Overdue notes/Un poco de noticias

1). BOBA

Boba, also known as bubble tea, is a Taiwanese milk tea commonly served with chewy tapioca pearls. The tea can be made in a variety of flavors and - as I learned here in Madrid - with a variety of flavored pearls that are not tapioca. This is a popular drink for students at Stanford and was definitely one of the things we all missed most while being abroad.

Bubble tea with the tapioca pearls on the bottom

A couple friends had caught wind of a potential boba supplier here in Madrid in a tiny corner of the city that has tons of Iberochina markets. Four of us made the trip on the metro to a stop much further than any of us had ever taken. It took a little re-orientation to figure out where to find the Iberochina shop and we nearly jumped for joy when we saw the bright yellow sign down the street. We walk into the store and immediately see a sign with a huge cup of boba on it, so we find an employee and point frantically at the sign while trying to mumble "we want boba" in Spanish. He looks at us and shakes his head saying simply, "we don't have it."

We were heartbroken.

A couple weeks later, as my friends and I are sitting in the middle of a Bioethics lecture, we all get a text message that reads "ENCONTRAMOS BOBA." Without hesitation, we headed to the boba place after class, not truly believing we were finally going to taste our beloved drink after so long.

"Crazy Tea" was the place and it did not disappoint. They had a 50% promotional offer for each drink and had in fact only been open for 4 days - clearly this was a sign from the divine.

The quality was good and they had tons of options to choose from, needless to say we made about 3 trips to Crazy Tea that week and have faithfully gone about once a week since then. We're even getting our Spanish student friends hooked on it :)

2). YOGA

I've complained about this time and time again, but I really can't stress how much I have missed having yoga in my life. I started doing it regularly my freshman year in college and have been hooked since then. It's a really great way to clear your mind, has tons of physical benefits, and- contrary to popular belief- if done right, can be quite the workout.

I was convinced that I could find a yoga studio of some sort to sign up for classes while in Madrid, but unfortunately most of the places that offer it are really expensive for relatively few classes or require joining the entire gym for a ludicrous joining fee. Then, just last week, a friend of mine told me about a bikram yoga studio that offers an introductory unlimited weekly pass for only 15 euros.

Bikram in Madrid

Bikram yoga is unique. It is usually done in a room heated to 105 degrees farenheit (just over 40 degrees celsius) and consists of 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises performed during 90 minute sessions. I had never done bikram before, and I have to admit I was nervous for the first class. Aside from not having done any serious exercise in close to 3 months, I wasn't sure how I would handle bending, twisting, and holding in the heat for an hour and a half. In the end, I told myself I'm from El Paso- I can do this.

Bikram yoga is no joke. Overall it is very different from the yoga I'm used to, but I was in pure bliss at the mere sight of a yoga mat and loved every second of shavasana at the end of the session. Today will be the third day my roommate and I go to class (we are determined to get as much as we can out of this weekly pass!) and though my body is still a bit achy from the previous classes, I can't wait.

3). SUMMERTIME AMBITIONS

I'm still in need of one of those things people call "jobs" for the summer, so if you anyone who's hiring and interested in a Human Biology/Public Health Stanford undergrad, feel free to pass on my contact info :]

But seriously.

My classmates are getting awesome interviews (which I'm sure they've all aced because they're all rockstars) and the one prospect I was really hoping for sorta fell through after my interview. It would help if I knew what I wanted to do after graduation (straight to grad school? public health or public policy? should I do research?) to narrow down my options, but then again who ever really knows.

Life in Madrid is as good as it gets but I stress out now and then about things that are out of my control (it must be the hyper-efficient American inside of me clashing with Spanish society). I came across this video that made me smile so I think I'll share it here.

To the land of ham & olives!

Each abroad programs enjoys a wonderful orientation experience at the beginning of the quarter as well as a Bing trip (named after our generous benefactors Peter and Helen Bing) halfway through the quarter. This trip is different from the orientation site and also changes with each quarter. Students are offered another opportunity to travel, see beautiful sights, and learn more about the country that surrounds them, all on Stanford's dime.

