Day 5:
This was by far one of my favorite days of the entire trip. It started out relatively early. We had to take several trains to get to Tsukiji. It’s the world’s largest fish market. They carry over 450 different types of fish. It’s quite the sight to see. I had never seen a lot of the things they had on display. Once we arrived we all went our own ways to explore the market. One of my classrooms described it as a labyrinth of fish and seafood. She was correct. Every which way there were fish, and of all types: some were fresh, some dried, some a part of sushi and some fried. It was great; many of the booths even gave out samples as you pass by. I couldn’t be as adventurous as I would have liked because I didn’t want to get sick, but what I tried was very good.
After walking around for a bit the group randomly reconvened outside a restaurant. We still had about half an hour until we needed to meet up, so it was funny we all ended up in the same place. Even more coincidental was the fact that there was a blue fin tuna slicing demonstration going on right there. While we were in Japan there were talks at the United Nations to put a ban on selling blue fin tuna. Apparently, some animal advocacy groups believe that the species might be extinct by 2012. The morning we headed to Tsukiji I happened to be watching a news report on CNN about the potential ban. It said that about 80% of blue fin tuna is consumed in Japan alone. Needless to say the Japanese were not very happy about this potential ban.
All of a sudden, a CNN crew showed up to film the tuna being sliced. It was really funny considering they were standing next to and then even interviewing journalist students. Two of my classmates were interviewed and one made the final cut. Seeing the tuna sliced was really cool. It was huge and ironically, it was caught right off the coast of Spain. I took a few photos with the CNN journalist, Kyung Lah, and mentioned to her how I had watched a clip on CNN about the blue fin tuna that morning. She chuckled and told me it had been her report.
Here’s the clip: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2010/03/19/lah.japan.blue.fin.tuna.ban.cnn
After the tuna slicing, we were ready to consume some tuna of our own so we headed to lunch. The entire group went to what is supposedly one of the best sushi restaurants at the market. It lived up to its name. It was really good. I have no clue what I was eating, but I enjoyed most of it.
At the restaurant we had to remove our shoes before stepping on the wood floors and there were lockers where you could put your shoes. If you entered the bathroom you had to put on these special slippers. My feet were about 5 sizes too big, but I made it work. I had tried on a pair of shoes in a shoe store I had passed the day before and the biggest size, LL, wasn’t even close to fitting!
From lunch we headed to the US embassy to speak with David Marks (who I mentioned earlier.) He’s the press attaché at the embassy. It was great to speak with him. He’s an incredibly intelligent man. He graduated from IU with a master’s in Russian Literature and he speaks something like four or five different languages. He spoke about his time in the Foreign Service and it really sparked my interest. He’s lived all around the world and his next posting is in Kabul. It sounds like that will be an adjustment from Tokyo. During this meeting, we also had an opportunity to speak with ABC reporter Margaret Conley. It was really interesting to hear her stories about being an American living in Japan and the things she’s gone through in the journalism field. As if these two speakers weren’t amazing enough, we also got to speak with John V. Roos, the US ambassador to Japan. It was really cool to hear how he became ambassador. He even allowed us to visit his residence. The Tokyo ambassador’s residence was the first US ambassador’s residence that was built specifically for an ambassador. It was a really beautiful building. I was tempted to sign the guest book, but thought it would be best for the school if I didn’t.
I was exhausted after such a full day, so I just returned to the hotel. It was the second group’s turn to have dinner with the professionals, so I was on my own. I met up with three other girls in the group to wonder around for dinner. We ventured to the other side of the train station and ended up an Irish pub. It was a multicultural evening. I was in Japan at an Irish pub, eating Italian food. You’ve got to love globalization.
It ended up being a later dinner, so we were all happy to just go back to the hotel to pass out. We didn’t want to be tired for our last day in Nihon!
Sayonara,
Rachel
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Conquering the city of Tokyo
Day 4:
Last night I thought ahead about buying breakfast for this morning so I wouldn’t have to leave my room. What a smart decision. It was nice being able to have a slightly slower morning. We met down in the lobby for our daily meeting/briefing at 8:30am. After a slight recap of the week and reminder of the day’s events we took the trains to Kreab Gavin Anderson, an International PR firm. They have offices in 25 different countries on 5 continents. William Sposato spoke to us for a while about the company, his career and his time in Japan. He’s worked in Tokyo, London, and Bombay/Mumbai. I’m envious. I really hope that I can work abroad. I’ve been so fortunate with all I’ve seen thus far and I hope I can continue to explore this beautiful world of ours.
We also heard from a Japanese employee there. It was interesting to hear her perspective regarding the Japanese and business. Their culture is very different from ours. It’s a complete hierarchy system and everyone is very introverted. All of that said, Americans (and many other cultures) really stick out here.
After their presentation we spilt up for lunch in the area. Two friends and I tried a noodle shop down the street. It was delicious, like most of our Japanese meals. After lunch the entire group headed back to the hotel. I changed into some more comfortable clothes to explore the city with more friends. Four of us decided to go back to Asakusa to continue our souvenir shopping. We had hoped to visit Ginza too, but we got a little carried away in Asakusa. Since we cut it too close to do both of them we had some down time at the hotel before going out to dinner with several Japanese professionals.
We headed to a very interesting/strange restaurant on the other side of the train station. I didn’t look at the menu, but I can’t say I was a big fan of the food, at least what they ordered for us. Actually, I felt pretty sick after the meal. Rule to live by: don’t eat parts of a chicken you cannot identify. Aside from the mediocre food, the people I got to sit with were exceptional. We sat with several PR professionals who work at Fleishman-Hillard and David Marks who is the press attaché for the US Embassy. It was great to hear from the PR professionals who PR functions in this country and it was also great to hear from David Marks about living in Japan, working abroad and being in the foreign service. We also got a chance to speak with David Marks the following day (which I’ll mention in a bit). All in all, he really convinced me to look more into the Foreign Service.
After dinner I was pretty tired, so I just went to bed. I wanted to end this post with an observation about Japan. We had been warned that there wouldn’t be a lot of garbage cans, so many people have to walk with their trash. I thought it was kind of strange when our professor and guest lecturers mentioned this, but I didn’t think much of it. It was only when we got there that I realized how strange, or different rather, that is to the States. It was virtually impossible to find trashcans. You might see one at a train station, but other than that it was only in your hotel room. I tried to find one in the lobby of the hotel and couldn’t. So weird. Also, the ones in the rooms are tiny. Both of ours were filled daily. I don’t know where all of their trash goes!
Sayonara,
Rachel
Last night I thought ahead about buying breakfast for this morning so I wouldn’t have to leave my room. What a smart decision. It was nice being able to have a slightly slower morning. We met down in the lobby for our daily meeting/briefing at 8:30am. After a slight recap of the week and reminder of the day’s events we took the trains to Kreab Gavin Anderson, an International PR firm. They have offices in 25 different countries on 5 continents. William Sposato spoke to us for a while about the company, his career and his time in Japan. He’s worked in Tokyo, London, and Bombay/Mumbai. I’m envious. I really hope that I can work abroad. I’ve been so fortunate with all I’ve seen thus far and I hope I can continue to explore this beautiful world of ours.
We also heard from a Japanese employee there. It was interesting to hear her perspective regarding the Japanese and business. Their culture is very different from ours. It’s a complete hierarchy system and everyone is very introverted. All of that said, Americans (and many other cultures) really stick out here.
After their presentation we spilt up for lunch in the area. Two friends and I tried a noodle shop down the street. It was delicious, like most of our Japanese meals. After lunch the entire group headed back to the hotel. I changed into some more comfortable clothes to explore the city with more friends. Four of us decided to go back to Asakusa to continue our souvenir shopping. We had hoped to visit Ginza too, but we got a little carried away in Asakusa. Since we cut it too close to do both of them we had some down time at the hotel before going out to dinner with several Japanese professionals.
We headed to a very interesting/strange restaurant on the other side of the train station. I didn’t look at the menu, but I can’t say I was a big fan of the food, at least what they ordered for us. Actually, I felt pretty sick after the meal. Rule to live by: don’t eat parts of a chicken you cannot identify. Aside from the mediocre food, the people I got to sit with were exceptional. We sat with several PR professionals who work at Fleishman-Hillard and David Marks who is the press attaché for the US Embassy. It was great to hear from the PR professionals who PR functions in this country and it was also great to hear from David Marks about living in Japan, working abroad and being in the foreign service. We also got a chance to speak with David Marks the following day (which I’ll mention in a bit). All in all, he really convinced me to look more into the Foreign Service.
After dinner I was pretty tired, so I just went to bed. I wanted to end this post with an observation about Japan. We had been warned that there wouldn’t be a lot of garbage cans, so many people have to walk with their trash. I thought it was kind of strange when our professor and guest lecturers mentioned this, but I didn’t think much of it. It was only when we got there that I realized how strange, or different rather, that is to the States. It was virtually impossible to find trashcans. You might see one at a train station, but other than that it was only in your hotel room. I tried to find one in the lobby of the hotel and couldn’t. So weird. Also, the ones in the rooms are tiny. Both of ours were filled daily. I don’t know where all of their trash goes!
Sayonara,
Rachel
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Sun and fun in Japan
Day 3:
Today was another extremely busy day. We left at 8:15am and didn’t get back until almost 10pm. It’s tough to be a tourist in Japan. This morning another one of our professor’s friends, Yas Nakano, met us to help show us around the city. Our professor said they randomly met in Bloomington and have remained friendly. If it’s not clear by what I’ve written so far, my professor is really into networking. He knows people from all over the world. He said he’s got something like 4,000 contacts in his palm pilot. Several weeks ago we had the opportunity to skype with Walter Jennings, who runs the PR company Fleishman-Hillard in Australia. One kid in my class emailed him about their internship program and he ended up getting the position for this summer. I’m super jealous and thinking about applying for next year.
Ok, back to Tokyo. So, Nakano-son. He met us at the hotel for our mini bus tour of the city, primarily of the government district and the imperial palace, where the emperor lives. It was nice to see it all, but not exactly the best atmosphere for taking photos. I hope to go back on foot to wander around. The area around the imperial palace was beautiful. It was also nice to go around by bus because all of our travel has been by train thus far; most of them were underground which obviously doesn’t allow you to see the city.
On our tour around the city Nakano-son was talking about the problems the US is having with Japan’s consumption of tuna. He made an interesting point. He said that it’s very possible India will become the largest world power soon and cows are sacred there. He posed the question, what are you going to do when India is the biggest world power and they tell you you have to stop eating beef? I told him I was going to argue with him because cows aren’t on the endangered species list like some of the types of tuna are, but I saw his point.
We took the bus straight to Bloomberg. We had these official looking name badges, sadly we had to give those back. We also weren’t allowed to take photos inside, which was a major bummer. It was such an amazing office. All of the walls and meeting rooms are glass because they believe in transparency. No one has offices, they all work next to each other. (Can’t say I would personally love that.) Right when we got in they told us to check out the kitchen area. They had so many different types of food and drinks. I grabbed an apple juice, but tasted some of my classmates’ juices. They tried carrot juice and a vegetable juice, both of which were surprisingly delicious. After our snacks, a Malaysian man named Nicholas talked to us about the company. They refer to themselves as an electronic news source, not a news wire. They have these terminals, which they rent out to businesses. It’s insanely expensive, but has the most up-to-date business and financial news. There’s also a ticker running across the floor of the office. We got a brief tour. It’s pretty large, something like four floors. After our tour we got to speak with Brian Fowler, who is the managing news editor. It was awesome to hear from him. He also showed us how the terminal worked. He primarily used the search function, and I have a feeling we could have spent much longer learning about all of its different functions.
After Bloomberg we took a train to lunch. We were told it would be a ten-minute walk, but it ended up being a train ride away. Unfortunately, we all had to go to the bathroom really badly. We stopped at the train station and I had to use my first squatting toilet. It was an adventure. I’ve been really surprised with how many eastern style toilets they have. Most bathrooms have a combination of “normal” toilets and eastern style ones. The difference between the two is funny. It’s either quite primitive or very advanced. The “normal” toilets play music, have the seat heated, bidets and several other functions. They’re pretty crazy.
