Familia Espanola

For anyone who has asked me, it's no secret I'm obsessed with my host mom.  I've never met someone so caring, kind, yet also hilarious and loves to have fun.  She's my grandma, and the thought of leaving her breaks my heart.  It's more than just having someone do your laundry and pack you a lunch... our little family has laughed, cried, cried from laughing (too many times to count.) and the evenings spent with them will no doubt be my favorite evenings in Madrid. (just bear with me, I know this is sappy stuff.)
Some of my favorite memories:

The welcome dinner!  Isabel made paella and even though I was missing my family and missing BC, I was able to relax and enjoy conversation with new people.  It's hard to believe that we had just met because she already felt like someone I had known for so long! (she has the affect on people.)

"Teaching" Isabel English.  She does not speak a single word and has a super hard time learning new words so trying to get her to remember Hi, Thank you, I love you, etc. was quite a challenge.  (she never did really learn)  Also, trying to get her to remember that I was from the city "Ann Arbor" is hilarious.  Hearing her trying to pronounce Ann Arbor is even funnier.

Having one of my "Tourist Tuesdays" with Isabel!  We went into the center of the city and went up on the roof of El Circulo de Belles Artes, a terrace where you can see all of Madrid. It was so special that I got to go with her instead of by myself!

Churros for dinner.  One night we decided to make churros in her kitchen instead of making dinner so the three of us made them and melted chocolate and got to have dessert for dinner!  After, we turned the kitchen into a dance floor and danced around for so long to a mix between Isabel's Spanish music and popular American club music.

Isabel's birthday. She asked us what we wanted to eat for her special birthday dinner and when we told her to make whatever she wanted because it was HER birthday and we wanted her to be happy, she told us that she would be happy if she knew she was making out favorite foods. (testament to the kind of person she is!) So she basically made a feast and absolutely loved having all the attention on herself.  Kourtney and I got her a present together and watching her open it was legit like watching a kid open presents on Christmas morning.

The goodbye dinner...Kourtney and I surprised Isabel by taking her to a really nice restaurant in Madrid!  We spent the whole time talking and laughing, and then she started imitating a Portuguese guy at the next table over and it was legit one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Can't remember the last time I laughed that hard.

The last night spent in Madrid, we just crawled into bed with Isabel and hung out with her, laughing like always and just spending the last few hours with her that we could.

The numerous times the three of us have cried from laughing so hard. It's the little moments that I can't specifically remember and are not big enough to write down that has made our little family the best out there! Leaving that will no doubt be the hardest part of study abroad. 

Okay, sappy post is over. Just had to get it out there. :)

Photo Collection: My 4 Month Pastry Tour

Below are some of my favorite pastries and desserts from all around Europe! This continent has been so good to me for the past 4 months.  It is with deep sadness that I end my 4 month pastry tour.

Photo Collection: BC en Europa

So I wanted to bring my favorite thing from the States (BC) with me wherever I traveled this semester, which led me to snapping a pic wearing my BC hat at all the main sites of the places that I traveled! For your convenience (by "your" I only mean my parents because let's be realistic here they're the only people that read this thing) I put them all together in one post!

Porto, Portugal

Praia de Matosinhos, Portugal

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Parc Guell, Barcelona

Formentor, Palma de Mallorca

Palma de Mallorca

Generalife en la Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Cordoba, Spain

La Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

Fatima, Portugal

Vienna, Austria

10 reasons why I'm going to miss the Spanish schooling system

So coming to Spain, I knew the schooling system would be just a little different…
Little did I know, I'd be in for the most pleasant surprise OF MY LIFE!!

Below are my absolute favorite things about the Spanish schooling system! (Seriously people, how am I going to bear leaving this behind?!?!?!?!)

1. No syllabuses!!! Teachers like to keep kids on the edge of their seats in Spain. (life needs a little mystery, am I right??)  It's always so exciting to find out you have a midterm one week in advance and have no idea what's going to be on it!

2. Emails are a foreign concept. Teachers have such exciting lives that they never have time to check their emails! How cool that I get to learn from such busy and interesting people! They must be more social than I am, because even I have time to check my email!

3. With multiple choice sections on tests, you get negative points if you get something wrong. Now I know this isn't done in just Spain or Europe, but still, I LOVE IT!! In the real world if you do something wrong, you get punished. So thank you for preparing me for the real world!

