Behind Closed Doors......

So, you already got the censored pictures of the family. Now you can see the real dynamics....

Pilar's real feelings toward Rebecca come out. Go get her, Pilar! Check it out: Reb's hands are already in rigor mortus...

Familia: SPAIN STYLE

Wow, how lucky are we?! So, you all finally can see who I've been driving crazy these past few months. Here they are! They're pretty much amazing. And by pretty much I mean really amazing. The woman with the green shirt on is our Señora, and her name is Pilar. She's fantastic! She is really easy to talk to and is a great cook. We always have interesting convos at dinner. (And since no one in their fam speaks English, it's our Spanish practice time.) For instance, she listens intently as I tell her about my professor in my Volcanoes of Spain class and how hot he is. Then she makes inappropriate comments about other volcanoes going off.......YIKES! She's so blunt, it's hilarious! She actually reminds me alot of Grandma Ruef (and not just b/c she smokes). She's little and very straight-forward, but would do anything for you. She makes us feel right at home in Madrid.

The girl all in red is María, and she is 11. She is crazy, and I love it. Apparently music takes awhile to reach Spain. Her room is right next to ours, and she CONSTANTLY plays "Video Killed the Radio Star" (or whatever that crappy song is called). Oh, and she just bought "High School Musical," and she has a crush on one of the boys in it, so she now watches it todo del tiempo (all the time). Also, we constantly compete over whose cat Micho is. (Micho is the fat cat that I love. She won't accept that he's mine and just move on with life.) One more thing: she hates veggies. She's always pawning them off on one of us at dinner. DELICIOUS!

So, the other girl in the black shirt is Andrea, Pilar's other daughter. She is 16, and if you can picture the typical teenage girl, she is it. She has a boyfriend (Pablo, who we love and fondly call Pablito) and is constantly on the phone with him. She doesn't talk to us much (at all.........OK, she talks sometimes). She loves Avril Lavigne, Blink-182, and Fall-Out Boy. When she sings along in English I always wonder if she really knows what they're saying. Oh, and you'll all love this: she is the Spanish-speaking equivalent of me. Yep, she talks just as quickly as me. And the similarity doesn't stop there: SHE MUMBLES, TOO!! We could never have a convo in either language. Wah-Wah. (Debbie Downer)

Ok, so the one and only guy in the pics is Jesús, the beloved husband and dad. He is actually in the military and stationed in Kosovo. He was just home for 3 weeks to visit, and he leaves tomorrow. He is what I like to call "un hombre de pocas palabras" (a man of few words). There were never any lively convos at dinner with him, and it was sort of like the awkward dinner skit on Saturday night live where no one talks, and then when someone does it's really awkward (you might know this skit by its other name: the DODGE STRATUS skit). Buuuuuuuut the great thing about him being here is that we get to watch fútbol games on TV. The girls of the family aren't into sports, but Jesús (like any good Spaniard) loves it. So we've bonded (I use bonded very loosely) over a few games.

ALL IN ALL I COULDN'T HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER FAMILY HERE! Rest assured that I've been in good hands. :o)

Ferry Boat Hell............THANKS A LOT, GRACIE.

