The Greatest Field Study in the History of Ever

[Backstory: I’m taking a Pregnancy, Birth, and Infancy in Denmark class. And I want to be a midwife.]

Madrid: Weird schedules & much coffee

 

The view from our hotel

A couple days before we went to Madrid, I was able to talk with my high school Spanish teacher, who is now semi-retired and leads Rick Steves tours through Spain. He told me how to navigate the subway, the sights to be sure to see, and some restaurants to check out. Leaving Paris we had to switch up bags a little bit (and by that I mean Corin and I tossed clothes into Vicki’s duffle). Flight was short, and landing in Madrid was fine, but if Profe hadn’t told me what stop to get off at I wouldn’t have known what to do. We arrived at our hotel midday, and it was in a perfectly central location on a walking street.

Nepolitanas de Chocolate- like pan au chocolate, but better

The hardest thing about Spain was getting used to the eating times. I don’t think we ever got it quite right. Corin and I also were pretty congested, so the excessive sleeping probably didn’t help with getting on schedule either. In any case, we had a great time wandering the streets, and had some really great food. There is a bakery on Puerta del Sol called La Mallorquina

Lovely little lake

that Profe told us we needed to go to– it was our breakfast (loosely defined, it was about twelve or so) the first morning. We pretty much just wandered the streets, drank a lot of coffee, and improperly adapted to meal times. One of the items on the list Profe gave me was a park called Retido– it was gorgeous, and honestly, felt a lot like Wright park, just ten times bigger.

The first evening, after our nice siesta, we wandered into a large square and saw a lot of commotion and screaming teenage girls– only to find that the Mockingjay

France: Corin’s Birthday, Wine, & Monuments

Sunday

Le Tour Eiffel

Corin wasn’t feeling too great in the morning, so after breakfast Vicki and I headed out to find some drugs…  Not many pharmacies were open at 8:30 in the morning, but eventually we found one with a
very helpful gentlemen. Then after retrieving Corin, we wandered around and found a market where (wait for it…) I successfully purchased baguettes, brie, and grapes… IN FRENCH. The baguettes went over fine, but the other two were a little more challenging. It was a bit of a struggle getting the right amount of brie, and ended up mumbling in English a little bit, and then when I asked for grapes, I didn’t know how to say a bunch or “that much” (and then denote with hands) or anything, and asked for a kilo. And then after she hoisted this massive bunch onto the scale and reached for more, I said “non, se parfait” and it worked out from there. I have now used more French conversing with real people in France than Danish in Denmark. I’m very much looking forward to Spain. (I even helped a woman find her train line at the station the other day. IN SPANISH.) Anyways…

“How many people does it take to plug in an adaptor in Europe? Apparently, two,” or, JE SUIS ARRIVÉ A PARIS!!

…to find my brother had come along for the journey, no less! But let me back up first. I had an 8:30 flight, everything went smoothly, and I didn’t have to check a bag because I borrowed a carry-on suitcase from my host-family. Flight was great, I knit the whole way (and later undid the majority of that, I’m still not back on track…). Found my way from Orly to the city center, and then had what would end up being four hours of waiting for Vicki (and Corin!) to arrive. I found a nice omelette at a cafe, felt bad about my lack of French, and didn’t get lost. So a fairly productive afternoon, I would say.

I am a Millennial, See Me Selfie: #LondonEdition

[WARNING: What you are about to witness cannot be un-seen. Do so at your own discretion, knowing that whatever amount of respect you have for me may be diminished. Nevertheless, I thought this was a fun project, as I wasn’t about to tote around my CanonT4i all the time.] Without further ado… 

[A Little More London]

Tea & pan au chocolate in Kensington Gardens. Life is good.

Crown Jewels & Kings Cross

Tower of London & Poppy Exhibit

I spent the morning at the Tower of London. More Travel Tips with Maya: Get your ticket online and arrive at the opening. There’s currently an exhibit around the Tower commemorating all those lost in the First World War—a poppy for every soldier. It’s quite beautiful. I went through the exhibit explaining the torture methods they used back in the day—some significantly more painful than others. Apparently there were ‘only’ 48 prisoners tortured at the Tower. Not to say that was England’s total. They just spread them out between the facilities. The White Tower within the complex was full of an exhibit with the various military capacities of various periods, complete with the armors of nearly every king. It was somewhat like visiting the gun museum in Wyoming (or North Dakota or Minnesota?) with my brother, cousins, and grandparents in 2005. I acknowledged the historical significance of the objects, but couldn’t bring myself to be very interested in it all. Just not my cup of tea.

