Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Year: 2012 (page 10 of 14)

L’Hospitalet de L’Infant

May 4, 2012 / / 0 Comments

This last weekend, we all visited a smaller town on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona called L’Hospitalet de L’Infant. If you’re wondering about the name, it’s not actually Spanish. The town is in the Tarragona area which is a bigger city but still not really close to L’Hospitalet. The name is actually Catalan which is sort of a mixture between French and Spanish but not exactly. A friend of mine from the University of Zaragoza from Norway (who incidentally just tackled me while writing this line) has a house one block off the beach so we all came here for yet another four day weekend.

It’s been really nice so far even though the weather yesterday didn’t really cooperate most of the day. We decided to have dinner outside but by the time it was ready, it had begun to rain so we moved it indoors. If there’s one misconception about Spain I’d like to debunk, it’s that the weather is rarely as nice as most people think it is. The whole day was cloudy and cold though so we were cooped up inside all day watching the American Pie marathon on TV. None of the movies were censored in any way even though they were on broadcast TV and all dubbed programs on TV are available in their original language so we were able to watch it in English. This surprised me a bit but I think I’m going to save the whole “European openness vs. American conservatism” topic for another post. Even though we were inside most of the day, it was kind of nice just sitting around on the couch for a change.

Today has been much better, weather-wise. There’s a neighborhood pool just outside of her family’s condo and we spent a few hours out there in the sun. The others swam but I avoided the cold water since it rained yesterday. Elliot threatened to push me in but I told him I had my phone in my pocket (which might not have been true, my memory’s not as good as it once was). Other than sitting around the pool, walking along the beach, going to the supermarket, watching TV, and cooking, we didn’t do much else. That was the plan before we came so I’m perfectly content with having done just that.

I can’t believe I only have 3 weeks left! My classes end in one week and then I’ll still be here for two more weeks. Everything seemed to move so slowly initially and now it seems like I’ve been here just a few weeks. I hate to sound so stereotypical but it’s true!

Thanks for reading and if you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account that has (finally) been completely updated!

 

Lost in Translation

May 4, 2012 / / 0 Comments

One of the major differences about living in Germany has been the fact that English is not the first language here. One reason why I chose to do the Reutlingen Program was because I wanted experience what it was like living in a country that I had no clue how to speak the language. However after reality set in and a month before coming here, I kept on asking myself  “Why the heck did I decide it would be fun to live in a country for four months where no one will be able to understand me?”

Once I finally arrived in Germany. There was the first initial language overload, especially at grocery store when we had to resort to pictures of different foods to actually understand what we were buying. However as the semester has gone on, we have learned quickly everyday words and phrases that we need to know. It also helps that we are in a language course. Another helpful thing about being in Europe is that most people know at least a little English here as well. So if there is ever a problem or if we have a question we can always find someone who can at least help point us in the right direction.

Overall, coming to a country where you don’t know the language isn’t as scary as I initially thought. As long as we show people that we are trying, they are very friendly and encouraging.  It is fun looking back on how frazzled we were the first few weeks. Now we have seem to be able to get by and actually understand what our waiter is asking us or what the students are asking us in the dorms. Although we still make mistakes sometimes like getting whipping cream instead of sour cream for the most part we have been getting the hang of this language.

Check out more of my photos at https://plus.google.com/photos           /113496106333285759017/albums?banner=pwa

Random Reunions

May 4, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Throughout this trip I have kept running into and making new friends in the most unlikely of places. It began in Krakow, Poland where, during the “unofficial” pub visit, Alaina and I sat down to talk with a few other travellers. She made friends with a group of Americans at the left end of the table while I struck up a conversation with a few Mexicans directly across from us. After a heated discussion on the authenticity of Taco Bell’s Mexican food, we began to exchange travel information. A smile leapt onto my face when they told me Budapest was next on their itinerary. I tapped Alaina on the shoulder, told her what I had heard, and she exclaimed to my new friends, “We’re going there too!” We exchanged numbers and decided to give each other a call when we arrived in our new country.