Ok, so our trip to Venice had a little kink thrown in the plans. You see, there were 4 of us that stayed in the same hostal rooms the whole time. Well, we had 4 cities, so we each chose 1 city to cover the deposit of the hostal for the city we chose. Then when we got to the actual hostal we would pay separately for our own bed. Ok, so I chose to put the hostal in Florence on my card. Well, the hostal was really really nice with a great location. However, it seemed a little sketchy at the beginning. First of all, when we got there this little 40 something Mexican but Asian looking woman (whose name we later learned was Grace) was sort of arguing with the guy working the front desk. We stood there waiting for a good 2 minutes before we were helped. Oh, and let's not forget Grace's silent friend/side-kick who wore a winter hat indoors that had a big pot leaf on it. Yikes. RED FLAGS EVERYWHERE! Ok, so we ended up finally being helped, and we each paid for our own beds with cash. We never got a receipt, either. (Mistake that could have cost me.) Anyway, the stay was great, so we left Florence after 3 nights and continued on to Venice. I happened to check my bank account that night in Venice, however, and saw that the Florence hostal had billed my bank account for 50 euro, which was the cost of a room for the night. I was like "WHAT?! WE PAID IN CASH!" Then I remembered that we never got a receipt, so I thought they were going to try and say we never paid. I called and happened to talk to Grace (who we'll fondly call Gracie). What happened was that they mixed up my account information with a guest that never showed up. Instead of charging the no-show, they charged me. Well, you'd think there would be an easy way for them to reverse the charges. But no, no, no. Gracie seemed to think that would be impossible. Now mind you, when I called to explain the situation, Gracie went ape-shit. Not in a mad way, but in a very frazzled way. Her English was already a little shaky, and when she got anxious she was IMPOSSIBLE to understand. So, pretty much the whole time my friend, Sarah, acted like me. Gracie decided she would send the money via Western Union. Well, she ended up putting my name on the money transfer, but without my middle name that's on my passport. Long story short, we spent all afternoon trying to figure this all out. Well, we had decided to try and go to the island of Murano that day and see glass-blowing shows, which it's famous for. You had to take this big ferry boat there. That took about 30 minutes to get there, and by the time we made it the last show had already taken place. So, we hopped back on the boat to go to a different island that supposedly had a shipwreck. According to the map, it looked like it would take about 20 minutes to get there. If you ever go to Venice, remember this piece of advice: MAPS NOT DRAWN TO SCALE. It took at least 45 minutes to get there. Well, by this point we had been on the ferry for over an hour and a half. All we wanted to do was get back to our island and get the heck off this boat. So we continued on until we got back there. All in all we were on the boat for over 2 hours straight. And we saw nothing. Great. Thanks alot Gracie. (Oh, and I didn't get my money back from Gracie until I got back to Madrid. But she did feel bad. God love ya, Gracie!)

...as you can see from this post, I don't believe in paragraphs. Just one big block of text is what you get.

Venice: City of Waterways.........and overpriced gondolas

So, our 3rd city on our Tour de Italia was Venice. It was so different and so beautiful! Everything really is on the water, even the tons of taxis and the main public transportation. These pictures are of various things. One is of the main waterway of Venice at sunset. Another is of the gondolas waiting to rob people of 70 euro. Then we have the infamous Rialto bridge. Also, there is St. Mark's Square. There are a billion pigeons here, and people buy birdseed so they can get pics of themselves covered in pigeons. I just loved shuffling behind them (the pigeons). They don't like to fly unless absolutely necessary, so it's hilarious to shuffle really quickly behind them (Mocko, very similar to your penguin walk) and watch them scurry along. (Don't worry, I'll imitate it for you all when I get home.) And these birds make direct flights toward your heads. No fear. Finally, the last pic is of me on some random bridge.

Is it really leaning? Yes, it is.

So, since it was raining in Florence, we decided to take a little side-trip to Pisa to see if the tower really was leaning. And the answer is YES. No matter where you stand you can pose so that it looks like you're holding up the tower. The result: a bunch of people looking like idiots. Yeah, everyone is standing by themselves with their arms outstretched touching nothing. And it's not as if you can just hop in front of the camera and tower and take a quick pic. No, you have to move an inch forward, then a little back, then your top hand up, bottom hand down, etc. At this point you don't care if the tower falls on top of you; you just don't want to look like an ass anymore. Oh, and we had to sprint from one end of Pisa to the other to catch our train, which ended up being 45 minutes late anyway. Typical.

Florence: City of Rain

So, we were in Florence for 3 days, and it rained how many days? Oh, that's right, all of them. However, we still had a good time. These pics are of the Duomo, which is a really big church in Florence. Then we have a pic of us eating a dinner we bought from the supermarket in our awesome hostal. Also, we hiked up this big park to see a monastery where monks supposedly chanted every evening around 5:30. It turns out they actually have Mass. But we did get some awesome arial views of the city. The pic from far away is one of these views, complete with Ponte Vecchio Bridge. Then we have a rainy pic of the shops on this bridge. It's all ridiculously expensive jewelry. I'm talking RIDICULOUS! Finally, we captured our Vivoli's experience. Vivoli's is a gelato shop that Uncle Steve and Aunt Nancy (along w/ many travel books) highly recommended. 'Twas delicious!

This One's for You, Miss Fording

So, in the Vatican Museum there's the room of the animals. Basically just imagine all of these mythical creatures in statue form. This camel head was pretty huge, and just looks so happily content. It made me grin and think of you, Natlie.

