblas and Parc Güell designed by Antonio Gaudi. I was a bit disappointed in Picasso, but that is probably because I set my hope so high. I didn´t see many pieces I recognized and saw a lot of his work from childhood, which is cool, but it got old.
So we´re getting used to taking the metro here and haven´t gotten lost too many times! You buy a pass that allows you however many rides on the metro and then you buy a new one when it´s out of money. The thing is though, going down into the metro station is like going down into Hell. It´s like a sauna down there! Last weekend was a festival for some saint in Barcelona called La Mercé and it was INSANE! On the metro for instance, it was so packed we were like sardines in the train ... not to mention the smells, oh man.
The picture above is of the fireworks at Plaza España on Sunday night:
This is the same place, but I love this pic because it says Barcelona on the building the the left and show the fireworks reflecting in the windows. 
This pic above is me at Parc Güell, it was amazing!
What a city!
So we´re getting used to taking the metro here and haven´t gotten lost too many times! You buy a pass that allows you however many rides on the metro and then you buy a new one when it´s out of money. The thing is though, going down into the metro station is like going down into Hell. It´s like a sauna down there! Last weekend was a festival for some saint in Barcelona called La Mercé and it was INSANE! On the metro for instance, it was so packed we were like sardines in the train ... not to mention the smells, oh man.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Long awaited pictures of the island of Tenerife
Below is us at this bar with a Spanish guitar player
Above is Las Terrecitas beach, Tyler is there in the bright blue shorts
More photos...
Here is a picture of Me, Magnus, Tyler and Bebe at this amazing restaurant called El Monasterio in the hills of Puerto de la Cruz:
Here is another picture of our first week in Puerto of Bebe, Me and Ty at the first dinner we hosted at our apartment:
Here is another picture of our first week in Puerto of Bebe, Me and Ty at the first dinner we hosted at our apartment:
... yesterday continued
we passed through a whole forest of tall pine trees and as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain the landscape changed dramatically. It went from trees to crazy, sharp rocks to desert in a matter of minutes. It was truly one of the most amazing places I´ve ever been. I have many pictures to show and will post them as soon as I get my camera, connector and a computer in the same place at the same time! Here´s one from Bebe´s camera of Bebe, Cristina and I: (that´s El Teide behind us!!)
I´ve been feeling a bit homesick lately, but am thinking it will pass once we arrive in Barlcelona. I am SO SO excited to go!!! I can´t wait to see Gaudi and Picasso and the Catalan art museum. We will be living in two different apartments, me and Ty, in the Eixample, which is one of the areas of Barcelona that our buddy Rick Steves recommended. We have a big night planned with our friends here; dinner at Las Gemelas (the first restaurant we all went to in Puerto), then back to our house for drinks, to Elementos for coctails, then to Limbo bar and Blanco bar and then home to sleep! Our plane leaves Tenerife tomorrow at 1:25pm and our friends Cristina and Julia have offered to drive us to the airport.
Here is a picture from last weekend with our friends at Elementos:
from left to right: Ludo, Paul, Cristina, Julia, Me, Magnus, Tyler
I´ve been feeling a bit homesick lately, but am thinking it will pass once we arrive in Barlcelona. I am SO SO excited to go!!! I can´t wait to see Gaudi and Picasso and the Catalan art museum. We will be living in two different apartments, me and Ty, in the Eixample, which is one of the areas of Barcelona that our buddy Rick Steves recommended. We have a big night planned with our friends here; dinner at Las Gemelas (the first restaurant we all went to in Puerto), then back to our house for drinks, to Elementos for coctails, then to Limbo bar and Blanco bar and then home to sleep! Our plane leaves Tenerife tomorrow at 1:25pm and our friends Cristina and Julia have offered to drive us to the airport.
Here is a picture from last weekend with our friends at Elementos:
from left to right: Ludo, Paul, Cristina, Julia, Me, Magnus, Tyler
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Two days until Barcelona!
I am so sorry I haven´t written much while I´ve been in Tenerife. It´s more difficult to get on the internet here for a significant amount of time.
We only have two more days left in Tenerife and I am going to miss my friends here, but I am ready to move on. The island is beautiful, but you can only go to the beach and shop for things you don´t need so many times until you get tired of it. I´ve been to three different beaches since we´ve arrived: Playa Jardín, Playa Martianez and Playa de las Terecitas. Playa Jardin has black sand, which is very cool but also very hot on the bottoms of your feet, and that one is about 20 minutes walking distance from our apartment. It´s huge with decent sized waves and the water is just the perfect temperature. There are three parts to the beach and we always go to the one furthest from our home because it has the least amount of rocks on the sand and in the water. It also has an area where people play soccer and volleyball and a few restaurants as well. The majority of the women go topless, which I´ve gotten very used to, however I never get used to seeing women who really shouldn´t be going topless. 80% of the men wear little speedos that show everything. The worst are the hairy older men with thick, black, curly hair coming out of every part of their body. Playa Martianez is very rocky and you always get scraped by the rocks when you try to enter the water because there are so many and they are so big. I is a ten minute walk from our apartment and you can see the 7 made-for-tourists pools and a modern, white sculpture from this beach. Playa de las Terecitas is in Santa Cruz, about 30 minutes west by car, and it has soft, white sand and tourquoise water that you can see the bottom of the ocean from no matter how deep it is. It´s very long and has many Kiosks with different Spanish names along the beach that sell food and drinks and also help you find where you put your towels if you wander off down the beach. There are no waves because they have blocked off the current with rocks, but I liked that feature. I got a calamari sandwich there and Tyler got a macadamia nut ice cream.
