The Tower

I figured I had to prove I was at the Tower before my final post. This is my last video hope you enjoyed my blog.

My Final Post

It is so hard to believe that the trip is over! That was the fastest month of my life. I have seen and done so many things in the time I have been in Europe: I was able to vist three different countries (not to mention two of them were in the world cup while I was there). I met so many people, not just from Spain , but from around the U.S. It is hard to find words to explain what I witnessed and what I went through. I will never have a better time in my life then I did in Spain; I will always tell storys of Europe for the remainder of my life. I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Wilson; he is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Also, to all my fellow Catawba students that were their with me. It was nice to know that I had fifteen guys back me up when I was in a forgein country. I can honestly admit that when we all went out together, I was never scared of what might happen. Also I want to give thanks to the Forspro Program. Although there were some flaws, overall it was well put together. Good bye Europe, Iwill never be able to repay you for what you gave to me and my friends.

The Louvre

The third day we were in Paris we went on an adventureto the Lourve. The Louvre is a famous museum that features artists shuch as Micalgelo and Leonard de Vinci. After a while, we got tired and did not realize where we were. It turns out we were right outside the Louvre we just did not know it!

Paris

It was extremely hard to want to leave Spain for France; there was just way to many things I loved about Spain. Unfortunately, we had no choice in the matter because are flight back to the U.S. was out of Paris. Oh well, time to make the best of it! During the day, we went to most of the tourist "hot spots" around France such as the Arch, The Eiffel Tower, The Louve and Notre Dame. We also took boat tour through the cannels of Paris. The city of France is very beautiful, but I cannot say the same for the french people personalities. I felt like any where we went somebody was trying to rip us off and at this point in time on the trip I did not have much money left. I am really glad I experienced Paris but I highly doubt I will ever come back. It is very expensive so if you do decide to visit Paris, be ready to spend some money.

Good Bye Spain Hello France

Part of our trip included a four day stay in Paris. Here is a little tour of the hotel room Casey and I stayed in.

Good Bye Spain

This little clip is my last few minutes in Spain on the bus going to the airport for my flight to Paris. I loved Spain ; I don't ever think I will have a better time in another country for the rest of my life. I was very sad I had to leave!

My Class Room

Looking back on my trip to Europe, I often forget that I was in school because I was having so much fun. Almost every week day we had class at 9:45 in the morning and I was usually woken up by my good friend mike. I would roll out of bed usually hurting pretty bad and make my way down stairs for class. When you first hear the word "class", alot of people automaticaly connotate it with boring and miserable. Well, that was the complete opposite of my Spainsh class with Dr. Wilson; we had so much fun trying to speak Spainsh and most of the kids in our class made things intresting. Dr. Wilson is an amazing teacher and if you havent started your foriegn language credits, take Dr. Wilson! Up above is a picture of the class room we crammed into every morning.

The Cafeteria

The cafetria was like any cafetria: it had its good days and it had its bad days. The problem was even on the bad days, we had to eat it unless we wanted to spend money at a resturant. There were definatley days where I had no idea what I was eating, so I would drink water with it to make it go down faster. Needless to say, the bad days outweighed the good days by a large margin. The one thing that I loved about the cafeteria was the ladies that worked in there were so funny and nice. I never could figure out what they were saying to me though. Up above is a little picture of the dinning hall we ate in.

Spain Style

Every country has its own unique style but sometimes, it is hard to put a finger on whatthat is for certain countries. One style that I immediately noticed about the men in Spain was that they wore capri-pants. In the states, I am starting to see a little of those, but not much. Another little trend that caught my eye was every where you went, all the girls have these little "Asian-style" hand fans. One of the most interesting style I observed was these MC Hammer pants that my friend Mike was kind-of obsessed with. At first, we thought he was joking because only girls wore those pants but we were sadly mistaken. The first time he saw those pants in a store, he bought them. I figured it was only appropriate that he had a cute little fan to go with his puff pants so I bought him a one.

Handicap

If you are having second thoughts about traveling to Madrid, maybe it is because you are injured or handicap. Don't worry about that because there are elevators to the metro. Even in our dorm there were electric escalator chairs that could help you get up and down the stairs. Here is an example of the chair.

Workin Out

While we were in Madrid my friend Casey refused to let his body get out of shape. So no matter where we were, he would always try to get a quick workout in.

Using The Metro System

When you get to madrid, you will quickly figure out that using the Metro is the main way to get around town. If you are going to be there for a month, you should go head and buy the month pass; you will end up spending more money if you buy a single ticket every time. One ride cost 1 euro and if you buy 10 passes that cost 9 euro, so in the end you get one ride for free. The second piece of advice is to figure out your metro stop before you just hop on and ride. I, unfortunately, made that mistake the second day I was there. The maps are very easy to figure out so just take some time to check them out; it will make your life much easier. I was lucky enough to have a great Metro leader by the name of Mike Pecchia or also known as "Man Bear Pig". He did a really swell job guiding us through the metro stops, thanks Mike!