For lunch we went to an okayomiaki type restaurant. It’s like a do-it-yourself Benny Hanna. They bring the food out for you and you cook it on the grill in front of you. It was really yummy. We tried three different types, one had pork, one prawns and the other ground beef, at least it looked like it. I’ve stopped trying to care what’s in my food. Very few people speak English so I just point and hope it will be good.
After lunch we went to the Tokyo Edo museum. It’s a history museum and I was a little bored. I wouldn’t say I’d rush back there. Our guide was a little difficult to understand. He was so adorable though. He asked all of us to sign his guest book at the end. It was really cute.
After the Tokyo Edo museum we went to the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan for dinner and to meet some journalists. The Jschool really went big on this one. It was a western style dinner and the food just kept coming. We started with salmon, shrimp and white fish and then had a mushroom soup, salad, a steak with veggies and a baked potato and then dessert, too. I was stuffed beyond belief. Thank you, Jschool. The man who helped set up dinner was named Hiromi Hemuki and he actually works for the state of Indiana and tries to bring Japanese business there. I sat across from him and it was interesting to hear about his work. There were several other journalists there, but unfortunately I wasn’t sitting close to them. Dinner ended pretty late and we were all tired, so afterward I just came back to the hotel to go to sleep. It was another wonderfully full and exciting day in Japan!
Sayonara,
Rachel
Today was another extremely busy day. We left at 8:15am and didn’t get back until almost 10pm. It’s tough to be a tourist in Japan. This morning another one of our professor’s friends, Yas Nakano, met us to help show us around the city. Our professor said they randomly met in Bloomington and have remained friendly. If it’s not clear by what I’ve written so far, my professor is really into networking. He knows people from all over the world. He said he’s got something like 4,000 contacts in his palm pilot. Several weeks ago we had the opportunity to skype with Walter Jennings, who runs the PR company Fleishman-Hillard in Australia. One kid in my class emailed him about their internship program and he ended up getting the position for this summer. I’m super jealous and thinking about applying for next year.
Ok, back to Tokyo. So, Nakano-son. He met us at the hotel for our mini bus tour of the city, primarily of the government district and the imperial palace, where the emperor lives. It was nice to see it all, but not exactly the best atmosphere for taking photos. I hope to go back on foot to wander around. The area around the imperial palace was beautiful. It was also nice to go around by bus because all of our travel has been by train thus far; most of them were underground which obviously doesn’t allow you to see the city.
On our tour around the city Nakano-son was talking about the problems the US is having with Japan’s consumption of tuna. He made an interesting point. He said that it’s very possible India will become the largest world power soon and cows are sacred there. He posed the question, what are you going to do when India is the biggest world power and they tell you you have to stop eating beef? I told him I was going to argue with him because cows aren’t on the endangered species list like some of the types of tuna are, but I saw his point.
We took the bus straight to Bloomberg. We had these official looking name badges, sadly we had to give those back. We also weren’t allowed to take photos inside, which was a major bummer. It was such an amazing office. All of the walls and meeting rooms are glass because they believe in transparency. No one has offices, they all work next to each other. (Can’t say I would personally love that.) Right when we got in they told us to check out the kitchen area. They had so many different types of food and drinks. I grabbed an apple juice, but tasted some of my classmates’ juices. They tried carrot juice and a vegetable juice, both of which were surprisingly delicious. After our snacks, a Malaysian man named Nicholas talked to us about the company. They refer to themselves as an electronic news source, not a news wire. They have these terminals, which they rent out to businesses. It’s insanely expensive, but has the most up-to-date business and financial news. There’s also a ticker running across the floor of the office. We got a brief tour. It’s pretty large, something like four floors. After our tour we got to speak with Brian Fowler, who is the managing news editor. It was awesome to hear from him. He also showed us how the terminal worked. He primarily used the search function, and I have a feeling we could have spent much longer learning about all of its different functions.
After Bloomberg we took a train to lunch. We were told it would be a ten-minute walk, but it ended up being a train ride away. Unfortunately, we all had to go to the bathroom really badly. We stopped at the train station and I had to use my first squatting toilet. It was an adventure. I’ve been really surprised with how many eastern style toilets they have. Most bathrooms have a combination of “normal” toilets and eastern style ones. The difference between the two is funny. It’s either quite primitive or very advanced. The “normal” toilets play music, have the seat heated, bidets and several other functions. They’re pretty crazy.
For lunch we went to an okayomiaki type restaurant. It’s like a do-it-yourself Benny Hanna. They bring the food out for you and you cook it on the grill in front of you. It was really yummy. We tried three different types, one had pork, one prawns and the other ground beef, at least it looked like it. I’ve stopped trying to care what’s in my food. Very few people speak English so I just point and hope it will be good.
After lunch we went to the Tokyo Edo museum. It’s a history museum and I was a little bored. I wouldn’t say I’d rush back there. Our guide was a little difficult to understand. He was so adorable though. He asked all of us to sign his guest book at the end. It was really cute.
After the Tokyo Edo museum we went to the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan for dinner and to meet some journalists. The Jschool really went big on this one. It was a western style dinner and the food just kept coming. We started with salmon, shrimp and white fish and then had a mushroom soup, salad, a steak with veggies and a baked potato and then dessert, too. I was stuffed beyond belief. Thank you, Jschool. The man who helped set up dinner was named Hiromi Hemuki and he actually works for the state of Indiana and tries to bring Japanese business there. I sat across from him and it was interesting to hear about his work. There were several other journalists there, but unfortunately I wasn’t sitting close to them. Dinner ended pretty late and we were all tired, so afterward I just came back to the hotel to go to sleep. It was another wonderfully full and exciting day in Japan!
Sayonara,
Rachel
More fun in Tokyo!
Day 2:
Japan is a wonderful country and it has such friendly people. Our professor and his wife (who’s also on the trip) have taken in a Japanese grad student at IU. Her family lives right outside of Tokyo and they met us at the airport to take us to our hotel so we didn’t get lost. This is the third year this trip has run and the past two years the dean of the Journalism school’s wife, Hiromi, has joined the group. She grew up in Japan, knows her way around and most importantly is fluent in the language. Unfortunately, she’s pregnant so she wasn’t able to join us this year. However, this Japanese couple has taken our group under their wings. When they met us at the airport they brought all of us these great Japanese cookies. Yesterday they met us at the hotel and then took us to Asakusa and stayed with us for the day. Today, the gentleman took the train in to meet us. His train ride was about an hour an a half and he just wanted to make sure we’d get on the right train to go to Nikko. It was so incredibly nice.
So this morning after one train transfer, we were off to Nikko. It’s a 2.5-hour train ride up to the mountains. Nikko is a national park with ancient Shinto/Buddhist shrines. Sadly, photography isn’t allowed inside of the shrines. They were magnificent. I think the first one we went into was my favorite. It had three huge Buddha-like figures. They had to be several stories high. Nikko was also a great break from the bustling city. We got in at about 11:30 and had a mile walk up the mountain to the park. We took a wrong turn and ended up walking down this alley. This tiny, elderly Japanese woman saw we were lost and had us follow her back to the main street. People consistently go out of their way to help you. It’s refreshing. There’s a famous bridge before you enter the park, I forget it’s significance, but we made sure to take a ton of photos, including the obligatory peace sign ones.
Upon entering most of the shrines, you need to remove your shoes. It’s a complicated process. You cannot put your shoes up on the mats, but you can’t have your socks on the sidewalk. You kind of need to do to dance to get them off and simultaneously be in the right spot.
As I mentioned, people are very friendly so they’d ask if they can take a picture for you, and we’d return the favor. My professor sticks out a bit in Japan. For starters he’s over 6 feet tall and balding with white hair. A group of Japanese girls had asked my professor to take a picture for them. They were sitting on the steps in front of one of the shrines. I couldn’t resist going up to them asking if we could all take a picture together. They said of course and were very excited that I asked. All of us jumped in the photo with them and then several Spaniards/Italians (couldn’t really hear them well) jumped in, too. It was hilarious. Everyone wanted a picture with their own camera. It was one of the many highlights of the day.
After we left the park we went to a traditional noodle shop where you sit on tatami mats on the floor. I got soba noodles that you dip into a soy sauce. It was ok. Shabrelle, the girl I was sitting with, got a delicious udon soup. I helped her finish it. After lunch we did a little shopping on our walk down the hill to the train station. Then we had another 2.5 hour ride back on the train. Surprisingly, both ways went faster than I anticipated. I might have taken a little nap on the way there. I was attempting to study for my History of Rock and Roll class by listening to our required music, but it put me to sleep. Oops.
When we got back to Tokyo, we returned to the hotel, had dinner and then met up at 8:30 to go to Shibuya. It’s the Time Square area of New York and about 10 times cooler. It’s probably what you think of when you think of a neon lit Japan, because American media love to use pictures from the area to represent Japan. It’s also home to the Hachiko crosswalk, which is the busiest in the world. I took a ton of pictures. There were people coming from everywhere! It was fun wandering around aimlessly. Most of the group I was with went into a Krispsy Kreme to get donuts. I didn’t come to Tokyo to get Kripsy Kreme, so I sat outside to people watch. I was out there for what seemed like forever. The reason being, it’s very rude to eat on the street in Japan, so the group had to sit down to eat their donuts (I also think they were taking their time.) We found an H&M and went in. It was nice, but similar to the ones at home—and even more expensive. Again, something to take a pass on. After walking around all day we were beat. We returned to the hotel to pass out. Tomorrow is an early morning, so I want to get some sleep.
Sayonara,
Rachel
Japan is a wonderful country and it has such friendly people. Our professor and his wife (who’s also on the trip) have taken in a Japanese grad student at IU. Her family lives right outside of Tokyo and they met us at the airport to take us to our hotel so we didn’t get lost. This is the third year this trip has run and the past two years the dean of the Journalism school’s wife, Hiromi, has joined the group. She grew up in Japan, knows her way around and most importantly is fluent in the language. Unfortunately, she’s pregnant so she wasn’t able to join us this year. However, this Japanese couple has taken our group under their wings. When they met us at the airport they brought all of us these great Japanese cookies. Yesterday they met us at the hotel and then took us to Asakusa and stayed with us for the day. Today, the gentleman took the train in to meet us. His train ride was about an hour an a half and he just wanted to make sure we’d get on the right train to go to Nikko. It was so incredibly nice.
So this morning after one train transfer, we were off to Nikko. It’s a 2.5-hour train ride up to the mountains. Nikko is a national park with ancient Shinto/Buddhist shrines. Sadly, photography isn’t allowed inside of the shrines. They were magnificent. I think the first one we went into was my favorite. It had three huge Buddha-like figures. They had to be several stories high. Nikko was also a great break from the bustling city. We got in at about 11:30 and had a mile walk up the mountain to the park. We took a wrong turn and ended up walking down this alley. This tiny, elderly Japanese woman saw we were lost and had us follow her back to the main street. People consistently go out of their way to help you. It’s refreshing. There’s a famous bridge before you enter the park, I forget it’s significance, but we made sure to take a ton of photos, including the obligatory peace sign ones.
Upon entering most of the shrines, you need to remove your shoes. It’s a complicated process. You cannot put your shoes up on the mats, but you can’t have your socks on the sidewalk. You kind of need to do to dance to get them off and simultaneously be in the right spot.
As I mentioned, people are very friendly so they’d ask if they can take a picture for you, and we’d return the favor. My professor sticks out a bit in Japan. For starters he’s over 6 feet tall and balding with white hair. A group of Japanese girls had asked my professor to take a picture for them. They were sitting on the steps in front of one of the shrines. I couldn’t resist going up to them asking if we could all take a picture together. They said of course and were very excited that I asked. All of us jumped in the photo with them and then several Spaniards/Italians (couldn’t really hear them well) jumped in, too. It was hilarious. Everyone wanted a picture with their own camera. It was one of the many highlights of the day.
After we left the park we went to a traditional noodle shop where you sit on tatami mats on the floor. I got soba noodles that you dip into a soy sauce. It was ok. Shabrelle, the girl I was sitting with, got a delicious udon soup. I helped her finish it. After lunch we did a little shopping on our walk down the hill to the train station. Then we had another 2.5 hour ride back on the train. Surprisingly, both ways went faster than I anticipated. I might have taken a little nap on the way there. I was attempting to study for my History of Rock and Roll class by listening to our required music, but it put me to sleep. Oops.
