Only one MWF, baby!

So, it's almost that time of year again when Vanderbilt students start debating, scheming and worrying about their classes for the Spring semester. We make that ritualistic journey to the Schedule of Courses website to find out what's in store (hopefully no 8 AMs) and then head over to the Course Catalog, hoping that what we want to take jives with what we have to take.

Luckily for me, this year I've figured out a schedule with only one MWF (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) class, which has pretty much been a dream of mine since freshman year. Check it out:

BSCI 266 Advanced Molecular Genetics (with my lab research advisor and favorite professor!)
BSCI 286 Independent Lab Research (yay telomerase!)
PHYS 117b and 119b General Physics II and Lab (last premed requisite!)
ENGL 243 Literature, Science & Technology (Medical schools require two English classes, and this one looked pretty cool...)
SPAN 215 Words & Stems (showin' a little more love for Spanish linguistics)

Super sweet excel layout of my schedule (without the 12+ hours I'll be spending in lab for BSCI 286)

Now, as long as the nebulous computer system that is OASIS (you don't want a link to this) gives me all that I request, Spring 2008 is shaping up to be one fine semester!

I am a Pilgrim

Well, almost a pilgrim. To get the official certificate at the end of the Camino de Santiago (“The Way of St. James”), you have to walk 100 km, which translates to just over 62 miles. Since we weren’t able to knock out that monster trek in two days, we settled for a hike on the portion of the Camino known as “The English Way” that runs 75 km from the northwest coast of Spain inland to Santiago de Compostela. It certainly ended up being a memorable adventure!

Plaque at the start

We started the journey out bright and early at A Coruña, a medium-sized city in the northwest region of Spain known as Galicia. Beginning at the Church of Santiago, we embarked on the pilgrimage, unluckily getting lost right off the bat. We knew that the trail eventually made its way near the city’s airport, though, so we resorted to asking locals for directions there. After receiving differing responses from many nevertheless kind and well-intentioned citizens, we made our way along the side of a highway for about two hours until we arrived to the airport and found a sign of the Camino! Thus encouraged, we set off on the real start of the voyage.

Rejoicing upon finding the trail markers

Since we were going from sea-level inland, most of the first day was uphill (or at least it seemed that way!). With that in mind and the fact that we didn’t actually find the Camino until around noon, we only made it about 32 km the first day. We passed through tiny villages with no more than a handful of homes, wound through paths snaking through cornfields, and climbed what seemed like entire mountains.

Path through a cornfield

With the sun setting around eight, we stopped for the night in Bruma where there was a “refuge” for pilgrims, charging only what you wanted to donate. There we met three other pilgrims, all retired. We shared stories, compared blisters, and then, exhausted, passed out for the night.

Shed (?) with a great view

Not wanting to miss any daylight, though, we were up before the crack of dawn (don’t worry, dawn comes at about 8:30 this time of year) to get started. After a quick breakfast of chocolate and trail mix, we hit the road to cover the 43 km that still stood before us.

Sun through the morning fog

This second day, the Camino passed through even fewer and even smaller villages (if you could even call them that!). It was a perfect time to share stories, discuss the news, and just reflect on life. After a close encounter with a bull that was wary of us passing through his turf, some more mountain climbing, and scrounging for food, we made it to the resting place of St. James in Santiago de Compostela. After a celebratory dinner of Spanish tortilla and ice cream pie, we did some tourist shopping (gotta support the local economy, right?). With full stomachs and full spirits, we hit the sack, sore and blistered but nonetheless rejuvenated.

The final destination

A quick word

Not much time for a long dispatch this time, since I only have 2 hours until I have to leave for my 10 hour (yes, 10 hour!) train ride. I'm headed to A Coruña, a little city in northwest Spain (the part that's above Portugal) to start a 75 km, 3 day hike on the Camino de Santiago. Although it's not a pilgrimage, as the trail is often used for, we'll only be 25 km short of being considered official pilgrims by the church. Wish us good weather and beautiful sights!

Sustenance for the trip ahead

Before I sign off, though, I have to tell you about going to the Madrid Masters tennis tournament. In a huge "Glass Pavilion" where it is held, we had the privilege of seeing Roger Federer, currently the number one tennis player in the world, play. Even though he played against an American (Ginepri), I think we were all rooting for Federer. Expectedly, but no less spectacularly, he won in two straight sets. Below is a serving sequence, showing Federer's complete awesomeness.

(not from the same serve, as you observant ones will notice)

I'll be sure to update by Monday with all the sweet stories about the pseudo-pilgrimage!

Another Perfect Day

The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and the weather couldn’t be any better (seriously, does it get better than 70 degrees, sunny, and no humidity?). This week’s been another one that’s flown by, despite the absence of any big trips this weekend or last.

