Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Highs and Lows of Traveling Solo

As I mentioned previously in the first post I made, traveling alone would not have been my first choice. When it came down to it though, it is hard to find someone who wants to do exactly the same thing as you and waiting around for someone could take a lifetime. In the past month here are the things that I have learned (or learnt as they say here).

Pros:
  1. You can do whatever you want and never have to compromise
  2. You always get to go to the restaurant you want
  3. You never have to do something you don't want to
  4. Navigating crowds is easy with one person
  5. People may be more inclined to approach you when there is no one else there
  6. No one to argue with about directions, if you get lost it's your own fault
  7. Can spend more or less time doing something that you like
  8. Never have to schedule anything around someone else
  9. People think you are really independent and interesting
  10. A lot of good thinking time
  11. Get to know yourself a lot better

Regent Canal in Camden; I run this same canal but by my house

Cons:
  1. You are constantly explaining to everyone why you are where you are
  2. Constantly at the stage of getting to know people
  3. You are not comfortable enough to just hang out with someone, you always have to be doing something - sometimes you don't want to be alone, but don't want to have to work at being around someone
  4. If you run out of ideas of things to do there is no one to brainstorm with
  5. Eating lunch or breakfast out alone is no big deal, but dinner kind of sucks
  6. If you get lost or don't remember something, there is no one there to help you remember
  7. Can't go out at night by yourself- A. it's weird B. at night everyone else went to the bars with friends C. it's too loud to talk to people you don't know
  8. There's no one to share food with when you want to try multiple things - a big problem for me at the Borough market!
  9. There's too much time to think- I've had thoughts wondering if I have more thoughts than other people in an average day... what?
  10. Skype is the best and only way to talk to people from back home and it is temperamental- sometimes just doesn't work at all
Finally a high and a low, every story that happens is your own, there is no one else that has experienced quite the same thing. This makes it really special, but also very lonely when no one else will ever reminisce with you.

View of London from Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath

I have learned a lot about myself in just this short month and have been forced to be more outgoing. I actually thank my time at Chase (never thought I would say that!) for 9 months of meaningless small talk to people that I don't want to talk to, it has made making small talk to strangers I might want to talk to loads easier. At least I can thank them for something right?

I feel more comfortable and confident that I have been able to force myself to do everything that I have wanted to, even if it made me feel a little uncomfortable doing it alone- the exception being going out to dinner, I really hate doing that alone.

The next month I will be with people that I know, including my best friend and I cannot wait to not have to explain myself over and over again and to just hang out, go out and relax.

For my class it was the best decision to not be in a hostel as I had so much work and needed my space to study, work and sleep, but I do not think that it has been ideal for meeting people. Whatever I decide to do next and wherever I decide to go, I think that I will at least stay in a hostel for a little while to meet new people who are doing the same thing as me, traveling, seeing the world and talking to new people.

The past month has shown me what I am capable of doing and has reassured me that this was the right choice. Next time I will know how to do it even better!

Brick Lane; This guy did some amazing percussion with buckets, it was seriously awesome!

Other Updates:

The past week has been crazy. Two finals, class, teaching practice and the inability to sleep! I am one day away from being a certified english teacher- I am very excited for the class to be over and I feel a big sense of accomplishment having learned the entire english grammatical system and phonetic alphabet in one week! Now it's time to start looking for jobs!

Words cannot express how excited I am to go relax on the beach. Monday I'm leaving for Israel!

Can't wait to eat some middle eastern food, relax, tan and get to hang out with my best friend, Josh!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Wait, what did you say?

After being in Spain for the second time and this time with much less language fluency (I guess that tends to happen when you don't ever speak it at home). I was excited to go to a country that I could understand everyone. I figured that it had to be easier to make friends and talk to random people. What I realized is though this is partly correct, it is also assumed that you can understand everything... ummm not so much.

Being able to speak English fluently and not understanding actually makes me feel like more of an idiot than not being able to understand someone from a Spanish or French speaking country.

One of the first days I was here I was trying to get a sim card for my cell phone and determined to get my iPhone unlocked (which is still locked by the way). I asked someone for directions to some phone store and he told me, "Go to the left and then to the right, under two tunnels and then it's right on your right." I asked him to repeat it twice, had no idea what tunnels he was talking about (real tunnels? car overpasses?) and I gave up. I never found the place he was talking about.

I found a new dry cleaner down the street from me. He has an accent that I do not understand at all. He was curious (I think) as to what an American is doing here and he tried to communicate with me. It lead to me just answering something back, that I thought maybe he had said. He looked at me like I was crazy when I told him my age and he replied back, "I'm not that cheeky love." Hmmm I still have no idea what he was talking about then...