When we got back to Tokyo, we returned to the hotel, had dinner and then met up at 8:30 to go to Shibuya. It’s the Time Square area of New York and about 10 times cooler. It’s probably what you think of when you think of a neon lit Japan, because American media love to use pictures from the area to represent Japan. It’s also home to the Hachiko crosswalk, which is the busiest in the world. I took a ton of pictures. There were people coming from everywhere! It was fun wandering around aimlessly. Most of the group I was with went into a Krispsy Kreme to get donuts. I didn’t come to Tokyo to get Kripsy Kreme, so I sat outside to people watch. I was out there for what seemed like forever. The reason being, it’s very rude to eat on the street in Japan, so the group had to sit down to eat their donuts (I also think they were taking their time.) We found an H&M and went in. It was nice, but similar to the ones at home—and even more expensive. Again, something to take a pass on. After walking around all day we were beat. We returned to the hotel to pass out. Tomorrow is an early morning, so I want to get some sleep.
Sayonara,
Rachel
Monday, March 15, 2010
Konichiwa Tokyo!
We have arrived!
After what seemed like a never-ending trip, we are finally in Tokyo! We got up at 4:00am EST in Indianapolis, took a 7:15am flight to O’hare, a 10:15am flight to Tokyo-Narita and then a train to our hotel. We got to the hotel on Saturday at 5:30pm Tokyo time. Since I have a difficult time sleeping on planes, I was more than ready to go to bed last night. Once we arrived we got settled in the hotel and then met for dinner at 7:30pm. We had no clue where to go so we walked around aimlessly for a while. We were in a group of 11 and decided we needed to spilt up since there weren’t any Japanese restaurants that could handle a group of our size. I spilt off with 4 other girls to eat. Some woman on the street started blabbering in Japanese and insisted that we follow her. A girl in my group fell for it and the woman then led us to the restaurant she works for. We were fooled. We sat down and the lady immediately asked us if we wanted beer. We took a pass. Luckily, well somewhat, the menu had photos. We pointed at what we wanted. We ended up with edamame, an egg dish, a noodle/stir fry dish and eggplant covered with dried fish flakes. Yum! It was all small portions, so we then went to the convenience store downstairs to get some more food. After our delicious C-store meal I was more than ready to hit the hay.
This morning we were able to sleep in a bit. I woke up at 8:30, went downstairs to a coffee shop to get a croissant and then met the group at 9:45am to leave. We went to a neighborhood called Asakusa. It’s filled with great souvenir shops and old Shinto shrines. The souvenir-lined street is also sprinkled with some food vendors. We tried moshi balls. It’s padded down rice, filled with a bean paste and fried. I got the apricot flavor and sampled a bit of my friend’s sesame one. They were delicious and only 100 yen or just over a dollar. After indulging in our moshi, we continued on to the shrines. They were beautiful. Outside of the main shrine were these beautiful gardens. We explored those and then looked at more of the food vendors. We saw some interesting cuisine, the most shocking being octopus.
Everywhere we went we got looks for being American. People love us. It’s really funny. I heard several Japanese women sneeze so I said, “bless you.” They thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. Needless to say, I’m making a ton of Japanese friends. We also met some kids all dressed up in different costumes. We made sure to take some photos with them. For lunch we went to this really neat restaurant. We all tried uniguiri, rice balls filled with salmon and covered with seaweed. Delish! After lunch it was time to meet up with the group.
From there we headed to the 100-yen store (or dollar store.) We met a girl around our age. Her parents are friends with my professor and his wife. Her aunt was with her, too. It was really cute; I mentioned I wanted to get chapstick with kangi (Japanese lettering) on it and they found it for me at the store and bought it for me! I also purchased some stationary at the 100-yen store. I was standing at the counter ready to check out and a man came up to me and started speaking in Japanese and pointing at my stationary. He was also making a praying gesture. I didn’t understand so my new Japanese friend Arina stepped in. She informed me that the stationary I picked out was a funeral card. Oops. That being the case, I switched it out.
After visiting Asakusa, I went with 7 other kids to Akihabara, the electronics district. We wondered around for a while, walking into arcades and a store that I would compare to Best Buy on crack. This store had everything! It was 9 stories high and a block long. After exploring most of it a friend and I decided to camp out in the massage chairs. It was glorious, and a much needed break for our feet. However, we had some trouble securing our chairs. My friend Lexi sat down first. I asked if I could sit next to her and was told to wait, granted I couldn’t really understand since she was speaking Japanese, but it sounded like wait. I think she wanted us to switch off sitting in the chair. There were still a ton of other open chairs, so I went up to another woman and asked if I could sit down. She pointed me to the a chair three chairs down, which coincidentally happened to be the cheapest one, to sit down. We got the impression that they worked for commission and didn’t want us hogging their chairs. Either way, it was a much needed and wonderful break.
On our way back to the subway we stopped at 31 flavors. I couldn’t resist getting some green tea ice cream. From 31 flavors we took the train back to the hotel. From there we decided it was time for dinner. I went to a ramen restaurant with two classmates. I ordered a wonderful noodle soup and we spilt gyoza (dumplings.) Now we’re back in the hotel room and I’m attempting to load my 100+ photos on to my computer. Unfortunately, the fee for internet in the room is pretty high, so I’m hoping to go to the business center to use their computers there.
Thus far, Tokyo has been amazing. I’m looking forward to the days to come and our new adventures.
Sayonara,
Rachel
After what seemed like a never-ending trip, we are finally in Tokyo! We got up at 4:00am EST in Indianapolis, took a 7:15am flight to O’hare, a 10:15am flight to Tokyo-Narita and then a train to our hotel. We got to the hotel on Saturday at 5:30pm Tokyo time. Since I have a difficult time sleeping on planes, I was more than ready to go to bed last night. Once we arrived we got settled in the hotel and then met for dinner at 7:30pm. We had no clue where to go so we walked around aimlessly for a while. We were in a group of 11 and decided we needed to spilt up since there weren’t any Japanese restaurants that could handle a group of our size. I spilt off with 4 other girls to eat. Some woman on the street started blabbering in Japanese and insisted that we follow her. A girl in my group fell for it and the woman then led us to the restaurant she works for. We were fooled. We sat down and the lady immediately asked us if we wanted beer. We took a pass. Luckily, well somewhat, the menu had photos. We pointed at what we wanted. We ended up with edamame, an egg dish, a noodle/stir fry dish and eggplant covered with dried fish flakes. Yum! It was all small portions, so we then went to the convenience store downstairs to get some more food. After our delicious C-store meal I was more than ready to hit the hay.
This morning we were able to sleep in a bit. I woke up at 8:30, went downstairs to a coffee shop to get a croissant and then met the group at 9:45am to leave. We went to a neighborhood called Asakusa. It’s filled with great souvenir shops and old Shinto shrines. The souvenir-lined street is also sprinkled with some food vendors. We tried moshi balls. It’s padded down rice, filled with a bean paste and fried. I got the apricot flavor and sampled a bit of my friend’s sesame one. They were delicious and only 100 yen or just over a dollar. After indulging in our moshi, we continued on to the shrines. They were beautiful. Outside of the main shrine were these beautiful gardens. We explored those and then looked at more of the food vendors. We saw some interesting cuisine, the most shocking being octopus.
Everywhere we went we got looks for being American. People love us. It’s really funny. I heard several Japanese women sneeze so I said, “bless you.” They thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. Needless to say, I’m making a ton of Japanese friends. We also met some kids all dressed up in different costumes. We made sure to take some photos with them. For lunch we went to this really neat restaurant. We all tried uniguiri, rice balls filled with salmon and covered with seaweed. Delish! After lunch it was time to meet up with the group.
From there we headed to the 100-yen store (or dollar store.) We met a girl around our age. Her parents are friends with my professor and his wife. Her aunt was with her, too. It was really cute; I mentioned I wanted to get chapstick with kangi (Japanese lettering) on it and they found it for me at the store and bought it for me! I also purchased some stationary at the 100-yen store. I was standing at the counter ready to check out and a man came up to me and started speaking in Japanese and pointing at my stationary. He was also making a praying gesture. I didn’t understand so my new Japanese friend Arina stepped in. She informed me that the stationary I picked out was a funeral card. Oops. That being the case, I switched it out.
After visiting Asakusa, I went with 7 other kids to Akihabara, the electronics district. We wondered around for a while, walking into arcades and a store that I would compare to Best Buy on crack. This store had everything! It was 9 stories high and a block long. After exploring most of it a friend and I decided to camp out in the massage chairs. It was glorious, and a much needed break for our feet. However, we had some trouble securing our chairs. My friend Lexi sat down first. I asked if I could sit next to her and was told to wait, granted I couldn’t really understand since she was speaking Japanese, but it sounded like wait. I think she wanted us to switch off sitting in the chair. There were still a ton of other open chairs, so I went up to another woman and asked if I could sit down. She pointed me to the a chair three chairs down, which coincidentally happened to be the cheapest one, to sit down. We got the impression that they worked for commission and didn’t want us hogging their chairs. Either way, it was a much needed and wonderful break.
On our way back to the subway we stopped at 31 flavors. I couldn’t resist getting some green tea ice cream. From 31 flavors we took the train back to the hotel. From there we decided it was time for dinner. I went to a ramen restaurant with two classmates. I ordered a wonderful noodle soup and we spilt gyoza (dumplings.) Now we’re back in the hotel room and I’m attempting to load my 100+ photos on to my computer. Unfortunately, the fee for internet in the room is pretty high, so I’m hoping to go to the business center to use their computers there.
Thus far, Tokyo has been amazing. I’m looking forward to the days to come and our new adventures.
Sayonara,
Rachel
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Checking five more countries off the list!
It has obviously been awhile since I've last written. I think that just goes to show that I'm having a great time and unable to sit down to write these. A lot has happened since my last post. Again, to go in chronological order. I went to Cádiz on a program trip. I walked by my old school and home-stay again. It was a nice little visit. There's not really too much to do there and I had done virtually everything we did, but I still enjoyed myself. That night we went out for a friend's birthday back in Sevilla. When I was standing in line for the bathroom I thought I saw the program director from when I was in Cádiz. I went up to his table and it was indeed him! What a small world. He even had my mom's email address and he emailed her the next day.
The next weekend I was off to Paris and London with my friends. I absolutely loved Paris. It's such a charming city. When we got there we met up with my friend Meghan from IU. She was a doll and waited for us for an hour since getting back from the airport took longer than planned. We met up at Notre Dame and stopped by one of Meghan's favorite bookstores, Shakespeare and Co. From there we walked along the Seine to the Lourve. I knew the Lourve was big, but I did not expect it to be quite as big as it is! An entire army, or two, could live in it. I was in awe. We decided to buy a two day museum pass which gave us access to about 40 different museums for only 30 or so euros. After purchasing those at the Lourve, we walked through the Tuillery Gardens and had our first very important stop--crepes! (I really miss those.) From there we continued through the gardens on to Champs Elysses and then the Eiffel tower!
Allison, Briana and me at the Eiffel Tower!
Day 2: We met up bright and early at the Lourve to avoid the lines. We saw the highlights like Mona, Venus Di Milo, etc.
Meg and me in the Lourve
Our next museum was the Orsay. I think it was my favorite one of the entire trip. It's all pre-impressionist through post-impressionist art, which I've realized is the time period I enjoy most. The museum itself is also really neat, because the building is an old train station. I wouldn't call it a very efficient space, but it definitely works. After the Orsay we headed back to the Latin Corner for lunch. I might have had the best panini of my life. Thank goodness for french bread. Let's just say it was amazing. We ordered our paninis to go and then ate outside looking up at Notre Dame. It was a nice little view :P
Outside of Notre Dame
I have been startled by how aggressive beggars are here. Meg had warned us of some of the schemes they have. One is when these ladies come up to you saying they're from Somalia and that their family needs money, etc. Turns out they're not even from Somalia. They come up to you and ask if you speak English. Luckily, as I mentioned, Meg has warned us about this, so we said no. After lunch we walked through Notre Dame and the crypt. From there we headed to San Chappelle. The stained glass there is absolutely beautiful! A lot of the tourists spots in Paris are centrally located, so we never needed to walk far to our next destination. We walked about 2 steps to the Concierge, the jail where Maria Antoinette was jailed and executed. It was pretty cool to see her old cell.