Our Bing trip was this past weekend, where the Madrid program takes students to Extremadura during the winter quarter. We visited a couple political and religious centers of interest, including Emperor Charles I's (aka Charles V) "retirement" home and final resting place. We also visited the monastery which houses the original sculpture of la Virgen de Guadalupe, which is now considered the patroness of the Americas conquered by the Spanish, and even got to see the fountain which was used to baptize the first indigenous people brought to Spain.

A large portion of the trip was dedicated to learning about the agricultural processes which surround some of Spain's most iconic gastronomy: jamón serrano (serrano ham), jamón ibérico (iberian ham), and aceitunas (olives). We learned about various efforts to encourage sustainable agriculture and preserve some of the beautiful landscape found in this part of Spain. We visited a ham processing plant where they salt and cure the ham over the course of 1-3 years to produce the final product commonly seen hanging from meat shops all over the country.

The smell of raw meat and salt in the factory was fantastic (read: sarcasm), but if you could tolerate the smell, it was actually somewhat interesting to learn about the process. After leaving the factory and visiting a nearby farm, we got to taste various cuts of meat of both the serrano and the iberian varieties, and yes, I sampled all the ham as well - if you're interested in the specifics as to why I chose to eat meat in this case while I've remained mostly vegetarian otherwise, I'd be more than happy to discuss it but I won't bring up specifics in this post. We got to see iberian pigs afterwards! (strategic ordering of our visits, i.e. ham first, pigs second, certainly made it more tolerable to learn about the ham-making process)

We also visited an olive grove, where we learned about the process of growing and picking olives which are then processed into olive oil. We got to taste a couple varieties of olive oil (it sounds strange, and it was, because we were literally handed little plastic cups filled with oil and given instructions on how to properly "taste" it). Afterwards, we sampled different patés, pastes, and even marmalade, all made with olives and olive oil. Most of the products were too salty for my taste, but the marmalade was fabulous! And, ironically, I was quite disappointed in the actual olives.  

Award-winning olive oil products

We visited Merida, which was originally build as a place for Roman generals to retire after completing their service, so many original Roman structures remain preserved. It felt really strange seeing old ruins like those we saw in Rome in the middle of a small Spanish city!

Aqueduct!

Amphitheater!

Theater - actually used for gladiator fights and such

And even though we were in the middle-nowhere-Spain (ok, I'm exaggerating, but it seemed like it in comparison to Madrid), we were determined to celebrate Carnaval on Saturday night. A couple of bottles of wine and some questionable shots later.. I'd say we were successful :)

La vida cotidiana y una manifestación laboral

We were looking forward to another night of good food and traditional Portuguese drinks so we headed to a restaurant that served raw meat on a hot stone to cook yourself (I had cod -I am willing to indulge in delicious Portugese seafood, but not quite willing to have a hunk of beef for dinner). Unfortunately, we left our hostel at 9:30pm, which meant the tiny restaurant was full to the brim with a long waiting list. We killed some time by getting a drink at a nearby bar. Our drink of choice: ginja.

Ginja is a fruit related to the cherry but native to Portugal. It's made into a sweet liquor that is often served in little chocolate shot-cups that you can eat afterwards! Tasty, very cute, and fun.

Considering it took us a whole 3.5 minutes to order the ginja and drink it, we waited outside of the restaurant for what seemed like hours, some of us trying not to drool too much as we stared at the people inside eating and some of us guarding the restaurant door like a pack of wolves to prevent anyone from cutting in line. We were seated and ordered immediately, but the spread of bread, cheese, olives, and sardines laid out on the table was calling our name.

In Portugal, the little treats they set on the table before a meal are NOT free - generally bread will be 60 cents a piece, a bowl of olives 1-2 euros, cheese a little more. It doesn't seem like very much until you realize the appetizers cost half as much as your actual meal did. I had a bowl of salted olives directly in front of me, and as much as I tried to look away I just couldn't resist. I decided I could spare 1 extra euro to indulge in the olives. (In the states, I generally like green olives. In Europe, I am OBSESSED with green olives, they just taste so much better).

In the end, eating those olives was the best decision of the night. My meal was fine, nothing spectacular, but those olives were fantastic. I also had my first caipirinha, a Brazilian cocktail made from rum, sugar, and lime (someone told me they were made with tequila but I don't think that's how most of them are made), which I loved.

The next day I visited the National Azulejo Museum. Azulejos are those little ceramic tiles you see all over the place, which originated in Portugal. I learned lots of history and cool facts about the tiles.