At the beginning of the week we celebrated Marie’s birthday, although we mixed it up a little by going to a Japanese restaurant. Since there were so many of us (or maybe because they foresaw how loud twenty American college students could be…), they put us in a private room. I must admit it was a little strange ordering Japanese food while speaking Spanish, although in the end all the food turned out to be delicious (albeit not quite enough to fill me up!). Afterwards, we were strolling the streets of Sol (an awesome, centrally-located neighborhood of Madrid) and, being a Tuesday night, we got free admission to the club Palacio. It was a different experience because it was actually a palace built in 1850 that was renovated in 1991 to become a club! Dancing where Queen Isabella II once walked was an odd, but nevertheless exhilarating experience.

The action continued on into Friday, which was “Hispanic Day,” which commemorates the day when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas (so I guess it could be called “Columbus Day”?). Although I missed the parade led by King Juan Carlos and President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (whew, that’s a mouthful!), I did make it out to the Parade of the Americas to see the South American countries represent.

Bolivia's Contingent

There was a ton of music, leading to random breakouts of dancing in the streets, as I’ve dutifully posted below.

Parade of the Americas

Not wanting to stay put for too long, today we went to El Escorial, which is only about 45 km away from Madrid and famous for its massive monastery. Well, it’s called a monastery, but it seemed to me to be more of a museum/monastery/tomb/palace. It was built by King Phillip II to commemorate his battle in Picardy against Henry II of France, as a burial chamber for the royal family and his descendants, and also as a center for studies to battle the Reformationists. The “Hall of Battles” was probably the coolest room, depicting important Spanish victories through a massive, massive painting. The panorama overlooked by El Escorial was breathtaking as well, with actual greenery (imagine that…in Spain!) and mountains framing the sky.

View from El Escorial

Well, that was my week (not quite as exciting as Italy, but not bad by any means!). Let’s hope the fun continues so I can keep the stories coming!

Favorite picture of the week:

Sunset from the Retiro steps

Quest for the Holy Power Bar

Warning: Complaining ahead

I'm hungry. Almost every morning, all morning long. It's not that I don't get fed enough during the day when you take it as a whole, but Spanish culture tells me that I should go from a small bowl of cereal at 8 am until the main meal at 3 pm without eating. That's seven hours...seven long, hunger-filled hours.

To remedy this unfortunate situation, I've been on the lookout for those deliciously caloric, oddly textured delights called power bars (Apparently that's the actual brand name, now that I look. I guess to be unbiased I should say "energy bars"). I figured I'd just jaunt on down to the supermarket and pick some up. Wrong. They have cereal bars, but energy bars were conspicuously lacking. Okay, I figured, I'll just go to the other, bigger supermarket a little farther down the street. Wrong again.

This was beginning to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be. One day, as I munched on a cereal bar and browsed madaboutmadrid (sweet site if youre thinking of visiting the city, and in English!) I found a link to a guide to Madrid put out by one of the local newspapers. This guide had a bunch of "top ten" lists, one of which focused on physical activity. Coming in at number ten was the health food store "Hidelasa" and the first two words in the guide's description of this store are "energy bars." By golly! I thought, I just may have found these elusive beasts! I quickly looked up the store's location and saw it was on the outreaches of the Madrid metro system, but I was determined.

So, today I made the journey to Hidelasa. The one hour journey there, the forty five minute journey getting lost once there, and the one hour journey back. But I had downloaded some NPR podcasts just for the purpose of passing time on this trip (I've told you I'm a dork). Plus, I was getting my energy bars, right?! How could this NOT be worth it?

With that question, I leave you with this picture, which I hope sufficiently captures my amusement, disappointment, and general befuddlement at Spaniards' concept of energy bars.

Energy bar, with handy size reference

Stats:
Calories
180 (about 50 less than a PowerBar)
Cost
$1.75 (compared to about $1.50 in the munchie marts if I remember right)
Calories expended in the process of obtaining energy bar
Probably a lot more than 180

On the upside of things, I told my señora this story and she said she would just have to start making me more food. JACKPOT! Spanish tortillas, here I come!

...that's amore!

Wedding photos at the Trevi

...like a big pizza pie...

After catching a train to Rome (luckily, a rumored train conductor strike was postponed!), all eight of us quickly checked into our hostel and then embarked on a search for some authentic Italian cuisine. With our trusty guidebooks at our side, we found a “family-style” restaurant that served amazing (no, seriously amazing) pizzas. The pizza crusts in Italy are really thin and crispy, almost like a big cracker, and adding the sauce, cheese, and huge variety of toppings makes it a heavenly experience. What's more, you get a whole pizza probably about 15” in diameter for only six or seven euros. On a college student’s budget, it doesn’t get any better!

