ahhhhh

wow blog, I haven't updated you in a month. and that wasn't even an update. neither is this. I have way too much to do. tonight is our spring recital.......meaning I have to dance salsa, tango and play a Bach piece in front of people in a few hours. ouch.

you should see our costumes. here I'll take a picture of it right now.


yup those are red suspenders. aand my senora is making me something for lunch! what a sweet lady.

wish me luck!

off to italy

okay I'm going. I'll be in the eternal city in a couple hours. I'll have to catch you up on Merida - my fave trip so far, and Morocco - crazy busy, when I get back. See you in April!

visit from a friend

so a month ago, this amazing person I worked with last summer and who happened to be studying in Sevilla came to visit Madrid for a weekend. unfortunately, I got the flu that Thursday. it was bad like can't stand up and super chills bad. but gladly I was able to make it out Saturday.

met up at sol, at the bear and walked to this tapas bar called Zapateria. when you walk in, there's this huge, huge bowl..no thing, thing is the better word - thing of paella. here's a blurry picture of it.
we had a seat under the staircase. like if Harry Potter had a table at a restaurant, this would be it.

we had snails, paella, of course bread and sangria. I think our waiter had a little crush on my friend because he kept refilling the pitcher for free. or maybe that's how it works. idk. anyway it was really good.



another thing about this place: it was on the travel channel! I watch the travel channel a ton at home. like way too much. it's like you get to pseudoexperience all these places without actually leaving your home. so good. anyway, this place is the first one on this clip of bizarre foods. one of my dad's favorite shows.



then of course we went to Kapital. the huge nightclub Madrid is famoso for. good times. this isn't a fire, it's just the cool gas stuff that relieves the mass of sweaty people. it comes during the peaks of the techno songs. we try to anticipate when it happens and got pretty good at it by the end of the night.



and like any night at Kapital we caught the 6 a.m. metro home.

read Amy's blog here: http://besosfromespana.wordpress.com/
she's way more diligent with her posting schedule. I'll have to go down to Sevilla sometime to see her city of study.

so behind

ugh wow I'm behind on blogs. everything's so busy here. I wish I could just take this weekend to stay in and catch up on this thing. all this traveling is exhausting. but no alas I'm off to Rome in a couple hours. so don't feel too bad for me. Italy for Holy Week? not something to complain about.

I'm glad the rest of April will be all Spain. I think.

break

so that took a lot longer than expected. today since most of my friends are in Ireland or Morocco and my roommate's gf is visiting him, I'm gonna explore Madrid alone today. gonna try to get a haircut and find some sushi. new post tonight though.

grecia!

ok I think I'm gonna do a blog marathon today. like two whole blogs.

soooo greece. we left not last friday but the friday before that. I realized that the one english novel I brought to read was nearing its end, so I quickly went to FNAC (Fédération nationale d'achats des cadres), the French version of Borders fused with their version of Best Buy but it has 6 floors so it's way better. The international language books were on the 5th I think. so I went there around 2 p.m. and tried to buy four books with my credit card. but apparently FNAC doesn't take american cards without a passport. I tried showing the lady a copy of my passport but they wouldn't accept. how french.



so I broke a 50 and left with 4 American books and change in my pocket.

my flight was a little before 7. the best part about it was that it was on Iberia, so it took off from Barajas' new terminal - T4. They just built it a couple years ago and it is amazing. The ceiling looks like rolling sand dunes and there's a bunch of cool shops and it's just all sparkly and stuff. This was my favorite part of the trip....okay that's an exageration, but still it was pretty neat.







We got to Athina around midnight their time (just one hour ahead of Madrid). Took the bus to the city square - Syntagma, and took the metro to our hostal. Our hostal apprently overbooked and couldn't hold all 10 of us, so a couple of us got to go to the one next door (that's usually 20 euro a night) which was way better. oh we were spoiled.

