Friday, December 7, 2012

Trip to Paris

To be fair Paris was a bit of a spontaneous venture--I purchased tickets a mere seven days prior to my departure. In the end, my three friends and I hopped a flight to the city of love for five days of unabashed tourism. We ate French, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish and supermarket food; walked the entire city of Paris in a span of six hours; helped a lost Malaysian woman find her way to her hotel; learned a bit of French; and somehow managed to avoid being robbed, cheated, or beaten (that we know of). Anyway, below is the photo diary:


 Notre Dame 





The Lock Bridge--where one can purchase, write on, and leave behind a lock to symbolize an everlasting romantic relationship, friendship, etc.






  
View from inside and outside of the Louvre Museum


Scene from the Christmas markets, which had opened in Paris just before we arrived



Arc de Triomphe at sunset


Friday, November 23, 2012

Spanish Flamenco




As the title suggests, the videos above are from a Flamenco show last week at Casa Patas. Everything else is best described in video. 

Monday, November 12, 2012

On Strike: Madrid Edition

Since this coming Wednesday marks the General Strike in all of Spain, I figured it might be best to address (briefly) the economic crisis as it applies to the Iberian Peninsula. To start, all of the strikes/riots etc. have been going on in Madrid well before I arrived, and from what I understand it is only recently that there have been more strikes and less riots. The reason for these protests revolves around the austerity measures the EU is currently imposing on Spain as part of the conditions of the (second) bailout for Spanish banks. According to the austerity measures, cuts will have to be made to various areas of society in order for Spain's budget to be approved and bailout funds to be disbursed--this after a recent tax increase to 21%. This on top of foreclosures, which are estimated at around 300 a day in Spain. In Madrid alone there's a proposal to close 9 hospitals, not to mention a spike in metro prices, and cuts in education and pensions.

The Eurozone crisis itself is a bit harder to explain, but as far as Spain's goes the country more or less overspent its budget and was forced to ask for a bailout. They are currently waiting on the second one. The difference between Spain and Greece lies in their integrity. Every December each country within the European Union must submit a financial report detailing the total expenses and incomes of the previous year. While Spain was relatively honest about how much it was spending, Greece forged its financial reports, and it wasn't until 8 years later than an investigation conducted by the European Union revealed the country's true financial state. Add in the fiscal troubles of Portugal, Italy, and Ireland--whose situations I am not well informed about--and you have the Eurozone crisis.

 
Granted, this is largely an oversimplification of the current situation. I tried to leave it in vague terms because I don't know the facts specifically; this is just what I've gleaned throughout my time here. Hope it offers some kind of clarification. At any rate, I'm supposed to see a Flamenco show this week, so hopefully it will be bright enough in there to take photos to post with later. 

EDIT: One of my friends took this photo earlier today...translated, from left to right: "criminals," "let the capitalists pay for the crisis," and "bankers go to prison."

 
 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Photography

As difficult as it is to believe, November has arrived...which means that my time in Spain is almost up for this semester. I have a lot left to do here before shipping off to the homeland for Christmas, but not much has happened recently; the most exciting thing that's happened since Santander has been a trip to the movie theater. Thus, I've pulled together a few of my favorite photos of Spain, both as a means of stalling until I have something more interesting to report and an attempt to compile the best ones for Suffolk's photo competition. I'm not well versed in the art of photography, but the grand prize this year is something in the area of 50 euros so I might as well give it a shot. For the sake of integrity, I promise none of these photos are repeats from earlier posts. 













Not actually going to enter this photo but the food was delicious





Monday, October 29, 2012

Excursion to Santander 

I hesitate in calling this past weekend a trip; considering I didn't leave the country, not to mention the brevity of our stay, excursion seemed more fitting. At any rate, I spent the past weekend in the northern Spanish city of Santander as the second of my two Suffolk-sponsored "trips," the first being the welcome/orientation trip to Salamanca. The north of Spain is considerably greener than the south, not to mention much more mountainous. Granted it was also much wetter than Madrid, but it was well worth shuffling through the drizzle. We had the chance to tour the small medieval town of Santillana del Mar, as well as two of the ancient caves the north of Spain is famous for, and our hotel in Santander was a mere 5 minutes from the beach. And so, without further ado:




Palace of the Magdalena, which overlooks the ocean.


Street view of Santillana del Mar




The north of Spain is well known for its milk and all milk products, and this giant bar of chocolate was well worth 2.50.


 We weren't technically supposed to be taking photos in the caves, but luckily I was able to take a few without blurring them. 



From our brief (rather anticlimactic) visit to the city center


The beach at night...the weird thing about October being that the ocean water is still warm, and in this case it was warmer than the air




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Trip to Germany

As the title suggests I recently took a 4-day trip to the Rhineland, which is, especially this time of year, absolutely breathtaking. I stayed with a family I met two years ago through an exchange program, and they were kind enough to welcome me into their home again this time around. Although I wasn't able to stay nearly as long as I liked, I was able to tour the cities of Bonn and Cologne, as well as the small town of Rheinbach nearest to their home. Below is a sort of photo diary of my excursions there; image-heavy, but includes food documentation as well. Enjoy. 




View of the Rhine river.






The small dog pictured in the photos above is named "perro"--my host family adopted him on their last trip to Mallorca, about eight years ago.



The famous Cologne cathedral offers visitors a chance to climb 509 steps to the its topmost tower (not pictured). It took my host sister and I about 20 minutes to make it to the top, but the view was well worth the effort. 




Food

Self-explanatory.



The most common form of water in Germany is sparkling mineral water...I'm not a fan personally, but it is refreshing.