At this point in time it was later in the day, so we were hoping the line to climb the tower at Notre Dame would have calmed down. We were in luck. Next to the line there's a man that imitates the hunchback of Notre Dame by wearing a mask. He walks around and scares tourists and then asks for money. I had seen him earlier in the day, but was still fooled. I was walking with two of my friends when I felt something suddenly around my arm. I heard my friend say, "Oh my god!" I looked down and yelled like there was no tomorrow. Needless to say, the tourists watching this in line got quite a kick out of it. I, however, didn't find it so funny. I wasn't the only one. He continued his routine while we were standing in line, but he scared one girl really badly. The girl's sister started yelling at him in French and that was all that we saw of the impersonator that day!
The view from the top was really cool. I'm glad we climbed it. One could definitely call Paris the city of steps--my goodness, they're everywhere! I've come to realize how spoiled and lazy we are in the States. After our decent, we headed over to the Pompidou museum. It's modern and contemporary art and I can't really say I was feeling it. The building, however, is great! All of the pipes are on the outside because they wanted to have more space for art on the inside. If you're headed to Paris soon, my personal recommendation would to be to check out the building, but skip the museum.
We made it to the top!
The outside of the Pompidou
Day 3: Sunday morning we took a train out to Versailles with about 10,000 of our closest friends. We tried to get out early to beat the crowds, but unfortunately didn't quite accomplish either. The palace was pretty cool. I enjoyed the Hall of Mirrors and Marie Antoinette's bedroom. We skipped out on the gardens because we didn't have enough time, nor did we want to pay an additional entrance fee for them. At this point in time, I spilt up with my friends to go back into the city to meet Meghan. We went to go see the Catacombs, which are amazing! My understanding of them is that it was constructed when the plague hit Paris. Hundreds upon thousands of people were dying and they had no where to bury them, so they dug up old graves and put them there. You can probably guess what the next problem was. Where to put the old bodies? They decided to arrange them in an artistic manner several floor below street level--all SIX MILLION of them. It's pretty creepy, but completely worth it. Thanks to Rick Steve's advice, we knew we couldn't steal any of the bones because someone checks your bags at the end. I can't say I was planning on stealing anything, but thank you anyway, Rick.
The very lovely catacombs
After the catacombs, I went to join up with my friends from my program at the sewer tour! Yes, you read that right, the sewer tour. We went because it was included in the museum pass. I can't say it would be high on my list of recommendations. From there we went to go climb more stairs at the Arc de Triomphe! It was a really cool view! Our tour guide told us that an accident happens once every 30 seconds there. When it was constructed they didn't plan for cars to drive around it, so there aren't any lanes. Let's just say, I was very happy I didn't have to drive there.
The view from the Arc de Triomphe
After the Arc and such a long day we were all absolutely exhausted! Our feet and entire bodies in general were killing us. After a little mistake with trying to read the map, we decided to just eat dinner close to our hotel.
Day 4: On Monday we slept in a little bit and then headed back to the Latin Quarter for the New Europe free walking tour. I don't know if anyone has ever heard of this, but I would really recommend them! There are all of these free walking tours around major european cities. At the end the guides ask for tips and they're really not pushy about it. I went on another one of their tours in London.
After the tour we headed up to an area called Monmontre (the area where Amelie was filmed). We stopped at a famous cemetery and walked around a bit. We were in search of Jim Morrison's grave, but to no avail. There's not really a map of the place, so it's hard to find specific the tombs.
Rachel street!
The Monmontre cemetary
Outside of the Moulin Rouge
From the cemetery, we walked up the hill to Sacre Cour, and of course we felt that it was necessary to stop again for crepes! At the top of the hill is the Sacre Cour cathedral. We made a quick lap through it and then headed back down to the touristy shops. Our next stop was the ever so important, Moulin Rouge! It was fun to see that, but I can't say it was anything too special. We met up with Meghan for our last dinner in Paris and then headed to Notre Dame to see it at night and say our final goodbyes to Paris.
Day 5: On our way to London! It was only my friend Allison and I that traveled to London. The other two girls we were with went to Barcelona instead. Our train from the airport let out at King's Cross, so we made sure to visit platform nine and three-quarters. (That's a Harry Potter reference, just in case you haven't read the books.) We were a little shocked when we got to the hostel. We had a lot of trouble booking it online, and just ended up settling for a 9 bed mixed gender room with bunk beds stacked 3 beds high. We got there at the same time as our five 30-year-old spanish male roommates we moving in too! There weren't anything problems or anything, but I think I'm going to stick to private hostel rooms from now on.
After settling into the hostel we took the tube to the Tower of London, with a stop for fish and chips on the way. I'm not really a fish eater, but felt it was important to try the famous English tradition and it was actually pretty good. The Tower of London was pretty neat. the crown jewels are kept there. They literally have a moving walkway going around them so you can't stop at take a good look. I went through twice, though. We also took a tour with a beefeater! Supposedly a lot of famous prisoners were kept there back in the day. Several of Henry VIII's wives were killed there, too.
After the Tower of London we went to Leicester's (pronounced Lester) square. It's the theater district and they have a lot of different booths like that one in NYC that sell discounted tickets to shows. Allison and I bought tickets for Les Misérables and Spring Awakening. Leicester's Square is really close to Trafalgar's square so we headed over there next. We had dinner in the area, headed to Picadilly Circus to check it out and then took the tube back to the hostel.
Day 6: We walked around Hyde Park for a little while before going on the New Europe free tour of London. Our tour guide had actually just graduated for University of Wisconsin, was from the Chicago suburbs and knew someone I went to high school with. All of this traveling has really made the world seem small! I really admired what this girl did. She didn't have a job coming out of college, so she just booked a one-way ticket to London and said she'd figure it out when she got there! I hope I have the chutzpah to do something similar, but hopefully I'll have a job before leaving (fingers crossed.) The tour took started at the Wellington Arch and from there we went to the following places: Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, St. James Place, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar's Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the houses of Parliament.
Allison and me outside of Buckingham Palace
Posing as a guard
Oh yes, this cheesy touristy photo was completely necessary!
Later that afternoon we headed to Harrod's. My friend Allison had never heard of it, but I made us stop by. I even got a famous Harrod's cupcake and then wait, get ready...ate it on Abbey Road! That evening we went to go see Les Misérables. When we bought the tickets the guy said it was restricted viewing, which he defined as not being able to see the back of the set. In reality, it meant we couldn't see the entire left side of the stage! All in all it wasn't that bad considering this was my third time seeing it. It was great to just listen to the music.
Eating my delicious Harrod's cupcake on Abbey Road
Walking across Abbey Road, I'm a few Beatles member's short though
Day 7: We headed to the British Museum bright and early. The one thing I was really interested in seeing was the Rosetta Stone, so that was our first stop. After that we walked all the way to St. Paul. When we got there it was closed. Oops. At least I got to see the outside. In the afternoon we went to the National Gallery. It's a really great museum and even better because it's free--as are most museums in London. To complicate matters a bit, I needed to register for fall classes in London. Of course the journalism department didn't have anything together, so the process was a tinsy bit stressful, but I ended up getting into all of the classes I wanted. (It's good to have senior status.)
We had heard that if you go to St. Paul's or Westminster for evensong it's free, so we figured that would be a good way to avoid the steep entry costs. We ran to Westminster and just made it in time for the evensong. I was expecting a choir, boy was I wrong. It was a full blown service, communion and everything included. I might have feel asleep for a little bit...After about an hour, we decided we would peace out a little early.
Me and my buddy, Big Ben
We were cutting it a bit close to Spring Awakening. I really enjoyed the musical. A friend had recommended it, but we went into it a little blindly, not knowing the story of anything. It's actually a play from the end of the 19th century that has been converted into a musical.
Day 8: For our last full day in England, we went on a tour of Hamden Court Palace, Stonehenge and Bath. We were supposed to go to Windsor Castle, the queen's residence, instead of Hamden Court Palace, but unfortunately it was closed for the day. Hamden Court Palace was still nice. King Henry XIII and William and Mary lived there back in the day. Stonehenge is pretty self-explanatory. We just stopped there briefly considering there's not actually too much to do there.
In Bath we went on a tour of the ancient Roman Bathes and then briefly walked around town. When we got back into London, we made our way to the first pub in a pub crawl we had heard about. It was fun, but neither Allison nor I had a problem with leaving early.
The Roman Bathes
Day 9: We headed to Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It's a cute area and the market was nice. I was expecting everything to be cheaper, though. We walked around the market for awhile. On our way back my dreams came true when we found a bagel store! It was fabulous. If I had to make a list about the things I miss, bagels would be number 1, and then free soda refills and Walgreens would be right behind that.
Perhaps one of the most important stops of the trip
The next weekend I went to Lisbon, Portugal with my communications interest group. The drive there is a bit on the longer side, about 6 hours. An hour and fifteen minute into the ride we stopped for breakfast. I don't know what it is with Spaniards and their breakfasts! Unfortunately, the weather while we were in Lisbon was on the verge of terrible. It rained the entire time we were there. Despite the rain, the beauty of the city still came through. I guess I'm just going to have to go back some day! When we got there we had a little bit of free time and then went to visit a Portuguese newspaper. Me and about 6 other kids got into the elevator to go up to the meeting room. We didn't realize it was just on the second floor, so the rest of the group walked up the stairs. Our guide didn't give us directions for where to go after we got out of the elevator so we just waited in the foyer thinking he would come and get us. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we went back downstairs and told the security guard we didn't know where our group was. He escorted us to the meeting room, where our guide had pretty much finished his presentation. Woops! The other kids in the group said it was kind of boring, so I guess we didn't really miss too much. After that we went on a small little tour. We got to see the famous monastery, a famous sculpture and some other things. Perhaps you can tell that none of the information really set in. That night my friends and I just stayed in the area for dinner.
On top of the large nautical statue (from left to right Julie, Me, Lauren and Molly)
On Saturday morning we drove out to Sintra. It's turned into a little touristy town and it's known for it's amazing old palaces. I really enjoyed going there. After Sintra we drove back into Lisbon and went up this sight seeing tower. It's wasn't closed in and it was still raining. Needless to say the rain won and we headed back to the hotel. That night we went out for dinner in the one of Lisbon's "trendy" areas. It was a nice little dinner. Overall, we didn't actually do too much in Portugal. I would definitely like to go back though!
Posing in Sintra (from left to right: Julie, Me, Molly and Lauren)
The following weekend I left for Italy and Prague! There's a week long festival called Feria, so I had another week off of school. This is certainly the life over here. One thing I've learned is that traveling is all about being flexible. My first "setback" was when my friends I was supposed to go to Venice told me they couldn't go anymore. I had already booked my plane ticket, which couldn't be cancelled, so I decided I would just go by myself. Venice was always a city I really wanted to see. When I got there I took the waterbus to the hotel. I seriously think Venice should consider renaming it to the water-slug considering it took well over an hour for me to get to my stop. After finding the hotel, I crashed for a few minutes. My flight was at 6:30 that morning and I had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep. After convincing myself that I had to get out of the hotel room because I was in VENICE, I wandered around for a little and then went to lunch. After lunch I went to Murano, the glass blowing island. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I got to see several steps of the process. I think my favorite was seeing one guy mold glass into a bird. Murano also has tons of little shops with artwork made on the island. I couldn't resist walking around for awhile.
Glass blown art in Murano
Softening the glass
The bird sculptor himself!
When I got back from Murano, I decided it would be best to go and buy my train ticket to Milan for the next day. After having some more waterbus/slug trouble, I finally landed on the main island to start my search for the train station. I figured it made sense to make a gelato stop in an attempt to calm my nerves. The gelato was long gone before I even got close to the train station. I used several navigating techniques that would have landed Columbus in the Central Africa Republic, an African nation that does not border water...my general navigation technique was called, well, I can't find myself on the map, so I'm just going to keep walking until I can. After at least an hour of searching I found the train station! Unfortunately, coming back was just as much of a problem. It might have taken me even longer to find the hotel. After wandering for awhile I decided to have dinner on the grand canal. That was pretty cool. After my exhausting day and being so tired from not really sleeping the night before, I called it quits at like 9:30pm. I headed back to the hotel and passed out. It might have been the earliest I've gone to bed in years.
