It is pronounced "Buda-PESHT"

Last weekend four friends and I went to Budapest, Hungary for an extra long weekend.

Day 1: We arrived in Pest (Buda and Pest are separated by the Denube river) in the afternoon and by the time we had found our hostal and dropped our things we were starving so we set out in search of typical Hungarian cuisine. We found it, and very quickly! GOULASH is delicious. Its basically just a meat and vegetable stew, spiced with paprika, the typical Hungarian spice of choice. It is no wonder that the Hungarians love this hot stew because it is FREEZING! We knew it was going to be cold, so we came prepared, but still after the sun went down we basically just ran from restaurant to coffee shop to bar to escape the freeze!

Day 2: We found a flyer for a free walking tour (keyword being free) and decided to check it out. Turned out to be very worth the later "suggested tip". Our lovely guide Gabor was full of historical knowledge about Budapest and Hungary in general and casual references to "trace parties" in forests that were "also very nice to go to." He took us all around from the cathedral which he assured us was "just another church, pretty boring", across the Chain bridge from Buda to Pest, to the top of Castle Hill, which had a great view from Buda of Pest and the river.



After a lovely (and cheap! huge bowl of some other type of Hungarian soup for 300 florint... that equals one euro!!!) lunch we headed out to explore Buda a little on our own. Unfortunately, even though we had just been guided, we fell into a terrible tourist trap! We were looking for "caves" that our guidebook had mentioned that had some natural mineral formations, stalagmites, etc. After looking, wandering and asking around the area where if was supposed to be on the map we couldn't find the exact caves we were looking for but instead stumbled on something called "Castle Labyrinth of Caves", or something like that. We were tired of wandering in the cold figured close enough. What a waste of 1000 florint!!! (thats only about 3 euros but still) These "caves" were completely fabricated for tourists, complete with fake cave paintings, stupid hoakey music and sound effects... oh it gets better... fake fossils...a fossil of a COMPUTER for example, and the kicker a fossil of a giant bottle of Coke a Cola.
This was the point when I was truly insulted:


Since it was a labyrinth, we kind were basically trapped in there til we found our way out. We stuck it to 'em at the end though and took full advantage of their "complimentary tea service" at the end. Take that crappy tourist trap!

Day 3: With a good handle of the layout of the city by this point we set out to explore more of the city on our own. We went to City Park and saw a castle with a moat ( I was very impressed that there was an actual moat), one of the famous bath houses and Liberty square:


We also went to a museum about the history of Hungary that focused mostly on the Nazi and communist occupations. The museum was called The House of Terror and was in one of the former Nazi headquarters. It was pretty terrifying because the occupations were relatively speaking not that long ago. The last Soviet troops left Hungary only in 1991. Needless to say,the Hungarians have had it rough.


That afternoon we went to experience on of the bath houses for ourselves. I had been looking forward to this part as a highlight of the trip, especially because we were tired from all of our sightseeing and ready to relax. We went to the Gellert bath house which is in a very famous and luxurious hostel in Buda. The bath houses have, well obviously, baths, or pools of different temperatures, saunas, steam rooms and you can also get a message. I must say I was a tiny bit disappointed with the bath area itself. We opted for the ladies-only area... and frankly I felt like I was in a YMCA locker room. Just a lot of old naked ladies. But it was nice just sitting and having a soak in the warm water.

Day 4: Our last full day we polished off our sightseeing with climbing a frosty mountain to see the Hungarian statue of liberty, we checked out the very impressive Parliament building and went to see the Synagogue which is the second largest in the world. (Trivia: Where is the largest? Nope, not Israel... New York City!)
That night we went out on the town and met some colorful locals. We danced to old American pop music (all cerca the late 1990s for some reason) and were cajoled by our new freinds to sing karaoke! One thing that I will not soon forget: Singing "Still haven't found what I'm looking for" (U2)gazing deeply into the eyes of Martin, our Hungarian friend we met that evening, and singing "....only to be VVISS yoooou....!"

Vivan las CARNAVALES!

Huuuuy...

After a weekend of fun, friends and Carnaval in Cadiz... getting up for work this morning was pretty rough! Well worth it though. I went to Carnaval for one afternoon last year, but did not really get the "true" Carnaval experience because we went during the day and did not dress up. We watched some of the typical Chirigotas perform, which are singing groups that dress up to a theme and sing silly songs that make fun for politics and current Spanish culture. There is a huge competition which ends the first weekend of Carnaval and on Sunday winners are paraded through the streets on big trucks singing and drinking the day away. It was quite a spectacle, but nothing compared to the night time revelry we say this year!

On Friday I took my friend Smita with me down to Puerto and we watched the Chirigota finals on TV at Hayleys house and prepared for the festivities by gathering the final details for our costumes and had some tapas. We dressed as a merry band of "bichos" aka bugs. We had bought butterfly wings and antennae at the chino for 1 euro and supplemented with various accessories and monocromatic clothing. In the end I was a "mariquita", a ladybug!

