This Is Why I Love Being Abroad...

Since my only Monday class begins two weeks from today, I took advantage of the fact that I didn’t have school and explored two parts of Coruña, one that I barely knew and the other that I had never been to.  This morning, I took a walk with Claire to “la cuidad vieja” or “the old city.”  I truly believe that the old city is one of Coruña’s many hidden gems since every humble-corner has a chunk full of history: ranging from a church that is a starting point to the “English Way” of the Camino de Santiago, and even a church whose facade is unfinished (pictured below).  Another reason why I love the old city is because it looks like a typical European neighborhood.  I live and mostly hang around in the modern section of Coruña; even though I always feel like I’m in Spain and not the United States, whenever I take the mile-long stroll to the old city, I get that wow-I’m-really-in-Europe feeling.

After eating lunch with my incredible host family, Eva and I decided to take a bus and go to Marineda City, one of Coruña’s four shopping malls.  What sets apart this mall is the fact that it’s the largest in Spain, and the second largest in Europe!  Marineda City is home to a bunch of European and American (Hollister!) clothing stores, as well as a Cortes Inglés (which is like a Macy’s on steroids, since it’s eight stories high!), an Ikea, a movie theater, food court, bowling alley, mini-golf course, bumper cars, and a go-kart racing track... needless to say, I was basically in heaven, and will most definitely head back very very soon to get my bowling, golfing and go-karting on.

As great as today has been, there is one minor negative.  A couple of days ago, for some weird reason I decided to countdown how many days are left in my study abroad experience... 100.  Tomorrow commences the double digits.  Although I’m super bummed at the fact that I only have 100 more days here in Coruña, I truly am getting really excited to go home and be a Holy Cross senior (weird, don't want to talk about it) next year.  Here’s to 100 unforgettable days!

The Church of Santiago in "La Cuidad Vieja"... also the starting point to the "English Way" of the Camino de Santiago.

Notice that part of the facade isn't finished!!!

A random, but cool park in the old city.

My favorite building in Coruña: el ayuntamiento, or the city hall.

Marineda City!!!

American stores in Spain: Hollister... right when I entered, the kid greeted me "hey, what's up?" in a really good, scarily accurate American accent!

Kit Visits Coruña on Super Bowl Weekend

A blog post that I drafted, however neglected to publish... enjoy!!

If you assume that my weekend was stellar based off the title of the blog post, you’re right.  It was an awesome weekend here in Coruña, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.  For those of you who don’t know, Kit is a fellow Crusader (studying in Florence this year) and a very good friend of my fellow Coruñesas Claire, Maggie and Eva.  Although she only had two days in Coruña, we wanted to make the most of them, so naturally we made sure to check off our favorite Coruña activities: walking around the city/port/beach, tapa hopping (eating all day, everyday per the usual), and visiting/taking pictures at our favorite mosaic octopus (who we like to think of as Coruña’s mascot).  To elaborate on the tapas, tapa hopping is what I like to call going from bar-to-bar and eating a different tapa at each.  My friends and I have pretty much mapped out our favorite tapa bar’s and our best tapa at each place, so that way we are always changing scenery, and always eating the most delicious tapas... it’s a win/win in my book.  It was really really great to see Kit, and I’m so happy that she loved Coruña; she’s actually blogging about her own experience in Florence, and just wrote an entry on Coruña, so you should definitely check it out!

Two days went by too quickly, and it was really sad to see Kit go, however last night’s awesome Super Bowl Fiesta certainly lived up to its expectations.  Ever since the beginning of my study abroad experience, I was really bummed to know that I’d be missing out on some of my favorite American holidays/traditions; the Super Bowl was definitely high on my list.  Pablo, our housing director in Coruña, saved the day by inviting us over to his apartment to watch the game since he has American television channels.  He also prepared us some delicious bacon cheeseburgers and left out some chips and dips... it almost felt like we were back home in the States.  Although it was a lot of fun and we had some good laughs, unfortunately the Pats lost; third time’s the charm!!!

The pulpo!!!

One of my favorite corners in Coruña... my study abroad site ain't that bad ;)

A Perk of La Vida Coruñesa

Just figured I'd share one little perk of living in my favorite Spanish city: a cruise destination.  I used to see quite a few of them in the beginning of the year, and now I've seen two in the last week and a half; hopefully there will be more soon!  

On my way too/from the gym this afternoon, I passed by a Royal Carribean Cruise Line ship... as well as confused Brits, looking like typical tourists with maps and confused faces everywhere.  I actually ended up helping one couple who looked really perplexed; hey, we've all been down that road, I know that I certainly have this year!!

Cruise Ship and Los Cantones (one of Coruña's shoping centers).

Turning the Big 2-1 in Coruña!

Happy weekend from Coruña!! This week was certainly an interesting one since I took final exams, celebrated my birthday, went out with some friends from the university and was recorded live on Coruña’s radio... details to follow.  I can happily report that I did really well on both finals, and received great final grades for those two classes; this monday I’ll be taking another final and then two-Thursdays from now I’ll take my last exam.  