On the grand canal
The next moring I was nervous about getting to the train station so I literally gave myself three hours to get there. I'm glad I did too! It was some sort of national holiday so not only were the tourist flooding the streets, the locals were too. It's didn't quite take me the three hours to get there, so I sat outside and took in the sun for awhile. While it's always good to plan in advance, I really don't think I needed to go the day before to buy my train ticket. In my car of 105 seat, there were 5 people. But hey, better safe than sorry!
When I arrived in Milan I took the metro to Anna's house. Anna was my cousin's babysitter when they were young. They've stayed in touch with her and she was very generous to lend me her couch for the night--on top of being my tour guide! When I got to her house she put out a "little" lunch spread. We had 3 different types of ham, melon, salad, fresh buffalo mozzarella, wine, etc, etc. I was in heaven! After our "little" lunch we set out to explore Milano. The area that Anna lives in is a popular night club district. During the day it was relatively quiet, but when we got back it was bouncing. On my tour, Anna took me to the duomo and many other sights. The weekend I was visiting there was a furniture and design expo. There were exhibits throughout the city. Some were just on the street and others were in stores. We stopped in this temporary store where we got some free martinis. There was an open showroom at Missoni, so we stopped in there too.
Anna's apartment building
This was a water fountain and it was part of the furniture and design expo
Well, in an effort to keep my sanity and also keep this blog from being obnoxiously long, I will carry on with my other adventures in another post. As your can probably tell, I wasn't able to keep up with my writing too well. Much of this post was written while I was still in España. I am still interesting in blogging despite the fact that I'm home, because this has served as my journal and I wouldn't want to leave that unfinished.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
The next weekend I was off to Paris and London with my friends. I absolutely loved Paris. It's such a charming city. When we got there we met up with my friend Meghan from IU. She was a doll and waited for us for an hour since getting back from the airport took longer than planned. We met up at Notre Dame and stopped by one of Meghan's favorite bookstores, Shakespeare and Co. From there we walked along the Seine to the Lourve. I knew the Lourve was big, but I did not expect it to be quite as big as it is! An entire army, or two, could live in it. I was in awe. We decided to buy a two day museum pass which gave us access to about 40 different museums for only 30 or so euros. After purchasing those at the Lourve, we walked through the Tuillery Gardens and had our first very important stop--crepes! (I really miss those.) From there we continued through the gardens on to Champs Elysses and then the Eiffel tower!
Allison, Briana and me at the Eiffel Tower!
Day 2: We met up bright and early at the Lourve to avoid the lines. We saw the highlights like Mona, Venus Di Milo, etc.
Meg and me in the Lourve
Our next museum was the Orsay. I think it was my favorite one of the entire trip. It's all pre-impressionist through post-impressionist art, which I've realized is the time period I enjoy most. The museum itself is also really neat, because the building is an old train station. I wouldn't call it a very efficient space, but it definitely works. After the Orsay we headed back to the Latin Corner for lunch. I might have had the best panini of my life. Thank goodness for french bread. Let's just say it was amazing. We ordered our paninis to go and then ate outside looking up at Notre Dame. It was a nice little view :P
Outside of Notre Dame
I have been startled by how aggressive beggars are here. Meg had warned us of some of the schemes they have. One is when these ladies come up to you saying they're from Somalia and that their family needs money, etc. Turns out they're not even from Somalia. They come up to you and ask if you speak English. Luckily, as I mentioned, Meg has warned us about this, so we said no. After lunch we walked through Notre Dame and the crypt. From there we headed to San Chappelle. The stained glass there is absolutely beautiful! A lot of the tourists spots in Paris are centrally located, so we never needed to walk far to our next destination. We walked about 2 steps to the Concierge, the jail where Maria Antoinette was jailed and executed. It was pretty cool to see her old cell.
At this point in time it was later in the day, so we were hoping the line to climb the tower at Notre Dame would have calmed down. We were in luck. Next to the line there's a man that imitates the hunchback of Notre Dame by wearing a mask. He walks around and scares tourists and then asks for money. I had seen him earlier in the day, but was still fooled. I was walking with two of my friends when I felt something suddenly around my arm. I heard my friend say, "Oh my god!" I looked down and yelled like there was no tomorrow. Needless to say, the tourists watching this in line got quite a kick out of it. I, however, didn't find it so funny. I wasn't the only one. He continued his routine while we were standing in line, but he scared one girl really badly. The girl's sister started yelling at him in French and that was all that we saw of the impersonator that day!
The view from the top was really cool. I'm glad we climbed it. One could definitely call Paris the city of steps--my goodness, they're everywhere! I've come to realize how spoiled and lazy we are in the States. After our decent, we headed over to the Pompidou museum. It's modern and contemporary art and I can't really say I was feeling it. The building, however, is great! All of the pipes are on the outside because they wanted to have more space for art on the inside. If you're headed to Paris soon, my personal recommendation would to be to check out the building, but skip the museum.
We made it to the top!
The outside of the Pompidou
Day 3: Sunday morning we took a train out to Versailles with about 10,000 of our closest friends. We tried to get out early to beat the crowds, but unfortunately didn't quite accomplish either. The palace was pretty cool. I enjoyed the Hall of Mirrors and Marie Antoinette's bedroom. We skipped out on the gardens because we didn't have enough time, nor did we want to pay an additional entrance fee for them. At this point in time, I spilt up with my friends to go back into the city to meet Meghan. We went to go see the Catacombs, which are amazing! My understanding of them is that it was constructed when the plague hit Paris. Hundreds upon thousands of people were dying and they had no where to bury them, so they dug up old graves and put them there. You can probably guess what the next problem was. Where to put the old bodies? They decided to arrange them in an artistic manner several floor below street level--all SIX MILLION of them. It's pretty creepy, but completely worth it. Thanks to Rick Steve's advice, we knew we couldn't steal any of the bones because someone checks your bags at the end. I can't say I was planning on stealing anything, but thank you anyway, Rick.
The very lovely catacombs
After the catacombs, I went to join up with my friends from my program at the sewer tour! Yes, you read that right, the sewer tour. We went because it was included in the museum pass. I can't say it would be high on my list of recommendations. From there we went to go climb more stairs at the Arc de Triomphe! It was a really cool view! Our tour guide told us that an accident happens once every 30 seconds there. When it was constructed they didn't plan for cars to drive around it, so there aren't any lanes. Let's just say, I was very happy I didn't have to drive there.
The view from the Arc de Triomphe
After the Arc and such a long day we were all absolutely exhausted! Our feet and entire bodies in general were killing us. After a little mistake with trying to read the map, we decided to just eat dinner close to our hotel.
Day 4: On Monday we slept in a little bit and then headed back to the Latin Quarter for the New Europe free walking tour. I don't know if anyone has ever heard of this, but I would really recommend them! There are all of these free walking tours around major european cities. At the end the guides ask for tips and they're really not pushy about it. I went on another one of their tours in London.
After the tour we headed up to an area called Monmontre (the area where Amelie was filmed). We stopped at a famous cemetery and walked around a bit. We were in search of Jim Morrison's grave, but to no avail. There's not really a map of the place, so it's hard to find specific the tombs.
Rachel street!
The Monmontre cemetary
Outside of the Moulin Rouge
From the cemetery, we walked up the hill to Sacre Cour, and of course we felt that it was necessary to stop again for crepes! At the top of the hill is the Sacre Cour cathedral. We made a quick lap through it and then headed back down to the touristy shops. Our next stop was the ever so important, Moulin Rouge! It was fun to see that, but I can't say it was anything too special. We met up with Meghan for our last dinner in Paris and then headed to Notre Dame to see it at night and say our final goodbyes to Paris.
Day 5: On our way to London! It was only my friend Allison and I that traveled to London. The other two girls we were with went to Barcelona instead. Our train from the airport let out at King's Cross, so we made sure to visit platform nine and three-quarters. (That's a Harry Potter reference, just in case you haven't read the books.) We were a little shocked when we got to the hostel. We had a lot of trouble booking it online, and just ended up settling for a 9 bed mixed gender room with bunk beds stacked 3 beds high. We got there at the same time as our five 30-year-old spanish male roommates we moving in too! There weren't anything problems or anything, but I think I'm going to stick to private hostel rooms from now on.
After settling into the hostel we took the tube to the Tower of London, with a stop for fish and chips on the way. I'm not really a fish eater, but felt it was important to try the famous English tradition and it was actually pretty good. The Tower of London was pretty neat. the crown jewels are kept there. They literally have a moving walkway going around them so you can't stop at take a good look. I went through twice, though. We also took a tour with a beefeater! Supposedly a lot of famous prisoners were kept there back in the day. Several of Henry VIII's wives were killed there, too.
After the Tower of London we went to Leicester's (pronounced Lester) square. It's the theater district and they have a lot of different booths like that one in NYC that sell discounted tickets to shows. Allison and I bought tickets for Les Misérables and Spring Awakening. Leicester's Square is really close to Trafalgar's square so we headed over there next. We had dinner in the area, headed to Picadilly Circus to check it out and then took the tube back to the hostel.
Day 6: We walked around Hyde Park for a little while before going on the New Europe free tour of London. Our tour guide had actually just graduated for University of Wisconsin, was from the Chicago suburbs and knew someone I went to high school with. All of this traveling has really made the world seem small! I really admired what this girl did. She didn't have a job coming out of college, so she just booked a one-way ticket to London and said she'd figure it out when she got there! I hope I have the chutzpah to do something similar, but hopefully I'll have a job before leaving (fingers crossed.) The tour took started at the Wellington Arch and from there we went to the following places: Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, St. James Place, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar's Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the houses of Parliament.
Allison and me outside of Buckingham Palace
Posing as a guard
Oh yes, this cheesy touristy photo was completely necessary!
Later that afternoon we headed to Harrod's. My friend Allison had never heard of it, but I made us stop by. I even got a famous Harrod's cupcake and then wait, get ready...ate it on Abbey Road! That evening we went to go see Les Misérables. When we bought the tickets the guy said it was restricted viewing, which he defined as not being able to see the back of the set. In reality, it meant we couldn't see the entire left side of the stage! All in all it wasn't that bad considering this was my third time seeing it. It was great to just listen to the music.
Eating my delicious Harrod's cupcake on Abbey Road
Walking across Abbey Road, I'm a few Beatles member's short though
Day 7: We headed to the British Museum bright and early. The one thing I was really interested in seeing was the Rosetta Stone, so that was our first stop. After that we walked all the way to St. Paul. When we got there it was closed. Oops. At least I got to see the outside. In the afternoon we went to the National Gallery. It's a really great museum and even better because it's free--as are most museums in London. To complicate matters a bit, I needed to register for fall classes in London. Of course the journalism department didn't have anything together, so the process was a tinsy bit stressful, but I ended up getting into all of the classes I wanted. (It's good to have senior status.)
We had heard that if you go to St. Paul's or Westminster for evensong it's free, so we figured that would be a good way to avoid the steep entry costs. We ran to Westminster and just made it in time for the evensong. I was expecting a choir, boy was I wrong. It was a full blown service, communion and everything included. I might have feel asleep for a little bit...After about an hour, we decided we would peace out a little early.
Me and my buddy, Big Ben
We were cutting it a bit close to Spring Awakening. I really enjoyed the musical. A friend had recommended it, but we went into it a little blindly, not knowing the story of anything. It's actually a play from the end of the 19th century that has been converted into a musical.
Day 8: For our last full day in England, we went on a tour of Hamden Court Palace, Stonehenge and Bath. We were supposed to go to Windsor Castle, the queen's residence, instead of Hamden Court Palace, but unfortunately it was closed for the day. Hamden Court Palace was still nice. King Henry XIII and William and Mary lived there back in the day. Stonehenge is pretty self-explanatory. We just stopped there briefly considering there's not actually too much to do there.
In Bath we went on a tour of the ancient Roman Bathes and then briefly walked around town. When we got back into London, we made our way to the first pub in a pub crawl we had heard about. It was fun, but neither Allison nor I had a problem with leaving early.
The Roman Bathes
Day 9: We headed to Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It's a cute area and the market was nice. I was expecting everything to be cheaper, though. We walked around the market for awhile. On our way back my dreams came true when we found a bagel store! It was fabulous. If I had to make a list about the things I miss, bagels would be number 1, and then free soda refills and Walgreens would be right behind that.
