A little bit of Madrid

So this post should have been posted last week after a nice weekend in Brussels, Belguim eating chocolate, waffles, and fries. BUT... I woke up at 4 in the morning on that Friday to take our taxi to the airport and I had another fever. Long story short, I ended up in bed all weekend with a stomach virus in Madrid instead of on the streets of Brussels. It was my second sickness since being in Madrid, but I'll spare you on all of my frustration.

This past weekend I stayed in Madrid again but actually got to do some exploring. Despite having three exams this week, I was able to make time for activities other than studying. I spent hours this past weekend walking around and exploring the streets of Sol, the center of Madrid. We came across some cute shops. I also had my first chocolate with churros. They were good but I was a little disappointed after all of the hype, but I have now heard of a famous chocolate and churros place that I have to try now.

Mardi Gras is not very big in Madrid, but there was still a parade at night that we went to. My favorite part was obviously all of the sparkling outfits of the dancers. It wasn't much but it was a small connection to all of the Mardi Gras activities going back on in St. Louis.

Sunday I went to my first mass in Spanish in Madrid since being here. We were the youngest people in the church by at least 20 years and I think some people were curious as to why we were there. It was a small church that we found on the Internet, but still amazingly beautiful. I have seen my fair share of churches since being in Europe, but every one still has its charm.

Afterwards, we went to El Rastro, a large outdoor market that happens every Sunday. It was packed and very hard to walk through, making it a very popular place for pick-pocketing. However, we had no incidences and bought some cool items, including the plaid scarves that every Spaniard (and now every American on campus...) has that my roommate and I have had our eyes on.

We finished off the weekend with lunch at a Museo de Jamón (Museum of Ham). They are all over  in Spain. You walk in and the ceilings are covered in pig thighs and just walking by the place, the smell of ham is unavoidable! They make some pretty good sandwiches. All of the meat here has a ton of fat though.

It's been a more relaxing two weeks so I've worked up my energy for the next few weekends of traveling. The weather has been pretty good and my hardest week of the semester is almost over, so now as long as I stay healthy for the rest of the semester I will be very happy.
Con amor de Madrid,
Jenna

Doors of Morocco

This may be my favorite post all semester. I spent the past weekend in Africa in Morocco. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to go to Africa for service and this weekend was not about service but I absolutely fell in love. After walking around for the day in Sevilla, catching a 3 hour bus ride to the tip of Spain, riding a ferry for an hour through rain and crazy waves, and another hour bus ride, we made it to the hotel Friday night and ate our first authentic Moroccan food before falling right asleep.

I cannot fully explain the impact that this country had on me. Just starting our day on Saturday by driving through the country was so amazing. The houses we passed were all very cubical and often white. Some had large plots of land or sheep right outside or gates on the driveways. The cities we visited were all in the middle of the mountains. Some houses were so high up on the mountains and there were thin foot paths leading up to them. I really wanted to stop every person who walked by and ask them for their life story... which would have been hard considering we merely drove through all of it on a giant bus, not a super intense cultural experience unfortunately.

On Saturday, I think is and forever will be the most beautiful city I have every seen. It sounds kind of cliche and stupid I realize, but I will stand by that statement. We visited the city of Chefchaouen. In one neighborhood, every building is bright blue. Not only does it make it extremely breathtaking, the blue keeps out mosquitos and keeps in the inside of the houses cool in the summer. The people repaint their houses up to four times a year. Even though it rained during our day there, it was still amazing.

A quick tangent: If you know me well you know my obsession with Humans of New York. My dad mentioned to me before coming to Madrid that I should start Humans of Madrid. Instead, I realized that I have so many pictures of doors from my experiences abroad (especially from Chefchaouen because they are all so cute and in the blue color) that I should do "Doors of Europe" (which made a ton of sense to me until my friend reminded me that I was not in Europe. News flash: Morocco is in Africa. So instead I am doing "Doors of Europe and Morocco." The name is not super amazing but I kind of have an obsession with door pictures now. So here are some pictures of Chefchaouen, including many photos of doors.

The rain didn't spoil our fun!

This is the bath house of the neighborhood. Once a week the men and women take turns using it. The women use the time as a meeting as well. The culture and community of these people is just so different from my experiences.  

Fell in "love" with Chefchaouen

The view of the city from above.

Never seen such beautiful stairs before...

We spent the rest of the weekend eating authentic Moroccan food, bargaining for goods in the markets of another Moroccan city, and riding camels. I'll end with some pictures of the other cities and our camel ride. The ride was pretty short, but still something I had to do before leaving Africa. Leaving was hard and I know I will be back to fully experience the culture and the people of Africa. Maybe eventually I will have pictures with the people and not just the doors.

Amazing murals

This amazing shop in the market with all kinds of handmade soaps, fragrances,  and creams. The shop itself was like a piece of art.

One last thing: Our Superbowl adventure! We got in to Sevilla at midnight on Sunday where we were taking our flight at 6 am. We had planned on just returning right to the airport to sleep and find a TV to watch the Superbowl. Turns out... the Sevilla airport is super small and not open in the morning so we had to find a place to hang out for 4 hours. We ended up in a small Tex Mex restaurant with a TV smaller than my laptop playing the Superbowl. We stayed there till 4 am, probably really annoying the workers but also enjoying some amazing nachos. We missed the last bit of the game when we left for the airport, but even being able to watch a little and eat some nachos was enough to feel more American for the night!

Not the most ideal TV screen for the Superbowl

Con amor de Africa,
Jenna