4. Communication between teachers is nonexistent.  With my business classes, I have one professor who gives the lectures and another who teaches the practical portion of the class.  I guess the professors must be practicing their mind-reading skills, because discussion between the two of them is not a thing! (and I can understand why they need the practice because right now their skills are not up to par.) I think it's really great that they're exercising their minds like that. Reminds all the students that we should always be doing the same.

5. Some business class teachers, when you ask them a question, don't answer and tell you that they "don't know and you should figure it out because you're the manager and they're just the teacher." DIRECT QUOTE PEOPLE! I love that they put all the power in my hands and make me think for myself, even if there's no hope of me understanding something without the help of a teacher!

6. Group projects are super fun in Spain.  First, there's between 7-9 people in each group!  Which means in addition to meeting all those new people, you get to try to coordinate meetings between 9 people from different countries and schedules.  I have loved so much figuring out a good time for everyone to meet! (hint: there is NEVER a good time for everyone to meet.) Second, there's no guidance and then all of a sudden you're designing an experiment with 75 people and you have a week to write a 15 page paper! Keeping me on my toes, I love it!

7. Papers are never handed back. "Timely fashion" is not a phrase in Spain.  Again, this little element of mystery is just what I need in my life to keep things spicy.  I'm so thankful for always wondering about my grades and avoiding a dull life.

8.  Spanish students talk throughout the entire class so there's no way to concentrate on what the professor is saying.  I love how everyone takes the time to really get to know their classmates, especially during class.  This adds a personal element to the school experience! They are so interested in talking to other people that they don't even notice the professor or any other students! Just goes to show how social and outgoing the Spanish people are! How lucky of me to experience it for 4 months!

9. The location of my university… Granted, I can't give all the credit to the schooling system for this one (that would just be too generous of me) but still… It takes an hour for me to get to school in the morning between catching the metro and then hopping on a bus.  Good thing I have that time to relax a little before the stress of the day takes its toll on me!

10. Last and most importantly, my absolute favorite thing about the Spanish schooling system is that I will be back to BC within the month and will never have to deal with it again.

Madrid Happenings

With finals season approaching (and kind of already here..) I've taken a few weekends to stay in Madrid while I study.  It has let me really enjoy the city in the last few weeks that I'm here!  Here's what I've been up to in my favorite city:

Real Madrid football game! I knew I could not go to Madrid without going to a soccer (but actually futbol) game!  They played against Real Valladolid and they won! Even more, Bale scored his first hat trick in Spanish football so we were part of history!
Best part of the night: realizing the sirvesa I had bought was non-alcoholic. Classic.

The Christmas tree lighting in Puerta del Sol!! Madrid has a "Christmas Tree" (basically a large yellow metal structure that's pretty ugly) but they have a lighting ceremony that we went to! You can walk into the base of the tree, so we were in it when it lit up! They turn all the Christmas lights on at one time in the city, so that night all the streets were lit up!

before

after

Thanksgiving Dinner (Dia de accion de gracias)

Boston College put on a Thanksgiving dinner for the BC en Madrid program at a restaurant, where we all dressed up and ate a turkey dinner!  It was nice to have a piece of home because having all our families be together without us was probably the hardest part of study abroad.  Our host families were invited and we celebrated the holiday together! It was a lot of fun and also the food was amazing! (Pumpkin AND apple pie for dessert, hell yeah!)

More events to be updated as I do more things! :)

Frands in Europe

Dedicated to the my friends studying all over Europe who I got to see this semester!! So glad we got to hang out in Europe and be SUPER COOL and do cultured things. So happy to show you a few things in my favorite city and be shown things in yours :)

El Escorial but more importantly... SNOW

For my program's last day trip, we headed out into the mountains near Madrid to El Escorial, a small city containing the El Monasterio de El Escorial, the second home of the kings and queens of Spain.  We packed onto the bus and were off!

We toured the monastery in the morning and took notes (so fun…) and then were treated to a lunch at a cute restaurant in the city. (and by treated I mean our tuition money paid for it.) We were all sitting in lunch when we looked outside the windows and saw it…..SNOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!

Never would I have imagined that it would snow in Spain and it was so nice to get a little taste of home (both Boston and Michigan!). There's something magical about the first snow and no matter what, I always feel like a little kid who is seeing it for the first time.

After, we went to El Valle de los Caídos, a Catholic basilica and monument where the Spanish leader Franco is buried. 

When we got back outside, it was actually snowing pretty hard so we enjoyed it for a while! Although it got super cold super fast and were back on the bus to head back down to Madrid!