Perhaps one of the most important stops of the trip
The next weekend I went to Lisbon, Portugal with my communications interest group. The drive there is a bit on the longer side, about 6 hours. An hour and fifteen minute into the ride we stopped for breakfast. I don't know what it is with Spaniards and their breakfasts! Unfortunately, the weather while we were in Lisbon was on the verge of terrible. It rained the entire time we were there. Despite the rain, the beauty of the city still came through. I guess I'm just going to have to go back some day! When we got there we had a little bit of free time and then went to visit a Portuguese newspaper. Me and about 6 other kids got into the elevator to go up to the meeting room. We didn't realize it was just on the second floor, so the rest of the group walked up the stairs. Our guide didn't give us directions for where to go after we got out of the elevator so we just waited in the foyer thinking he would come and get us. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we went back downstairs and told the security guard we didn't know where our group was. He escorted us to the meeting room, where our guide had pretty much finished his presentation. Woops! The other kids in the group said it was kind of boring, so I guess we didn't really miss too much. After that we went on a small little tour. We got to see the famous monastery, a famous sculpture and some other things. Perhaps you can tell that none of the information really set in. That night my friends and I just stayed in the area for dinner.
On top of the large nautical statue (from left to right Julie, Me, Lauren and Molly)
On Saturday morning we drove out to Sintra. It's turned into a little touristy town and it's known for it's amazing old palaces. I really enjoyed going there. After Sintra we drove back into Lisbon and went up this sight seeing tower. It's wasn't closed in and it was still raining. Needless to say the rain won and we headed back to the hotel. That night we went out for dinner in the one of Lisbon's "trendy" areas. It was a nice little dinner. Overall, we didn't actually do too much in Portugal. I would definitely like to go back though!
Posing in Sintra (from left to right: Julie, Me, Molly and Lauren)
The following weekend I left for Italy and Prague! There's a week long festival called Feria, so I had another week off of school. This is certainly the life over here. One thing I've learned is that traveling is all about being flexible. My first "setback" was when my friends I was supposed to go to Venice told me they couldn't go anymore. I had already booked my plane ticket, which couldn't be cancelled, so I decided I would just go by myself. Venice was always a city I really wanted to see. When I got there I took the waterbus to the hotel. I seriously think Venice should consider renaming it to the water-slug considering it took well over an hour for me to get to my stop. After finding the hotel, I crashed for a few minutes. My flight was at 6:30 that morning and I had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep. After convincing myself that I had to get out of the hotel room because I was in VENICE, I wandered around for a little and then went to lunch. After lunch I went to Murano, the glass blowing island. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I got to see several steps of the process. I think my favorite was seeing one guy mold glass into a bird. Murano also has tons of little shops with artwork made on the island. I couldn't resist walking around for awhile.
Glass blown art in Murano
Softening the glass
The bird sculptor himself!
When I got back from Murano, I decided it would be best to go and buy my train ticket to Milan for the next day. After having some more waterbus/slug trouble, I finally landed on the main island to start my search for the train station. I figured it made sense to make a gelato stop in an attempt to calm my nerves. The gelato was long gone before I even got close to the train station. I used several navigating techniques that would have landed Columbus in the Central Africa Republic, an African nation that does not border water...my general navigation technique was called, well, I can't find myself on the map, so I'm just going to keep walking until I can. After at least an hour of searching I found the train station! Unfortunately, coming back was just as much of a problem. It might have taken me even longer to find the hotel. After wandering for awhile I decided to have dinner on the grand canal. That was pretty cool. After my exhausting day and being so tired from not really sleeping the night before, I called it quits at like 9:30pm. I headed back to the hotel and passed out. It might have been the earliest I've gone to bed in years.
On the grand canal
The next moring I was nervous about getting to the train station so I literally gave myself three hours to get there. I'm glad I did too! It was some sort of national holiday so not only were the tourist flooding the streets, the locals were too. It's didn't quite take me the three hours to get there, so I sat outside and took in the sun for awhile. While it's always good to plan in advance, I really don't think I needed to go the day before to buy my train ticket. In my car of 105 seat, there were 5 people. But hey, better safe than sorry!
When I arrived in Milan I took the metro to Anna's house. Anna was my cousin's babysitter when they were young. They've stayed in touch with her and she was very generous to lend me her couch for the night--on top of being my tour guide! When I got to her house she put out a "little" lunch spread. We had 3 different types of ham, melon, salad, fresh buffalo mozzarella, wine, etc, etc. I was in heaven! After our "little" lunch we set out to explore Milano. The area that Anna lives in is a popular night club district. During the day it was relatively quiet, but when we got back it was bouncing. On my tour, Anna took me to the duomo and many other sights. The weekend I was visiting there was a furniture and design expo. There were exhibits throughout the city. Some were just on the street and others were in stores. We stopped in this temporary store where we got some free martinis. There was an open showroom at Missoni, so we stopped in there too.
Anna's apartment building
This was a water fountain and it was part of the furniture and design expo
Well, in an effort to keep my sanity and also keep this blog from being obnoxiously long, I will carry on with my other adventures in another post. As your can probably tell, I wasn't able to keep up with my writing too well. Much of this post was written while I was still in España. I am still interesting in blogging despite the fact that I'm home, because this has served as my journal and I wouldn't want to leave that unfinished.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
Thursday, March 26, 2009
I'm going to leave kicking and screaming!
The past few weeks have been a blast. Minus 4 midterms, I've really been enjoying myself. I just finished my last one on Wednesday. Let's see here, to start where I left off. Two sundays ago I had a day trip to Aracena. It's a tiny town a few hours Northwest of Sevilla. On our way we stopped at some mines. The adjacent lake has a reddish tint, which is very pretty. The guide was telling us it has something to do with the copper or the other minerals. The area by the mines is used by NASA to simulate Mars. Needless to say, the area was slightly creepy.
The Riotinto
Here you can see the red tint better
Me and some friends. Clockwise from left: Colleen, Allison, Briana, Me, Julie, Danielle and Claire
Guess who?
The pretty Aracena sky
From the mines we headed to Aracena. We had too much free time (considering there's not too much to do there) and then met to see the caves. These caves were much larger than the ones we had seen in Gibraltar the day before. (It was a cave filled weekend...) The tour was about 45 minutes long, to give you an idea of how vast they really are. Sadly, they didn't allow pictures because the caves are living organisms. I guess you'll just have to visit it for yourself.
The week after Aracena was a bit of a stressful one with three of my four midterms. I've already gotten two of the grades back and they didn't go half-bad. The grading system here is very different. Everything is on a scale of ten points. A nine doesn't transfer back as an A-, they give us a bit of extra room so it's something like an 8.75 is an A-. I'm not sure if Spanish students are just lazy or if Spanish Professor grade harder, but the true average grade here is a 5. Even having a 5 average supposedly would get you into a good grad school. In our program handbook it explains that grades are not inflated here, like they are at home. I was talking about it at dinner last night with Antonio and Antonia and they said their kids never get above 8 and that they're good students. I know José Alberto has a scholarship, too. There was an information session for the kids interested in taking university classes and I heard that they told them if they do any work at all they'd be ahead of the Spanish students. That leads me to believe the grades are a combination of laziness and tough grading.
Every week seems to pass by so quickly here. Last weekend I went to MOROCCO! It was absolutely amazing. I had such a great time. We met at 5:45am on Friday at the Toro del Oro (a famous landmark) in Sevilla. From there we drove about 2 hours to a town called Tarifa. There's a boat called the fast ferry that goes between Spain and Morocco. The boat ride there was a breeze. It was super easy to go through customs (I'm starting to think the US is the only country that's crazy.) The night before I left my señora asked if I wanted a bocadillo (sandwich) and I said yes, but that I was concerned about bringing it through customs. Her response was, "Raquel, you're not going to the US." I got a kick out of that. I guess when they went to NY in January they had some minor issues getting through customs. Antonia had packed lunches for everyone and then when they got to Newark and were asked if they had any food Alvaro told them they had a lot. The customs agent also asked how old he was and he said he was in the institute. They called high school here el instituto, which obviously doesn't translate so well. José Alberto then corrected him and explained to that guy that he was actually in high school. It sounded like a funny exchange. I can only imagine how funny some of the things I say must be.
Back to Morocco, getting in was easy. Then we all got on the bus and they asked if anyone needed to exchange euros to dirham. Of course everyone did, so then we all got off the bus to go to the exchange places. It was kind of difficult to have to calculate multiple exchange rates. For instance, 10 dirham=1 euro=$1.30...more or less. I was expecting everything in Morocco to be really cheap, sadly that wasn't the case. The few meals that we had were cheap, but all of the chotzkes I wanted to buy weren't so cheap. So, after getting settled on the bus for a second time we started our journey to Chefchaouen, leaving Tangier. We made a random stop in this town which lined the side of the highway. There were maybe 10 buildings total, most of them restaurants. We wanted to try the food. One guy spoke spanish so we told him we wanted chicken. He said they didn't have a lot of chicken so he would give us beef. We decided it was best to just leave it, so we were served beef.
The carcasses on the side of the road aka lunch
The beef that we ended up with
After lunch we continued the never ending drive to Chefchaouen. The drive was on this tiny two-land highway that went through the mountains. I don't think the actually distance from Tangier to Chefchaouen is that far, but it takes a long time to get there considering it's on a very windy road.
Chefchaouen is an absolutely gorgeous little town. The population is only around 35,000, so it's on the smaller size. All of the buildings are painted blue and white. The blue is to keep the flies away and the white is to keep the house cool. An added benefit is how beautiful it makes the town look. This was our first "labyrinth". They warned us that the town of Chefchaouen doesn't even compare to Fez's labyrinth. We had a local guide who led us around, but we weren't actually there for too long.
Welcome to the picturesque town of Chefchaouen
When the ground is painted blue it means that it's a dead end.
This is the public bathhouse. If you look to the right you can see three cathedral ceiling. They each have a different water temperature.
More blue!
This is the community oven. If you want to use it you either need to pay them or bake an extra loaf of bread to give to them.
I want to live here!
Lots of dye!
Perhaps you get the idea by now. I just couldn't stop taking pictures. It was absolutely beautiful.
After leaving Chefchaouen we continued for another 3 plus hours to Fez. Friday we did a lot of driving. Probably the most I've ever done in a day, and I would like to keep it like that. When we got to Fez we were all exhausted so we ate dinner at the hotel and went right to bed. We were warned about several things before going to Morocco. Two of them being be careful with the food and do not under any circumstance drink the water. You even need to use bottled water to brush your teeth!
We were very lucky with the hotel we ended up staying at! We were supposed to stay at another hotel and I had made the mistake of looking it up online. It got terrible reviews so the whole day I was freaking out about it. That hotel was overbooked because the king was in town, so all of us were bumped up to another hotel. It was actually a Ramada, but it was super nice, 5 stars. (Which mind you is not the same rating as the US or even Europe, but still very nice.)
Saturday morning we had to wake up early again to meet to get on the bus at 8:30. Our first stop was the King's Palace. We didn't actually go inside, but it was cool to be there, especially considering that the king was in town. The entire front of the palace is mosaic. It's absolutely gorgeous and it reaffirmed my dream of hiring a Moroccan architecture to build my future house.
The King's Palace
Up close and personal
I believe this was the exact moment I decided I was going to hire a Moroccan architect
From the palace we went to this mountain which has a good view of the entire city, especially the Medina. Medina means city, but it refers to the old part of the city or the labyrinth, which our guide only repeated about 10,000 times. Half a million people live in this small area. There are between 9,000 and 15,000 tiny streets. Cars and motorcycles aren't allowed in, only donkeys are permitted. No joke. They use the donkeys to help transport stuff.
The view of the Medina from the mountain
Since the streets are so small you'll hear "watch out" in either french or arabic and then you need to hug the wall so the donkey loaded with various things can get through. It's really funny. They had warned us that it is imperative to stay together as a group because you can easily get lost. I thought they might be exaggerating a little to make us worry, but they definitely were not. If you get 5 paces behind the group you could easily lose them. It was funny though because the locals would see everyone pass and then point you in the right direction. I can't even explain how cool the medina was. It was full of twists and turns. The streets are lined with vendors. The food all looked so amazing, but I was too afraid to try any of it. Additionally, the swarms of flies on the veggies didn't look all that appealing. The colors were beautiful, though. There were also a ton of other different vendors, from clothing, to chotzkes to fabrics, etc.
Donkey crossing--watch out!