This week has been very cloudy, but hot and humid. We skipped school on Tuesday and went to El Teide, the volcano on Tenerife, with our friends Cristina (Spain), Magnus (Norway) and Bebe (Belgium). Cristina, who grew up in Puerto de la Cruz, has been very gracious to us and offered to drive us up to Teide. It was like arriving on another planet. As we drove up the mountain, we passed by a little town called La Orotava an then into the forest with tons of ...... to be continued!
We only have two more days left in Tenerife and I am going to miss my friends here, but I am ready to move on. The island is beautiful, but you can only go to the beach and shop for things you don´t need so many times until you get tired of it. I´ve been to three different beaches since we´ve arrived: Playa Jardín, Playa Martianez and Playa de las Terecitas. Playa Jardin has black sand, which is very cool but also very hot on the bottoms of your feet, and that one is about 20 minutes walking distance from our apartment. It´s huge with decent sized waves and the water is just the perfect temperature. There are three parts to the beach and we always go to the one furthest from our home because it has the least amount of rocks on the sand and in the water. It also has an area where people play soccer and volleyball and a few restaurants as well. The majority of the women go topless, which I´ve gotten very used to, however I never get used to seeing women who really shouldn´t be going topless. 80% of the men wear little speedos that show everything. The worst are the hairy older men with thick, black, curly hair coming out of every part of their body. Playa Martianez is very rocky and you always get scraped by the rocks when you try to enter the water because there are so many and they are so big. I is a ten minute walk from our apartment and you can see the 7 made-for-tourists pools and a modern, white sculpture from this beach. Playa de las Terecitas is in Santa Cruz, about 30 minutes west by car, and it has soft, white sand and tourquoise water that you can see the bottom of the ocean from no matter how deep it is. It´s very long and has many Kiosks with different Spanish names along the beach that sell food and drinks and also help you find where you put your towels if you wander off down the beach. There are no waves because they have blocked off the current with rocks, but I liked that feature. I got a calamari sandwich there and Tyler got a macadamia nut ice cream.
This week has been very cloudy, but hot and humid. We skipped school on Tuesday and went to El Teide, the volcano on Tenerife, with our friends Cristina (Spain), Magnus (Norway) and Bebe (Belgium). Cristina, who grew up in Puerto de la Cruz, has been very gracious to us and offered to drive us up to Teide. It was like arriving on another planet. As we drove up the mountain, we passed by a little town called La Orotava an then into the forest with tons of ...... to be continued!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Typical Canarian
It has been almost a week since we arrived in Tenerife and we are loving every minute of it. My daily routine is similar to the life I dream about. In the morning, I wake up and eat my bowl of cereal, muesli and dried fruit, with lactose free milk (of course!). I then walk to school which starts at 9 and learn Spanish from two different teachers, Sandra and Samuel, for 4 hours. Afterwards I go home and make sandwiches for Tyler and I. Whole wheat toast with turkey and chicken, avocado etc. Then I have to head back to school for a private lesson with Samuel around 2 pm for 1 hour. I am getting one on one here because the level I have been put in is a bit more advanced than be and their trying to catch me up to speed. The private lessons have really helped me a lot! Mostly learning past tense verb conjugations, how to give commands (bring it over here, sit down, etc.) advice, and recommendations. In regular class we have been having debates and expressing ideas of philosophy and culture, all in Spanish. It´s so foreign to me and it´s so exciting!
I´m finally seeing Language in the way I feel I should see it. Not only because it sounds different, but because, for example, you cannot express the same ideas in Spanish that you can in English. Making friends from all over the world, some who speak English well and some who don´t, and learning how to speak a different language has made me realize this. I know now what it´s like to live in a place where the majority do not speak my language and in order to survive I must speak theirs. It´s seeing these language barriers from a different perspective that make me feel that I am really learning something important here.
more later,
xoxo
Ce
I´m finally seeing Language in the way I feel I should see it. Not only because it sounds different, but because, for example, you cannot express the same ideas in Spanish that you can in English. Making friends from all over the world, some who speak English well and some who don´t, and learning how to speak a different language has made me realize this. I know now what it´s like to live in a place where the majority do not speak my language and in order to survive I must speak theirs. It´s seeing these language barriers from a different perspective that make me feel that I am really learning something important here.
more later,
xoxo
Ce
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