Back to Los Estados Unidos!

I am back to the US and have been catching up with school and sleep this week. I came back with a cold, so I haven't been very productive this week, but I had an absolutely fabulous time in Spain! Here is a quick recap of my time in Espana!

Sunday
We arrived to Madrid, had time to change and get ready for dinner, then took buses to have dinner as a large group (our entire group was around 115!).

Monday
Run in the morning! I was worried that my GPS watch wouldn't work since I was halfway around the world, but it had no issues! Our pace was a little slow because we stopped at a lot of lights and spent some time evaluating if we were going in the correct direction or not. :)

We took a day trip to Toledo, which was beautiful! It is a smaller city that is surrounded by a river on two sides. To protect the city, a wall was built around the other two sides of the city. Very neat place that seems to represent the classic Spain that first comes to mind.

Our first concert was in evening in a beautiful church in Madrid. We had a full audience which I found absolutely amazing--people had to see the poster that said an orchestra from Purdue (I am sure most of them hadn't even heard of Purdue before!), and then they decided to come see us. I think we played very well, and I feel lucky to have such a cool experience.

Tuesday
We walked to a large park called Retiro Park as a group in the morning. This is somewhat similar to Central Park in NYC; I mostly say that because it is a huge park with tons of trees, fountains, greenry, etc, right in the middle of Madrid. We rented row boats (actual row boats, not paddle boats!) which was a blast. You can see me in the obnoxiously bright pink/purple rain jacket. :)

Later in the day we went to Plaza Mayor, and were given some time to explore the area. Following, we went to The Prado--a very famous art museum with several classic pieces. After the museum, several of us went to a Flamenco show, which was beautiful and inspiring: the dancing, the singing, and the guitar playing were all incredible. We ended the night with karaoke which was so. much. fun.

Wednesday
High speed train ride to Barcelona--we seriously need to get some fast trains in the US; they are fabulous for traveling. Barcelona is amazing! If you haven't been there, you have to go check it out. I think it is the most interesting city that I have ever been to. It is a perfect combination of new and old--they kept most of the old buildings in the city, but when they restored them, they would add modern flairs. For example, there was a huge building that used to be a famous site for bull fights. They recently remodeled it and added a lot of colorful tiles, colored windows where there used to be open gaps, and a glass elevator to the top--gorgeous. The rest of the day we spent just exploring the city a little bit.

Thursday
Thursday morning I was motivated to wake up early and run. We ran along the sea, which obviously I never get to do in Indiana, so I was on cloud 9. :) My watch didn't find satellites until we had already been running for about 5 minutes, so I think we were probably closer to 3.3 miles or so.

After the run, we had breakfast, and then a large group of us walked back to the beach. We put our feet in the water (brr!), and walked barefoot in the sand--it was nice. Here is a nice picture of all of the girls that were with us.

The rest of Thursday we spent walking through the city and checking things out. We rode a gondola to the top of a mountain, which gave us a perfect view of the city--very neat. At night, a handful of us went out with our orchestra director, and we ended up being out until 5:15 am. :-| That is the first time in a very long time that I have been out that late, but it was only 12:15 EST, so I'll just say I was still on Indiana time. :) When I got back to the hotel room, I got some very exciting news--D's twin sister had just had her baby girl. So sweet!

Friday
This morning we went to see La Sagrada Familia, which is a very famous church designed by Gaudi. It was probably my favorite thing that we saw on the entire trip--it is unfinished, but it is already magnificent. The rest of Friday flew by and in the evening we had our second, and final, concert. This was again in a church, and our audience was just as great as in Madrid. It is a great feeling to play a concert and feel like the audience truly appreciates your music.

Saturday
We woke up early and headed home. It was a day full of travel!

The best way to recap is with this absolutely amazing video that my friend Adam made. He studied abroad in Spain in the summer, and during that time he wrote and recorded the song that is playing in the background; then during this trip he took a bunch of videos and stitched them together to make this masterpiece. :)

Orchestra Trip to Spain!

Purdue's Spring Break is next week, and this year I am going to Spain! The Purdue orchestra made the decision to take this trip last Fall, and I immediately knew that I wanted to go with them (it's optional since we have to pay for it ourselves). When I was an undergrad, the orchestra had taken a trip to Turkey, and I decided not to go because it was expensive and I thought I could go by myself and have a better time. Looking back, although it was expensive, I wish I would have gone because although you can always travel on your own, you don't get many chances to perform in a foregin country. That's part of why I'm so excited for this Spain trip!

I have been to Spain once before--I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and our Spanish teacher took our class to Spain immediately after graduation. We went to Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Cordova, and Malaga. It was a blast, but it was almost 8 years ago (what!), so I'm definitely ready for a refresher. :) Here are some pictures from my first trip to Spain:

Three of the four students who went to Spain, and our Spanish teacher. Yes my shirt has a monkey on it--it was my favorite shirt! :)

The four students in front of...something! I can't remember what. :-|

Pretty winding street

This trip we are going to Madrid and Barcelona--I'm very excited because I've never been to Barcelona and I've heard it's amazing. We have one performance in Madrid at this beautiful church:

 After three days in Madrid, we head to Barcelona. This city looks amazing! I can't wait to have picture of my own like this.

Our last performance is here in Barcelona in another church.

Ok enough pictures for now. :) I will definitely create some posts while we are there (free wi-fi at both hotels, woo!), sharing what we are doing and seeing. I am also going to try to get some runs in while I'm there, although that may prove to be difficult--we will see!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Springtime!

I have lived in Indiana for my whole life, so going through the four seasons is definitely something I'm used to, but the start of a new season is always exciting to me! The first snow makes me light up like a little kid, but after months (and months and months...) of winter, I welcome the sound of birds chirping, and warmer temps. I guess after the time changes it always feels like Spring is actually coming, because the sun stays up past 6 pm. :) This weekend was absolutely beautiful, with temps feeling positively balmy (I heard it was only 45, but it sure felt warm and wonderful compared to the past few months with highs of 10 degrees!). I was super busy all weekend, so I didn't get a chance to do any outdoor runs or bike rides, but I will be making up for that this week. I have lots to do, but I see a dramatic improvement in my outlook on life, and my general happiness when I spend time exercising outside. This morning I took Nova for a walk and then played with her in the backyard for a few minutes--I love that it's getting warm enough to venture outside without wearing 10 layers.

The Spring feeling in the air has me thinking about my garden. I didn't have a garden last year, but the year before that, I rented a plot at a local community garden, and grew some delicious vegetables. It was really great, and I enjoyed it a lot, but it was about a mile from our apartment, so I definitely didn't get over there as much as I should have, and I didn't get as much out of it as I could. Now that we have a house, I can have a garden in our backyard! So exciting! I have been looking into raised garden beds, because otherwise Nova may decide that the garden would be the most fun place to play in the yard. :) I also have been looking into local CSAs, community supported agriculture. These programs let you invest some money into a local farm, and then they deliver a crop to you each week. I have had lots of friends who participate in this, and they like it because 1) you get local, yummy fruits and vegetables every week, 2) you get a variety of crops that you might not grow/buy on your own, which forces you to try new things, and 3) you are supporting local business. I'm still trying to decide if it is wasteful to try to do my own garden AND be part of a CSA--it might make more sense to have my own garden and just supplement with things from the farmer's market. Anyway, happy Spring everyone! :)