Syntagma at night.


went out to eat at some local Greek cafe, these three old Greeks were playing cards at 2 a.m. I had a hot dog that was soo Greek. it had onions and Tzatziki sauce and oil and vinegar. should've taken a picture.

the next day we split up. I should have gone with the big group. they all went to Santorini, the ancient island of Thena (which had a volcano that distroyed the Minoans - =thanks archaeology) and it's supposed to be the most beautiful island in the world. just seeing Colleen's pictures of it on facebook makes me so jealous.

look how nice. but nope never went there. maybe I'll go back sometime in my life. doubt it.

but no I stayed back with Suz. we did get to see a bunch of amazing stuff though. like.....

the Agorra

and the National Gardens

and the original Olympic stadium

and some ancient ruins with a bunch of tourists

and the Acropolis

and some place with columns in the background

and Monastraki Square

which had the best gyros ever. (only 1.80 too!)

and the National Archaeological Museum more of that here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanancheta/4GreecePt2#

and Peace and Friendship Stadium (2004 Olympics)

and Vouliagmeni Beach.........wow that took a while.

but our hostal was terrible, in a terrible part of Athens. thank goodness they were all out of dorms, so we got our own room. we didn't risk showers. one of the owners got in a fight with some guy from Africa one night. the street it was on was so shady I don't want to worry my parents by describing it haha. we did meet some nice travelers though. there was this guy from Germany who is normally a grocery store mover who came to Athens on his vacation. he went to the Archaeological museum 4 times. and then there were these two Tunisians who only spoke French and Arabic, so we used my ipod's translate app to communicate. we showed each other where we're from on the google maps app and talked about how dirty Athens is. then after they went to bed, one of the owners from Guam basically accused them of being terrorists.


the best day was Monday, after the exhausting task of seeing all those sights, we took a day trip to Cape Sounion, the edge of the peninsula Athens is on. It was about a 2 hour bus ride. I read a good chunk of one of my FNAC books. At Sounion, there was the Temple of Poseidon, basically a tribute to the god of the sea. There we had lunch and watched the sunset.





there I took one of the best pictures of my life. Ironically it was on my small camera because my SLR battery ran out just then.



Tuesday we met up with the others and went home. Sent a couple postcards through the Hellenic post. Overall the trip was fine, probably not my favorite place. Wish I could have seen the white terrace houses overlooking the beach like that movie that's always on HBO with Rory Gilmore in Greece because that's the stereotypical view of it. But no Athens has a lot of history and a lot of grime.

cadiz carnaval!

first off, why am I writing this? my flight to athens leaves in 3 horas.

oh yeah and hello parents! I didn't know you read this blog. how did you find it anyway.....

third, I was just at a bookstore called FNAC and tried to use my credit card to buy some books. but apparently I needed my pasaporte. lame.

okay so quickly, here's arundown of cadiz. we left on friday through this travel company based in madrid called european vibe. everything was really convenient, all the buses and the hotel was arranged. it's nice not having to scramble for transportation. and the hotel was really really nice. like we had a suite for four people and the breakfast was insane. scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, over easy eggs, churros, fruit, a whole counter with every bread you've ever wanted, and the best part - a deli section. so we made sandwiches and snuck them out for lunch and dinner. so nice.

the first night we went to some club. it was kinda cool to see a bunch of slu kids at the same place.....that's not in madrid. I ran into my tango partner.



saturday was susan's bday. we were gonna go explore cadiz, but settled on the beach instead. not settled. more like enjoyed a lot more. our hotel was technically in chiclana which is the mediterranean beach town of cadiz. on a golf course too. it was super pretty. kinda cold still. like everything in europe so far!




carnaval itself was crazy. a huge botellon, like the place was absolutely trashed by the end of the night. all the spaniards had organized their costumes for their groups. so there were smurfs, firefighters, and a bunch of others I can't remember. oh yeah all the spanish dressed up as some asian - sumo wrestlers, ninjas and whatnot - got really excited when they saw my korean friend zach. haha they're so racist.




anyway I should really leave. what a terrible post!

mi senora just showed me she destroyed one of my sweaters. haha. no me importa.

Portuguesa

guys, blogs are tedious. and like I think 5 people in the world might read this. hi Lauren. the one with the separate colored eyes. do you even want to read this? doesn't this take up your life? anyway this is Portugal:





We saw a bunch of stuff: the Castillo de San Jorge, Pastries de Belem, there was a labor strike that stopped our tram. But my personal favorite was the monastery. the building so intricate and breathtaking. and Vasco de Gama, the guy from all your social studies books who sailed around Africa is buried there. well his tomb is there. he's not even buried.