Our first in the Medina was at a University. Our guide claimed it was the oldest in the world. Not quite sure about that, but either way, it is very old. It's a really pretty building and I would be happy to study there. It puts IU in the dust.
Two different views of the University
After the university we wondered around some more and went to a leather tannery. It smelled really bad so they gave us mint leaves to hold to our noses. A gentleman explained the entire process, but I'm afraid I don't remember it. A very vague outline is that they bring the hides straight from the slaughter house and then the first step is to clean them and get all of the blood off. From there they need to sit out and dry and then I think they dye then. I could be making all of that up, but that's what I remember. On the bottom floor of the tannery there was a store where we were all pressured into buying things. It was appealing since we were all told, "for you, special price." I didn't succumb to the pressure, partially because I thought we would have more time to shop. Sadly, we didn't. I guess that just means I'll need to go back!
Looking down on the tannery
Up close of the dyes
The hides air drying
Smelling the mint to escape the nasty smell of the leather
Pretty shoes at the tannery that I'm regretting not purchasing
From the tannery we went to a loom factory. That's not the name, however I can't seem to think of it. There were several men working on looms and then they sold their products there. I couldn't resist and got two scarves. They're absolutely gorgeous and I can even say I saw the place that they were made. They made things as small as scarves to larger items like table cloths. They even showed us how to wear the traditional headscarf. It was definitely a tourist trap, but I still really enjoyed it. The only slightly sketchy thing was that I think our guide got a commission from most of the places he visited. They use bargaining for purchases, so our guide would say, "very, very good price," but I think he was lying. Other than that though, it was great.
Some of the pretty table cloths!
Getting some help with the head scarf tied
The final product :)
All of the girls. Clockwise from the left: Jen, Briana, Allison, Kelly, Andrea, Kathleen and Me.
An example of the busy medina streets
Getting geared up with some soft drinks
Right after I took this picture one of the men was getting ready to kill a chicken. Needless to say, I ran screaming.
After the scarf shop we went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we had the option of going on a tour of the ceramic and mosaic school and to the mosque or free time. Another warning we received prior to arriving was to spend as little time as possible away from the group. Needless to say, we went on the tour. The ceramic and mosaic school was really cool. They showed us all of the different steps and then of course there was a store. We saw two guys building stuff on the pottery wheels and I thought it was really interesting that it was completely manual. All of the wheels I've ever used have been electric and I've still had a hard time keeping the same speed. It's important to keep the same speed so that your work will be even on all side. These guys were controlling it just with the force of their feet. This time I caved into the pressure and bought a few souvenirs in the shop.
Example of the manually controlled wheel
Ceramics at the store
Our next stop was one of the mosques. Our guide told us that this is the only one that allows non-muslims to come inside, but that it can't be turning pray time. It was a pretty building, but there wasn't really too much to it. It's just kind of a large, open room.
The Mosque
Pretty mosaic. (Ps when I got home I told Antonio that I had taken a ton of pictures of tiles and mosaics to show to him. Have I mentioned he owns a ceramic store? I can't tell you if this is true, but he said the best ceramics are made in Sevilla and that people come here from all over to purchase it because the ceramics made in Morocco aren't durable. Please see note in previous blog about me not being able to believe what he says...)
After our tour of the mosque we headed back to the main gate of the medina. My friends and I decided we wanted to stay, while the rest of the group took the bus back to the hotel. Prior to splitting with the group we asked our guide where we could get some henna. He led us to the most obscure place. We only made a few turns, but we were all slightly worried about finding our way out. The first floor of this place looked like a house. We all commented that we felt that this was against our better judgement. The second floor was a rug store and then the third floor was like an apothecary. It was quite bizarre. Our guide set things up with the people working there and told them that we wanted henna. Right before he left we realized that the 7 of us there just spoke english and spanish and that the guys working there probably only spoke french and arabic. We all had minor panic attacks, but the one of the guys started speaking english, so we were relieved. They were all really nice and we couldn't stop laughing the entire time we were there. The henna was a really cool design, but sadly it never got really dark. It was really nice and one the guys walked us back to the main gate so we could catch cabs back to the hotel. My friend Andrea and I were trying to explain facebook to him. He only spoke a little english. He gave us his blog, but seeing that I don't know french, I'm unable to read it. We wrote down the link to facebook, but I don't know if he understood what we were trying to say, nor have I received a friend request yet.
Me and my new friend who's name is written on my hand and means hearts. What a souvenir!
When we got back to the hotel my friend described the day perfectly by saying, "my heart is smiling." I couldn't have agreed with her more. There was just something magical about Fez. That night we were on our own for dinner. We asked at the front desk if it would be safe for a group of 6 of us (all girls) to go out and they said yes. After the sun goes down you do not see women on the street. It was really weird. We walked around the corner to a japanese/moroccan/some other ethnicity that I'm forgetting restaurant. Our table was outside all of these people kept coming up to us trying to sell things. The waiter had to come out a few times to shoe them away. The menu was in french, so it was fun trying to decipher what we were ordering. There was a lot of charades going on. After dinner we went straight back to the hotel to sleep.
We woke up early again on Sunday morning. After we ate breakfast we started our trek back to the coast. Luckily, the drive wasn't so bad this time because we took a real highway and it didn't go through the mountains. On our way there we stopped in a small town called Asilah. It's know as the pearl of the ocean. Frankly, I'm not quite sure how it got that name. I guess it was pretty, but I wouldn't say it was jaw dropping...especially after spending time in Fez. We didn't actually do too much there, just walked around and got a quick tour from the guide. Then we got back on the bus to head to Tangier. On the way there the guide made a comment about the winds and that we were unlucky. I thought he was implying something, but at the time I didn't think too much about it. On the way to Tangier we stopped literally on the side of the highway so people could ride some camels. I opted out of it because they camels looked like they were in so much pain. Every time they stood up and got down they would cry out in pain. It was hard to watch. I figure I'll go on a camel ride somewhere else, and hopefully it won't be quite as much of a spectacle/tourist trap. Besides, I've been on them at fairs and stuff. Also, when I said camel ride, I meant walking in a 5-foot circle, not extremely appealing.
The coastline of Asilah
After the camels we drove to the port where we had some free time for lunch. Unfortunately there weren't a lot of dining options. We stopped at a few places and the most normal sandwich they had was shark, which meant I grabbed a piece of bread and some potato chips at a C-store. I believe it was listed as the lunch of champions. After lunch we traded our money back to euros and went through customs. Again, one of the most lax things I've ever seen. The fast ferry was supposed to leave at 4pm. We kept looking at our watches and couldn't figure out why we weren't leaving and it was after 4:30. As soon as the boat started to move we realized why our departure was later than planned, and also why our guide said we were unlucky. Within moments after we started to move a voice came over the loud speaker telling everyone to stay in their seats due to the rough seas. They also warned us about the sea-sickness bags in the seat pocket in front of us. It didn't take me long to realize that the conditions we were experiencing were not normal. The fast ferry was a pretty large boat, I would say it could hold about 800 passengers. We were literally doing nose dives into the waves. At one point in time if I looked to the right I could only see water and then only see sky if I looked to the left. We continued to rock back and forth. Unfortunately, these conditions were making everyone sick. It was disgusting. I'll spare you the details and just tell you that I had my fingers in my ears and was humming to myself with my eyes closed. What tipped me off about the conditions being worse than normal was the fact that the staff didn't look used to it. Additionally, the snack bar wasn't equipped for waves of this size. Huge coffee machines were flying all over the place. They needed to close everything up because it was falling off the shelves. It was really scary and I was really happy when I got off the boat.
Let's see here, I'm just trying to think of some other things to report. Last week I finally met with an intercambio (speaking partner). Her name is Carmen and she's also 20-years-old. I think we're going to try and meet again next week. Funny enough, the day after I met her I got a text message from intercambio number 4! I think I might try and meet up with her too. The more the merrier.
From Monday to Thursday morning we had 2 french boys staying here. They were 14 and 15-years-old and didn't really speak Spanish. I would talk to them in English (which was also a struggle for them) and my señora would talk to them in French. Let's just say I couldn't keep a straight face during dinner. We couldn't even figure out what town they're from. I think we have 2 more Frenchies next week. At first I was really upset about it, but it wasn't bad. They were only here for dinner and I didn't even have to share my bathroom. (I do feel a little guilty about that...)
The other night after dinner we played a game to see who needed to wash the dishes. It was me, Antonia and Antonio. It was Antonio's idea since he's always the one to wash them. Each person gets 3 coins. You put an undisclosed number in one hand and place your closed fist on the table. Then you have to guess how many coins you think there are all together. There's a maximum of 9 and a minimum of 0. The first one to guess right 5 times wins and then it continues with the 2 remaining people. They were saying that this game is typically played at bars between friends to see who is going to pay for everyone's beer. Antonia was the first to win so the final, intense, sweat-dripping round was between me and Antonio. I won so he needed to wash the dishes. We got a lot of laughs out of the game.
There's not too much else to report. I'm about to go out for the night to celebrate a friend's birthday!
Hasta luego,
Raquelita
The Riotinto
Here you can see the red tint better
Me and some friends. Clockwise from left: Colleen, Allison, Briana, Me, Julie, Danielle and Claire
Guess who?
The pretty Aracena sky
From the mines we headed to Aracena. We had too much free time (considering there's not too much to do there) and then met to see the caves. These caves were much larger than the ones we had seen in Gibraltar the day before. (It was a cave filled weekend...) The tour was about 45 minutes long, to give you an idea of how vast they really are. Sadly, they didn't allow pictures because the caves are living organisms. I guess you'll just have to visit it for yourself.
The week after Aracena was a bit of a stressful one with three of my four midterms. I've already gotten two of the grades back and they didn't go half-bad. The grading system here is very different. Everything is on a scale of ten points. A nine doesn't transfer back as an A-, they give us a bit of extra room so it's something like an 8.75 is an A-. I'm not sure if Spanish students are just lazy or if Spanish Professor grade harder, but the true average grade here is a 5. Even having a 5 average supposedly would get you into a good grad school. In our program handbook it explains that grades are not inflated here, like they are at home. I was talking about it at dinner last night with Antonio and Antonia and they said their kids never get above 8 and that they're good students. I know José Alberto has a scholarship, too. There was an information session for the kids interested in taking university classes and I heard that they told them if they do any work at all they'd be ahead of the Spanish students. That leads me to believe the grades are a combination of laziness and tough grading.
Every week seems to pass by so quickly here. Last weekend I went to MOROCCO! It was absolutely amazing. I had such a great time. We met at 5:45am on Friday at the Toro del Oro (a famous landmark) in Sevilla. From there we drove about 2 hours to a town called Tarifa. There's a boat called the fast ferry that goes between Spain and Morocco. The boat ride there was a breeze. It was super easy to go through customs (I'm starting to think the US is the only country that's crazy.) The night before I left my señora asked if I wanted a bocadillo (sandwich) and I said yes, but that I was concerned about bringing it through customs. Her response was, "Raquel, you're not going to the US." I got a kick out of that. I guess when they went to NY in January they had some minor issues getting through customs. Antonia had packed lunches for everyone and then when they got to Newark and were asked if they had any food Alvaro told them they had a lot. The customs agent also asked how old he was and he said he was in the institute. They called high school here el instituto, which obviously doesn't translate so well. José Alberto then corrected him and explained to that guy that he was actually in high school. It sounded like a funny exchange. I can only imagine how funny some of the things I say must be.
Back to Morocco, getting in was easy. Then we all got on the bus and they asked if anyone needed to exchange euros to dirham. Of course everyone did, so then we all got off the bus to go to the exchange places. It was kind of difficult to have to calculate multiple exchange rates. For instance, 10 dirham=1 euro=$1.30...more or less. I was expecting everything in Morocco to be really cheap, sadly that wasn't the case. The few meals that we had were cheap, but all of the chotzkes I wanted to buy weren't so cheap. So, after getting settled on the bus for a second time we started our journey to Chefchaouen, leaving Tangier. We made a random stop in this town which lined the side of the highway. There were maybe 10 buildings total, most of them restaurants. We wanted to try the food. One guy spoke spanish so we told him we wanted chicken. He said they didn't have a lot of chicken so he would give us beef. We decided it was best to just leave it, so we were served beef.