The Market

If one of your main interests when you travel is food, there is one place you need to got to: it is a small market where you walk around and order small tapas, which are appetizers. The market is located at the Metro stop Sol, which is basically the "town square" of Madrid. I'm going to warn you, you should bring a good amount of money if you want to leave with a full stomach. All the food is displayed in windows and you walk around and pick what you want. There are raw pieces of fish that you can pick from and they will grill it on the spot right in front of you. It is really cool and definatley somthing you should experence if you ever visit Madrid.

Notre Dame

This is a little clip of the outside shot of Notre Dame in Paris, France.

Clubing

So Madrid is well known for their clubs that go all night long. In this clip you will see two current students at Catawba College, Corey Eldridge and Tom Mitchell, attempting to party all night long. They made it pretty obvious that they were getting tired.

Party Time

Throughout the streets of Madrid, there are always people doing strange talents, mainly looking for tips. One of the performers I found pretty interesting: he was dressed in normal clothes but had knee pads on and Clown make up. His talent that he exhibited to the crowd was dancing to the music on his head phones. He was very good and my friends seemed to like him as well.

Gondola Tour

If you are running out of things to do while in Madrid, you should take a Gondola Tour. It was really cool way to see Madrid. The Tour is about two miles long and each gondola can seat up to four people. I went with three of my friends and for some reason, we let the kid from England make all the plans. He lived up to being the "not so smart" kid from England because he brought us to a mentro stop that was about four miles away from where we were going. So if you are ever in Spain, don't let the English kid make the plans. When we finally got there, it was a beautiful tour and I defiantly would recommend it to future tourists. At the end of the ride, there is a bar that overlooks the City of Madrid and I thought it was appropriate to get a quick drink.

Even Spain has Zoo's

Who would have thought that Spain has a zoo! One day after class, Casey and I were trying to figure out something to do. After brainstorming, we settled on the Zoo because it was the cheapest option we had. It was fun seeing all the exotic animals, but we realized we probably should have done something else. An observation that I had made about the Zoo in Madrid, and about Europe in general, was that every thing is smaller than the things we have in America. Although the Zoo was smaller than expected, it was still a good time. Here is a video i took of some talented seals.

Surviving with Low Funds

During the first week in Madrid, Casey and I had ran into a small problem: we spent five hundred eruo in one week! From this, we realized it was time to start managing our money better. There are a couple ways to do this: first off, you need to figure out what bars have cheap drinks. I luckily found a bar that had cheap drinks and a nice atmosphere, so I was of to a good start! The main problem was finding cheap food. Every where you go to eat, it seemed like they wanted you to sit down; not to mention they charge you for water! Eventually, I learned how to say "pitcher" in Spanish and started to order tap water, which was free. Finding cheap food was still my main problem when trying to manage my money until I discovered places that served Turkish food or Middle Eastern food. If you haven't tried any, it is delicious and not to mention cheap! Above, there is a picture of a kabob which is a delecacy within the country of Turkey.

Madrid Architecture

Before I left America, I honestly did not know much about Madrid. I knew of a few things though; they spoke Spanish and they like to have a good time. It was a pleasant surprise to see that Madrid's buildings were extremely beautiful. Everywhere I went in Madrid, the architecture of the buildings were very sophisticated, with every little inch carved into a specific design. Here is a picture of me taken by Casey Chinn, also known as "Mini Moose", of me walking down a street in Madrid.

Next Segway Stop

We went to a monument for Miguel de Cervantes, the writer of the famous book Don Quioxte, which was said to inspire the artist Pablo Picasso .Here is a little video of our tour guide explaining the statue.

Egyptian Monument

During my stay in Madrid, you might think that all I did was party. You will be happy to know that I made time to do some "tourist activites" during the day. One of the cool monuments I got to visit during my segway tour was an Egyptian Monument. Good thing we had our tour guide with us because I would have had no idea the history behind the monument. So it turns out, the history behind the monument was due to the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1960. Many valuable monuments and archaeological sites were in danger of being destroyed during this time. The Egyptian people made an appeal to other countries to helpthem save these monuments. Due to the aid given by Spain, particularly in helping to save the sacred buildings of Abu Simbel, the Egyptian government donated this temple to the Spanish people in 1968. My tour guide told me all the rocks in the monument were flown in directly from Egypt. The monument is located near the palace, so if your near the palace check it out!