We walked back to our hostel from the museum, meandering through some neighborhoods and getting to observe a little bit of residential life in Lisbon. It really is a charming place- a fair-sized city that's not too modern.

We also were looking for one of two things to try before leaving: crema de marisco or Portuguese-Indian vindalho. We came cross very few Indian restaurants, so decided on the crema de marisco, which actually was surprisingly hard to find. We must have asked 20 restaurants throughout the course of our walk if they had this dish. We finally came upon one quiet restaurant that had it listed on their menu. We were a little skeptical because the restaurant was entirely empty, but our curiosity got the best of us.

To make a long story short, it was all we could have asked for and more. We paired it with some legit Port wine and enjoyed ourselves fully.

It was about time to leave when we got back to our hostel. We noticed some streets had been blocked off and there were lots of people in the plaza nearby, but we couldn't quite figure out what was going on. It wasn't until we tried catching a bus that we realized there was a protest going on, and no, no buses (or trams, or taxis) would be arriving or departing.

After realizing that no buses were departing from the next plaza over either, we decided to ask someone at the train station for help. I opened by asking how we could get to the airport. He looked at me blankly and said there was a bus stop right outside the station. I pointed out that there was a protest going on and no buses were entering the plaza, to which he quickly responded, "Well, that makes things complicated!"

We were losing precious time but finally were able to figure out we needed to take a metro out of this protest-bubble and then wait for a bus that was hopefully not caught in the road blockage. We made it to the airport on time, but not without wishing that we had the chance to watch the protest and talk with some of the people involved. (It turns out over 300,000 people attend this protest, which was formed in response to austerity measures in the workplace).

With great food, beautiful sights, and summertime weather, Lisbon did not disappoint.

Unexpected Security Breach

After a whirlwind weekend in Rome and what seemed like no time at all in Madrid, I was back at the airport on Thursday afternoon ready to head to Lisbon, Portugal for the weekend. 

I had some time to spare at the airport so I decided to browse a large souvenir/grocery shop near my terminal. I love looking at the things different countries try to sell their tourists and Madrid Barrajas did not disappoint.

You have your usual towers of chocolates and sweets:

European warnings of the hazards of smoking:

And then the tourist-y stuff:

Spanish tortilla in a box - just add 4 eggs!

Don't do it. It's not worth it.

Just as I was capturing a photo of this ridiculous package a female employee of the shop looks at me sternly and says [in rapid Spanish], "You know you can't take photos in here." I raised my eyebrows and apologized, saying I didn't know I wasn't allowed to take photos. She then asked me if I could read, because there were signs all over the airport saying no photos allowed. If "la guardia civil" saw me, they would take my camera away. She was visibly upset and I was quite amused, but I stifled my laughter because I didn't want to risk being hauled away to Spanish prison.

I had an early-ish flight with a fellow Stanford student and as soon as we checked into our hostel (which was seriously paradise in comparison to my hostel in Rome - I mean, I enjoyed my stay, but this hostel was on a whole other level), we wasted no time exploring the neighborhood. We enjoyed some sweets and wine while soaking in the glorious sun then headed out for a walk to Alfama, which is old Lisbon.

After the remainder of our group arrived, we headed out to Barrio Alto for dinner. It's a swanky neighborhood with shopping and lots of restaurants and bars. We made it to this tiny seafood restaurant called O Cantinho Do Bem Estar that was recommended to us by a friend and enjoyed delicious food (meal + wine + dessert) and awesome service for just around 10 euros a piece. Not bad Lisbon, not bad.

We went back to our hostel with vague plans to explore the Portuguese nightlife, but actually decided to make friends at our hostel and enjoy the bar in-house. We actually met another American student who is studying in Madrid and was visiting Lisbon (crazy coincidence) and a group of students from Holland who were just about to start a program in Lisbon. We made more friends!

We woke up bright and early the next day to visit a nearby town called Sintra. We had heard from many people that we MUST visit this place. It was a charming little town but we could only spend half a day there so we split up to do all the sight-seeing. I visited a Moorish castle and the Pena Palace, while others visited the Quinta da Regaleira. Each was beautiful and interesting, and we wished we had more time to see everything together.