All of us:


Once dressed, we headed for the ferry boat that would take us across the bay from Puerto to Cadiz. We got there around 9pm and there was already a huge line of people in FULL costumes. People go ALL OUT for their carnaval costumes. The night time crowd is mostly adults... it is pretty funny seeing men my dads age dressed as babies, princesses super heros etc. A lot of people make their own costumes, or buy them. Some of my favorite costumes I saw were: flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, life sizes yogurt cups, Gingerbread men, "Bender" from future-rama, one group had pictures of Barack Obama all over them, and various men dressed as impressively ugly women. The population of Cadiz is somewhere between 60,000- 70,000 people normally, but this weekend they projected that there were around 300,000 people in the city. From the crowds, I beleive it! The Saturday night we went was the big kick-off party and the plazas and streets were totally packed. The plaza in front of the cathedral was impossible. We had to squeeze through crowds for a long time before we found a plaza comfortable enough to exist in. But once we did, we had lots of fun. Carnaval is basically just a huge party in the street. Most people bring their own alcohol, or they buy "lotes" which conists of one bottle of alcohol of your choice, cups, ice and a 2-liter soda. We found a big group of other English teachers that we knew and we all had a really good time watching everyone in costume, socializing and just taking it all in. There was a stage with some Chirigotas playing, so we got to see some live music as well.

Oh the HUMANITY!!!




We did well even by Spanish partying standards and made it until almost 7am before heading to the ferry. This was about the worst part of the whole weekend though, because we stood in line to buy our tickets for almost an hour, for a boat that was supposed to come at 8:30, which would have been bad enough. The boats were of course running WAY behind Smita and I didn´t get on a boat back to Puerto until almost 10am! Waiting in the ferry station for almost 3 hours was pretty painful. We made it back to Hayleys and slept there for a while before catching our train back to Seville... which was also running behind. Once I finally made it home at 6pm, I quickly did had some dinner,showered and got into bed!

Sunday was rough but it was definatly worth one of the best parties in Spain! I will post pictures ASAP!

A thousand apologies... oh and happy Valentines day!

I am very sorry for the serious lack of MC updates. Let's see the past two months or so:
~ I went home for Christmas! Which was as lovely as could possibly be! Lots of family outings, time with friends and the usual Christmas cheer. Defiantly worth the journey!


Family outing to The CA Academy of Sciences!




Fun with friends :)


~ After three weeks at home I had almost forgotten that I had whole different life here in Spain to live. I must say that leaving huge amounts of love was a little tough and it took me a few days to get back into the Spanish groove. Once I got back into my routine though the time has FLOWN by! I can not believe it is the middle of February already. I picked up another tutoring job and have been studying for my Spanish exam for the university class I have been taking this semester. I passed the written exam, and I took the oral exam yesterday... I find out if I passed on Tuesday. The oral exam did NOT go perfectly, but we did it in pairs and my partner was terrible... but I don't know if that's good thing because they would think that I spoke better than her, or that our pathetic presentation was terrible and to fail us both. Hopefully not the latter.

Sorry to disappoint with this somewhat boring post... I have been basically just studying, and speaking spanish all around, and teaching English in order to save up for my travel plans for this semester. So much more exciting post are coming soon!

Happy Valentine's Day :)

A breakthrough!

I work with three teachers at my school. One is fabulous, Pilar. She speaks excellent English and is very creative and hardworking. Next is Marilo. She can be boring in class... isn't quite as creative and her English isn't as good as Pilar's but she makes an effort and every once in a while we do a game or something that relates to math and English with the kids. Then there is Pedro. I am supposed to help him with third year Chemistry and with a 4th year elective science class. During our planning periods for chem, we have been translating all of the chapter summaries in order to have the English supplement to the class, thus making it "bilingual". Most classes this semester I spent just working on the translation document. In 4th year science, the kids have individual projects that they work on during class on computers. So, they talk amongst themselves in Spanish. I was wondering what exactly I was doing in that class basically all semester until finally last week I took matters into my own hands. Within an hour, I had found a music video about the scientific method, typed the lyrics, translated them and written up comprehension questions. I came into class with speakers to play the audio and basically just took over.
The video was super campy and silly... but they liked it! Long story short: they paid attention and I think they actually learned something!!! Anyway, I was VERY pleased with myself. GO me :)

Here's the video:

TWO Thanksgivings?!

Yes, its true. to make up for being away from freinds and family, I gorged with Thanksgiving gusto not once but twice. On Thursday I made a pretty darn legit and authentic American Thanksgiving dinner for my Spanish roommates and freinds plus a few Americans. I had everything except for the turkey: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, "Stuffing" (turned out to be weird, liquidy consistency, although they said they liked it....) and cranberry that my mom sent! I baked pumpkin pie and chocoalte chip cookies with the boys that I tutor for a funtional vocabulary exam. They passed with flying colors and now want to make cookies during class instead of doing homework.



The Thanksgiving dinner party and me and my roommates!


As if that amount of revelry wasnt enough, the next day I went down to Puerto to visit with my other American contingent. They had one up on my Thanksgiving spread: An actaul turkey! There is an American military base a few towns over and somehow they managed to smuggle one out. It was delish. We tried to go out that night but we were pretty sluggish. (We TRIED to explain to the Spaniard that you are not supposed to move after eating Thanksgiving dinner, but they wouldnt hear of staying in digesting on a Friday night).