I was at breakfast the other day and the waitress asked me, "Would you like ketchup or brown sauce?" I just stared at her unsure of what she had asked me. She brought me both. I learned from my new friends (that I made in a pub in Marylebone) that it is an english institution. Don't run out and buy any... it is not appetizing! It's a mix of vinegar taste and anise. Eww.


View from the Thames- the gherkin is the weird-shaped building, see below

I've made new friends here and it has been a new lesson in vocab. Sometimes I have no idea what they are talking about. Sometimes on the phone all I hear is accent and no actual english words. I am slowly learning to use the slang here, but it feels so forced still. The other day I realized that one of my friends had no idea what I meant when I said something was "sketchy", it's dodgy everyone. And here I thought that I could understand everything and people would understand me.

Oh and don't mistaken pants with trousers. Pants mean underwear.

New things I've learned:

  1. Trousers = pants
  2. Gherkin = pickle, also a building in London
  3. Dodgy = sketchy
  4. Get on = getting along, "They get on well together."
  5. Half four = 4:30, shortened form of half past four
  6. Cheesed off = pissed off, I thought someone was joking when they said this, like the South Park episode
  7. At weekends = on the weekend
  8. Sort out = to figure out
  9. Trolley dolly = used in the context to explain a girl who had no job, but had money
  10. Quid = used to refer to the pound
  11. Stones = a way of measuring how much you weigh, 14 pounds
  12. Rubbish = trash or anything that is stupid or bad, "That place is rubbish."
There are definitely more and I will include them as I think of them.


My tube stop, random iPhone picture

Other updates:

Everything else is fine here. In case you're wondering the ash has no effect on my life at all, you can't tell that it's there. It's microscopic and high in the air. I'm just hoping that everything gets sorted out in the next 2 weeks before I leave. Stupid volcano.

I am halfway through class and taking the first exam we have to pass on Wednesday and then the last one is next Wednesday.

I have no idea what I am going to do for the summer or where I am going to be, it's better not to ask. I also have a feeling that going anywhere from London is going to be messed up for a while and it is going to be expensive and hard to book flights out of here after they cancelled more than 63,000 flights in the past few days.


My bus outside of St. Paul's, again random.


Trust me though, when I know what my plan is I will share it.



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The New 'Hood

In the last week my life has taken a dramatic change. I went from doing pretty much nothing all day (well I mean if you count eating, naps and computer time I was doing a lot) to having a jam packed schedule full of school, homework every night, exploring and meeting new people. It's been an overwhelming, but amazing last 9 or so days.

I got to London on Easter Sunday with more luggage than I need, which didn't fully come into realization until I had to trek from Heathrow to Stepney Green via two tube lines and a bus (thanks for the welcome London and having my tube station closed!). I was completely exhausted and sore after lugging it around - mom expect a package home before Israel! On top of the physical exhaustion I also had the issue of not really knowing where I was going, praying that my accommodation was not dodgy and not having a working cell phone to call the girl whose room I am renting.


New place which is a pub conversion.

It all worked out though and my carefully drawn (not) map and directions got me to my new flat and I met up with the girl, met my landlord, etc. My house is great, though not the friendliest place as I have seen my Spanish and French roommates twice each. We each have our own dishes, silverware, toilet paper (?!?!!) and not even a shared hand towel or soap in the bathroom. It's not bad exactly, it is just really weird after living with friends or having my own space the last 6 years.


New room. Huge.

The bane of my existence here has to be the shower though. It has its own water heater that you have to turn on and off, the worst water pressure ever and it is literally either freezing or scorching hot. I cannot wait for a real shower again, apparently Josh's place in Israel has a legit shower. I know the first thing I'm doing when I get there.


I hate you.

My neighborhood is the most diverse place that I have ever lived, which to be honest is not hard when you have been in Boulder for 5 years and the most diversity you see is dirty blonde vs. light brown (what is the difference anyway?). I am in a neighborhood with a very big Bengali population and it smells amazingly like Indian food all the time. When I go for a run I kind of feel like that girl from Bend it Like Beckham. There are also Brits, black people, arab people (my landlord is Pakistani) and loads of other kinds of people. It's amazing. I love it. It's exactly what I (so far) love the most about London is how many different kinds of people it attracts.

Down the street from my house is a church, St. Dunstan's, that had church bell practice Thursday night. For two hours. Straight. There's nothing else to say, just imagine.

There is even a farm with a cow and goats down the street, very random.

The rest of the neighborhood is pretty residential and there is not a lot to do here, but it is very close to Brick Lane (Indian food, apparently good bars), close to school and accessible to the city. It's more than fine. It's allowing me to have space to do work and not be too tempted to blow off school and procrastinate, but if I do decide to then London is at my doorstep.