We visited Belem next, which is a little town to the west of Lisbon that has a few cool landmarks and what people boasted to be the best custard pastries in the area. Naturally, we needed to confirm this ourselves.

The Tower of Belem

The best custard pastries in Lisbon 

Vasco de Gama's tomb!

We had a nice long (~2 hr) walk back to our hostel and took a nap before heading out to dinner. So far the trip to Lisbon had been worth it's weight in gold.

The Adventures of the Snow Gazelles Come to an End

*note: please excuse the suggestive language below, it is relevant and pretty entertaining, I promise*

Our last meal out in Rome consisted of all the Italian culinary staples: pasta, pizza, and wine. We were considering heading out to a bar for a glass of wine before officially ending our stay in Rome, so I went to the bathroom while we waited for our bill. Little did I know this would spark funny and embarrassing banter with our waiter. Allow me to re-create the encounter.

- I ask where the bathroom is, then have trouble finding one that is clean and usable. I am finally directed to one I can use and the waiter tells me, "Call me if you need help... Or just call me anyway."

- As soon as I return to the table he asks, "How was it? The first time is always the best, you know."

- He proceeds to ask where I am from, to which I answer Texas, prompting him to say, "Oh, so you're a cowgirl, eh? I could be your cowboy."

- I laugh and go back to the conversation at the table as we try to decide where to go for some wine. The waiter overhears us and offers some wines from the restaurant that are popular and not very expensive.

- We end up ordering a bottle for the table. The waiter removes the cork and offers it to me, acting surprised when I take it by saying, "Oh, you like the small ones? I have a bigger one." I proceed to blush profusely and take a drink from my glass. He takes the cork back and goes off to write something on it.

- I must have blushed 10 times throughout the course of this conversation, but I couldn't help playing along at the end. I wrote a little note at the end thanking him for the good service and sending him "besos from Madrid"

- As we walk out of the restaurant, he says he's sad we're leaving, carefully adding that he will be working until 10 that night and the next day as well.

Let's just say my friends did not let me hear the end of it for the rest of our trip back to the hostel.

Our last adventure of the day consisted of arriving at the airport on time for our 6am flight. We did not book our last night at the hostel because we planned on taking a 4:30am bus from the city center to the airport. However, after our unpredictable bus experience from the day before, we were afraid the bus would 1). not show up, or 2). take an unacceptably long time to travel to the airport, both of which would mean we would not leaving Rome on our flight. By Sunday, however, everyone felt the same way and all the taxis to the airport were booked. Our second option was to take a combination of metro/bus to the airport and arrive obscenely early at the airport for our flight (metros close at 11:30pm, so we'd arrive at the airport at 1am at the latest). Our local contact in Rome worked incessantly to get a reliable driver who could accommodate the 5 of us- which at least eliminated our need to wait for 5 hours at the airport. She also didn't feel comfortable having us waiting alone at the airport, without sleep or food, for so long, so she graciously offered her home to us in order to sleep for a few hours before leaving.

As I have mentioned before, she was a blessing in disguise for our trip and I am sure we will never be able to repay her enough.

All in all, Rome was an unforgettable experience. I traveled with really great people and met some equally great people while I was there (holla Argentina!).

Thank you again to everyone who made it as great as it was - next stop: Lisbon, Portugal!

Italian Travel Lesson #3: When All Else Fails, Eat Gelato

If you haven't gotten sick of hearing about gelato yet, you will be now, but I have to mention it one more time before concluding our trip in Rome.

After a long night of laughs with our new friends in the hostel, 4 slow-moving girls tried to pack in another day of museums and sight-seeing. My bunk-mate and I were at the hostel reception desk waiting for our other friends to be ready to leave. The hostel receptionist was telling us about how just a few days ago he had lost a ring his father had given him 10 years ago. He said he had no idea what may have happened to it but he had been really upset about it for the past couple days. Just about a minute or two later, one of our friends comes into the lobby and tells us she found a wedding room in her bed the night before. As she shows it to the receptionist, it turns out it was his ring! No one is really sure how or why it ended up in her bed (I can assure you it was nothing sketchy), but the receptionist was beyond grateful to have found the ring that meant so much to him.

Our plan was to see the Colosseum and perhaps 1 or 2 other museums-we were glad to see the snow had begun to melt a bit because that meant there should be less trouble for us in getting to the airport later that night (our flight left at 6am, so our trip to the airport would have to be at 3am or so- these plans were actually really complicated, I'll talk more about it later).