All in all, a fabulous holiday. :)

Toto.... I don't think we're tourists anymore....

Although I apparently still look like one. I don't know what to tell you, I try my darnedest to blend in with the hip-euro fashions. I wear the boots with the short dresses and tights, I tuck my jeans in, I have an ever-widening collection of pashminas... and I understand that once I open my mouth that of course people should think that I am at the very least not Spanish, but when clad in all Euro-bought clothing and all I utter is a quick "Hola" during dos besos... I am still instantly pegged. Sigh. Is it the freckles? The fact that I'm "clarita" (ie super white)? A girl last night said that Americans have really white teeth, and that mine are really white, so I look American. Thanks???

I was talking with Noelia the other day and she said that her impression of me and my friends last year is that we were basically glorified tourists, but that this year, I am really here, living the life of a true Sevilliana, and that by year's end it will as if I have lived here all my life. I seriously doubt that, although I am impatient for some means of measurable progress to this end. I have been making considerable efforts to get out and experience culture in an authentic way. (Yes, OTHER than drinking at authentic bars). Some of my more recent efforts include:

1. I went with my roommate Rocio last Friday to a "e-spectaculo" (yes, a spectacular!)which was a blend of theater and dance, flamenco in particular. It roughly followed the story of the Greek god Dionisus (Dionisio) and had quite a lot of interpretive dance breaks,(claro). After the show we chatted with other viewers about the performance. I nodded earnestly at all commentary and added "Si, bailaban muy bien " ("Yes, they danced very well.") What was the even more... interesting part of the cultural evening occurred on Rocio's and my walk home from downtown.

We were hungry and decided to stop in at a bar that purportedly offered "Italian tapas" this culinary cultural infusion sounded interesting so we decided to give it a try. Upon entering the almost empty bar, the waiter welcomes us excitedly with (translated):" Ahhh, you have come for the 'espectaculo'!!!!" We just laughed awkwardly and asked about the tapas, which turned out to be only 'montaditos' which are basically just tiny little sandwiches which you can find in any SPANISH bar, oh, and Spanish olives. We were disappointed of course, at the lack of Italian-ness of these tapas but were tired and hungry so we accepted. When we were getting ready to leave, a woman, one of the 3 other people in the bar, came to us and told us that we couldn't leave because the "espectaculo" was about to start! What espectaculo? Oh, there is a gay guy in the back putting his dress and makeup on, then he is going to come out and sing some Spanish songs for you!!! You can't leave yet!!! She proceeded to refill our drinks and force us out of sheer awkwardness to stay. We somewhat anxiously and uncomfortably sipped our drinks and tried to think of an escape route but there seemed to be none. I was fine with watching a little Spanish drag, but Rocio had to get up early for here Academy in the morning, and it was already late. Finally, the diva comes out. Gorgeous! ...But she doesn't seem to be planning on singing anytime soon. She comes over with redbull and cigarette and thanks us for staying. ("....For staying to see you drink in dress??" Is what I was thinking) FINALLY, another group of about 15 people came in, I assume to see the espectaculo, and Rocio and I slipped out. We laughed most of the rest of the way home at the surreal irony: We went into for Italian tapas, and we got sandwiches and a drag queen.


2. This past week I have been going to a European film festival here in Sevilla. Out of the 6 films I got to see, one I really liked, one was pretty ok, and the rest were slow, boring and pointless. I can do slow films, but I need there be some sort of purpose of sitting in a dark room with 300 strangers by the end. I'm bummed because most of the movies that I REALLY wanted to see are now sold out, so we went to see some random ones instead. Today (since all the other movies were sold out) we are going to see a series of shorts, should be interesting. I hope the subtitling is good!

America: Not so stupid after all...

I had been been building up anxiety about the elections so much that by Nov 4, all I could do was join a huge group of Americans at an Irish pub downtown and drink beer and watch CNN even though the results wouldn't be out Spain time until early morning. With somewhat relaxed nerves I left the bar at 1:30am only because I had to get up for work in the morning. Obama had been winning in Indiana, a normally Republican state. Could all the hype be true? Could he really be winning? I dared to hope.

My eyes burst open that morning at 8am and I reached to turn on my computer. "Obama wins!" reads the headline. I stared for a minute in disbelief, then read the whole article even though I had the information that I wanted. Then I had to get ready for school. Upon my arrival, one of the teachers that I work with presented me with flowers and told me "OBAMA! Felicidades! Congratulations!!!" I replied that I hadn't actually won anything, so I didn't deserve the flowers, but that I greatly appreciated the gesture. In the halls that day from other Spaniards I got big smiles and thumbs-up. "The Obama has win eh?? Que bien!"

Later that day in my Uni class I got similar responses, and had to explain a little about the American voting system, how the points work etc. (All in Spanish, of course. "Electoral college" in not yet in my Spanish vocabulary.) But needless to say, everyone was very supportive and very pleased.

On Nov. 5th 2008, I was not ashamed to admit I was an American in Europe. On the contrary, I was proud.