Plans for Travel

Want to do:
1) Flamenco dance lessons
2) Spanish cooking class
3) Weekend trips to Barcelona, Segovia, Valencia...etc.
4) Go clubbing, go to bars, wine tasting
5) See a Bullfight
6) Visit museums, buildings, famous streets, galleries...
7) Go to the beach
8) Tapas
9) Go to Italy
10) Go to France
11) Become conversational in Spanish!

Itinerary w/ Estimates:
5/19   Flight to Madrid
5/20   Arrive in Madrid
          Buy pay-as-you-go phone
5/21   Welcoming Ceremony/Paperwork
          Language Placement Test
          Information sessions
5/22   First day of classes
5/23   Paseo Historico info. session
5/24   Excursion to Segovia
5/25   Parque del Templo de Debod
5/26   Parque del Retiro
5/27   El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
5/28   El Palacia Real
5/30   El Museo Prado
5/31   Excurion to Valencia
6/1     Valencia
6/2     Valencia
6/3     Flamenco Class
6/7     Examen Parciales
6/8     Botanical Garden (el Jardin Botanico)
6/10   Cooking Class
6/16   Bullfight
6/17   Flamenco Class
6/24   Flamenco Class
6/25   Flamenco Performance
6/28   Examenes Finales
6/29   Salida del Alojamiento de IES (depart IES), Bus to BARCELONA (~30 EUR/person)
From here, we are traveling around western Europe.

Travel plan:  Spain --> Italy --> Paris --> Spain --> U.S.
Here's our travel for July:

We booked almost all of our stays via airbnb--which I highly recommend because you can find even better prices than hostels!  I will update with how each of our stays are, but so far we have Barcelona, Roma, Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore), and Nice stays booked (including travel).  Now all we have left to book is our travel to Paris, our stay in Paris, and our last stay in Madrid.

Also something that we have to think about is where to leave our larger items in Madrid (since Ryan Air charges you for checked luggage and not a carry on).  Yes--we will be living off a carry on for a month!






       
             
               

A Bit of Research About Spain...

SPAIN - ESPANA

 Oficially: Kingdom of Spain (Reino de Espana)

Geography:  505,370 sq km (Texas is 1.38 times the size of Spain)

Terrain is mainly flat, highest point being 3,718 m on the Canary Islands.

Religions: Roman Catholic (94%), other (6%)

Population: 47,042, 984 (July 2012 est.)

Major Cities: Madrid 5.762 million, Barcelona 5.029 million, Valencia 812,000

Unemployment Rate: 37.9% (ranked 9th in the world) compared to 17.6% (ranked 67) for U.S. 

Government: Parliamentary Democracy--party in power elects the Prime Minister, monarchy is hereditary.  U.K., Italy, France also have this same type of government.

Chief of State: King Juan Carlos I.  

President of Government (Prime Minister): Mariano Rajoy  

Vice President: Soraya Saenz de Santamaria

Political Parties: Two main parties among many

Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (PSOE) "Spanish Socialist Worker's Party" (left wing) 

Partido Popular (PP) "People's Party" (right wing)

National Symbol: Pillars of Hercules--Mythology behind why the Strait of Gibraltar exhists between Spain and Morocco (making Africa and Spain merely 8 miles apart). One of Hercules' tasks was to tare a mountain range apart--thus creating the Gibraltar mountain of Spain and either the Jabel Musa/Mount Acho Mountains of Morocco. 

Note the same Pillars on the Spanish Flag

Exchange rate:  $1.30 = 1 EUR

$100 U.S.D = 76.82 EUR

$10 = 7.68 EUR

Customs:

• Corrida del Torros/Tauromaquia (Running of the Bulls/Bullfighting)
• Developed as an evolution to the Roman gladiator games.  Toreros (matadors/bullfighters) bait bulls at close ranges--so much that the Torero is at risk of being injured/killed by the bull.  After the bull has been hooked several times by other matadors in the area, the Torero kills the bull by a single sword stab (called an estocada).
• La Siesta (the nap)
• Seeks to balance work with pleasure--around midday, students and professionals return to their home around midday for a few hours of rest and family time accompanied by a big lunch.  However, larger, faster moving cities have moved away from this tradition while smaller cities still practice siestas.  
• Dining Traditions
• Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, making breakfast and dinner small affairs.  Dinner takes place late at night (9 pm or 10 pm).  Many spaniards go out for Tapas.  Tapas are a variety of snacks/appetizers/fingerfood.  They are not really meant to be consumed as a whole meal but rather as fingerfood while conversing and standing around socially.  
• Nightlife
• Spain is known for its nightlife.  Most people don't go out until 11 pm and usually don't come back until the wee ours of the morning.  Bars stay open much later than they do in the states.  
• During the evenings, Spaniards like to take a "paseo" and stroll to 2 or three bars for drinks and tapas.  It is not uncommon to dress formally for a paseo.  
• Attire/Temperature
• During the Summer months temperatures can get up to 113 degrees farenheight (45 degrees Celcius).  For this reason, many market places remain closed during the Summer.  In Madrid, May and July usually have more pleasant temperatures (20-32 degrees C).  With that being said, ideal clothing is loose cottons light in color.  Hats are also reccommended as the sun shines 12 hours a day during the Summer. 

MADRID

Spain's Capital and Largest City

3rd Largest City in Europe (Behind London and Berlin)
3,097 sq. miles (8,022 sq. km)

Location: On the Manzanares River in the center of Spain.  Economic, political and cultural center of Spain.  The monarch and seat of government reside here.
Government: Mayor--Ana Botella (PP)
Landmarks:

Palacio Real de Madrid

• Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid)--official residence of the monarch and family (however King Juan Carlos I and his family live in the more modest, Palace of Zarzuela, on the outskirts of Madrid)
• Teatro Real--major opera house that stages around 17 opera titles per year as well as 3 ballets and several recitals. 
• Buen Retiro Park--"Park of the Pleasant Retreat".  Previously owned by the monarch, now one of Madrid's largest public parks.  Filled with gardens, sculptures, monuments, galleries, and a lake.  The park also includes the only public monument of the devil, "Fountain of the Falling Angel", depicting Lucifer falling from heaven.  Other features include Palacio del Cristal, Paseo de las Estatuas, and Bosque de los Ausentes.  
• 19 C. National Library- Biblioteca Nacional de Espana with 26 million items
• Golden Triangle of Art- Made up of three museums in the Paseo del Prado:  Prado Museum (pre 20C art), Museo National de Arte Reina Sofia ( 20C modern art), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (historical-contemporary art)
• Paseo del Prado- One of Spain's main boulevards.  Dense with trees and is packed full of monuments, museums (Golden Triangle of Art), and inthe visinity of Madrid's stock exchange as well as Spain's House of Congress. 
• Cibeles Palace and Fountain-- Plaza de Cibeles is a square of marble sculptures, palaces and fountains.  Contains the Bank of Spain, Palacio de Buenavista, Palacio de Linares, and the Palacio de Cibeles.  Loacation is on the intersection of Paseo del Prado, Paseo de Recoletos, and Calle de Alcala.  

Plaze de Cibeles

Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia

Museo del Prado

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Sources:  

"Central Intelligence Agency." CIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.

Preparation for Spain

I figured I would go ahead and start my first blog for my upcoming trip to Spain to study abroad.  Here I will include my research, to do lists, photographs, and entries for all things related to my trip.  I am hoping this will keep me organized for my trip as well as sharing with friends and family what I am doing in Spain.

I am studying in Madrid, Spain with an Affiliated Study Abroad program that has been doing academic abroad programs since 1950.  I will follow up with a review on the program after my trip.  My best friend, Lindsay, will be my roommate and we are hoping to take at least one class together (probably a Culture class).  She is majoring in International Relations so she has been taking far more languages than myself and her Spanish is at a more advanced level so we will most likely be in different Spanish classes.  She is planning on staying in Europe longer than I am but I'm glad to have her with me during the Summer!  I'm definitely anticipating this trip to be one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. 

Up until now, I have applied to study abroad through my university in the states, renewed my passport, purchased a plane ticket (with much appreciated help from my and Lindsay's parents), and started this blog to start planning.  I am currently working on the Affiliate program's application as well as scheduling trips/activities do to while we are there.  I will be departing on Sunday May 19th and I am not sure when I will be flying back just yet--most likely early August.  The actual dates for the 2 classes I will be taking are from May 29th - June 29th I believe. 

[Note: This is also my first blog ever, so I am new to this whole blogging thing]