These are all the Portuguese conquistadores:


Our hostel was soooo cool. It was called Hostel Kitsch, so it was all decorated with these risque photos next to like old wallpaper and hearts. it's hard to describe. plus we had kitchen priviledges so that really helped with costs. it was fun just hanging out with random students too. I met some girl who goes to Wisconsin who knows the kid from Creighton who got shot last year! what a small world! this is the kitchen:



We spent a day at Fatima, which was like an hour and a half away. It's probably the holiest place I've ever been. I burned a candle.




Overall the trip was alright. It wasn't the most exciting because I didn't know anything about Lisboa before we went. But it was a nice jumpoff for stuff to come. This weekend is an off weekend before Cadiz for Spanish Carnaval (some wild party) next week and Greece for "Winter Break" the week after that. So stay tuned. Actually don't. This probably won't be updated for a while.

oh more photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanancheta

la tienda verde

euros on my desk. d5000


Europe is expensive, guys. The metro is killing my budget, and the abono monthly unlimited pass won't come for another 2 weeks. And that's 30 euro per month. It's still too cold to walk.
Food is getting up there too. I never get up in time to have a proper breakfast at mi senora's (thanks alot Spanish clubs) so by the time my Spanish class is over, I'm starving. The cafeteria is fine, but a little pricey for a sandwich. But there's one saving grace:

La Tienda Verde.

I really should get a picture of it. Next week, check back and one will be up.

Even those with the most elementary of Spanish knows what it translates to - The Green Store. It's a small shop a stone throw from campus. And SUPER CHEAP. You can get a bocadillo for a euro. Yes, a whole like 8 inch sandwich for 1 €. That's what most stores sell their bread for. And at like 2 p.m. EVERYONE in Spain is walking around with a loaf of bread. I'll do a blog on bread later. But anyway, La Tienda Verde is awesome. Their Fanta is pretty cheap too.

The ladies there are so nice also. Go in with your terrible American Spanish and they will welcome you right in. They'll recharge your cell phone. They're right on the way back from dance class so my tango partner and I always stop by and get something. I think I got a bag of chips for 40 cents. Que porpresa!

noches tardes en madrid

when you're studying abroad in madrid, you have three ways to get home after a late night:

walk - we did this last saturday because it was just a night out at some bar by school. my apartamento is in the northwest universidad area of madrid. it only took us 20 minutes or so, but if you want to go to the main clubbing area, sol, this is not an option.

bus - this was two nights ago. the main bus station, chamartin, is where all the night buses meet up. it's about 7 streets away from sol and thankfully we got to it right before our bus left. the n21. buses only come every 40 minutes at night, so be prepared to wait a ton.

finally metro - last night. el metro stops running at 1:30, so your only other option is to stay out until it starts up again at 6. this is kind of surprising that it stops because the spanish go out so late anyway. I mean last night we caught the last train, 1:30, just to go out to this super huge/expensive 7 floor club called kapital (I'll have to write about that when I bring my camera sometime). so we rode it out there until 6:30 and caught the train to get back at 7. it was just throbs of hungover or still drunk people on the subway at that time on a sunday. also, the cafeterias outside kapital in the morning were jam packed. a good business venture: late night fast food in madrid. there's literally none of that.

the worst part about doing the 6 a.m. metro is sneaking back into your homestay. awkward. especially with that dog. at least our senora wasn't up yet. sometimes it's just better to crash at a friend's with their own apartment and walk in at a decent hour.

escuela internacional

el teatro haagen daas (hahaha) y el cine ideal. en el centro de madrid.


Today I realized how different my study abroad school is.

My archaeology and dance teachers are Spanish. My Spanish teacher is Colombian. My photography teacher is Brazilian. My art history teacher is Mexican. My media teacher is Bostonian and my piano teacher is Italian.

but really the question is: why am I taking 18 credits? haha.

tres noches

so the past three nights in Madrid have been half my favorite/and least favorite in Spain. another rundown.