Like I said the last week has been amazing and there are a lot of good stories, but not a lot of time to write them. School is long, hard and a lot of work.


Oh hey it's Big Ben.

Next post will be about meeting new people and trying to understand them.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

“I can’t believe we left the lights on…” Adventures in International Road Trips Part Two

We woke up the next day for the second leg of the journey and were set to continue on our voyage to Anguiano, Spain and then back to Madrid. We ate breakfast we thought was free and then ended up being charged for (joder) and then walked down to the car where today I was going to drive.

The car didn’t start.

I was so confused as to what was happening. It is normally not a good sign when your car won’t start, but without a lot of knowledge about driving stick I was also worried I messed up the car or was being an idiot. Crap. We called several numbers that were provided with the car and all of them said they were closed for Good Friday. Uh Oh.

Finally I saw the most obvious number on the windshield and they told us someone would be there soon to help us. We weren’t sure what “soon” meant in Spain, especially on a festivo day. When I lived in Madrid, Lindsay and my ceiling burst water all over the floor, they told us not to worry about it that day. That it didn’t look good, but it was Sunday so there was nothing that could be done. Luckily, this situation was not like that at all and within half an hour the guy came. He jump started the car since the battery had died and told us that we could drive it as long as we kept it running for at least half an hour. Easier said than done when every start without a stall is a small victory.

I made Jolene drive again since I figured with 4 hours of practice the day before she would be more likely to be able to move from the spot without stalling. She cranked the wheel all the way to the left, said a small prayer that we could make it out of the spot without backing up or stalling and we were off again!

Our next stop was Anguiano, Spain. It is a town of only 540 people and on a small windy road. Our cabbie the day before thought it was very weird that we wanted to go there, as it is only known for one parade with stilts that happens in July. We assured him it was for a good reason, because it is mi apellido (last name).

It was gorgeous.


Had to take a picture by the sign!

The drive was pretty boring until we entered Anguiano where there were cascading cliffs and a river. It was very quaint, with very old stone and brick buildings. It is a typical picturesque little mountain town. We were definitely the only Americans for kilometers (how euro of me to not say miles). There is an old bridge from the 18th century and a church from the 15th century. I liked it a lot and it was strange that there were a lot of parallels to Boulder i.e. mountains, rock climbing, biking and very windy.


Cascading cliff that people were rock climbing! 18th century bridge to the right and church in the upper left

We had stopped the car on the side of the road as to not have to park and reverse. The problem was that we parked it facing uphill. I was determined to drive, but I was going to have to start the car going uphill and immediately do a u-turn on a very small mountain road. This is exactly what I had to do the last time I had to drive stick in the Colorado mountains with Josh’s car. I didn’t have problems that time, so I had faith that it would be ok. With much less elegance than in Colorado, I literally peeled out of Anguiano, Spain without stalling and with remembering to immediately shift into 2nd gear.

We made our way through the small Spanish towns and back to a bigger highway, the whole time I was keeping my fingers crossed that there would be no stopping for pedestrians or traffic and there would not be any rogue old men wandering in the middle of the streets (Jolene and I saw this happen a lot). I made it to the main highway without problem and only stalling twice at the gas station while trying a trick to not stall that Alby had taught us. The trick didn’t work for me obviously, but with my own way of feeling the clutch I didn’t stall the rest of the drive to Madrid, I just made a lot of shifting mistakes.

As we pulled back into T4 at the Madrid airport I felt like I could finally breathe a sigh of relief that we had made it home, in one piece. I was extremely happy to return the car and was shaking when I exited the vehicle. Four hours straight of driving a stick was purely adrenaline fueled, always on guard to shift and use the clutch. I felt like I could finally rest.

Our adventure came to an end and so did my time in Madrid- I left the next morning before the sun came up.

I hope that I can go on more international road trips. It was fun, except for the whole scared for your life thing and not wanting to stop ever to pee because that would be another chance to stall the car.

I now understand why there are so many roundabouts in Europe: there is no stopping to shift all the way down to first gear and having to start again. For this I thank you Spain.


Our cochita who took a beating for us

Next week's blog will be about the people of London!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

“Spanish towns are so random…” Adventures in International Road Trips Part One

Jolene and I picked up our car at 10h00 from terminal 4 with confidence. We got into the car and I let Jolene take the wheel first since when we practiced last Sunday with Alby she seemed to be doing a better job with the whole not stalling thing. She started the car with ease and passed two tolls without issue. Then we hit the highway.

TRAFFIC!!

Stop and go holiday traffic from the puente over the Easter holiday. This was by and large our very worst nightmare. One that we tried to avoid by getting the car outside of the city where there are only highways. Stopping and starting are the absolute, most challenging part of driving a manual car. When we entered traffic all I could think of was Sunday ski traffic coming back on I-70 where a 1.5 hour drive can stretch into 4 hours and hours can pass by from Silverthorne to the tunnel. All uphill, all stop and go.