The Colosseum and the Roman Forum were beautiful.

Unfortunately, they were also closed due to the weather. We figured it was probably safer to not have people walking around on slippery ruins so we took a few more photos and headed to to the nearby Musei Capitoli. It was also closed due to the weather- which was confusing considering that it was an indoor museum, but nonetheless tried to make the best of it so headed to another museum on our list called the Palazzo Barberini.

When we arrive, we realized it is also closed. We couldn't really understand why so many indoor touristic facilities were closed when the weather was considerably better than the days previous and all these places were indoors. We figured we gave it our best shot and had our third and final visit to Il Gelato di San Crispino (all within 48 hours). We deserved it after spending half of our day walking around in the cold to closed museums.

Pistachio on the left and hazelnut meringue on the right

Afterwards we headed to the Pantheon, and (surprise, surprise) it was also closed. We walked through to Plaza Navona and stopped for a free limoncello tasting along the way. I was really tempted to buy some but realized I wouldn't get it through security at the airport (darn). We also visited the Castle di San Angelo, which we knew would be closed but provided a beautiful view for more pictures.

We decided to part ways so we could grab some lunch and finish packing. Delicious food, wine, and one hell of a waiter made up for our disappointing morning- in case you were wondering, the stereotype of the Italian lover does exist.

Italian Travel Lesson #2: It's All About Who You Know

PART II

So there we were, stranded in the middle of Rome without having any clue how to get home. We waited a few minutes then approached a group of young people walking further up the road. Fortunately, one of them spoke a little English and agreed to guide us to a plaza that was relatively closer to where we needed to be.

A friendly face and the sound of English was music to our ears. After walking for a good 40 minutes, she gave us directions for the rest of our trip and we meandered through little Italian neighborhoods. If nothing else we succeeded in making a friend and getting the chance to see the Tiber at night.

We finally reached Plaza Venezia after about 2 hours of wandering through the city.

Picture this, at night

After the panic of our failed transportation and the mixture of excitement and relief of reaching the plaza, we decided we deserved gelato. Off we went to Il Gelato di San Crispino for the second time in 24 hours.

Allow me to talk a little bit more about this gelato. If you think that something as heavy and sweet as gelato can't taste light and fresh, then clearly you have been eating the wrong gelato. At San Crispino you can choose two flavors for your cup of gelato, so naturally we capitalized on this chance to taste as many flavors as possible. The first day I tried the wine paired with walnut & dried fig. The walnut and fig flavor offset the alcohol-y flavor of the wine, but went sooo well together. The second day I chose to go with the rum cocoa flavor paired with the cinnamon & ginger cupcake flavor. Both were awesome, but they didn't go as well together as the previous flavors. I wasn't complaining though :) The other flavors we all tried included:

honey cream (classic house flavor) 

stracciatella (like vanilla and chocolate chips- but better)

banana (one of the top flavors) 

hazelnut

caramel

caramel meringue

hazelnut meringue (one of the top flavors)

pistachio (one of the top flavors)

whisky

chestnut

All the alcoholic flavors had the distinct taste of alcohol but it wasn't overpowering at all (maybe this is the college kid inside of me speaking?). They paired really well with the other flavors we had. 

As we headed home, we all talked about how fun it would be if our Argentinean friends were at the hostel when we got there. This would be our last night staying at the hostel and we really wanted to get to know them better. As we rounded the corner to our hostel, speaking of the devil, we found the Argentineans at the door to the hostel building. We both seemed really happy to see each other and the way we greeted each other made it seem almost as if we were long time friends. We made ourselves comfortable inside the hostel and hung out with the guys as they had dinner. 

The night was spent practicing our Spanish, laughing at ridiculous comment, and telling stories about life in the states, in Spain, and in Argentina. We played educational games (we learned new vocabulary and lots about Argentine youth culture!) and somehow ended up turning our room into a hen-house (gallinero??), i.e. the feathers from a down comforter ended up all over the room. I couldn't help but laugh in the morning when I woke up to the sight of feathers strewn all over the floor. We have been finding feathers in our clothes and bags for days since then.

