Molly in Barcelona

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Back in America

Now that I have been back in the United States for almost three weeks, I have had some time to reflect on my four months spent in Europe. There is no doubt in my mind that I just had the most amazing four months of my entire life and learned more than I could have ever imagined. For most of my life, I have been so centered around the USA and thought that the world revolved around our country. After all, America plays such an important role in the global economy and almost every popular song, television show, and movie comes out of this country. However, I have now learned that there is so much more to the world beyond America.

I was fortunate enough to live with an incredible family (despite having a crazy host mom at some times :) ) and really see life from a different perspective. For once, I couldn't control what I was eating or when we ate. I couldn't control when the air conditioning came on. I had to turn off the lights whenever I left a room, even if that meant running into a table or banging against a wall. I shared a wall with a family who had a baby who woke me up screaming at 7 am every morning (but they had the NERVE to knock on my wall if I was on the phone at 10 pm). I shared a bunk bed with Mimi and we lived in a room the size of my cube at Wofford. I even had to speak a language the majority of the time that completely intimidated me. Although I had a lot of adapting to do once I got to Barcelona, I wouldn't change a thing. It doesn't matter how big your house is or how great your food is. It doesn't matter if you have to sleep in a hot room or speak in a foreign language at the dinner table. What really matters is the experiences you have in life and what you can learn from them. It's the beautiful beach in Barcelona that matters. It's the lifelong friends that you make. It's realizing that there is a whole world outside of the United States full of history and culture.

Mom and Dad, I thank you so very much for sacrificing so much for me to be able to make this trip. My life would have been great without having gone, but my life is so much richer and complete after having traveled around Europe. My life back in the United States has picked up right where I left off. I went to Wofford on my first full weekend back and had a wonderful 3 days. I also signed up for a pre-licensing class as the first step in obtaining my real estate license. I even landed an internship with Cottingham Chalk Hayes in Charlotte where I will hopefully work several days a week. I am looking forward to my internship and class this summer followed by a wonderful senior year, but I will forever hold the memories of Barcelona and the rest of Europe in my head and encourage anyone who is able to take a similar trip.

Thanks for following my blog everyone! Below are some pictures from my last days in Barcelona. Enjoy :)

Last night out a George Payne Irish Pub

George was in my European Union class and was so intelligent. I also thought he looked like John Mayer, so I had to get a picture with him!

Kenny Coleman and me. Kenny was one of my good friends in Barcelona and my partner all semester in Management Across Borders

My doorman Juan!!

Barcelona's main shopping street and the street I took to walk to school

Our metro line, L6!

Our door...we were getting very sentimental at this point

Where we spoke with Juan every day

Elena dancing along to Spain's version of Dancing With the Stars

Mimi in the lobby of our apartment building

Our dear old street, Alfons XII!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

April 16-April 19, 2010: Mallorca

Hi family and friends!

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping my blog up-to-date in the recent weeks. I have been so busy and a lot has happened since I last wrote.

On Friday, April 16, Mimi and I woke up early for our flight to Mallorca where we met Patterson. Mallorca is part of the Balearic Islands (Menorca, Mallorca, & Ibiza) off the east cost of Spain. For all of you tennis fans, Mallorca is where Rafael Nadal is from. Because the islands are so close to Barcelona (only a 20 minute flight), they are often referred to as the Catalan Islands (Catalonia is the region that Barcelona is part of). So, it would make sense that all of Barcelona would go totally nuts over Rafa Nadal. Well that's far from the truth! Apparently, Nadal is a Real Madrid fan and for this reason, he does NOT have the support of Catalonia. Anyways, that's beside the point...just a little fact to share with you.

We arrived in Palma de Mallorca just before noon after a quick and calm flight. Patterson had already arrived and we were all anxious to get to the beach as soon as possible. We checked into our hostel, walked a ways to the beach, and settled on a beautiful beach called Illettes with a delicious restaurant on the beach. Everything about the first day was absolutely perfect: the food was delicious (and very American, something we're always looking for!), the weather was perfect, and I was with two of my best friends. After a long afternoon on the beach, we relaxed for a while before heading to dinner at a local British-run restaurant called Port Cafe.

On day two, we returned to the beach for another wonderful day. The weather was a bit cloudier than the first day, but we were still able to get nice patches of sunlight and another tasty meal from the beach club. Perhaps my favorite part of the day was the early evening, when the three of us bought a couple of bottles of wine and just talked for hours on the beach. It was truly a perfect moment and I will never forget those few hours! As we were sipping wine and chatting, the time got away from us and before we knew it it was past 10:00. We're so Spanish now! We headed to a local pizza restaurant where we indulged in a giant pizza (no crumb remained at the end) and some burnt but good nachos. The three of us went to bed relatively early that night as we prepared for an early wake-up call for our flights home.

