Running around with a camera.

Snapped some pictures when I went running today.

Top: street outside where I live

 

Apartment where i live. 2nd story window

 Park where I went running today. Had to bring my camera to show how nice it is.

 Chipping greens, one mile long track going around the whole park. Watched some soccer games for a bit.

Pacha Ibiza

Tonight was interesting. Fights, dinner, dance, everything.

Dinner was a soup with broth and a nooodles again. Main course was chicken drumsticks (4 pieces) and a sauce with tomatoe pieces and other veggies. Ana said to Gregorio (husband) that I had no problems at all (and i never talk to gregorio) I'm pretty sure that im Ana's favorite. dessert was a peach and whipped cream. Very refreshing as always.

Tonight we went out to to a place called Plaza ibiza to walk around. We ended up meeting some people at a discoteca. Cheap and fun, we got to meet more people from our school and listen to some meringue/ salsa/ American Music.

Except one Irishman who didnt like Americans. This guy was so mad at me for being American. I kept on asking him why, which I now regret, as it just got him more enraged. He was probably drunk and just wanted to make something interesting, (the physical embodiment of the Irishman stereotype). Upon exiting the club, one of his pals rang me a blood nose. I can give details later but the best part was when we were done, we exchanged names and hugs amid our bloody mess! If i could have imagined being in a fight with a drunken irishmen, this is exactly how I would have pictured it. Im sure we would have went for a Guiness pint if it weren't 6AM.

Apart from ruining one of my favorite shirts,  the other guy who got me when i exited the discoteca got what he had due, he got hauled off by the authorities and I was the star of the crowd outside the discoteca. His Irish friends said he was sorry for him. I think I'm really popular now so we will see what happens on Monday on campus. Good thing I got in "daily kitchen brawls" and "Early Morning wake up/ Beat ups" with Ted or who knows what would have happened.

Bring it on Madrid!!!

ANYWAYS, good time,  I just wish I dont have to draw so much attention, But i guess I cant avoid that being a "Ramage." Cant wait to tell my Mom this.

Tomorrow is homework/ Project/ dressing my wounds!

Love everyone,

Nick

P.S.: I am completely fine and laughing about everything.

P.S.S: It wasn't really a bloody mess, and im sure i wasn't the star of the discoteca. Just added that for dramatic effect.

P.S.S.S: I won big time

Tonight's dinner, Bacon burger with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, onions and mayo. Sooooo good. served with Home made fries. Soup was chicken broth and noodles. Dessert: Ana's flan with whipped cream and Strawberry milk.

The other night we had my favorite dinner to date. It was Chicken "drunk with wine" as Ana would say in Spanish. Stuffed inside was what made it so good. Scrambled eggs, apricots, raisins and a nut. I wish I got a picture of that.

Classes ended at 2:30 today so i started to walk around. Walked inside of the Super Mercado "Super Sol". Upon entering, you can almost notice the pungent air before the hanging giant squids and fanged fish.

Salamanca

 

not my picture

Left around 9:30 AM. Bus was late by one hour. Took us about 3 hours to get there including a quick pit stop. Lot of grazing cattle and unused farm land separated by rock and mortar walls. Saw the Sierra de Guadarrama (Mountain range) right outside Madrid on the way out. Within the mountains there was a massive pink cross that was viewable to those driving on the highway. The valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos) is a monument/graveyard from the Spanish civil  war between the military and government. There is also a basilica built within the mountain underneath the cross. 

We stopped at the gated city of Avila for a little bit. The guide said that the city walls are the worlds largest illuminated monument. 

 This was called the Cuatro Postres (four posts) where people would pray before entering the city of Avila.

 This was what entering Salamanca looked like. Its mostly city run by its ancient college but the main attraction is the cathedral.

 West front of the New cathedral (It was built as a part of the old cathedral). The Old cathedral is gothic style (16th cent.) and the New one is Baroque (18th). The outside of the cathedrals are laced with extravagant designs and curvilinear forms from nature., (art nouveou).






When something gets restored like the carving on the right, the artist is allowed to add something that makes it his as well. Mind you this is a centuries old cathedral. There was another with a dragon eating an ice cream cone.






We saw a whole bunch of other stuff. Went to lunch at a really nice place for a 3 course meal for 14 Euro. When we sat down we then noticed that Lil' wayne was on a plasma screen right behind us. 
I got macarorni con Bolonesa and then a plank steak. dessert was a fruit bowl with some sort of syrup on top.  Wine and bread were also served with the meal. walked around a little bit more and then we headed home. 