The next day, after spending an hour and a half searching for our train station, Alaina and I sat down and prepared ourselves for a two hour wait before our departure. No more than thirty minutes later, we noticed our Mexican friends searching for some seats. We invited them to sit with us, and they explained how they were unable to get bus tickets so they were taking the train instead. At this point, Alaina and I decided to spend the rest of our Polish currency so as to avoid the currency exchange fee. When I heard the distinctive sound of American tourists discussing how they would manage acquiring another Zloty so they could afford some water, I offered them some of our money. They were trying to get rid of their money too, but they ran into the opposite problem as us – they had just a bit too little left. I invited them to sit with the four of us, and we soon discovered that they were also going to Budapest. One of the girls spoke Spanish, and in no time she was having a discussion with Bobi – the Mexican girl – in her native tongue. I’m sure she was relieved to find a fellow Spanish speaker.

One of many bridges in Budapest. I've heard this one is great for unexpected renunions.

 

My world shrank even further in Budapest. After snapping a few pictures of Budapest’s famous chain bridge, I decided to search for a better angle. I turned around to find a student from the Valpo Reutlingen program running across the street, likely also in search of a better camera angle. “Julia Trowbridge?” I asked her. With a look of shock, she replied, “David Cyze?!” and our unintended reunion was complete. She and the two friends she was traveling with gave Alaina and me the greatest advice I have ever received on where to go for dinner.

Just a "tipical" Hungarian restuarant.

 

The next day, on a train ride, Alaina and I learned the Reutlingen students were also traveling to Croatia after the surprising discovery that they were in the same sleeper cabinet as us. We arrived in Zagreb, an eerily clean town which should be a top travel destination for anyone who wishes to come across unexpected beauty, and three hours later ran into two more students from the Reutlingen program. At this point, the reunions were uncanny. We could never have planned this.

 

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The Canary Islands

May 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Gran Canaria

Last weekend, I went to the Canary Islands; known for its blue waters, sky, and black sand beaches! We planned this trip to be more of a relaxing than sightseeing trip and that’s exactly what it was. We stayed at a hotel one block away from the beach and that’s also where we spent the majority of our time. Our hotel was great and breakfast and dinner were included in the price. The food was actually decent since it was a buffet and there was always a variety. The majority of the other guests at the hotel were older or retired so the atmosphere was definitely more geared towards them and the older crowd than anyone else.

The Canaries are a part of Spain which I wasn’t aware of until coming to Spain so nearly everyone that works there speaks Spanish. However, it is a very international culture unlike that of Zaragoza and other smaller cities in Spain. The majority of the workers appeared to be foreign-born and the majority of them were multilingual. What really surprised me was the number of German tourists there. Normally, when we travel to a touristy area, English is the preferred second language but not in the Canaries. All of the signs, advertisements, and many of the signs for stores and restaurants were in Spanish, followed by German, followed by English.

Location 

Our hotel near the beach

We stayed in the city of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria and it was fantastic! The sun shone (most of the time) and I loved being able to relax instead of just sightseeing like we normally do. The weather is nearly perfect and only cools a little during the winter due to its closer proximity to the Equator. I did, however, get a sunburn so lots of sunscreen and aloe are necessities there. The one thing I wish I would have been able to do is travel towards the center of the island since it’s a volcano but we only had a limited amount of time so I guess I have to keep that in mind for a future trip. We talked to a travel agent about a Jeep excursion to the volcano and inner part of the island complete with a personal guide but were unable to do it in such a short amount of time.

In any case, I don’t have much more to write about because we didn’t actually “do” much there other than lay on the beach!

Thanks for reading and if you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account that has (finally) been completely updated!

Unexpected Twists part two

May 1, 2012 / / 0 Comments

After our unexpected detour in our plans in Marseille, two days later in Milan, Italy, another hiccup happened in our plan. In some hotels in Europe, they charge by the amount of people staying in the room rather than just the room itself. We thought we could sneak around this system and have three people stay in a room instead of the two people we had told them were going to stay. We came up with the idea that two of us would check in and bring in all the luggage and then the third person would just be visiting us later. But like any good mischievous plan, karma set in.

