Roman Holiday part 1

My little Thanksgiving family

This past weekend I had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving weekend in Rome with James, Gabby, and Adrienne. Adrienne is studying abroad in Rome for the semester, so Thursday afternoon Gabby and I flew out of Madrid after class. After a quick flight on Easyjet (so so much better than RyanAir) I took a bus to meet James at our hotel while Gabby took a train to Adrienne’s apartment. It was pretty late by the time we got there so we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and went to bed early so we could do some sightseeing the next morning.

Friday Adrienne was our tour guide, and after lunch we saw the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps and Piazza de España, the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, the Roman Forum, and the place where Julius Caesar was killed. Everything in Rome is so beautiful and ancient, I really loved seeing all of the old monuments and buildings. I am happy that I live in Madrid because it is much more modern, but it would be really awesome to walk by the Colosseum every week.

The Roman Forum

We all took a quick nap after seeing all of these sights, and then we went to a restaurant in Trastevere, the area of the city where Adrienne lives. The food was incredible, and so cheap. If you are ever in Rome, go to Carlo Menta in the Piazza Giuditta Tavani Arquati. We had a delicious appetizer of Italian meats, homemade gnocchi and pesto, thin crust pizzas for only 3 euros, and a dish of cheese and prosciutto. Even though we were all stuffed, we were in a great mood because of the amazing food and wine, our awesome waiter, and the cheap prices. When we got the bill, our waiter gave us free water and wine! These were equally exciting because you almost NEVER get free water at european restaurants. Right as we were leaving, he gave us free liter of white wine to take with us, poured into a giant water bottle. He was the best waiter I have had in Europe, for many reasons! We went to a bar in Campo di Fiori to meet James’s roommates who were also in Rome, and then headed home. It was an awesome day and we were of course exhausted that night.

Firenze!

The Duomo

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit Florence for James’s birthday. I was so excited to finally see Italy, eat the food, and do some exploring. The weekend was perfect and Florence couldn’t be prettier. Friday night we wandered around the Ponte Vecchio and then had incredible pizza at Gusta Pizza, where James and his roommates go pretty much every week. We met some friends at a bar later and had a great time. The city has such a different feel from Madrid, much more historical and overall prettier.

Saturday we had amazing homemade pasta at a little cafe before venturing over to see Michaelangelo’s statue of David. It was so much bigger than I had pictured it in my head! It was really beautiful though. Tons of people just sit there for a long time and stare at it. Just as neat was the gallery of Michaelangelo’s unfinished sculptures, something I never really thought about before. After a nap, we had another delicious birthday meal at Acqua al 2. Thanks Mom and Dad! I think this was the best meal I have had in Europe, closely followed by the Oktoberfest food. In true European style, we were at the restaurant for over two hours eating a sampler of homemade pastas and perfect steaks. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Florence, and the website says they also have locations in San Diego and Washington DC.

Sunday we had another incredible Italian meal, and then saw the inside of the Duomo, where James told me what he had learned about it in his art history class. It is so enormous and detailed, I can’t believe that these buildings were built without modern technology. After that we checked out the famous leather markets in Florence. Obviously I was very excited for this and I bought a great leather coat. Taking after my Mom I got some Christmas shopping done over a month early, and taking after my Dad I bargained with all of the sellers. What can I say, I learned from the best! That night we went to an American bar in Florence to watch football and eat burgers. Monday morning I left and took a train, bus, plane, and another train to get back to Madrid. The weekend flew by but I had an awesome time and I am really excited to see Rome. Italy really does live up to the hype with the food and architecture, from what I saw in Florence. There are statues everywhere, and all of the streets look like they could be in a movie. I am excited to see how Rome compares tomorrow! Hope you are all doing well.

xoxo

Semana de Thanksgiving

Hi everyone!

Apologies for once again taking a two week break from writing this blog. In the past two weeks I have gone to Florence for four nights, celebrated Gabby’s 21st birthday 4 nights in a row, written 3 Spanish cover letters, written an 8 page Spanish paper, and worked on group projects. Overwhelming! I need to set aside more time for blogging. More pictures to come later of Florence, it was really incredible. Gabby’s birthday weekend was also such a blast, we have all waited a long time for her to turn 21. Thursday night we had a girls night out at a club, Friday night went to a different club with all of our friends, and Saturday had dinner at our favorite place. We are actually making dinner tonight too since it is her actual birthday today. Happy birthday gabs! We even had funfetti cupcakes! Luckily for us Gabby’s mom brought a few boxes of mix and frosting when she visited recently. Everyone loved them and they reminded us all of home (people don’t really eat cupcakes here……yeah I don’t understand it either).

Although I am really looking forward to spending Thanksgiving in Rome this weekend, I am going to miss everyone! It is definitely tied with Christmas as my favorite week. It has been so funny explaining to all the Spaniards, French, and Germans in our class what Thanksgiving is. They have asked Colette and I questions like “do you really cook a giant turkey? the men watch american football? what do you have for dessert?” Describing it to them made me miss it even more. They all said it sounded so awesome, and we told them that yes, it really is that awesome. It eventually led to me explaining that I have a giant family which makes holidays all the more fun. Although Spanish holidays are exciting and frequent, American Thanksgiving really takes the cake. I hope you all enjoy it!

In the meantime, since I don’t have time to sort my Florence pictures right now, here is a picture of my roommates and I so you can see what they look like.

The roommates - Me with Hazel, Sabrina, and Raquel at the parade we went to a month ago.

 

Ciao!!

