Longer Spain Trips

In addition to one day trip a month, I also tried to take one longer trip within Spain a month. I've already talked about Malaga and Barcelona in a past entry, but here are more places I went to in Spain.

Barcelona

Malaga

Nerja (Malaga)

Bilbao

Bilbao was the city in Spain that I'd most like to live in. What used to be a dirty port city, has now become one of the most modern and trendy cities in Spain. Home to the Guggenheim museum, Bilbao is located in the Basque country which is famous for its separatist movements and cuisine. Bilbao and San Sebastian held some of my favorite food in Europe.

San Sebastian

Not far from Bilbao lies San Sebastian. San Sebastian is known as one of the most expensive cities in Spain, and given the amazing beach and mountain landscapes, who wouldn't want to live there.

Valencia

When my family was visiting in me in Spain, we decided to spend a long weekend in Valencia. Two hours away on the AVE (high speed train), Valencia is a nice break from the chilly, cloudy Madrid winter.

Granada

Home to the famous Alhambra, Granada was my last trip inside of Spain. I spent nearly a week in the city visiting my friend Lyla (you'll find a picture of us with a bear we found). Famous for their giant, free tapas (snacks you receive when purchasing a drink) is another great place to visit when in Spain.

Antequera

Since I had so much time in Granada, I decided to take a day trip to Antequera. Located in the province of Malaga, Antequera was another Moorish stronghold. It was a great trip to escape the city that is Grenada and see some of the countryside. 

Day Trips

One of the great things about living in Madrid is its connectivity to other cities in Spain. Nearly every train passes through Madrid Atocha train station, and I tried to take advantage of this whenever I had a free moment. While long train trips tended to run on the pricey side of things, day trips from Madrid were quite reasonably. I tried to do at least one day trip a month, and for the most part I managed to accomplish this. Here are photos from the day trips I went on.

Alcala

Alcala de Henares was the first day trip I went on. It's a town to the northeast of Madrid city center and it's a combination of a university of town and a historical landmark (birthplace of Miguel Cervantes). Many of my friends lived or worked in Alcala so I made quite a few trips there during my stay in Spain.

Segovia

Segovia was my second day trip and easily one of my top 5 favorite cities in Spain. It's a medieval town with a lot of old world charm, mixed with a modern feel. It also contains my favorite cathedral in Spain, and given Spain's history with the Catholic church, this is quite the accomplishment.

Toledo

Toledo (Not pronounced like the city in Ohio, think Tol-a-doe) is South of Madrid and is actually located in the province of Castilla-La Mancha. Even though it's outside the Community of Madrid, its proximity makes it an easy trip from Madrid. While just 1 hour by train or 1.5 hours by bus away from Madrid, the atmosphere is completely different. Toledo was an important city during Moorish times and much of this history is preserved in this city.

Aranjuez

I didn't have a chance to visit Aranjuez until a few months into my trip, but it held a special importance to me. Aranjuez was actually where I was originally supposed to work, until I switched with someone. While I have no regrets on the switch, part of me always wonders what my adventure would have been like living in this town an hour away from the center.

El Escorial

El Escorial was my last day trip before returning home. Famous for its monastery, it also has quite a quaint residential sector.

Valley of the Fallen

Just a short bus ride from the center of El Escorial is the Valley of the Fallen. This park containing a large cathedral, was designed by Spain's former dictator Francisco Franco. Inside the cathedral, which is built into the mountain, Franco's tomb lies just steps from the altar.

Madrid

Since I lived in Madrid, I should have the most pictures of Madrid, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Given that I lived in and experienced the city for nearly 9 months, it seems that I was never remembering to take pictures. Perhaps a little too much of the Spanish motto to life, why do it today when you have tomorrow? Luckily, in my last few weeks I decided to take more photos. But if my photos don't do Madrid justice, I suppose you'll just have to visit the city yourself. Included in here are my photos with my digital camera and my cell phone.

Phone Pictures

My Madrid

Pictures

Hello all,

Now that I'm home and finally unpacked, I'm going to be posting all the photos that I took during my trip. I'll post links to the online albums and a corresponding story for each trip. Let me know if the links don't work and I'll fix them.

Home

Hello all,

As some of you might know, I had to cut my adventure short. As of now I am back in the States and doing well. Still trying to get my health issues sorted out, but I feel better being back home. Below is a post I made to Facebook a few days before leaving that kind of sums up what was going on. Now that I have better internet access, I'll post a link to some more pictures. 

-Jeremy (aka Yeremi)

Dear friends,

For those who have not yet heard, I am leaving Spain this Sunday (27 May) to return home to the States. I know this is quite sudden (I only finalized my decision this morning) and could come as a surprise, but I feel this decision is in my best interest.

The past month or so, I have been going to different doctors, clinics, and hospitals with stomach problems. Each medical professional made suggestions on what it might be but I have never received a definitive answer. Along with these stomach problems, my anxiety, something that plagued me in the past, has been increasing. For the last few weeks I have been suffering from bouts of anxiety, stomach pains, and the associated physical symptoms. After much consideration of my health, I think that it is best that I return home to hopefully improve my anxiety problems and therefore allowing my doctor to better treat my stomach problems.