Jolene kept a calm attitude (even though later she told me she was anything but) and only stalled twice in the traffic (trust me it was better than I thought it might be). I was thoroughly impressed. The rest of the drive was mostly without incident. We made it to Logroño with just the occasional hassle of trying to shift gears, break, drive, watch pedestrians, start, stop, not stall, you know, normal driving things.

We made it!

Entering La Rioja

In Logroño we decided not to drive anywhere and found an on the street place to park that we could pull into and not parallel park, because let’s be honest that was definitely not happening and beyond our skill set. We also didn’t want to enter a car garage where there was a steep incline by the ticket reader that we would have to start on a huge incline. We left the car in the spot, mostly parked ok and walked or took taxis the rest of the time even though it was more costly and took more time.

Jolene and I had heard mixed reviews of Logroño and we were not sure what we should expect. Luckily, we loved it! We were concerned when everything closed at 15h00 during siesta and slowed to a dead halt. We went to a winery a little outside of the city, a compulsory tour, and came back at 18h30 to a town with absolutely nothing open in the center except for one café we found. I’m talking ghost town. If I had seen a tumbleweed blow by it would not have surprised me, in fact there was trash blowing around in a very similar fashion. We were told that a bar was re-opening at 8, so we decided to try the center again around then.

Street shot of Logroño

When we came back around 8 the town had lit up again. Success. Bars all had outside barrels for tables to stand and drink at, dance parties broke out to live music, beer and wine was 1 – 1.50 euro, tapas were about 2 euros. All the bars had different tapas, that were listed outside and different tinto from the region. I found that I like crianza better than joven tinto. The weird thing about bars here was that you ordered your food and drink and then you didn’t pay until the end. You could walk outside to the tables and it was crowded. It would have been so easy to not pay for anything the whole night, but we would have felt too bad. We only didn’t pay, called sinpa in Madrid, at one place because it would have been a huge hassle to get their attention in the extremely busy bar. We ate and drank so well, all for maybe 20 euros. It was incredible! One of my favorite nights in Spain.


Random dance party and live music!

Mmmm mushroom tapas and wine
we won't discuss that Jolene was drinking beer!

Part 2 to come tomorrow! This epic trip deserved 2 posts!

By the way I made it to London fine and my room seems to be ok! More on this later this week!

Frustration

I am sitting in the Madrid airport waiting to get onto my flight to Barcelona to meet my grandma, aunt and uncle before their cruise. This morning has been everything short of ideal. I had to wake up at 4h30 in order to get to the airport in plenty of time. As if waking up that early wasn’t disorienting enough, there was also no power in Jolene’s apartment. I couldn’t shower; it was hard enough to brush my teeth in pitch black. I had to finish packing, get dressed and make sure that I had all of my belongings, all in rooms that I couldn’t see my own hand. The only light I had was my iPhone. Pretty much the worst scenario I can think of to leave somewhere. Luckily I packed my stuff last night.

I made Jolene call a taxi for me since I was already frustrated that everything was taking three times as long as normal to get ready. I walked out of the apartment and tried the timed light switch for the stairs and it worked perfectly fine…. Upon entering the taxi I got into an argument with the driver (all in Spanish, which without someone who speaks better than me as a crutch I can speak and understand pretty well) about his choice of direction. He was right that his way probably was faster, but with the highway a mere 5 blocks from Jolene’s house it seemed like going through the city was the worst way to get here. I’m here now though and in 15 minutes. And I apologized to the driver, citing my lack of power and ability to pack this morning.

I would love nothing more than to be on the internet and posting this directly to the site, but after paying 60 euros extra for my small suitcase to board the flight, the extra 5 euros seem like too much right now (my flight was 45 euros... should I have bought my bag its own seat instead??). I miss free wi-fi. Keep in mind that I have carried this particular suitcase on flights from NYC to Seattle without problems for the last 5 years. It looks like I might have to buy another new suitcase. Why is it that Europe can manufacture and distribute suitcases that are lighter and a better size, but when I looked in Colorado none of them were any better in size than the one I already own? I want to buy a new one, but they are so expensive.

I am hoping that the next hour goes by quickly as I sit in the first McDonald’s I’ve been to in maybe 5-10 years. It happens to be the only thing that is open right now. I would love a café solo right now more than anything in the world, which if you know me at all that is a very weird thing for me to say.

Once again I can honestly say that I have no desire to come back to Madrid, for many reasons not in this post, ever again. Thanks for the send off.

I’m onto bigger and better things.

4 flights, same time, same gate, different flight numbers.
HOW SPANISH