Huelgas

Since arriving in Spain, one of the many things that has struck me as so different from the United States is the amount of "huelgas" (or strikes) they have here. This year, for example, the Spanish government needed to cut federal spending, and they decided the best place to take the money from would be the school system. Three thousand teachers lost their jobs as a result, and the schools have been huelga-ing ever since. My host-sister Irene rarely goes two weeks without missing a day at her university because of either a teacher or student huelga, and even my 13-year-old host brother Raúl has been part of quite a few huelgas. This has been pretty impressive, considering that in Colorado, cutting school funding is part of the norm. I've never heard of any strikes happening there, despite the consistent budget-slashing of school districts across the state. Spain, on the other hand, is not afraid to let the system know when they're unhappy.

Apparently, the same can be said for Portugal, my would-be destination for the upcoming weekend. Plans have changed though, because-- you guessed it-- the air traffic controllers are having a huelga of their own. The airline didn't bother to inform me until yesterday, and considering we were supposed to leave tomorrow this has been pretty stressful. Right after class today, we called the airline to see what we could do. While they do have a lot of huelgas in Spain (and Portugal), they usually never last more than a day, but those days occur frequently. That being the case, we were hoping to maybe fly out Friday instead, but those flights were already booked completely. It made no sense to fly out Saturday, since we have to leave Sunday to be back in time for classes, so I guess Portugal will just have to wait.

This has been a disappointment, to say the least. I had been looking forward to that trip for a while now, and have wanted to visit Portugal long before I even got here. We move onward, though, and quickly made plans today for another weekend trip to start Thursday. So tomorrow we leave early in the morning to catch a bus for the six-hour ride to Sevilla, a reportedly beautiful city in southern Spain. It would've been nice to visit another country before I return to the states, but I'll take what I can get.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Wish I could be there to share some turkey with you, but as it is I'll be in Sevilla instead. Not a bad trade off. Take care!

Blurbs

So I was thinking back earlier today to the first blog that I posted here, before I'd even left for Spain. That feels like such a long, long time ago already. In it, I'm pretty sure I promised I'd try to update this thing at least once a week. Oh, what a fool I was. I probably should've known better, but life moves on and I'm posting now so I hope you can forgive me. It's just that things get going, and there is so much to tell you about, but then I sit down in front of a computer and get overwhelmed by all there is to say! So here are just a few blurbs about a few things going on:

The Madrid Zoo- The weekend after Barcelona we didn't have any travel plans, so we paid a visit to the zoo in Madrid, made famous by the birth of two baby pandas a few years back! While the pandas were very cute, they were true to their panda-nature and weren't the most active of the creatures there. The biggest difference I saw between American zoos and the zoo here was that in Madrid, they don't discourage you from feeding the animals. This doesn't just mean throwing a piece of bread to the ducks-- it means almost every single animal there. One of my friends even threw the leftover apple from here lunch to a brown bear! While I definitely have some qualms with this morally, it certainly made the animals more active. (The pandas are one of the few animals you can't feed, hence why they were so calm.) All of the other animals, though, came right up to the edge of their habitat and waited for you to throw a treat to them. Below, my friend April and I stand in front of some rhinos.

Santander/Bilbao- I suppose the biggest occurrence since I last posted would have to be my trip to Santander and Bilbao last weekend. For those of you who aren't experts in Spain's geography, they're both located in northern Spain, right by the Atlantic Ocean. The best part of the trip was our first day there, which we spent in Santander. We spent the whole day walking along the coast, where most the city's tourist attractions are, culminating in a visit to a lighthouse. After hiking for an hour or so along the cliff, it began to softly rain as we reached a valley of the softest, brightest green grass made only more brilliant by the contrast of the dark sky. The ocean was completely visible to our right, leaving plenty of room to see the complete and bright rainbow that had begun to form. The lighthouse itself was just across the valley, and since we arrived at dusk the light turned on just as we reached the pinnacle of the hill. Just as I thought I might cry from how beautiful it was, I turned around and saw a white horse grazing freely in the valley. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a leprechaun, that's how surreally beautiful this place was.

Concerts- I think I mentioned before that I went to see the band Explosions in the Sky in concert, which was an amazing experience. The only thing that threw me off was trying to figure out how Spanish concerts work. I've got it down in the U.S.- if the flier says 8pm, they start at nine; if it says 9pm, they start at ten; and so on. In Spain it's different. Usually, the Spaniards are much more laid-back when it comes to time, but the concert began approximately when they said it would, and was over before 11:30pm! In the United States this is blasphemy, and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, but the band played well and sounded awesome so I can forgive it. Tomorrow Jenn and I are going to see the British pop-rock band The Subways, and I'll make sure to be there on time.

Halloween and Barcelona

October has passed and with it, my first Halloween away from home. I can't tell how missing this holiday will compare to missing Thanksgiving (they're my two favorites), but despite my wonderful surroundings I was sad to miss the holiday. They do celebrate here in Spain, it's just a little half-baked. For example, a lot of people dress up, but for the most part they limit themselves to "scary costumes." This eliminates a lot of the creativity since almost everyone is a witch, zombie, or (like) a vampire. And then if you're not something scary, you and all of your friends wear the exact same costume, like the gang of teenagers I saw all wearing the same mask of Woody from Toy Story. Ironically, the latter costume is far more terrifying. I had fun, though, and the best part was that November 1st is Día de los Santos; it was nice to have a day to *ahem* rest after the Halloween festivities.

The perfect distraction from the Halloween parties back home was Barcelona. By the afternoon of the first day I was already in love with the city. I think what really captured my heart is that Barcelona is a city of artists. All of the metros play short films created all over the world, the street performers are incredibly talented and dedicated to their uniqu

e performances, statues of all varieties can be found in every plaza, and best of all the architecture cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The most famous architect of Barcelona was Antoni Gaudí, an artist with an incredibly creativ

e mind, but very little motivation to actually finish his projects. Our first morning their we visited his cathedral La Sagrada Familia (or The Sacred Family)

The picture on the left is what La Sagrada Familia looks

like now (it's impossible to get a full picture if you're not in a helicopter.) The design is incredibly intricate and detailed, after all Gaudí is how we got the word "gaudy." They expect the entire project to be finished sometime in the next 25 years. Keep in mind that constructed began in 1882. The picture on the right is what the cathedral is expected to look like upon completion and Jenn, Parker, Jessica and I already made a pact to return when we're all in our fifties to see the final result.

Between Barcelona and the little bit of Halloween I got here, I'd have to say that October went out with a bang. Next weekend I'm seeing Explosions in the Sky (an American instrumental band) in Madrid and the weekend after that is Santander with a possible day trip to Bilbao! I'll let you know more once they plans are all in action!