That said, I can safely say that I will not have any regrets returning home now. With all certainty, I have accomplished everything that I set out to do, and then some. I remember my biggest fear coming to Spain was my Spanish abilities. Not to say that 4 years in high school and two in college didn't prepare me, but I vividly remember my first day in Madrid trying to tell my hostel's address to the taxi driver. In comparison, one of my proudest language moments in Spain occurred less than a month ago when I was able to successful talk to someone in Spanish on the telephone. While this might sound silly, I assure you this is not a feat to be laughed at. At this point, I definitely do not consider myself fluent, but I am extremely pleased with the progress I've made over the past 8 months.

Besides increasing my knowledge of Spanish, I was also nervous about how my work would proceed. Thankfully this went well. I have loved nearly every minute of working with my students and teachers in my schools. Thinking back to the first days and hearing my students speak now, I know that my work helped to improve their English skills. If nothing else, my students can now respond to my habitual question of "how are you guys?" without a puzzled look and some Spanish side discussion as to what I said. I've also enjoyed working with my other auxiliars. Kyle, Tremaine, Afeefa, Aaron, and Nat are some of the most patient and passionate people I have ever encountered.

Of course, I was also nervous about meeting new people in such a foreign environment (pun intended). Thus, I also want to acknowledge all the friends I have made in this experience. With all honesty, I would not have made it past the first week of Spain without all of you. I would name you all, but there are so many of you and I would hate to leave someone out. I consider you all very good friends of my mine and I hope that no border will keep us from keeping in touch.

Thank you also to all my friends, family, and loved ones back home for your support. I'm sure I've talked to many, or all, of you sometime in the past 8 months with some sort of gripe and I want to thank you for listening, or at least pretending to listen.

In addition, my time in Spain wouldn't have been as pleasant without my flatmates Tiffany and Felipe. Everyday you guys helped me to see the world a little different and I was constantly learning from you both. Plus, you're both awesome.

As for my last few days in Spain. Tomorrow I bid farewell to my school, students, and teachers. Followed by a lot of packing and meeting up with some friends throughout the day. On Saturday I am going on my final day trip, to a city called El Escorial. Then finally on Sunday, I catch a 9am flight that arrives 9.5 hours later around 1pm in Charlotte, N.C.. Finally, I have just a two hour flight from Charlotte, after a three hour layover, which should get me to Detroit around 6pm.

I just wanted to share with you all this short, disjointed, farewell to Spain and collection of my thoughts. I'll post some more thoughts at a later date in my blog, most likely when I'm in the States.

These past 8 months have been a time of my life that I will never forget. Absolutely no regrets.

Final Two Months

 

Everyone said it, “before you know it, you’ll be done”, and I didn’t believe them. But, here I am, with but two months left wondering where the time has gone. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to heading back to the States and continuing with “real” life, but I just can’t believe my days are numbered. It seems like just yesterday I was planning my trip to Spain, celebrating Thanksgiving at my apartment, cooking pizzas on Christmas morning, ringing in the New Year in Budapest, admiring the Lisbon coast, and eating pasta in Italy. While I feel like my time is short, I do have TWO months left, and I intend to make the most of them.

The other day I made a Madrid “Bucket List” which I’ll share with you all. In no particular order, here are some things that I will do before my time is up.

• Go to Cuenca
• Cuenca is a city in the south of Madrid famous for its hanging houses
• Go to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen
• El Escorial is a palace and a city in the northwest of the Madrid community. The palace is supposedly beautiful, but I also want to go to see the Valley of the Fallen. The Valley is a monument made during the Spanish civil war that is still controversial.
• Go to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
• One of the famous art museums in Madrid
• Return to the Prado
• The most famous museum in Madrid
• Museum of America
• A lesser known museum but I want to see how the Spaniards look at the discovery of the New World
• See a bullfight
• While I don’t think I will enjoy it, given the history and the cultural impact bullfighting has had on Spain, I feel like it’s something I must do
• See the San Antonio de la Florida
• The San Antonio is a lesser known church that contains many works of Goya and it was recommended by NYTimes as something you must do
• Eat churros and chocolate at San Gines
• San Gines is a Madrid institution, especially popular at 5/6am when people start to return from a night out
• Visit the Royal Palace
• Something extremely tourist that I have not gotten around to.

I don’t have a bucket list for my time in Spain/Europe but one is forthcoming. Looking ahead I have a trip to Marrakech, Morocco May 18-20th which I am very much excited for. After that, I don’t have any trips planned but I can promise at least one more trip before I return home.

Speaking of returning home, my flight home is July 3rd; just in time for Independence Day.

Hasta Luego

Spring/Easter Break and Law School

Friday, I leave for my "Easter" break. Here in Spain, Easter break is really a combination of spring break and the Easter holiday. Normally, we'd have off for the week before Easter and the Monday after Easter. However, this year we also have Friday off and tomorrow (Thursday March 29) is a country-wide strike, so my vacation started early. I'll be travelling from Madrid to Milan by air, then going throughout northern Italy by train. After Milan, my next city is Venice, followed by Bologna, then Florence, then Pisa, then Genoa, and back to Milan for my return flight on Easter Sunday. Here's what my trip will look like:

In addition, today I decided to accept an offer to attend the University of Illinois College of Law as a member of the class of 2015. Now, I have the difficult part of trying to find housing from thousands of miles away.