The carcasses on the side of the road aka lunch
The beef that we ended up with
After lunch we continued the never ending drive to Chefchaouen. The drive was on this tiny two-land highway that went through the mountains. I don't think the actually distance from Tangier to Chefchaouen is that far, but it takes a long time to get there considering it's on a very windy road.
Chefchaouen is an absolutely gorgeous little town. The population is only around 35,000, so it's on the smaller size. All of the buildings are painted blue and white. The blue is to keep the flies away and the white is to keep the house cool. An added benefit is how beautiful it makes the town look. This was our first "labyrinth". They warned us that the town of Chefchaouen doesn't even compare to Fez's labyrinth. We had a local guide who led us around, but we weren't actually there for too long.
Welcome to the picturesque town of Chefchaouen
When the ground is painted blue it means that it's a dead end.
This is the public bathhouse. If you look to the right you can see three cathedral ceiling. They each have a different water temperature.
More blue!
This is the community oven. If you want to use it you either need to pay them or bake an extra loaf of bread to give to them.
I want to live here!
Lots of dye!
Perhaps you get the idea by now. I just couldn't stop taking pictures. It was absolutely beautiful.
After leaving Chefchaouen we continued for another 3 plus hours to Fez. Friday we did a lot of driving. Probably the most I've ever done in a day, and I would like to keep it like that. When we got to Fez we were all exhausted so we ate dinner at the hotel and went right to bed. We were warned about several things before going to Morocco. Two of them being be careful with the food and do not under any circumstance drink the water. You even need to use bottled water to brush your teeth!
We were very lucky with the hotel we ended up staying at! We were supposed to stay at another hotel and I had made the mistake of looking it up online. It got terrible reviews so the whole day I was freaking out about it. That hotel was overbooked because the king was in town, so all of us were bumped up to another hotel. It was actually a Ramada, but it was super nice, 5 stars. (Which mind you is not the same rating as the US or even Europe, but still very nice.)
Saturday morning we had to wake up early again to meet to get on the bus at 8:30. Our first stop was the King's Palace. We didn't actually go inside, but it was cool to be there, especially considering that the king was in town. The entire front of the palace is mosaic. It's absolutely gorgeous and it reaffirmed my dream of hiring a Moroccan architecture to build my future house.
The King's Palace
Up close and personal
I believe this was the exact moment I decided I was going to hire a Moroccan architect
From the palace we went to this mountain which has a good view of the entire city, especially the Medina. Medina means city, but it refers to the old part of the city or the labyrinth, which our guide only repeated about 10,000 times. Half a million people live in this small area. There are between 9,000 and 15,000 tiny streets. Cars and motorcycles aren't allowed in, only donkeys are permitted. No joke. They use the donkeys to help transport stuff.
The view of the Medina from the mountain
Since the streets are so small you'll hear "watch out" in either french or arabic and then you need to hug the wall so the donkey loaded with various things can get through. It's really funny. They had warned us that it is imperative to stay together as a group because you can easily get lost. I thought they might be exaggerating a little to make us worry, but they definitely were not. If you get 5 paces behind the group you could easily lose them. It was funny though because the locals would see everyone pass and then point you in the right direction. I can't even explain how cool the medina was. It was full of twists and turns. The streets are lined with vendors. The food all looked so amazing, but I was too afraid to try any of it. Additionally, the swarms of flies on the veggies didn't look all that appealing. The colors were beautiful, though. There were also a ton of other different vendors, from clothing, to chotzkes to fabrics, etc.
Donkey crossing--watch out!
Our first in the Medina was at a University. Our guide claimed it was the oldest in the world. Not quite sure about that, but either way, it is very old. It's a really pretty building and I would be happy to study there. It puts IU in the dust.
Two different views of the University
After the university we wondered around some more and went to a leather tannery. It smelled really bad so they gave us mint leaves to hold to our noses. A gentleman explained the entire process, but I'm afraid I don't remember it. A very vague outline is that they bring the hides straight from the slaughter house and then the first step is to clean them and get all of the blood off. From there they need to sit out and dry and then I think they dye then. I could be making all of that up, but that's what I remember. On the bottom floor of the tannery there was a store where we were all pressured into buying things. It was appealing since we were all told, "for you, special price." I didn't succumb to the pressure, partially because I thought we would have more time to shop. Sadly, we didn't. I guess that just means I'll need to go back!
Looking down on the tannery
Up close of the dyes
The hides air drying
Smelling the mint to escape the nasty smell of the leather
Pretty shoes at the tannery that I'm regretting not purchasing
From the tannery we went to a loom factory. That's not the name, however I can't seem to think of it. There were several men working on looms and then they sold their products there. I couldn't resist and got two scarves. They're absolutely gorgeous and I can even say I saw the place that they were made. They made things as small as scarves to larger items like table cloths. They even showed us how to wear the traditional headscarf. It was definitely a tourist trap, but I still really enjoyed it. The only slightly sketchy thing was that I think our guide got a commission from most of the places he visited. They use bargaining for purchases, so our guide would say, "very, very good price," but I think he was lying. Other than that though, it was great.
Some of the pretty table cloths!
Getting some help with the head scarf tied
The final product :)
All of the girls. Clockwise from the left: Jen, Briana, Allison, Kelly, Andrea, Kathleen and Me.
An example of the busy medina streets
Getting geared up with some soft drinks
Right after I took this picture one of the men was getting ready to kill a chicken. Needless to say, I ran screaming.
After the scarf shop we went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we had the option of going on a tour of the ceramic and mosaic school and to the mosque or free time. Another warning we received prior to arriving was to spend as little time as possible away from the group. Needless to say, we went on the tour. The ceramic and mosaic school was really cool. They showed us all of the different steps and then of course there was a store. We saw two guys building stuff on the pottery wheels and I thought it was really interesting that it was completely manual. All of the wheels I've ever used have been electric and I've still had a hard time keeping the same speed. It's important to keep the same speed so that your work will be even on all side. These guys were controlling it just with the force of their feet. This time I caved into the pressure and bought a few souvenirs in the shop.
Example of the manually controlled wheel
Ceramics at the store
Our next stop was one of the mosques. Our guide told us that this is the only one that allows non-muslims to come inside, but that it can't be turning pray time. It was a pretty building, but there wasn't really too much to it. It's just kind of a large, open room.
The Mosque
Pretty mosaic. (Ps when I got home I told Antonio that I had taken a ton of pictures of tiles and mosaics to show to him. Have I mentioned he owns a ceramic store? I can't tell you if this is true, but he said the best ceramics are made in Sevilla and that people come here from all over to purchase it because the ceramics made in Morocco aren't durable. Please see note in previous blog about me not being able to believe what he says...)
After our tour of the mosque we headed back to the main gate of the medina. My friends and I decided we wanted to stay, while the rest of the group took the bus back to the hotel. Prior to splitting with the group we asked our guide where we could get some henna. He led us to the most obscure place. We only made a few turns, but we were all slightly worried about finding our way out. The first floor of this place looked like a house. We all commented that we felt that this was against our better judgement. The second floor was a rug store and then the third floor was like an apothecary. It was quite bizarre. Our guide set things up with the people working there and told them that we wanted henna. Right before he left we realized that the 7 of us there just spoke english and spanish and that the guys working there probably only spoke french and arabic. We all had minor panic attacks, but the one of the guys started speaking english, so we were relieved. They were all really nice and we couldn't stop laughing the entire time we were there. The henna was a really cool design, but sadly it never got really dark. It was really nice and one the guys walked us back to the main gate so we could catch cabs back to the hotel. My friend Andrea and I were trying to explain facebook to him. He only spoke a little english. He gave us his blog, but seeing that I don't know french, I'm unable to read it. We wrote down the link to facebook, but I don't know if he understood what we were trying to say, nor have I received a friend request yet.
Me and my new friend who's name is written on my hand and means hearts. What a souvenir!
When we got back to the hotel my friend described the day perfectly by saying, "my heart is smiling." I couldn't have agreed with her more. There was just something magical about Fez. That night we were on our own for dinner. We asked at the front desk if it would be safe for a group of 6 of us (all girls) to go out and they said yes. After the sun goes down you do not see women on the street. It was really weird. We walked around the corner to a japanese/moroccan/some other ethnicity that I'm forgetting restaurant. Our table was outside all of these people kept coming up to us trying to sell things. The waiter had to come out a few times to shoe them away. The menu was in french, so it was fun trying to decipher what we were ordering. There was a lot of charades going on. After dinner we went straight back to the hotel to sleep.
We woke up early again on Sunday morning. After we ate breakfast we started our trek back to the coast. Luckily, the drive wasn't so bad this time because we took a real highway and it didn't go through the mountains. On our way there we stopped in a small town called Asilah. It's know as the pearl of the ocean. Frankly, I'm not quite sure how it got that name. I guess it was pretty, but I wouldn't say it was jaw dropping...especially after spending time in Fez. We didn't actually do too much there, just walked around and got a quick tour from the guide. Then we got back on the bus to head to Tangier. On the way there the guide made a comment about the winds and that we were unlucky. I thought he was implying something, but at the time I didn't think too much about it. On the way to Tangier we stopped literally on the side of the highway so people could ride some camels. I opted out of it because they camels looked like they were in so much pain. Every time they stood up and got down they would cry out in pain. It was hard to watch. I figure I'll go on a camel ride somewhere else, and hopefully it won't be quite as much of a spectacle/tourist trap. Besides, I've been on them at fairs and stuff. Also, when I said camel ride, I meant walking in a 5-foot circle, not extremely appealing.
The coastline of Asilah
After the camels we drove to the port where we had some free time for lunch. Unfortunately there weren't a lot of dining options. We stopped at a few places and the most normal sandwich they had was shark, which meant I grabbed a piece of bread and some potato chips at a C-store. I believe it was listed as the lunch of champions. After lunch we traded our money back to euros and went through customs. Again, one of the most lax things I've ever seen. The fast ferry was supposed to leave at 4pm. We kept looking at our watches and couldn't figure out why we weren't leaving and it was after 4:30. As soon as the boat started to move we realized why our departure was later than planned, and also why our guide said we were unlucky. Within moments after we started to move a voice came over the loud speaker telling everyone to stay in their seats due to the rough seas. They also warned us about the sea-sickness bags in the seat pocket in front of us. It didn't take me long to realize that the conditions we were experiencing were not normal. The fast ferry was a pretty large boat, I would say it could hold about 800 passengers. We were literally doing nose dives into the waves. At one point in time if I looked to the right I could only see water and then only see sky if I looked to the left. We continued to rock back and forth. Unfortunately, these conditions were making everyone sick. It was disgusting. I'll spare you the details and just tell you that I had my fingers in my ears and was humming to myself with my eyes closed. What tipped me off about the conditions being worse than normal was the fact that the staff didn't look used to it. Additionally, the snack bar wasn't equipped for waves of this size. Huge coffee machines were flying all over the place. They needed to close everything up because it was falling off the shelves. It was really scary and I was really happy when I got off the boat.
Let's see here, I'm just trying to think of some other things to report. Last week I finally met with an intercambio (speaking partner). Her name is Carmen and she's also 20-years-old. I think we're going to try and meet again next week. Funny enough, the day after I met her I got a text message from intercambio number 4! I think I might try and meet up with her too. The more the merrier.
From Monday to Thursday morning we had 2 french boys staying here. They were 14 and 15-years-old and didn't really speak Spanish. I would talk to them in English (which was also a struggle for them) and my señora would talk to them in French. Let's just say I couldn't keep a straight face during dinner. We couldn't even figure out what town they're from. I think we have 2 more Frenchies next week. At first I was really upset about it, but it wasn't bad. They were only here for dinner and I didn't even have to share my bathroom. (I do feel a little guilty about that...)
The other night after dinner we played a game to see who needed to wash the dishes. It was me, Antonia and Antonio. It was Antonio's idea since he's always the one to wash them. Each person gets 3 coins. You put an undisclosed number in one hand and place your closed fist on the table. Then you have to guess how many coins you think there are all together. There's a maximum of 9 and a minimum of 0. The first one to guess right 5 times wins and then it continues with the 2 remaining people. They were saying that this game is typically played at bars between friends to see who is going to pay for everyone's beer. Antonia was the first to win so the final, intense, sweat-dripping round was between me and Antonio. I won so he needed to wash the dishes. We got a lot of laughs out of the game.
There's not too much else to report. I'm about to go out for the night to celebrate a friend's birthday!
Hasta luego,
Raquelita
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