The first night went according to our plan so we woke up and toured around Milan. We visited the famous cathedral and were able to walk on top of the roof. We also walked around their “central park” and of course window shopped at the designer stores. After a long day of touring around the city and geeking out because I was able to see DaVinci’s “Last Supper,” we were ready for some delicious Italian food. So we attempted to beat the system again and went to a bar where they serve free appetizers when you order a drink. We ended up eating enough to make a dinner out of it, we headed back to the hotel. While we were relaxing around our room, we suddenly got a phone call and as we slowly answered it, we were asked how many people were staying in our room. And our cover was blown. A few seconds later we had a knock on our door and one of the workers started talking to us in rapid Italian implying that only two people are allowed in the room and visitors were not welcomed. So as our trio soon became a duet, we frantically searched for any hostel that was open and was available. When we finally found one, we ever so discretely took down a third of our luggage all while being watched by the workers.

In the end everyone had a bed to sleep in (whether it was extremely sketchy or not) and we were happy to check out of our hotel that morning. Though at the time it was quite stressful trying to figure out whether or not one of us had to sleep on a park bench, we know look back on the whole story and just laugh still trying to figure out just what the worker was telling us. All I can really say is, don’t try and outsmart the system because the system will win.

 

Check out more of my photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/113496106333285759017/albums?banner=pwa

 

Germany and Easter

April 29, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Parents’ Visit

Two weeks before Easter, my parents, brother, and grandpa came to Zaragoza to visit me and go on vacation. This turned out to be a unique experience because my host mother invited them all over for lunch twice and as they don’t speak Spanish and my host mom and sister don’t speak English, I translated everything.

Sure, I’d translated things on the spot before but this was completely different because it was constant for about 2 hours each time. My headaches returned during those few days because I was being forced to think in two languages at the same time. I’m glad I got to do something like that, though, because it forced me to think more quickly in Spanish even though I spoke to the wrong person in the wrong language a few times. I guess that’s one of the perils that come with translating.

Germany

The week of Easter, I traveled with my family from Zaragoza to southwestern Germany to visit some family friends. My senior year of high school, we hosted an exchange student from Germany and we went to visit him and his family. The region we went to is known for its wine and that’s the primary industry there. The whole area is filled with small towns that are so close to each other that many times you can’t tell where one begins and the other ends.

Even though the area isn’t touristy, it has a really nice country atmosphere that’d be good to visit just to relax. I’m so glad I finally got to visit my “other family” as well as have my family visit me in Spain. It was sad to leave everyone in Germany but knowing that I’ll see them soon was comforting. While we were there, we also went to a larger city called Freiburg. It’s a little more touristy than out in the country but not much. It’s an interesting city with lots of typical German architecture and there are also little streams that run along the sides of all the streets that are often associated with Freiburg. I was told there are streams because they have a lot of springs under the ground and the water needs to go somewhere.

After returning to Zaragoza after speaking only English for a week and translating between the two the week before, my Spanish was much worse, needless to say. My host mom even told me that she noticed it was worse than before I left and understandably so. If I had forgotten that much after just 2 weeks, I shudder to think what my Spanish will be like after this next semester as I’m not taking another Spanish class until spring semester 2013.

If you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account.

 

 

This is the music collection of the flatmate. Ill be listening to it when I get home.

Italian Hospitality

April 29, 2012 / / 0 Comments

(This post was written immediately following my trip to Naples, Italy.)

We have had rain every day but two. The forecast predicts rain for the final two days of our trip. Yet, even with all this precipitation, our trip has felt sunny. Besides, the rain has not been constant. It’s sunny right now, and the rolling Italian hills along with the sheep that populate them perfectly match the feeling of this trip. I can see grape orchards throughout the landscape; some are big and some are small. The small ones are likely owned by families who continue the tradition of making their own wine. The large ones are likely owned by corporations that make wine for the millions of Italians who moved away from their fields but still value their culture.

Traditions, especially those revolving around food, seem to be alive and well in Italy. When we arrived in Italy, Alaina and I were greeted with a traditional chocolate treat which our couch surfing host assured us was “made by old ladies.” He walked us to the best pizza place in town before giving us the key to his flat and heading off to work. After cleansing ourselves from the effect of two days travel without a shower, Alaina and I ordered two traditional pizzas for a grand total of seven euro fifty. The pizza chef was stationed behind a translucent glass counter in the fluorescent lit, unassuming restaurant. Delivery boys came and went every few minutes or so, carrying with them five freshly made pizzas. The chef could always be seen grabbing flour from the corner of his counter and then beating, tossing, and spreading it into freshly formed dough. When our pizzas came to us straight from the hot brick oven, I was surprised to see no more than a small handful of cheese thrown on one quarter of my quattro stagioni (four seasons) pizza. That’s just how they do things in Italy.