Seeing as the guys outnumbered the girls for the first time this entire semester, the obvious first choice of landmark to visit was the Colosseum, land of gladiators and the setting of Gladiator, quite possibly one of the best movies ever created. With the wooden planks forming the arena decomposed after nearly two millennia, the expected floor of the Colosseum gave way to the understructure, compartments once used to store weapons, scenery props, and animals (did you know that they actually fought elephants and rhinoceroses?!). While I’ve been impressed seeing grand buildings erected as far back as the Middle Ages, it was truly phenomenal to imagine Roman mobs, dressed in togas and cheering for their favorite gladiator, in the same place I was almost two thousand years ago.

The Colosseum by night

From the Colosseum, we headed over to the Roman forum, which was the heart of Rome in ancient times, where the government and many commercial activities were situated. Originally, it had been a marsh, but was drained all the way back in about 600 B.C. to begin development! During our meanderings through this huge area, I was constantly wondering if I was walking where a Caesar had once strolled two thousand years ago.

The (ancient) Roman forum

After a few hours in the forum area, we made our way to the Spanish steps where we were just in time to catch a beautiful sunset and then set off for the Trevi Fountain. Like we had seen at the Colosseum and at the Spanish steps, there was another newlywed couple getting their picture (who can blame them with such picturesque settings at every turn?).

A sunset at the Spanish steps

The next day we dedicated to the Vatican, which apparently is far too short a time to explore all of its offerings. Katy told us that the Vatican Museum has so many pieces that if you were to spend just forty five seconds looking at each one, it would take you twenty four years to emerge from its galleries! As a result, we did a very, very brief run-through (after waiting in the notoriously long line for about and hour and forty five minutes), with the main goal of seeing the Sistine Chapel (lecture 10/25-26 at Vanderbilt about "The Sistine Chapel Controversy"!). The ignorant American I am, it seemed to me like every other building we entered could have been the chapel, seeing as every ceiling in every building was unbelievably ornately decorated. Once we arrived to the bona fide location, though, the touch of the master Michelangelo was apparent at once and we easily spent twenty minutes in the room, just staring at the ceiling and at The Last Judgment.

The Sistine Chapel (taken in spite of shouts of "NO FOTO!")

To keep this entry from reaching a gargantuan length, I’ll leave it at that (neglecting St. Peter’s Basilica, the Swiss guard, the Pantheon, and yet more pizza).

Favorite picture from Rome:

Looking out from the Colosseum

And favorite "NO WAY!” picture:

The Boston Celtics?!

When the moon hits your eye...

I took a two hour nap today; my roommate, a three hour nap. After the weekend we had, we were in dire need of it. From five a.m. on Friday morning until two a.m. last night, eight of us from the program were traveling nonstop through Pisa, Florence and Rome, trying to take in as many sights as possible in four short days. On the flight back home, we did some quick calculations to try to guesstimate just many miles we walked in this time; walking six to eight hours per day at a pace of a twenty minute mile puts us at around eighty to ninety miles. Luckily, not one of these steps was wasted.

We started off our trip catching the metro as it opened at six in the morning and took a flight from Madrid to Pisa, a waypoint along the way to Florence. Since we were in town, we wanted to see the famously leaning tower of the same name. While Madrid has its legendary landmarks and memorable monuments, it can’t quite match Italy in that I-can’t-believe-I’m-actually-seeing-this factor. Laying eyes upon the Leaning Tower of Pisa felt almost unreal, not only because of its precarious position but also because I’ve seen pictures of it since my years as a toddler. It turned out that this was an experience that would be repeated again and again over the next four days.

What else did you expect?

After seeing the tower, we were off again, catching a one and a half hour train to Florence and getting some shut-eye along the way. Since Vanderbilt has another study abroad program there (Vanderbilt-in-Florence), some people stayed with friends who had room to spare while the rest of us shacked up in a hostel by the name of Soggiorno Berlini. Despite the low ratings I talked about last time, it was actually a pretty sweet place (well, except for the showers). But we didn’t stay in the hostel long, as we wanted to get out and experience the city. We did the tourist thing (maps, guidebooks, and all) and quickly set off for Accademia to see the Statue of David. Like the Tower in Pisa, David is one of those pieces that is so integral to our concept of art that seeing it was practically worth the entire trip. Towering over the gallery, David’s huge size, intricacy, posture, and proportions captured the attention of all the museum-goers. While pictures were forbidden, I managed to snap off a few on the down-low.

David in all his glory

While simply listing the other monuments we visited destroys their mystique, we also got to climb the 463 steps of the Duomo to gaze out at the city, walk across the Ponte Vecchio, take in the Florence skyline from the Piazza Michelangelo (with wine and cheese, of course), and experience so many other unforgettable sights, smells and flavors (can you say gelato?).

The Duomo from the front

Just one and half days after touchdown, though, it was already time to move on, and we packed up our bags for the eternal city. To give this leg of our journey the attention it deserves, I’ll devote an entry to it in the near future. Hang tight!

Favorite picture from Florence:

Rower on the Arno