Also, remember how I said my friend and I had the best beds in the room? Well this was confirmed on the second night of our stay. The room consisted of 3 bunked beds, nothing fancy but got the job done. The bunks were a little rickety, but our beds at least had thick mattresses. The boys were stuck with sorry looking mattresses and one of their bunks looked and sounded as if it would collapse at any moment. At one point one of the guys sat on his bed and broke one of the bed-frame rods underneath. Later in the night when three people were sitting on the bed, another rod broke. We were convinced he would fall through his bed frame while he was sleeping.

Between the broken beds and the feather wars, none of us got any sleep that night, but honestly it was one of the best parts of the trip. We got to hear about their trip around Europe and we convinced them to visit Stanford and Madrid. It's a small world - we may see each other again!

Italian Travel Lesson #2: It's All About Who You Know

PART I

The next morning we were ready for new sights to see. Any morning that begins before 9am for college students, however, means that coffee is not a request, it is a demand. There just so happened to be a cute little gourmet shop/coffee bar right across the street from our hostel that had the perfect mix of tasty coffee and good ambiance.

Castroni

We were better prepared for the snow this time as we made our way from the hostel to the metro station. It was amazing to see the streets absolutely covered in snow - even the Italians were outside taking pictures!

Our first stop was the Vatican. Thankfully, the awful weather worked in our favor because we had zero wait to get into the Vatican. It was awe-inspiring and magnificent, just as we knew it would be.

Unfortunately, by the time we left the Vatican and wanted to see St. Peter's Basilica, the rest of the world had gotten out of bed and decided to brave the snow. I'm an adamant it's-not-worth-standing-in-line-this-long kind of person, but in Vatican City I clearly had to make an exception.

Growing up as a Catholic, I learned about the Pope and the Vatican at a young age. Years later, I read Angels and Demons and was drawn into Dan Brown's web of intrigue and the "mysteries" surrounding the Vatican. However, I never really thought that I would get the chance to see it for myself - to stand in the Sistine Chapel, to view the history of Christianity and Catholicism painted across the walls of the Vatican chambers. One of the things I want to do on my next trip to Rome is to attend mass in the Basilica. Maybe if I'm adventurous, I'll attend the one in Latin!

This excursion at the Vatican took up the better half of the day, and by the end we were famished and cold. One of my Stanford friends traveling with us has a family friend in Rome with whom she was staying during the trip. Though none of us knew her beforehand, and though she certainly had no obligation to us whatsoever, she offered to have us over in her home for lunch (actually, at this point it was more like linner--> lunch+dinner). We eagerly accepted the invitation and made our way deep into the heart of residential Rome.

This woman is an absolute angel. She opened up her home to us as complete strangers and showered us with food. Throughout the weekend she showed us incredible hospitality that I only wish I could repay in some way. She also did not speak English or Spanish and though one of us in our group could communicate with her in Ukrainian, I would have liked to express my gratitude more strongly. It was comforting to have someone care for us so much while in a country where none of us knew the language or the customs. Without her input, our trip would have gone quite differently.

After dinner we planned to head back to the city center. It was easy enough, just take bus #44 to Plaza Venezia. We flagged down the bus and all got on, then got really confused when 5 minutes later the bus stopped and made everyone get off. The bus driver mumbled something in Italian and everyone began to disperse. We were in a part of town we knew nothing about, the bus ride back to the city center was at least 25 minutes long, and it was dark out. We tried to ask for help but pretty much got the same response from everyone:


Me: Mi scusi - do you speak English? O habla Español?
Other person: <glare> No. <walk away>


Well now we had a problem. 


[to be continued...]

Italian Travel Lesson #1: Learn to Improvise

PART II

We ate at a restaurant near the fountain called El Presidente. We all savored the warmth of the restaurant and tried to inconspicuously wipe up the puddle of drool that was forming beneath our table. I am a food-lover and my roommate can vouch that I had been eagerly looking forward to eating Italian food for about 10 days prior to the trip. The first order of business: bruschetta and pasta.

I've really come to appreciate the variety of flavors in different olive oils. Spanish olive oil is quite different from Italian olive oil - either way, I was in heaven. Just look at our happy faces.