Hello November

I am not sure about the rest of you, but Fall is FLYING by for us here in Madrid. It probably has to do with the fact that it didn’t actually feel like Fall weather until a few weeks ago. Lately we have had a lot of school work, and we are beginning the process of applying for our spring co-ops. The past two Fridays we had six hours of companies presenting to us, starting at 8 am (ouch). We have all been editing our Spanish resumes, and trying to figure out exactly what we would like to do for our last internships before we enter the real world after graduation. Scary! Also, our school here has this rule that you have to accept the first position you are offered. This makes us even more anxious to be sure we really want the jobs we are applying for. Side note- one of the companies that presented to us was a huge tobacco company in Spain. We were all surprised because Northeastern, or most universities in the US for that matter, would never encourage their students to take on a position at a tobacco company. A marketing position no less. Don’t worry, I am not interested in that job. Anyway, these presentations made me really excited to work for a Spanish company this spring! The interview process is definitely going to be a challenge, but I’m glad that I will have that under my belt. Northeastern’s slogan is “Experiential learning”, and I am constantly grateful for the experiences this school (and my parents) has afforded me.

Tomorrow we have the day off again, gotta love the Spanish holidays. Unfortunately it will be spent starting a research paper and working on a group project. On another note, this Friday I am off to Florence to visit James for his birthday weekend! I am very excited since I have never been to Italy before. Hope you are all enjoying your week!

Random thoughts:
–Caroline and Brian just booked their trip to visit in March! I am so excited to see them.
-My cousin James and his girlfriend Lauren recently got engaged, so congratulations to them! I am so excited for their wedding, which is conveniently right after I get back!
-Last night some of us girls made a big dinner, and we tried out this broccoli recipe from Ina Garten. Random, but it was so delicious that I felt the need to share. I don’t even really like broccoli and I loved this, so that is saying something.

Halloween

How was everyone’s Halloween? I think Halloween was the first time I felt like I was really missing out on something in Boston, just because I love it so much. Once I started explaining the holiday in full to my roommates I realized how much I was going to miss it! People do dress up in Madrid, but not nearly as many. My friends and I decided to dress up and go out with Gabby’s roommates on Monday night, since we fortunately had Tuesday off. Glad we did! We went to a party in the lobby of a big hotel for an hour, which was kind of an older crowd but had awesome decorations. Liz pointed out that the open flame candelabras and spiderwebs would never be allowed in the U.S. After that we went to a few different bars in Puerta del Sol and had an awesome time.

 On another note, we quickly learned that in Madrid, everyone’s costume is bloody or morbid. Everyone on the metro was covered in fake blood and those weird fake face wounds and scars. There weren’t really any people just dressed as a character (like us). They weren’t even a dead zombie bride for example…just a dead person. It was interesting to see how the same concept is interpreted totally different in another country. I can’t imagine Halloween parties at Northeastern where everyone looked like this, haha.  Anyway, I hope you all got some trick or treaters and had a great night!

 

 

 

Barcelona!

Hello!

I have been severely slacking in the blogging department these past two weeks, oops! James was in Spain for ten days, and we have had all sorts of school meetings on top of classes. Luckily Tuesday was a national holiday (All Saints Day) so we had no school! Anyway, last Friday a group of my friends all flew to Barcelona to celebrate the 21st birthday of my friend Kate, who is there for the semester. Before I left for Spain I probably had 50 different people tell me I would love Barcelona, and they were right. The city has the perfect mix of historical and modern influences, AND it is on the beach.

Friday morning James and I checked in to our hotel, had lunch on Las Ramblas, and rented bikes to meet up with the rest of my friends. For the next two hours, 12 of us rode around together seeing the Gaudi architecture, the Gothic quarter, and much more. It was the perfect way to see the city and I definitely want to look into bike rentals the next place I go. We were able to fit so many more sights in than if we had walked. That night we went to a club called Sutton, which was cool except I was exhausted from the day of traveling and biking. We heard later that Rafeal Nadal was there at a private table! (missed Spanish celebrity sighting #2…)

Saturday we got up and explored the famous market of Barcelona, the Boquería. It is inside a huge building with fruit, vegetables, fish, bread, and much more. All of the stands are individually owned and we had some great food.

 

 

After the Boquería, we went to Park Güell, also designed by Antonio Gaudi. The architecture was so different and interesting, very cool. More pictures to come of my favorite Gaudi sites we saw.

 

That night we all met up at a bar named Dow Jones, which is themed and functions like the stock market. There is a screen with the prices of all of the drinks, and the prices change based on the demand for the drinks using a computer system. Every hour or so the market crashes, and all of the drinks drop in price for a few minutes. It was really fun! I think Kate forgot that all of us business majors are nerds and we all couldn’t get enough of it. If anyone is looking to open a bar in Boston, I think this would be a big hit. So overall Barcelona was amazing, and I will definitely be going back when it is beach weather again.

Tapapiés!

Last week when James was still here, we went out for a tapas crawl with some friends. The event took place in the cultural neighborhood of Lavapiés, and was cleverly named Tapapiés. I mentioned Lavapiés before here, it has the most diversity in the city and this is evident in it’s ethnic restaurants.  About 30 restaurants signed up and each had a special 1 euro tapa at their restaurant for the 10 days that the event lasted. We went to six different bars/restaurants and had empanadas, spanish ham, salmorejo, and more. It was such a fun way to explore this part of the city at night and take note of some restaurants we want to go to. I really liked the concept, and I think it would be cool if they had something like this in Boston.