Thursday: usually I've just been hanging out with my roommate and his friends and ending up in less than fun situations. like Wednesday it was just them trying to hook up with Spanish girls at Orange. but Thursday I went out with these two decent kids, Susan and Zach, to try to go to this huge discotheque called Joy. so we meet up at Cuartos Caminos and take the metro to Sol. it's supposedly International Student Night, so we'd get in for free. we get there at 11 and the place looks pretty empty. there's no line so we go up to the bouncer to get in but he asks for 15 euros. we try to explain, but there's that language barrier again.

so we end up going to Dubliners, the designated home bar of SLU. some Irish bar nearby in Sol. it's okay, but it's packed with SLU kids and not exactly the most Madrid has to offer.

so we leave there and try Joy again. apparently we were supposed to show our student IDs. but two problems: the line is HUGE and Susan didn't bring her ID. (which is cutely obvlivious.) anyway we stand in line for like 40 minutes and only move up a couple spots. Zach gets through and I do too, but Susan obviously didn't. so we end up leaving.

then as we're defeated and about to go home, some promoter (a nice one, not like those other ones that make you feel like a nerd for not going to their club) gave us some cards and led us to this smaller dance club. and offered us 3 free cocktails. we were pretty nice to him (something that wouldn't happen with my others) and he gave us a VIP pass for some other time? anyway the club had all these fancy lights and really good dance music. we spent a couple hours there just dancing, the three of us and some Italian people, and this Spanish couple who were really good, and more. it was fantastic.

after freeing our friend from some Italian creeper, we walked around a bit and ran into some SLU people. Zach's friends, and this kid I know from Creighton - Will. we just walked around, enjoying the scenery and stuff. the metros close at 1:30 so we were definitely going to take a taxi home. but instead we found the bus station. but our bus just left. so we end up splitting a taxi. 15 euros. 5 each. not bad. really good night.


Friday: tapas night. a bajillion of SLU students (okay maybe 80) descend on Echagaray to sample appetizers and whatnot. as you can imagine, the places filled up quickly with that many people. so my friend Elizabeth and I go to this restaurante something El Secreto and ask for a table for two. the host led us down these stone stairs to a winding hall ending up as a wine cellar with a couple tables. it definitely was un secreto. I've never been in something like that in my life. the prices were a bit expensive, 2 tapas with a bottle of wine for 20 euros. but the experience was great. we had some queso viejo (old cheese?) and pan y un pasel con salmon. Liz doesn't like fish so I ended up eating that.



then after the bottle of wine, which was a lot stronger than we predicted, we walked around and her roommate calls. there's this huge disqotheque in the south of town we should go to. okay. let's go. 5o minutes later we're there, waiting for her roommate. 40 minutes later we're at the door of the place. 1 minute later I'm not let in? it was either because I was a guy, or because I was wearing a hoodie, or sneakers? I don't know. but that blew. but I did catch the last train home.

last night: TERRIBLE. I shouldn't go into detail about this one. but I went out with my roommate and his friends. it involved bottles in the park, sketchy romanian guys coming up and standing way too close for comfort, almost getting into fights in a prospective deal de drogas, a not so fun club, walking for miles, cerveza street dealers, a closed mcdonalds, and of course guys unsucessfully trying to get laid. they seem to turn Europe, this classy, elegant place, into your typical frat mediocrity. not too fun.


but tonight I'm going to the Prado with Z&S and we Friday booked flights y hostals to Portugal in two weeks. exciting huh?

las clases

my school street. avenida del valle.


d5000

wow I haven't been updating at all, have I? when I get back to my room, I'm usually just so exhausted that I want to pass out.

but classes started Wednesday. let's go through a rundown, shall we?

Spanish 205 (Speaking in Spanish) - I thought this was going to be horrible after the first day. we went through the syllabus and every word spoken in that class was in Spanish. I didn't understand some of the sheet and that's what worried me. one kid stood up and told the teacher in English that this was too hard for him and left. another one told me he wouldn't be back the next day. but thankfully I stuck it out because Thursday was much clearer. these are everyday at 11, but it's a class I need and the profesora es muy simpatica.

Ancient Civilizations of the Mediterranean - this one should be interesting. la profesora is a little strict and the class is pretty small, but the subject matter is completely new to me, so I'm fascinated. it's basically readings and lectures. AND a group trip to MEDIRA, this ancient city/archaelogical site in Spain. which costs way too much. but when am I ever going to go there again in my life? never. so that's my rationing.