We realized there was a gelato place less than a block over which boasted to be the best gelato in all of Rome, so without any hesitation we headed there after our meal. I personally am not a huge fan of ice cream, but eating authentic gelato was on my list of things I must do while in Italy. After tasting this gelato, however, I'm afraid that I will never be able to eat ice cream or frozen yogurt again. It's just not worth it.

This place is called Il Gelato di San Crispino – you may have heard it mentioned in the movie Eat, Pray, Love or in countless food magazine articles that rate it as a star in the gelato industry. They have 26 flavors, all distinct, fresh, and delicious. It is a quaint little shop where only a handful of people can be inside at a time, but even in the dead of winter and in the middle of the snowfall, they had quite a bit of business. On that first trip (we made multiple), we sampled the classic honey flavor, wine flavor (yes, it tasted like wine!), walnut & dried fig, and caramel. We were in love. I strongly recommend, no, insist that anyone and everyone who travels to Rome to visit this and only this gelato shop, you will not be disappointed.

I could go on about this gelato, but I'll spare you incessant raving. We heading to do one last bit of sight-seeing before calling it a day. We headed to the Spanish steps and the Plaza de Espagna (holla Madrid!)

 And then visited the Antiguo Caffe Greco - a cafe near the Spanish steps that has been in business for hundreds of years. It's been visited by a bunch of famous people, including John Keats, so we stopped by and had some cannoli.

We headed home to our hostel, ready to meet up with another pair of friends who traveled in to Rome that day (about 6 hours late thanks to the snow). They needed to do some shoe shopping (they weren't so eager to improvise with sexy plastic bags like we did) and while we waited for them, we met a group of Argentinean students who had spent 3 weeks traveling around Europe and made their last stop in Rome. They were to share our 6 bed, co-ed dorm with us and were just about to take over the beds my friend and I grabbed last night (which were the most comfortable beds in the room) when we walked in. They were really nice and immediately gave us back our beds and after they realized we spoke Spanish, we knew were meant to be friends.

Our other friends finally made it back to the hostel and beamed at us with their new boots that allowed them to "leap across the snow like snow gazelles" instead of waddle like a penguin to avoid falling (we were jealous). We talked, explored, ate dinner, got to know our new Argentinean friends, and then began getting ready for bed - when suddenly some of the girls realized they did not bring shower shoes for the hostel shower. Being the savvy Stanford students we are, however, this was not a problem. Here is the second stroke of ingenuity of the day:

Take a look at those babies. They are shower shoes crafted entirely out of a plastic shopping bag, designed and manufactured by my friend Faith. You will notice, that when we are determined, we don't let anything get in our way... unfortunately the city of Rome and public transportation don't quite feel the same way, but that's another story. Our first day was slowly coming to an end and we eagerly awaited the next day of our adventure.

Italian Travel Lesson #1: Learn to Improvise

PART I

My first full day in Italy was filled with gratitude, excitement, laughter, and ingenuity. We did our best to soak in the sights, sounds, and tastes of Rome and try to survive the inches of snow that piled up throughout the course of the weekend.

We started by visiting an art gallery our art professor at the institute recommended called the Galleria Borghese. The gallery is located in the Villa Borghese which is a huge park-like area that actually wasn't very far from our hostel. Under normal conditions, our trip to the gallery would have been perfect for exploring the city, but being students from a California university, we obviously were not prepared to deal with the cold weather. Try to picture 3 girls sharing two umbrellas, trying to read a map while avoiding the puddles, or should I say lakes, which began to build up around us. We were determined not to let a little (um, alot) of rain stop us.

This Galleria Borghese houses Cardinal Scipione Borghese’s private art collection from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Some of the most famous works we saw included Caravaggio’s paintings and Bernini’s sculptures, but my favorite pieces by far were three of Bernini’s sculptures including

 El rapto de Persopina

David

And, Apollo and Daphne

 We all agree that visiting the Galleria Borghese was one of the best parts of this trip, it really was eye-opening to see the work of so many talented artists. While we were in the gallery, we saw the rain become sleet, and the sleet become snow. We tried to take a bus to the city center in order to avoid walking in the snow, but in Italy buses do not stop at the bus-stops. We arrived at the stop just in time... just in time to see the bus drive right past us. Apparently you have to wave the buses down, and by wave I mean step into the street and frantically flail your arms so they will pay attention to you.

