My first Real Madrid C.F. Futbol game! 18/10/11

My First Real Madrid game was a blast! I went with a few friends and a Spanish boy. The boy we went with is named Danny and he loves Real Madrid. He really got into the game and the cheering so that made it more fun for me because he taught me some cheers. Our seats were pretty far up in the stadium but it didnt really matter because there were roudy fans everywhere and we were always yelling something weather it was "vamos!"(come on!) or "P*t* al arbitro" (it is bad about the referee so I didnt want to write the whole word :)) and we won the game so it was a lot of fun!

In front of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, it is only a 20 minute walk from my house here. My host dad has season tickets so he was at the game also and when the game was over instead of waiting forever for the metro we just walked home.

This is one of the most prestigious and and famous futbol stadiums. It is huge!

Becca and I!

This is the logo for the Champions League, which is a European league that Real plays in.

The players line up for the anthem of Real Madrid and Champions league. The game was played against Olympique Lyon which is a French team.

I wish I could say that we climbed up all the stairs just so I could get a better picture of the stadium but I would be lying! this was the view from where I was sitting. haah

Some of the friends that I went with. Nina, Sendy, me and Danny. 

I had so much fun at this game and we only pain 35 euros so only like $50 for the seats and that is pretty cheap for Real Madrid seats!

La Mancha

On Friday October 7th we took a class trip to La Mancha to see the windmills. La Mancha is a region of Spain and not a town, we went to the towns of Chinchón, Consuegra and Puerto Lápice. All of the towns that we went to were very small. The first town was Chinchón, it was a very pretty old town with a unique town square with very old 2 or 3 story apartment buildings surrounding it. There was also a very beautiful church and a theater in the town that we toured. 

A crest on a building.

All of these are made out of bread, pretty impressive!

The church alter.

A statue of the Virgin Marry and Jesus, that much like the one in Carey, can change gowns depending on the season and occasion.

This is the main curtain in the theatre, the picture is of a view of the town.

Sendy and I

Next we went to Consuegra, where there is a restaurant that the part of the book Don Quijote took place in.  The restaurant was very little but had great food.

Here is a picture of the front of the restaurant. 

We ate pisto Manchego, which is braised veggies kind of like a salsa ( front left), we also ate Migas de pastor which was fried bread crumbs, it reminded me of couscous (center) and Queso Machego which is fried sheep cheese and it was delicious ( back right), we also ate Duelos y quebrantos which is ham, chorizo, and bacon with scrambled eggs. Then the main course was a delicious chicken and desert was a  pastry with ice cream. Lunches in Spain are late and long, you eat a lot of food because it is the most important meal of the day.

In the back you see the big vases, a long time ago they used to store their wine in these vases.

And finally we went to Puerto Lápice which is were the big windmills are. The windmills we saw were not working because they are so old, they are just for show. But a long time ago they used the windmills  to grind grain in.

 

Me in front of one of the many windmills.

Other windmills.

The girls

We went inside and up stairs in this windmill.

It was not such a pretty day but we still had a good time and got some really great pictures of the windmills. 

Retiro

Parque del Retiro

Retiro park is a huge 350 acre park near the middle of Madrid. It is the largest park of the city of Madrid, Spain. There are always a lot of people inside the park on nice days, which is like seriously every day here. My friends and I like to have picnics in the park after class, and I like to study in the park. There are also little row boat rentals at the lago in the park, as well as roller-skate rentals. This park is a great place for "people watchers" like myself. There are a ton of statues throughout the park and a lot of little jardines, a ton of trees and lots of running trails.

Here is a statue in the park.

Sitting by a tree studying 

This is kind of a creepy picture on my part haha, but I just thought this old man looked so classic sitting on this bench in the park.

 A map of one of the little jardines.

A fountain in the park.

Becca Sendy and I on one of out many picnics.

Palacio de Cristal, there is a really cool slide inside this building.

Map of Retiro

The el Retiro symbol. Notice the Madrid city symbol in the corner also.

Parque del Retiro is a great place to visit while in Madrid if you want to get out of the city feel for a while and be surrounded by green. Its a great place to relax and also a great place to meet Spainards. 

Ps sorry to Ms. Widman for not updating my blog as much as I should, I am really busy here! :)

Hasta Luego

Un Fin de Semana en Alicante!

This weekend I went to Alicante, Spain with some friends. Alicante is a lot of fun and it is very beautiful. It is right on the Meditranean sea and has some really nice beaches. We left for Alicante on friday afternoon and came back on Sunday night. It was a perfect weekend vacation! 

There was a really cool walk way with palm trees all along it.

beach in the background

on top of the hill is a castle called Castillo de Santa Barbara.

a view from on top of the castle that we walked up to on sunday.

The group of friends I went with. They are from all over the country, South Carolina, California, Nevada, Connecticut, and Michigan

Us at the hostel we stayed at, it had a really cool court yard area that we hung out in before going out.

Becca and I 

With our friend Fernando that we met that night!

Our friend Francie from Germany that we also met that night.

There are very old streets in Alicante that are only for walking.

On the beach, there were a lot of topless women here.

Sendy Becca and I on the beach by our hostel.

Alicante was a great place to vacation and relax, I would recommend it to anyone wanting a nice beach and nice people. I had a great weekend and would go back to Alicante anytime

A very Spanish day!

On Sunday I went to another bull fight and got paella and sangria with some friends!

Becca and I with our sangria, its a traditional spanish wine with fruit.

The best paella ever.. ever. It was so delicious, it was also so expensive. When we ordered it we all thought we would be sharing a 3 person serving between the 6 of us which would make it like 60 euro, but there was some miscommunication while ordering and somehow we got a huge paella for like 10 + people and the bill was 120 euro.. woops! 

still had the eyeballs and everything.

eww

Miguel and Crlll enjoying the awesome paella.

Drew Nasim and I react after we found out how much we would be paying for the food.

 The tradicional wine sack that people take to the bullfights.

With some friends before the bull fight.

I had to take a picture with my UC hat at the bull fight!

I also needed one with my Theta Phi Alpha hat on!

Torero 

The red and yellow things hanging from the bulls back are these sticks that have hooks on the end, and the toreros run at the bull with and then stab them in the back as hard as they can.

The final stab.

This guy got jacked up by the bull and got a rip in his pants, there was bare butt, but someone out tape over it for him..

¡Me encanta los toreros!

Me at the bull fight, my last one because the season is ending. :(

This day was a lot of fun and I felt like a real Spaniard, and that feels really good!

Loving Spain!