In Italy, even Burger King has pizza.

Hospitality has followed us throughout this trip. While riding a train we thought was heading towards Pompeei, two middle-aged women who only spoke Italian had an Italian student translate directions for Alaina and me once they learned of our intentions and subsequently discovered we were lost. Our conversation was an enjoyable, awkward-laugh filled exercise in tone and body-language comprehension, because the student translated only when it was absolutely necessary for practicality or the sake of a punch-line. As one of the ladies left, she gave Alaina a friendly pat on the head and said something in Italian. It was apparently humorous, because her new Italian friends laughed. Without knowing what she said, Alaina and I laughed too. Somehow, it felt wrong not to join in.

We almost made it.

After a long day of travel, we made our way back to our host’s flat and prepared ourselves to relax. We originally meant for two more pizzas to cap off our night, but when our host came home and offered us spaghetti, we decided to modify our plans. The kitchen soon filled with the smell of home-made sauces, and, after discussing American slang, Italian schools, and middle-aged women on trains, our stomachs were too. I asked what made up each of the sauces, and our host informed me he could only be sure of the ingredients of the sauce he made. The other was made by his mother, and she had yet to give him the secret recipe. Shortly after dinner, just before I had closed my eyes for the night, our host’s flatmate came home. He rushed into my room and informed Alaina and me that we were going to try his aunt’s homemade limoncello and chocolate liqueur. Unable to refuse, we sat down at the kitchen table and gulped down another dose of Italian hospitality. Our day had been brightened ten times over. When we left the next morning, it was only fitting that we were greeted with the sun.

This is the music collection of the flatmate. Ill be listening to it when I get home.

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Two Week Break (Pt 2)

April 25, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Plitvice National Park, Slovenia:
This has undoubtedly been the most beautiful place I have ever seen. This type of natural beauty must be completely unique to this region. I didn’t even know lakes and waterfalls like this existed. We spent a day in the park, but probably only walked around half of it – and that’s with keeping to the trail 90% of the time. One of the themes of this trip seems to be, “Gee, it would have been nice to spend two or three days here.” The owner of our bed and breakfast took us to a small market where I got to buy some eggs. Great travel food. In fact, just a great food in general. Alaina and I went to a restaurant that was supposed to serve traditional Slovenian food. Britney Spears was playing on the radio.

Naples, Italy:
I was much more scared to arrive here than I should have been. Guide books made this place out to be the most uncivilized, dangerous, pickpocket haven on Earth. The town was a bit run down, but the people were extremely friendly. We couch surfed here and our host stopped to talk with at least three people on our short five minute walk to his flat. He directed us to an amazing pizza restaurant. Super cheap and super tasty. Our visit to Pompeii ended up not working out after we took the wrong train which then stalled on the tracks for an hour. Luckily, two older Italian women and a younger Italian student helped direct us to where we needed to go. That night we had more traditional food, and I began to really understand why Italians are known for being so familial.

Florence, Italy:
Bought an amazing leather jacket yesterday at the market. Apparently it’s one of the top ten things to do in Italy. It fits great and seems legitimate. I also bought two pairs of sunglasses. Those aren’t legitimate, but they are fun to have. When we first got here I bought a trolley to remedy my suitcase’s broken wheel. I had completely forgotten how nice it is to not have to carry a forty pound bag around when you’re in a hurry. Went on a pub crawl where we met some more Americans and got close with two girls from England. Had a bit of trouble getting home, but that’s half the fun. Woke up at seven today after getting less than four hours of sleep. Made it to the train. Somehow.

Venice, Italy:
Trip is drawing to a close, and I don’t think we could have picked a better place to end it. This city is beautiful. Hands-down, this is the place which most needs more than one day spent in it. We went to Murano, one of the cities many outlying islands, to look at the blown glass which it is famous for. We got there at six and most things close around seven or eight. This turned out to be bittersweet. There was so much to see that if we had gotten there earlier I’m sure we would have spent our entire day looking and the amazing blown glass and would have forgotten to visit the rest of the city. Street vendors are everywhere. It’s impossible to cross a bridge without being offered a counterfeit Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Prada bag. The vendors seem to work together, because we saw a large group of them get on a bus boat together at the end of the day. Night-life here is non-existent. Probably because this place is the definition of a tourist town, and there aren’t enough locals to support any clubs.