Traitor’s Gate

Wandering the Streets

Found this on a side street. Reminded me of Corin.

After considering the state of my budget and the week’s foreseeable expenses, I was resolved to walk as much as possible, avoiding pricey tube tickets. As it turned out, this was also wishful thinking. I had a lovely stroll from Kensington into the heart of the city, but by the end of the day my legs wanted to fall off. Mari had a class tour of the Globe that afternoon, so I made my way there with the help of my semi-trustworthy phone map, making stops when something was interesting. I

21st-Century London

wandered past Buckingham Palace around 11:30, when the changing of the guard began. There seemed to be a gathering around a side gate, which I figured meant something was going to happen.
So I stuck around for a couple minutes, after which several (empty) horse-drawn carriages rode by. I didn’t stay for the whole ceremony, but I did hear a bit of band and watch some guards march past. I ducked into St. James’s Park, which was far less crowded and followed the lake further into the city.

Arriving in London

Breakfast of Champions, or Hostelers on a Budget

Monday afternoon I was quite frustrated to arrive at my hostel and discover the absence of a guest kitchen. The guest kitchen, which is so clearly advertised and photographed on the hostel website, was not in existence. As the most expensive city I could possibly have chosen for holiday, I figured I’d save a few pounds by getting groceries for my meals and eating in most of the time. They did have a microwave, the receptionists assured me of several times, and there was enough room in the small refrigerator at the bar to store a small container of milk. So as long as I planned on subsisting off cereal and cup-a-noodles, I’d be okay. Instead of going just slightly over-budget on this trip, I would be blowing it out of the water.

A Weekend in Suffolk

I landed in Gatwick Friday night, and hopped on the train to Victoria, and after a bit of confusion (supposed to meet at the Starbucks, apparently there are two at Victoria station) I met up with Katie & Tom Keating-Fedders. We visited them in England in 2001, and I’d seen Katie and Anna years before when they’d come to Tacoma to visit. Tom took my backs back to his flat (and joined us later) and Katie and I headed over to The Dublin Castle for a pint. It was a lot of fun, even though the music was pretty loud and we were probably the youngest ones there. We crashed at Tom’s for the night, and then Katie and I took the train up to Ipswich in the morning. Tom made us tea and toast+Nutella before we left. Best dorm breakfast I’ve ever had.

Rick picked us up from the station, and we had a lovely afternoon at their house. Anna and Ella and I took a trip into nearby Bury, to see the market and try to find yarn for a project of Ella’s. The yarn shop had shut down, but we did go to a patisserie and had tea & cake. I cannot count the number of cups of tea I had this weekend, or the number of slices of Rick’s bread. It was so nice just to sit around and chat and hear about what they’ve been up to, and giving them “all the news from Tacoma.” Anna even got out the photo boxes and we looked through pictures of L’Arche folks “back in the day” (and as Papa would say, “back when assistants were REAL assistants”). They asked me if there was anything in particular I missed, and I said dessert (my host family is very healthy) and so we got some cream ice for dessert. Yes, I typed that correctly. The farm Ella works at makes their own ice cream, except the cream content is so high they legally have to call it cream ice. Needless to say, it was delicious.

Sunday I woke up early to go to Mass with them- I hadn’t been since my last weekend at home, so it was nice to go again (even though, a they warned me before hand, it wasn’t much like St.Leo). We had tea in the parish hall, and tea when we got home, and then Anna, Katie, and Ella and I headed to the beach. It was a perfectly British afternoon. We sat and had Suffolk cider and shared fish & chips, and took a stroll among the shops and on the beach. I’m so glad Katie messaged me in September saying I should come visit- it really was the perfect start to the week, and it was so nice to reconnect after so long.