New Friends (Alaskan Style)

So, our hostal choice in Rome was great. It was called Alessandro Downtown. The room we stayed in was a mixed-sex room with 8 beds. We met the Polish girls the first 2 nights. Then the last 2 nights we met these 2 crazy kids: Chris and Brian. They're from Alaska, and they took a semester off school to travel the world. They started in China, then Egypt, India, Europe, then they'll finish in the Bahamas and the States. Totally jealous! But we hung out with them all day at the Colosseum and then that night. As you can see from the picture, we played a very classy game of speed quarters with 3 euro boxed wine. As it turns out, I was not exactly on my A-game that night, so I drank a little more than the rest. Anyway, after that we decided to wander the streets of Rome until we found Campo di Fiori (the night spot of Rome, along with the Spanish Steps). Chris (the blond one w/out the hat) brought his iPod, so he and I each had an earpiece. Drunk iPod singing through the deserted streets of Rome is what ensued next. Our 2 favorite songs that night to belt out were none other than Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and JoJo's "Get Out." Classy and trashy. I love it. Also, we rocked out to some hard-core Brian McKnight. Hilarious. Good times had by all.

POPE TIME

I learned that on Sunday the pope comes to his window and blesses everyone that's in St. Peter's Square, so I had to go. I ended up going to 10:30 mass in St. Peter's Basilica, then frolicked out to the square to get some quality 1-on-20,000 time with Pope Benedict. He said the blessing in about 6 different languages, and was fairly fluent at all of them. I was impressed. (And DEpressed b/c I'm still just trying to master Spanish. Whatever Bene.) Anyway, I wasn't told until afterwards that apparently everything you have with you is blessed by the pope, too. Man, I seriously missed out on a great souvenir opportunity. I mean, seriously, I could have bought a pencil and given it to someone as a souvenir b/c it would have been blessed by the pope. Luckily I had lots of receipts in my purse, so I don't want anyone to be surprised when they get a receipt as a souvenir...

GOD TIME: St. Pete's and Vatican City

On Saturday we spent the whole day at Vatican City. There is a ridiculous amount of stuff to see here. These are just some of the pics I took. The picture of me is at the back entrance of St. Peter's Basilica looking up the nave toward everything. The huge altar with the 4 pillars is the altar where only the pope can say mass. The picture of the statue is Michelangelo's original "Pieta," where Mary is holding the dead body of Jesus. Then we have a picture of the back altar of the Basilica. All of the golden rays coming out are very breath-taking in person. The picture doesn't do it justice, but there is a dove in the middle of the rays, and the wing-span of the dove is 6 feet! (Yes, friends, my impressive wingspan doesn't even compare.) Oh, and I almost forgot! We went under St. Peter's Basilica where alot of the popes are buried, and I was able to see the tomb of John Paul II. It was a very moving experience, and there were lots of people there praying. Sadly, no pictures could be taken. (I thought about sneaking one without a flash, but I didn't want to the take the chance of being haunted by a dead pope.)

Wait, wait! Is.......that.........RUSSELL CROWE?!?!?!

Ok, who doesn't think of Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" when they see the Colosseum? Wait, is that just me? Whoops. Well, here's the Colosseum. It was really impressive, and it's so amazing that you can just walk up to this part of history and touch it without someone coming up and tackling you. Oh, and I learned that apparently it used to be completely covered in marble, but the city of Rome takes recycling to a whole new level. Apparently they like taking materials from older buildings to make new ones. Soooooo, guess where all the marble from the Colloseum went..........................to God. Yeah, most of it was used to build St. Peter's Basilica. (If any of this info is wrong I have about 12 people that I can blame.) But seriously, who doesn't look at these pictures without hearing the crowd chant "MAXIMUS! MAXIMUS!!!!"? :o)

Roman Forum: Circus Maximus, Paletine Hill, and Me and Leah Hanging out on Roman Ruins

So, the Roman Forum was one of the coolest places that we visited in Rome because this was where all the hubub went down back in the day. Paletine Hill has lots of ruins, as you can see from the picture. The picture that looks like just a grassy hill with trees and a road down the middle of it is Circus Maximus. This is where things such as the big chariot races took place. Finally, Leah and I decided to make ourselves comfortable on irreplacible pieces of history. (Wowed by my "knowledge" of the Roman Forum? Yeah, me neither. We didn't want to pay for a tour guide, so we offered to take a picture for a group of students and their tour guide. We decided that to repay us for kindly taking their picture they would have to let us tag along and listen to their guide. We couldn't be too obvious, so we hung back a little bit at first and missed some of what the guide was saying. Then we just decided, WHO ARE WE KIDDING? They know we're mooching off of them, so let's just be shameless about it. Well, by the time we decided this, the tour was over. Waah-Waaah [said in Debbie Downer voice] ).

