Lisbon!

Hello everyone, it's been a while! First up, a short update from Madrid, then a weekend trip to Portugal! As of yesterday, I've been here 2 months! It's crazy because I feel like I both just got here and have been here forever. I've for the most part, settled into a routine. I have school in the mornings between 8:30-2:10 (depending on the week) and teach private lessons during the afternoons Monday-Wednesday. These kids are a lot younger than the kids I teach in school which is a nice break (although keeping the attention of a hyper 4 year old presents its own set of challenges...)

School has been going fine so far. It's hard sometimes because the strikes throughout the year have caused us to be behind in much of the material.  Many courses are still on units 1 or 2, and they have been in school for more than 2 months. There isn't much time for deviations from the curriculum.  Students can fill in grammar exercises, but questions like "What are the two people doing in the picture?" can stump even the 16 or 17 year olds. The kids are funny though.  Since I have every student in the school, every day I have 600+ kids yelling "hello Emily" from across the hallway. While I do recognize faces, I can't say I remember any of their names, haha.

 This past Sunday were elections here, and the Conservative party, PP, won by a landslide. It will be interesting to see what happens next in terms of the strikes, and life in Spain in general...

Now to Lisbon! How lucky I am that I get to take off on a normal weekend and go to another country! It's such a beautiful city and so different than Madrid.  First, they speak Portuguese, which when written looks like Spanish so I could understand some, but spoken is very difficult. I have to say I really missed Spanish! They speak English well there so we spoke in English the whole time. Though Spanish did slip out once or twice, and we when we met other travelers who spoke Spanish we took advantage...

We stayed at a really great hostel. The staff was so incredibly friendly and they essentially helped us plan our entire trip, down to every meal. At our first dinner we met two Italian girls sitting at the table next to us. We informed them that the food that was brought to the table was not free--and from that a bond was formed.  We spent a lot of the weekend with them which was a lot of fun.

First up: Friday- Our day was cut short because of the rain, but we spent the morning and afternoon in a small town outside of Lisbon, called Sintra. The town was beautiful, but my favorite part was a place called Quinta. It was an estate of a very wealthy man, complete with beautiful gardens and tunnels. At one point we were walking at the bottom of a well and ended up under a waterfall! It was really cool. We took a bus up to a palace with beautiful gardens, but it began to pour so we decided to call it a day.

Saturday- Our first day exploring Lisbon! We woke up early to take advantage of the day. (We were also home early the night before because rain scared everyone into staying home. I hadn't seen streets so empty at night in a long time!) We explored a large castle in the middle of the city, and got to walk on the walls which was pretty cool. In the afternoon, we explored a neighborhood called Alfama, which is the oldest neighborhood in the city. After an earthquake in 1775 destroyed almost the entire city, Alfama was the only neighborhood that was rebuilt in the same way as before. The streets were narrow and beautiful and as we got lost it was so hard to believe that we were in the middle of a city. It was nice that there weren't any tourists around and we could just explore. 

Golden gate bridge look-a-like, trams, hills, it's the San Francisco of Europe!

Sunday- Our last day we took a tram to Belem. We explored an incredible Monastery, visited a big monument, walked along the water, but most importantly, went to an amazing bakery.  Lisbon is famous for pastries called "Pasteis de nata". They're essentially tiny cakes filled with custard, but they're absolutely delicious. They are found in bakeries all over Lisbon, but there's one bakery in Belem that is one of the original makers of the pastries so of course we had to try one (or two or three...). Though chocolate desserts will always be number one in my heart, I'd say these came pretty close. So good! 

(My friend has the pictures of me eating my pastries, so google will just have to do...)

All of the sidewalks and plazas are made up of black and white tiles of all different patterns. Lisbon is also famous for its tiled buildings (seen above), two of my favorite things about this city!

And now I'm back!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you enjoy your time with friends and family! While it will definitely be weird not being home with my family, I am making up for it with not one but two! Thanksgiving dinners! I will share everything next week!

Pecans are too expensive here, so no pecan pie...eat some extra for me!

Amsterdam!

What a cool (and crazy) city! Just two hours from Madrid and the two countries are completely different! For starters, you're supposed to speak English there.  For some reason, whenever I'm in a foreign country and need to ask a question my mind switches to Spanish. I feel bad when I speak English in Spain, because I know I should be practicing my Spanish. In the Netherlands, however, the common language is English, and their English is very good. I constantly had to remind myself to speak English. 

Highlights from this trip!

1. The Heineken Experience-  What an incredible marketing tactic! This was not just a brewery tour but an 'experience'. In addition to a visit to the brewery, there was a video, simulation ride,  a bar, and even a Heineken lounge that showed Heineken commercials all over the walls. They definitely figured out how to reach the consumer.  The place was packed, and when it closed at 7, they were kicking people out.  It was a lot of fun though and the Heineken was good. I guess they did their job?...

2. Walking Tour-  On our second day we did a really great walking tour (it was also free-even better!). We walked all around the historical parts of the city, the canals, the markets, Dam Square, and our tour guide was really great. He also took us to the Red Light District (which I also revisited at night), but don't have any pictures because we were told if we took pictures we might get urine thrown at us...figured it was best not to risk that.   It was obvious the tour guide knew a great deal about the city, and he told us many interesting facts and anecdotes. He spent almost four hours with us and it was a really great way to get to know the city.  I like walking tours as opposed to bus tours because you really get to be in the action. 

 the narrowest house in the world! about 4 feet wide!

3.  Anne Frank's House-  I don't think I really knew what to expect.  The line to visit the house was over one hour long, and we got there at 9:15 in the morning. The annex was a lot bigger than I had anticipated.  Not that I would want to live there for 2 1/2 years and never go outside, but it had two floors, a couple of bedrooms, kitchen and living room.  All of the rooms were unfurnished because Otto Frank wanted the rooms left in the same way they were left after the Nazis raided the annex, so it was hard to really visualize what life was like there. It does amaze me, however, how young Anne Frank was and how much of an impact she had.  The diary of Anne Frank has been translated into over 60 languages--second to only the bible. She was only 13 years old and was quite influential.  It was hard to believe that I was walking through the place she spent so long and actually wrote her diary.

4. Van Gogh Museum- I didn't really know that much about Van Gogh but heard the museum was worth seeing. For an artist who only painted for 10 years, he had a lot to show! The line to get into this museum was also over an hour, and packed! He did have a lot of really cool paintings and it was easy to see how his work changed as his influences changed. There was also a funny giftshop. You could buy bags, t-shirts, even a bicycle with a pattern from his paintings (for example, almond blossom, the painting to the left)...but I guess we were in Amsterdam so that shouldn't have been too surprising.

5.  Food!- Although I love Spanish food, it was nice to get a break from it and eat food from many other parts of the world. While Amsterdam doesn't necessarily have its own cuisine, they are famous for their pancakes as well as french fries. They have sweet ones (banana and chocolate/nutella) as well as savory ones (ham and cheese, mushrooms, etc..,) and both were delicious. They also had a ton of french fries, and a chain called Febo- which is like a vending machine of fried food. While it wasn't my favorite thing we ate there, it was something we had to do. 

6.  Meeting People!- We went on a Pub Crawl our first night, and met people from all over the world. It's crazy the different types of tourists that come through.  Our last night, as we were looking for something to do between dinner and the rest of our evening, we went to a sports bar. While the Patriots were playing a less than stellar game, we ran into someone I had met on a summer program 5 years ago, who was with people one of my other friends went to High School with.  Small world...

I would call my first trip out of Spain a success!