Got home aound 9ish. Ana made us veggie soup again with bread and apple sauce for dessert. For the main we had a fish that was really good. It was cooked with some sort of mildly flavored something on top that turned brown on top when it cooked. (cheese or maybe an egg)??

To tired to do anything but still walked around Opera for while. Stopped at another Irish pub because thats where all the non Spanish speakers go.


Been wearing the same pair of jeans for the last four days. I think Ana lost some clothes on the clothes line hanging from the apt building. 

Saw Gregorio, Ana's husband, for the second time.He doesnt talk to us and snores constantly. Doesnt seem to like me and dean.

Starting to get cold here again. Trying to find cheap flights for somewhere next week.


Whats going on with the Orange?
Nick

Parque del Retiro Parkour

Had another late night last night (7AM) cause we missed the metro which closes at 1:30am and opens at 6PM. Probably another reason why Madrilenos are called Los Gatos. Went to the biggest discoteca in Madrid. 7 floors with each playing different music(karaoke, salsa, rock etc.).Went to the Parque del Retiro today and whole bunch of other places we walked to. The place had a sundry of different sculptures which would pop up everywhere. Really nice place and its right outside the Prado Museum.  Did a lot of climbing and other probable illegal things to take some pictures. Here are some of them..

                                       

 Professional Photograph. There was a sunset in back

This was the center of the park.

Where the creator of Dots got his idea.

Pigeon on the lions nose

Group of people who decided to get in my picture

3 games of soccer going on at the same time on stone steps outside the Sofia Reina museum.

We went to a corner place for some tapas! Got a very, very mundane ham and cheese sandwhich for 4 euros. Walked around more of madrid again tonight, didnt get lost this time. Dinners are still top notch by Ana. (soups, maincourse, and dessert). Spaniard spaghetti with chunks of bacon and mushrooms, Salmon with lemon grass, seafood paella with monster shrimp and mussels, and tonight was tortilla ( kind of like potatoes and egg omellete.) and delicious mystery animal meat that Dean couldn't translate on a stick.




Still eating voraciously.

Trying to stick to a workout regimen of 40 pushups everytime I go to the bathroom. 

Salamanca tomo!

El Rastro

El Rastro, a huge flea market replete with street performers and stalls. People were selling all sorts of things from car parts, dolls, antiques, to just plain, unwarranted junk. It was really hard to see everything as the narrow streets packed the crowds like sardines. We had to check our wallets every so often because of all the shady characters we were rammed up against. The whole neighborhood smelled like incense intermixed with distinctive Spanish body odors. It takes place every Sunday since "hundreds of years ago" . I took some photos.












These were a couple of the junk sellers. I saw things like door knobs, wheels to grocery carts, phone chargers, rusty cheese graters etc.

This guy was playing that one really popular Beethoven symphony on crystal glasses. The one that everyone can play on piano.

These guys were playing these horns, you hear these guys playing African-like beats throughout one of the rastro plazas here. You can see saliva spilling out from the horns.








Saw a whole bunch of jovial singers like these guys. They were singing something upbeat. The fat lady started pointing at me to donate cause we were  listening for a while. I gave her a quarter on purpose.

I had to make this one large so you could see the expressions on their faces. The trolls would make a spitting-like noise and hit you with one of their sticks and scare people as they walk by.

These guys were amazing and drew the biggest crowd, the one guy in the middle with eyeliner was hilarious.

Tired from walking. Lots of unique smells on me.

Dinner consisted of legume and sausage (churrizo?) soup. The sausage isn't spicy like it usually is back home, but had a mild pepporni taste to it. Next we had a breaded and pan-fried hard boiled egg with tuna stuck inside of it, had a very peculiar taste, but delicious none the less. Dessert was a microwaved granny smith apple (i think). The skin was peeled back to see the intact molded insides which were piping hot. Ana gave us the "Ramage maple syrup" I gave her to use on our apples, very good. We had the syrup for breakfast as well with our tortitas (Pancake).

It's become a daily regimen for me and Dean to return to our rooms and hunch over on our beds and moan about why we continue to gorge ourselves beyond the limits of our stomach capacity. I'm blaming Ana if something happens to her plumbing.

El Skoolio tomorrow.

Nick

Madrid Metropolitan and University area

Started the day with a late breakfast. Dean likes to go to sleep with the shades down so no light whatsoever can come through our window when the sun rises. Corn flakes and fruits like always. Ana was telling me of some other Universities in the area so i went running and explored.

Almost got lost again, I told my self I would go until the sun came down, but its hard to find your way back home when half the streets don't have street names and your running route consists of whichever way you think has the better view. Anyway, found a bunch of soccer games being played on concrete courts, I stopped a little bit to watch. I even saw the ending of an Ultimate Frisbee game.