Polish girls, Spanish steps, Polish vodka, and Crazy Eye-Popping Man

Well, for our accomodations in Rome, we stayed in a hostal called Alessandro Downtown. We stayed in a co-ed room with 8 beds because it was the cheapest. That was one of the best decisions yet because we met some of the most fun people in our room. 2 girls that were in our room for the first couple of nights were from Poland. Their names were Joanna and Marta. Well, the second night we all walked to the Spanish Steps together. I'm not sure of the architectual or historical significance of the steps, but they are a hoot and a half at night. They are filled with drunk people that bring their guitars and just relax and happily sing drunk songs together. Well, Joanna and Marta were hilarious and sharing their quality Polish vodka with me. Oh, and they were telling us about how much European students cheat and how surprised they are about how honest Americans are in school. (And they have some pretty impressive and inventive methods). Oh, and they taught me cuss words in Polish because they thought it was hilarious.

Oh, and how can I forget about crazy-eyes. This guy was slightly under the influence of his beverage of choice, and he can pretty much make his eyes pop out of his head. He loved doing it around crowds because people were "fascinated." (By fascinated I mean creeped out. PotAto, potOto.) The night wouldn't have been complete without a picture with him.

Oh, and on our way home we had to use the bathroom, so we went into a McDonald's (ignoring the fact that the iron gate was halfway closed........does that mean it's closed for the night?). So, they wouldn't let us use the bathroom b/c apparently it had already been cleaned, buuuuuuuuuut they gave us free croissants instead! Ronald (McDonald) would have been pleased....

Night 1: Trevi Fountain & the Pantheon

So, our first night we decided to go exploring around the streets of Rome. The great thing about this city is that everywhere you turn you run into some huge historical masterpiece. Leah, Rebecca, and I found the Trevi Fountain and randomly ran into some other SLUers there. Trevi was beautiful at night, and I threw a coin in it (backwards, of course, like any good italian (or tourist) would do). I couldn't help but think of Sinatra's song "Three Coins in the Fountain." I don't even know if that song is about Trevi, but in my head it is. So, after Trevi, we got gelato (our first in Italy, and it was delicious), and wandered down some more streets. What did we stumble upon next? The Pantheon. It was closed for the night, but still impressive from the outside. :o)

ITALIA!!!

So, here begins my pictures and stories from Spring Break 2007: Italia. This is my first spring break where I've done something other than go back to D-town to work, so I was basking in this opportunity. We started our trip on May 2 in Rome, then contiuned onto Florence, Venice, and finally Milan. Italy is absolutely incredible, and hopefully you'll get an idea of my time here from these pictures. :o)

Harmless Monastery or Haunted House?

So, one thing I didn't mention about El Escorial is that this is where the majority of former kings and queens of Spain and their families are entombed. The majority of them are in a downstairs room with no windows. The pictures I posted show the hallway and stairs leading down to it and then the actual room itself. So, we had just gone down there and said hey to Carlos IV and Felipe II and their friends. We are starting to ascend the stairs to leave when...............blackout. Apparently the dead kings and queens weren't amused by all the random people creeping around, so the power completely went out. We hurriedly shuffled up the stairs thinking that we'd be in a far less creepy place for the rest of the power outage. Little did we know that we had just begun to explore the section of the monastery that was completely dedicated to all the deceased. I made a couple blair-witch-project-esque videos on my camera. And the good thing that came from the blackout is that we were then allowed to use the flash on our cameras. To celebrate this I started taking pictures of everything, including postcards in the randomly and haphazardly set-up gift shop in the middle of dead man's row. It was very uplifting?

El Escorial Monastery

Sooooooo, this is El Escorial, an old monastery. I think it has the 2nd largest collection of important writings (2nd only to the Vatican). Or maybe it's just the 2nd largest collection of manuscripts, or some jazz like that. (Yeah, you can tell I did my homework.) We would have gotten a tour-guide so we would have known a little more when we left, but that cost extra. No thanks. Anyway, this place was pretty awesome. I came here in high school, too. As you can see, the weather was a little dreary. Sadly, my 3 euro umbrella from el chino broke (piece of crap), so I'm glad we were indoors most of the time. One of the pictures is of a courtyard in El Escorial, another is of the Leah and Jack walking toward it on the outside, and the other one is the picture of El Escorial from the airplane tour we took. (By airplane tour, I mean that it's a miniature replica.)