Digital Imaging and Photo Manipulation - it's a photography class. should be like Fr. Doll's, but more artsy. our teacher is really laid back, not your typical prof. and she shoots for magazines like Spanish Esquire, Vogue....and some Brazillian stuff. she's funny too. class should be fun.

Realism and Impressionism, ART 455? - I'm not sure if I should stick with this one. the professor was talking about how if you wanted a general art history course, you should take a survey. this one is just focused on the time period. and I've never taken art history before. but I'm not going to get this back at Creighton so I'll stick with it for a while.

Global Media - our professor is a loud man from Boston who talks a billion words per minute. it's at the end of the day (5:30 - 6) so hopefully I don't get tired.

Latin Rhythms and Dance - by far my most favorite class. we walk a 5 blocks down to the Islas Filipinas metro stop to a dance studio. it's 40 American students trying to shake their hips without moving their heels and trying the positions and everything. super fun.


well those are my classes. and I signed up for a piano lesson which I hope transfers. 18 credits in all!? and no classes on fridays. why would I do that? I don't know exactly. but all I have to do is get Cs for the credit to transfer because study abroad credit doesn't affect GPA. thank you Creighton.

fly like paper

before classes started, last night I was bored and decided to make a video of all the clips at the aeropuerto y avion.

took me a couple hours. watch it. in HD.

el orientacion

one of the pictures I took on my lost walk.

d5000


I should really write more, because so much is happening, but I always get busy with something. Yesterday (Monday, LUNES) was our orientation. we were divided into groups by our last name. when we introduced ourselves, I was surprised how many schools were represented. I thought it was just going to be SLU kids. the people seem to be pretty nice. made some new friends. oh and some Creighton guy found me and my CU sweatshirt and said hi.

the campus is one metro stop away. una parrada. but the here's the thing that messed me up: our host families were supposed to show us the neighborhood, but since it snowed Sunday, we couldn't. then Santi's novia dropped us off in her coche, and we only drove by the metro station. then when the orientation was over, I could get to our stop on the metro, but after that I was completely lost. I wandered around northern Madrid for a good TRES HORAS, trying to find Avenida de Federico Rubio y Gali 86. I walked around a park. I walked over a bridge. I walked past obscene Spanish graffiti. I walked past a police station. twice. I found the end of the Avenida, which was the wrong side. I took out my Nikon to take pictures of the Spanish signs. I traced back the road only to find that the edificios jumped from 94 a 74. WTF. I ended up asking this old couple if they knew where edificio 86 was. they argued for a bit, but then the guy pointed me in the right direction. I left the metro at seis. I walked into my apartment at 8:45. my legs still hurt. was terIble y mal.

today was part two. a big gathering and the bus tour of Madrid. the auditorium session was pretty useless; people kept asking about stuff we went over yesterday. and it was rainy, so that did no good for the tour really. the bus was fogged up, we couldn't see the other side because we were on the blocked first floor. and the headphones played classical music that made you want to dormir. after that they dropped us off at el NORTE train station and left us. 4 of us just decided to go back a nuestros apartmentos y hemos tomado unas siestas.

el metro NORTE
d5000

so I'm here

I've been trying to figure out Spanish this whole day. well since my day started on a plane over the Atlantic and I was doing some last minute listening to Spanish on my iPod.

I hesitated after arriving at Barrajas. Walked around the airport a little, exchanged some Euros, but finally summoned up courage to hail a taxi to take me to the address.

The family is really nice. It's me, senor Gilbert, senora Gabi, their son Santi, their daughter Alejandra, and their niece....what's her name. Oh and the other student, from St. Joeseph's, Petrum. All in this quaint 5 bedroom apartment in North Madrid.

They're super nice. Senor Gilbert goes out of his way to speak slowly and in simple terms so we can understand. He keeps offering me fruit. O fruitas. Senora Gabi is very kind and nurturing.

My room is pretty cool. I'll post a picture later. The ceiling is lined with flags from different countries. I learned one of them Chile's, because Gabi is from there. I thought it was the Texas flag at first.

It's snowing. Es nevando en Madrid. Senor Gilbert says he's not accustomed to it. Es raro. But it kind of makes me feel like I'm home.

EDIT:


d5000

freaking out

I just realized, I don't know Spanish yet! what the hell am I going to do? these aren't helping. (I should probably open them more often...)

oh and my brother got me adapters/converters! how nice.

d5000