After our failed bus attempt and buying a hat and gloves to keep us warm, we decided to head to a nearby site in the city to eat at a famous bruschetteria that our Rome travel guide suggested. At this point the snow was piling up fast.

The streets had become an odd cross between mushy puddles, fluffy snow, and slick ice, so making our way on foot meant constant vigilance of our path.. At one point, we peeked out behind a row of cars to gauge the traffic so we could cross the street. Immediately after leaning over, we hear a loud bang and realize the two cars nearest us had crashed and one car swerved towards us, ending up just a couple meters away from one of my friends. The driver nearest us looked out of his open window and yelled "Fiasco!" Yes, fiasco indeed. Two blocks later after we crossed the street another two cars crashed behind us. 

We walked and walked… and walked and walked and walked, trying to find the location of this bruschetteria we were so eager to try. I should start by saying I have an awful sense of direction. I generally try to avoid being the one responsible for getting a group around, and even when I think I have a grasp on where we are, I am notorious for leading us in the wrong direction. (Does anyone remember trying to get back to our hotel from Plaza Tutti Frutti in Nerja?)  We had ALOT of trouble finding this restaurant, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just because of my navigation skills! We were hungry and discouraged when we stumbled upon an amazing sight: the Trevy fountain in all its glory. It was magnificent, even when it was covered in snow. We each made our two wishes tossing coins into the fountain: the first wish to return to Rome and the second wish for anything else.

The fountain was beautiful, but honestly all I could think about was the loss of sensation I was experiencing in my feet. After the first hour or so in the snow, I realized my boots indeed were not waterproof. As long as we kept walking I could generally keep good blood flow in my feet, but standing for any period of time was brutal. I probably would have died from frostbite if my friend hadn’t been there with a stroke of genius to save my life. We knew that changing our socks wouldn’t do any good if water could still get into our shoes. We also weren’t quite in a position to buy a new pair of shoes, so we did the next best thing to stay dry: we used plastic bags to keep the moisture away from our feet.

But first and foremost, we were determined to find the bruschetteria! We kept walking and searching our map, trying to find the right street but after asking several locals and searching for about 20 more minutes, bringing our search total to over an hour and a half, we finally accepted the fact that this bruschetteria in fact did not exist and we would not be able to eat there. We were heartbroken- especially since I had been willing to get frostbite on my feet in order to find this damn place- but we agreed to head into a nearby restaurant to have lunch and warm up. This is when we realized the snow and the walking was all worth it.

[to be continued…] 

Just one of those days

Today was hard. I had a significantly cranky moment with a classmate earlier, after which I immediately knew I had to take a deep breath and shut my mouth before saying anything further.  It was the first day in a long time that I felt significantly tired throughout the day, the first day I could not bring myself to cheerfully bear the (seemingly) miles of walking that are routine for getting around the city, and the first time that I found myself willingly tuning out of my professor’s lecture to spend some alone time in my thoughts. There could not have been a more perfect day for a yoga session.

Unfortunately, yoga seems to be a habit for the privileged here in Madrid (22 euros for 1 yoga class? Sorry, not happening). The poor woman’s yoga back in the states consisted of free 20-minute yoga podcasts that could be downloaded and performed in my room or at an open space in the gym to my heart’s content. But space is much more limited here – there is no way I could do yoga in my room. I kept hoping I could find a studio with affordable prices but it seems like I may have to get more creative if I want to feed my habit.

I can’t think of anything in particular which may have triggered my sour mood, in fact, today I enjoyed an absolutely wonderful lunch of falafel with hummus and Coca-cola, two things I have not tasted in way. too. long. 

Falafel

Fried balls of chickpea dough commonly eating in a pita 

with hummus, yogurt sauce, tahini, and all sorts of vegetable goodness. 

This is most definitely within my top 5 favorite vegetarian foods.

Add this to the boba tea we discovered (I’ll talk more in depth about this later, though I have mentioned it on Facebook) and the amazing pizza my host mother prepared for dinner a few nights ago, and you would think my cravings for comfort food would be satisfied, but sadly it isn’t so. My roommate and I are currently on the quest to find peanut butter.

At the end of the day, I try to ignore various unpleasantries of the week (like sleep debt and the small tasks that have accumulated into a mountain of work that needs to be addressed soon) and look forward to being in Rome less than 24 hours from now. 

Here’s to Italy!