And the drama begins...We got to the airport and I went to the Vueling ticking counter to get my boarding card. When I asked for it, the lady looked at me like I was absolutely crazy! Little did we know, the Barcelona airport had become the next victim of the volcano in Iceland and had closed. Amazingly, Patterson got out before the Mallorca airport closed and made it home with no problems. Mimi and I, on the other hand, weren't so lucky. We were 2 twenty-one year olds that had no idea what to do! Every counter we went to at the airport sent us in a different direction and we felt so hopeless.

Mimi and I finally found a tourist counter that gave us information on a boat that was leaving at 11:30 that night. Knowing that many tourists would be anxious to get back to the mainland, we left right away and headed to the other side of town where the port was. Little did we know, our day was just beginning! We got to the port and saw no sign of activity. All of the ticket desks were closed and no one knew what was going on. It was at this point that I stopped being a "mature adult" and broke down and called my dad. As if he could really help me at 4:30 am in Charlotte...but hey, that's what dads are for, right?

We walked outside to regroup (and keep complaining about our horrible situation) when a random Spanish lady approached me. Amazingly, she wanted to help me out and pointed us in the direction we needed to go in order to purchase boat tickets. When we got to the ticket booth, the line looked pretty short and we were sure we'd be out in no time. Wrong. We ended up waiting for 3 hours, getting more and more frustrated as people kept on cutting in line and no one really knew if any tickets remained. When we finally got to the front of the line, we learned that the next available boat wasn't leaving until 2 pm the next day. At this point, we were willing to take and pay for anything...we just wanted to get home! So, $134 and 3 hours later, I had a boat ticket for Monday back to Barcelona!

All smiles after getting our tickets!

Mimi and I headed back to our hostel for a third night, walked around the town a little more, and had a wonderful dinner at the Jamrock Cafe. Exhausted, we went to bed early and woke up anxious to get home. When we arrived back at the port, we again stood in a long line and eventually got our official boarding cards. It wasn't until we talked with the helped that we learned the boat was running THREE hours late. On any normal day, this would have been fine. But with 3 exams in the upcoming week, I had another melt down. My poor dad got another call from me...thanks dad. I love you!

Back to Mallorca

Mimi and I joined the hundreds of other refugees in the lawn in front of the port and soaked up the rays for three more hours. Finally, at around 6:00, we boarded out CRUISE SHIP. Little did we know, we paid $134 for a good reason...we would end up spending the next 8 hours living in luxury! We had our own private room, beds, and bathroom. There were restaurants, bars, shopping, pools, and beautiful views. It certainly was the fastest 8 hour trip I've ever had. We finally arrived in Barcelona at 1:30 and made it back to our apartment at 2:00 am.

It wasn't until we were at school the next day that we realized we were actually quite lucky. 70 other IES students missed school on Monday, but many of them had a much harder time getting home than we did. For instance, my friend from Wofford, Sarah Johnson, was in Munich for Beerfest and had to take 5 different busses home and was in transit for over 48 hours. The whole thing was a crazy experience but certainly something I will never forget!

This week, I took three exams and wrote a final research paper. It is now Saturday afternoon and I have two more exams to take on Tuesday. I spent the afternoon studying (and laying out!) on the beach as it was a beautiful day in Barcelona. While I am ready to have my exams over with, I wish time would freeze so I could enjoy Barcelona a little bit longer. I am set to go home on Thursday :(. I have to go now...I am tearing up just thinking about leaving this perfect place.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

April 9-11: Sarah & Margaret's Visit to Barca

On my last real weekend in Barcelona, Sarah Kana and Margaret Strom visited from Rome. It was such a fun weekend and I really enjoyed being reunited with two of my fellow KD sisters! We spent our first day together enjoying a delicious Mexican lunch at Rosa Negra, walking along the port and the beach, and having a really nice dinner at my favorite new restaurant, Santa Caterina market. The rest of our evening was spent at the famous Dow Jones bar, where we celebrated Grace Perry's 21st birthday!