Now on to my birthday!  Celebrating my birthday, let alone my twenty-first was really great but a little difficult being away from home.  However with facebook/email and my awesome host family, I felt right at home.  The host fam bought me little deserts and even gave me a coin box, to start saving for my return, and a picture-frame so that way I could put a picture of all of us together.  Later on in the night, my friends and I went to two new bars in the city to celebrate and as always, we had a really good time.

On thursday night, I met up with some friends that I’ve made at the university.  It was really great getting to know them outside of the classroom and I truly hope we can go out another time.  Unfortunately early Friday morning Coruña suffered a pretty tragic event.  At around 5 am, a foreign exchange and one policeman were reported dead, and two other policemen were reported missing.  The city, and arguably the country, has certainly been effected by it seeing that it made national news and a conversation of the day in all Spanish homes and on the street.

At 11:30 on Friday morning, my housing director Pablo called me to see if I was interested in getting interviewed on the radio.  I agreed to go, and it actually turned out to be a really cool and rewarding experience.  The interview was hosted by my friend Katherine’s host mom, so it was a blast getting to know her through it.  In the interview, we talked about Friday morning’s tragic event and she asked me some questions about my experience thus far. 

I know this is really off topic, but I just wanted to share with you this video that I stumbled upon facebook.  It’s truly powerful (it gave me the chills) and its certainly worth the 4 minutes.  The video is about a teenager named Ben Breedlove who passed away on Christmas evening; he had a very rare heart disease, however that did not stop him from doing what he loved: living life to the fullest and being a mentor for others.  I know that it’s about a month old in terms of mainstream news, but if you haven’t seen it, I really encourage you to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512?feature=watch

Elevator, Elevator

Happy Tuesday everyone... also a happy 21st birthday to my good friend Jim Cav!  I figured that I would share this piece of news with my followers: the elevator in my apartment building is out of commission for three weeks, starting today.  In other words, my host and I have to go down/climb up seven flights of stairs every time we leave/come back to the apartment building.  Although it’s quite aggravating, I guess I’ll be getting some nice leg workouts in; perhaps this could be the commencement of the wedding diet... it’s right around the corner Jack and Mike, just over 4 months from today!

With that being said, this reminds me of an interesting difference between Spain and the United States.  In Spain, everyone seems to live in what we as Americans call, the “downtown” of the major cities, whereas the majority of Americans live in the “suburbs”.  If you ever visit a Spanish city, you’ll find that there are apartments on top of every kind of space: business offices, banks, markets, retail stores, salons etc...  Although the majority lives in the “downtown” area of the cities, there are small towns, or the “suburbs” which have a pretty decent population size as well.  As far as my experience is concerned, it’s been really cool to live in Coruña since it’s decidedly cosmopolitan and one of Spain’s major cities thanks to its well known port.  Who would have thought that this western-Cranstoner evolved into quite the urbanite!

Finals Weeks: Coruña Edition

Another difference between the American and Spanish university system is the final evaluation period.  Unlike the traditional two-semester American university system, in which all students take their finals before Christmas break, Spanish students are evaluated from the middle of January to early February (depending on your major).  This Monday commences the finals weeks, something that I’m really not looking too forward to knowing that a big chunk of my grade is still undecided.  However, one of my professors just let me know that he is altering my exam, so I’m very thankful for that!  A big bummer is that I have my Political Sociology final on my birthday at 8:00 am, although I keep telling myself its better to have the exam on my birthday rather than the day after!

Aside from working on final projects and studying, I’ve been settling back into my routine and continue to enjoy my time here in Coruña.  I’m currently figuring out some travel plans for the next semester, so if you have any suggestions on where to go, definitely let me know!

New Year, New Blog

Alrighty, so I've failed miserably as a blogger.  Not even one post in December.  However, it’s a new year, so hopefully I’ll get my act together and start posting more often... I knew that you all were missing your biweekly dosage of más o menos!!

Thanks to a good family friend, Pati Paolella (pobrecita lost sleep over the renovation of más o menos), I’ve decided to take a new direction with the blog.  Instead of writing an overwhelming amount in a two-week period, I’ll be posting shorter entries every couple days.  

So to start, I guess I’ll rewind and give you a very brief description of my December.  In the beginning of the month, I went to Paris with 11 of my Holy Cross friends studying abroad in Spain.  The city is awesome, everything that I thought it would be and a little more, although I have to say that after my first semester travels, Madrid has been my favorite city.  Upon returning from Paris, I was left with ten days in Coruña.  After handing in a 25 page paper for my political science class (in Spanish!), I enjoyed pre-Christmas in the festive Coruña.  Two days before Christmas, I flew home for a two week vacation; it felt  truly incredible to be home with my family, and catch up with some friends, and although it was very difficult to return, now that I’m back in Coruña, I’m very happy to have the opportunity to enjoy five more months here!

Notre Dame in Paris.

Eating a french baguette... total tourist move.

From the Eiffel Tower!

The main Christmas tree in Coruña, mounted by cousin Paloma's company.

Coruña's Ayuntamiento (city hall) decorated for Christmas.