Since Ive been here I feel like a person could be walking in a tiny Madrid alleyway about two arm lengths across and within a couple steps you could be in a huge plaza right before your eyes. Went through the City university of Madrid, a campus of Salamanca University and Mayor College. They almost all looked the same, except a lot of graffiti going on at the city university of Madrid. (Their entrance-way sculpture was a horseman covered in spray paint.) I'm noticing now that no one wears hats, or baseball caps for that matter, in Madrid. I probably stood out like a sore thumb with my backwards cap on.

The sun came down and I started to have to ask people how to find the main streets. Im getting very confident in my simple Spanish sentences so I never actually felt like I was getting lost, though I probably have a bad accent. Got back before dinner at 9pm tonight.

Dinner was a Spanish dish. Started out with a broth based soup with fish, carrots and potatoes. Didn't get much fish in mine so I cant say it was better than last nights meal. Next course was a chicken piece with melted mozzarella cheese. I noticed that the cheese here is much more tastier, or maybe its fresher. Not sure but it tasted really good. Had some leftover "milk with rice" from last night with cinnamon and a "ladyfinger-like" cookie.

Walked around one of the main streets tonight, Gran Via. I wanted to check out a jazz lounge that was close to the metro stop. It was pretty packed so we just walked around until we found a cheap wine bar. We got some complimentary olives with our orders. Left again and found ourselves back to Puerta del Sol. Noticed that the Pitt-Balt game was on and got to watch the last 8 minutes of it at a place called O'Reillys. ( a ton of Irish pubs here where we noticed a lot of Americans hang out and eat American food.) Would have liked to see the Ravens win. Left for home before the Metro closed at 1:30AM.

Going to El Rastro tomo (Thieves Market), a flea market. Maybe find some cheap souvenirs for everyone. Probably going to get some tapas after and then the Prado Museum to get the Sunday student discount.

Probably get some marvelous photos at the market and Prado. I hope my knowledge of art history serves me right here.

Go 'Cuse

Madrid Circumnavigation

Woke up, light breakfast consisted of cereal, fruits, nuts, and bread. Did work till dinner. Dinner was pizza. Ana made it because we were Americans. She added olive, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, and of course, a ton of ham pieces. She served the pizza with what she called "Arroz con leche" (milk with rice), a customary dessert in Spain. It was kinda of like tapioca but had cinnamon and ladyfingers with it.

That night, we walked around Madrid, and I mean AROUND Madrid. Most walking so far. I wanted to get some pictures so we started out by taking the metro to Quevado, a small shopping district. We ended up walking to Tribunal, a district that seemed to be devoted to winding streets composed of dives and shady people. Continued on from East to West, passing cafes and bars full of people. Took some pictures finally of the city and architecture in Old Madrid. Found ourselves at the entrance of the Prado museum, the most popular museum in  Spain.

  

Did not get to see the Reina Sofia, (the other immensely popular museum in Spain) but we did attack a Mickey D's across the street. Classy.

Starting to know Madrid a lot better. We were able to spot places we've been to or saw if we turned down different streets. Walked back to the center of Madrid, Puerta Del Sol plaza, and found one of the main roads, Gran Via to see some more crazy buildings and monuments.

This was an independence monument in the middle of an artery (La Puerta de Alcalá ). Instead of taking the Metro, we just walked back from sol to our place.

Really tired, going to go to bed. Pumped for tommorow's dinner. Ana said it was going to be a surprise, I'm pretty sure she likes me better than Dean.

Classes, Madrid Sightseeing + Nightlife and Dinners

Wednesday:

Woke up for first day of classes. Had International Finance, Spanish, and Equities and Investments. The Finance classes seem to be very interesting. I was first to arrive to my International finance class and started talking to Dr. Howden about hockey because he's from Ontario, Canada. ( he was really bummed out about the youth hockey championships from the Russian win over Canada in the finals).  Only one other student ended up showing for the class, so it was just me and student. **Only male in this class...lets see if I can capitalize on this opportunity :).  Next class was Spanish. Most likely going to drop this class. Waaaay to easy, went over how to pronounce vowels today, plus it felt weird feeling like the smartest person in class already on the first day. Not going to waste my time on something that i am already getting better at and using everyday. Why take a  Spanish class when you got a book devoted to Dirty Spanish phrases anyway? (thanks Andy.) Equities seems to be a fun class to. Its a subject that I am excited to learn more about. However, Dr. paulo Soalo is Chilean and is having a hard time to speak English at the normal pace. Only five students in this class also (the other is international Finance).