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El Cierzo and London

April 24, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The North Wind (El Cierzo)

Before I arrived, for some reason I had this idea that Spain was going to be so much warmer than Indiana but today I mentally put that notion to bed and completely gave up on it. The sun is shining today and there’s not a cloud in the sky. You would think with it being mid April it would be a fairly nice day but don’t be fooled: the wind here ruins everything. In reality it’s only in the upper 40s today but without the wind, it’d probably be at least 10 degrees warmer. I was warned about its strength before I  arrived in Spain but I severely underestimated it.

There’s not a hint of a storm brewing but the wind is so strong there are multiple uprooted trees in the parks near my house. I was actually a bit afraid one was going to fall on my way back from school. The only way I can describe it is it feels like you’re on the top of a mountain and the wind is an invisible wall. So be warned, if there’s one thing someone should know about the weather here before arriving it’s that you never know what days the desert wind will come but you should always prepare for the worst and use lots of hairspray!

London

A while ago EB, another study abroad student from Valpo, and I visited London for a few days. We were able to fly out of the airport in Zaragoza which made traveling much easier. Ryanair, the only major carrier operating out of Zaragoza’s airport, threatened to cease operations if the Aragonese government didn’t give them more tax breaks/incentives so I’m glad Aragon did otherwise we would have had to take a 3 1/2 bus ride to Barcelona or Madrid. Anyway, London was fantastic but not quite what I’d exactly imagined.

Of course, we did the “touristy things” like go to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and The London Eye among others but I also really enjoyed taking time out to just walk around and check out the area. It was lightly raining one day when we were walking along the River Thames and we happened to walk under a large bridge that had an outdoor antiques market. I bought a small tin print made in the 1700s of a destroyed abbey somewhere in England  for a few pounds which I gave to my dad as a birthday present when he visited. That’s something you could only do in a place like London! Photos are forthcoming as soon as I get some sleep. We arrived back in Zaragoza from the Canary Islands this morning at 3 and I’ve barely slept the last two days so that takes priority (for now)!

If you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account.

I’m thinking about doing a typical Spanish food blog later in the week so check back for that!

Wine Tasting Excursion

April 24, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Wine Tasting

One little fact about Baden-Württemberg (the region Reutlingen in located in) that I quickly took note of was that the region is known for their wine. Since the drinking age is lower here, we took a class field trip to a winery. This has been a long Valpo tradition to take a tour of the winery and then experience a wine tasting afterwards. The winery has a longstanding relationship with the Reutlingen program and it was all complimentary and we were given a tour by one of the CEO’s of the company. Now I didn’t really know that much about the process and the sophistication behind wine tasting, but after spending an afternoon of thoroughly being shown and taught the art of wine, I can definitely say that my palate has gone from saying,  “That tastes good” to actually understanding what I’m tasting.

After toasting to a wonderful tour with a glass of sparkling wine, we began our tour. Here I was thinking that the winery would be a small local winery, instead it is one of the major wine manufacturer for the region. We noticed this when we walked into the first room of our tour and it turned out to be the storage room for their shipments which held literally thousands of crates of wine. We walked into one of the main processing rooms where you just get hit with the smell of wine when you walk in. The containers hold liters beyond liters of wine. Seeing how Germany recycles just about everything, our guide proudly showed us how the recycled bottles where cleaned and sorted. We ended the tour by being showed the more expensive wine process in which the wine is stored in actual wood barrels and learned about the different flavoring that comes from being in different types of wood barrels.

Massive Wine Containers

The expensive wines in wooden barrels

The next half of our tour consisted of actually tasting our wine. Picture a bunch of college students put into a sophisticated wine tasting setting, and that is pretty much how if first started off. However, as we were told about the different techniques of how to “slurp” wine (yes slurping allows for more flavors to come out of the wine) and as we recited the few facts about different types of wine we learned on the bus ride to the winery, we actually were able to hold a conversation about the wine we were trying.  Overall, we all enjoyed our day of wine tasting with a few of our professors, experiencing yet another part of our region, and becoming wine connoisseurs.

 

Check out more of my photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/113496106333285759017/albums?banner=pwa

 

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