Week 31: Starting Spring Break!

Gosh am I more glad than ever that it’s finally Spring Break! I’ve been making plans and looking forward to these 10 days for almost the whole semester here in Spain, and it’s been fabulous so far!! Before I get too ahead of myself, I’ll recount the week before I left, and then fill you in on where I’ve been so far. (I have to break Spring Break up into the week before and the first weekend of, and then the rest, because if not, my Spring Break post would probably be insufferably long (longer than my Paris and London post last semester!).)

On Monday I chose to arrive at my internship an hour earlier than usual on one of the teacher, Belén’s, suggestions, because she had mentioned to me that they were a great group and it would be a pity if I never got to see them. With that in mind, I made sure I got up early enough to be presentable for the day, and then went into school having prepared a presentation about Easter and Holy Week, since I wouldn’t be seeing the students until well after the holiday itself otherwise. As I love Prezi so much, I ended up finding a cool Prezi about Easters around the world, and so I presented that along with some videos and games, again depending on the teacher. In the afternoon and evening, as I would find myself doing very frequently in the subsequent days, I crammed as much work in as possible into the few hours I had, so as to avoid having much work to do over break.

Tuesday was pretty normal, classes and everything were fine, but unfortunately my French conversation partner was already on vacation, and so I missed out on a French conversation. Nonetheless, I had other things to do as well, such as a chat with some Spaniards about how sports are different in Spain and the States, especially with high school sports. (Apparently if you want to do any kind of sports at all in Spain, you have to have lots of money, even in high school. There are no options to just do it with school; it’s all club sports here.) Then, in the evening, something I had been looking forward to for a week or two now happened: my dinner for winning Operación Español! My classmates in Toledo had voted me as the one who spoke the most Spanish and also integrated myself best into the Spanish culture, and so as a reward, I got to take two friends to a local restaurant and enjoy some excellent tapas for free! Lindsay and Johanna accompanied me for this excellent cultural experience, and we had a great time trying new dishes and speaking in Spanish.

Winner! With our appetizing delicacies of choice: salad, bull tail ravioli, and patatas bravas.

Me, Lindsay, and Johanna!

A strange thing happened on Wednesday, after theology class: I walked the 15 minutes over to where my internship is, and they told me that I had no classes to teach that day, as all the possible classes would be receiving a lecture that day on not doing drugs. I just happened to stay to chat for a bit with Santi, and then made my way back to the Fundación for theology class. Once again, I tried to write papers and catch up on homework… Which ended up failing at least halfway, as I spent half or more of my free time talking to my parents and my sisters on the phone. But I suppose that's important too. I had English conversation with Sara and her mom again in the evening, which was an excellent time for me to practice my English teaching skills in a foreign country, and before I knew it, it was time to turn in for the night. Thursday was more of the same monotony of routine, four classes and trying to get work done in the gaps, but I made it through, and I finished up packing for what is sure to become one of the best trips of my life!

Friday morning, I caught the bus to Madrid at 9:00AM, and from there, I made my way to the beautiful coastal city of Alicante, Spain. What a beauty it was! I wandered around a bit heading to the beach, and avoiding the street vendors along the way (which funny enough let me know I was going the right direction). The beautiful beaches of Postiguet were wonderful, and I felt very overdressed, as in dressed too warmly. The first thing I did was eat lunch, since it was already late for lunch, even on Spanish time. Then, I changed into my bathing suit and just relaxed on the sand and in the sun for an hour or two. It was such a relaxing way to pass time; not having to answer to anyone, just chilling and getting a tan. Once I had had enough of the sun, I made my way over to the bus station to catch a shuttle to the airport, and soon after I was chilling in the airport for a night.

It's like summer here!

The castle, mountain, and beach.

Wish it would have been like this in Portugal in January... ;)

Very early the next morning, I had my flight from Alicante to Palma de Mallorca, and so I got on the flight without problems and everything went smoothly. During the flight, I was just still thinking about the recent crash in the news about the co-pilot deliberately crashing the Germanwings plane, and praying to God that we didn’t have a rogue like that on our plane. I arrived in Palma at 9:00AM, after a fitful sleep on the plane, and I walked around to find the grocery store before checking into my hostel. (My meals total for the weekend ended up being a little over 11€ - no small feat there!) I got a little frustrated trying to find the hostel, because it was relatively far away from where I had went grocery shopping, but when I finally got there, I checked in and collapsed into my bed for a nap that would end up being 4 hours. After that, I woke up, met my roommate in the hostel, who is super nice; she motivated me to actually get out of bed and take a nice stroll along the beach, which was absolutely beautiful - I highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting Mallorca! Then, basically, I had dinner and slept (with messaging family & friends in between), and then after such a long day, I collapsed into bed, falling effortlessly asleep.

My first view of the magnificent cathedral.

It truly lives up to its name, what with all these palm trees all over the place!

Hello Palma!

The beautiful sunset on the beach.

Palm Sunday started bright and early for me, at 8:30AM. I got to the absolutely beautiful cathedral in the city very early for noon mass, and so while I was waiting, I sat out by the fountain in front and wrote some postcards that I had planned to send to some friends. Before I knew it, it was time for mass, and what a beautiful cathedral and excellent mass they were. Wow. It was definitely not the worst way to spend a Palm Sunday alone. I then had lunch on the lawn not too far from the cathedral, took in more sunshine and warmth, and then half-heartedly looking for a mailbox to be able to send the postcard before realizing that it was Sunday and therefore giving up and just heading to the airport. Before I went through security, I spent an hour or two organizing my life, eating dinner, and just generally getting prepared for the next leg of my trip, and then I finally made my way through the chrome gates and different sensors of security. Then I was on my flight to Bergamo!

Mass in the Cathedral. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Eating lunch after mass in the cathedral!

Once I landed in Bergamo, it was a little bit of a struggle for me to find the actual hostel I was staying in, due to the late hour and therefore lack of public transportation, but I think I did alright. I ended up grabbing a cab, which wasn’t terrible, except for the Italian people on the phone speaking in Italian whom I could barely understand. Then, when I checked in, the receptionist happened to be a temporary replacement who is absolutely bat-s*** crazy; he’s a Vietnam vet, says that the U.S. will be ready to arrest him if he were ever to cross the border into the country again, and believes in all the crazy conspiracy theories from just about every group in the book about the U.S. Presidency. I listened to this nut job’s speech for over an hour, and then he finally got on his way with checking me in and getting me to my room (which clearly was never his priority in the first place). Once I got in the room, I mercifully got to speak with all my family, and I was definitely happy to catch up with them, but also wanting to get as much sleep as possible for the week ahead!

This week has been amazing so far, with only more good things to come! Finishing up classes for the moment, traveling to new places, and lots more new places to see and friends to meet up with on the immediate horizon. I’m definitely living the dream right now! (Except for my 30-pound backpack, haha.) Since Spring Break goes this entire next week and I’m sure I’ll have lots more to tell, I’ll talk to you all later - ¡Hasta pronto!