Wednesday night Ana made us this soup which was mashed up vegetables. It was very similar to the consistency of baby food, but it was very good. Main course was a very flavorful pan fried, flat beef piece with home fries on the side. Ana seems to like me very much because I make sure there are no leftovers and that i always have seconds. She makes fun of Dean because he doesn't eat as fast as me. Dessert was a strawberry and milk drink.

That night we went out again to "Calle Mayor", another main street of Madrid and walked around to see the sights and architecture. It will be hard to describe everything I saw so once i figure out how to post pictures you'll be able to see everything. We met up with some friends, (tommy, kendall and Mike) we met at orientation and met at an American Bar/ Hole in the wall. looked like the inside of a garage covered in American regalia. Americans were playing beer pong and the bartenders were really nice. (they liked dean because he was good at spanish and gave us free sangria) Met a lot more people who were studying abroad and from my school.

Thursday (Today): Classes today were Spanish, global econ, and International business. Didnt go to Spanish because I am 96% sure that im going to drop it, just waiting on the approval of my advisor at Duquesne to give me the go-ahead.( Its duquesne policy that I have to take a language while abroad, but i wrote a pretty convincing email and she likes me so I hope she will do it.) The other classes were cool, really like my econ teacher, young and down to earth.

Showed Ana my photo flip book. She saw it on the desk and insisted that I show it to her. She said I had a beautiful family and Dog. After showing her the picture of the tapped maple tree, she understood what my maple syrup gift was from.

Dinner tonight was Ana's homemade mozzarella sticks with ham chunks inside. ( Madrilenos really love Ham, We see pig legs everywhere, from inside houses to dance clubs, even went inside the "Museum Of Ham" with pig legs covering all four walls.) The soup was lentil soup with sausage pieces, though she was ardent in saying that it was not soup at all. (Again, it was either cooked with huge grizzly bacon pieces or slabs of lard, either way, it made the soup ten times more flavorful than any lentil soup I have ever had before, (<--thats a tip Mom). Ana again was pleased with my eating. Made fun of Dean for being a slow eater. Had "leche con Fresas" smoothy for dessert again. She said she would make a homemade pizza for us tomo so Im pretty excited. I can honestly say that since the first night, the dinners keep on getting better and better. I steal bread pieces from dinner so I can have something to snack on when I get hungry after dinner.

Tonight Me and Dean met up with a bunch of people at Dubliners, an Irish pub known for its American patrons. Even the tenders were Irish here. from here we walked to a dance club called "Joy". It was student night so we got to go in free of charge. Very cool inside. Met a lot of people that i recognized from my classes. Making a lot of friends! We didnt leave until the metro opened up again  because we didnt want to shell out sheckles for a cab. Dont want to tell you what time we got back, but we stayed until the club closed in the morning. Starting to turn into typical Madrid dwellers.

Now im here. heard the states are covered in snow, it was 60 degrees today in Madrid. So glad i didnt bring my ski jacket. Go 'Cuse!

Cheers from Madrid!
 
"El Gato"

Madrid

Hola!

Welcome to my blog. I will be in madrid, spain for a semester and will try to keep family and others updated as much as possible about my endeavors. Ive already been in madrid for a couple days and seriously have not had the time yet to set this up. Its 4:42 AM here and still cant sleep; probably because I made the decision to buy a coffee at 11:00 at night, so why not get started.

My flights were all very comfortable, took Aer Lingus from JFK to DUBLIN and was very enjoyable. Before I left I had bought the book "The Count Of Monte Cristo" for a dollar which took up a lot of my time. I was fortunatley seated next to a model which was a very nice change of pace apart from my days of sitting next to pungent Amish people on Greyhounds.

Got to Dublin. I remember specifically walking outside of the green Aer Lingus plane and what ensued. It wasnt something I was looking for when making my first steps in Europe, but the smell was something that was so totally different than anything I had ever smelled, yet it seemed to fit seamlessly as if I were to imagine a single smell to go along with Ireland. Anyway, made my first Euro purchase which happened to be the best coffee I had probably ever had, funny that it was from inside a bar. (foamy top, black, extra bitter). It must had been 10:00, 11:00 tops when I saw the bar start to slowly fill up with what i assumed to be thirsty Irish drinkers. Dindt get to See a buddy of mine who I knew at Duquesne who lives in Ireland, had his girlfriend up who also goes to Duquesne. Probably go to Ireland for a weekend with him anyway. slept and walked around a long time till my flight

Got to Madrid. Took a cab to my homestay home/apartment. Saw my roommate Dean leaving the complex immediately. He said he knew I was his roommate because I looked American. He's from Philly and goes to St. Joes. I immediately liked him when he said he is a music buff and Ben Folds was one of his favorite musicians. Got up to the apartment and met Ana Sanchez. Very, very, very, sweet lady. She did the kiss on each cheek to me! Im sure she is really nice... im guessing because she is 100% Spanish and im about .0000009 Spanish. Dean is advanced but not fluent, he is very good at forming sentences and making conversation with her. With my extensive knowledge about nothing in the Spanish language, Ive actually since then have gotten much more confident in speaking short (but staggered) sentences to her. She enjoyed my gifts very much. I asked her before she opened if if she liked wine, and she said no. So I just said the wine catcher was just a plate. Got her a "Buffalo" hand bag and some homemade Maple syrup from the Ramage Family Private Reserve.

That night dean and I went exploring. Dean was excited to buy his first beer because he didnt turn normal drinking age in USA until April. The city was amazing. found the first "cerveceria" and got a Pacifico beer, tasted normal. Scary experience, I almost lost my wallet here, dropped it on the floor when i swung my jacket on the chair. Would have been  Left there and decided to walk around. Long story short, we got lost, found a Hard Rock, got another beer there. Not sure what it was but it was absolutely sickening to drink, probably went bad. Anyway, left there. still lost. needed food because we missed dinner on the first night and it was 2AM. Found two English, scantily clad, women and asked them where to get food. said that we could get ham and cheese sandwiches inside the door. Went inside, saw that it was a strip club, left, Got a cab home, went to sleep pretty late. Ended up not getting ham and cheese sangwhiches.

Next day was orientation at the school. Cool i guess. nothing exciting. Dinner was exceptional. Had paella with muscles, mini clams and fish with Chicken wing pieces and rice. Really good. desert was an apricot like frozen fruit with whipped cream. Got to talk to Ana and her son, 26, a photographer. Noticably already getting mejor (better) at spanish. learning a lot from Dean and Ana

That night we went to puerta del sol. really cool place, center of all madrid. Lots of shopping and entertainment here. saw cool landmarks such as the one above of the clocktower and  the sculpture of the "bear and the Strawberry tree" (not my picture). Went to a bunch of bars because we listened to promoters that peddled free drinks. Most were just shots of 7-Up. The bars and danceclubs were open but people dont start coming until 3 AM which is normal  in Madrid, thus why they are aptly named "los gatos" (the cats). We said why not and were up until 6AM hopping from place to place. met some nice people. (got lost again coming home)

Today,  didnt wake up until 3:30 because of the late night. Missed our orientation activity. Got settled in today, packed away my things in the room in which i share with Dean. We share a single persons desk with two chairs on it which is reminiscent of JCU where i shared a desk with "Sturtz", my first and worst roommate im sure anyone could ever have. The room is small and quaint, just like the rest of the apartment. Ana insists on doing our laundry for us.

Tonight we wanted to walk around and find some sights after another great dinner consisting of deer, sausage, and chicken served with a chick pea soup that was cooked with the meats. we decided to go see Plaza de Oriente which was a garden in front of the royal palace. Before we went, I ordered a coffee at a cafe, and ended up getting Dinky cup of heavily caffinated coffee. Dean got Churros (fried dough dipped in Hot chocolate). Forgot our cameras again tonight, but the plaza garden and palace was truly amazing at night.  Went to a wine bar near the palace. Pretty sure the bar lady thought we were gay because we were regalled in our sundays finest with scarfs. Accidentally orderring white wine didnt help at all either. She then gave us a complimentary single dish of potato quishe with 2 forks. Walked around again, found puerta del sol where we were last night and sat around at an empty dance club because we found a peddler who would give us a free "sprite" if we went. Left there, did some more people watching on the streets. I really need to start getting photos.

Its been such a short time and I feel truly blessed to be doing this. I never actually thought this sort of thing would happen to me as things like this dont fall through with me, and things definatly almost did fall (Study abroad essay being rejected. pissy VISA lady in NY, classes not being able to transfer to  DUQ standards, my Study Abroad advisor losing all my paperwork, Costs of everything such as Flight tickets, visa, Passport, and ton of other things) For this I would have to thank my parents for everything, backing me with everything and pushing me to go through with it when I got flustered.I would not be able to do this without their help.


That is everything up till now, and it is now 5:30 AM with my first classes in a couple hours. I think I can try to go to sleep now.

Miss everyone at DU and home.

"El Gato"