We spent the whole day on Saturday touring around Barcelona and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather that finally(!) arrived in Barcelona. This included a trip to Gaudi's Parc Guell and a wonderful afternoon at the beach. The weather in Barcelona has been so unusually cold, so it was very nice to be able to be in swim suits and soaking up the sun for a few hours. We had another wonderful dinner at Taller de Tapas and finished up the night watching the Barca-Madrid game at Sarah & Margaret's hotel. With all that I have learned in my Sports & Society class and the furia that surrounds FC Barca around the city, I was so excited to see the team win 2-0 over Madrid. Afterwards, Mimi and I walked by the Ramblas to get the the metro. The town was going nuts! Horns were going ALL night and the Ramblas looked similar to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill after the Tarheels won a national championship. It was an amazing experience.

On Sunday, I showed Sarah and Margaret the Sagrada Familia and walked around Barcelona, showing them places like the Arc de Triomf. I've now done these "touristy" things so much, but it only makes me love the city more each time I see them. Thanks again Sarah & Margaret for coming to Barcelona and for such a wonderful weekend!!

The rest of the day Sunday was spent finalizing my final project & final presentation for my Management class, which has taken so much time. With the exception of my final exam, I am finished with all of my assignments for that class, so that is such a relief! It's so hard to believe I only have a week and a half of classes left and then exams in two weeks. I feel like I just started my classes!

This weekend, Mimi and I are meeting Patterson at the Spanish island of Mallorca. We're hoping for beautiful weather to work on our tans, but regardless, I'm so excited to be with them and have a nice and relaxing final trip!

Santa Caterina: Sarah & Grace Perry

Santa Caterina: Mimi & Me

Santa Caterina: Grace Perry's 21st Birthday Cake!

Santa Caterina: Sarah, Grace Perry & Margaret

Parc Guell: Grace Perry, Margaret & Me

Parc Guell: Grace Perry, Margaret, Sarah & Me

Parc Guell

Parc Guell: Sarah & Me

Mediterranean Sea!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Spring Break: March 26-April 5, 2010

Happy Easter everyone! I have just returned from the most amazing 10 days of Spring Break and am so sad to see it come to an end. I left Barcelona on Friday afternoon, flew through Frankfurt, and finally arrived in Istanbul, Turkey around 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Because I was alone in Turkey, I got royal treatment the second I walked off the plane and eventually made it to my very own hotel room around 3 a.m. My parents and Wilson were set to arrive around 10 a.m the next day, so my excitement prevented me from sleeping very well.

Our reunion on Saturday morning was everything I had imagined and more! We were welcomed with "welcome juice" which was the sweetest orange juice I have ever had and also had crazy straws coming out of the glass. Besides me, no one liked the welcome juice too much and it kind of became a joke for the rest of the trip.

We had a private tour of Istanbul on Saturday, which also turned out to be a bit of a joke. While we enjoy pretty monuments and appreciate a good museum, no one in my family is a "hard-core tourist", so we didn't particularly enjoy our tour guide. She took us to some of the most famous sites in Istanbul, including the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace, but only shared boring facts with us rather than tell interesting stories. By the end of the 4 hour tour, my family was exhausted from jet-lag and we had about had enough of our tour guide! Still, it was good to get a feel for the city and learn about some of the most fascinating buildings in history.

On our first night together, we went to a restaurant called Khorasani which our hotel recommended to us. The meal, the service, and the environment were all incredible, and we ended up returning there two more nights. One thing we will never forget is the bread, which was a HUGE flatbread loaf that was the size of a large chicken. Despite the size, we managed to down two of them every night, and combined with the delicious tapas, main dishes, dessert, and tea, we left with full tummies!

Our second full day had a lot of rain in the forecast, so we tried to do as much as we could inside. We started with Topkapi Palace, which was absolutely beautiful. In addition to the beautiful architectural design, we really enjoyed seeing the outfits of the royal family and seeing the many enormous jewels they used. It made the heart of the ocean from Titanic look miniscule! After touring the palace, we stopped for an afternoon coffee and baklava followed by shopping at the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar. Turkey is famous for their rugs and scarves, so we all really enjoyed looking at these (well, the boys didn't enjoy this too much, but they were good sports). With the exception of a hand-painted bowl, we left empty handed, but came to regret this so ended up returning on our last day. Before I move on, I have to tell a quick story about my mom's purchase of the bowl. She had to have it, but lost her money so had to find my dad to get some more cash. My dad was well aware that my mom was about to way over-pay for the bowl, so he pretended like my mom was more like an Islamic woman and subservient to her husband. He told the man "my wife doesn't have purchasing power" and was able to negotiate the price to be much lower. Afterwards, he jokingly said "woman, put your scarf back on!," and these two moments combined became a big joke for the rest of the trip.

We spent our last full day in areas outside of the "Old Istanbul" district. We started by going to the Asian side of Turkey, as Wilson and I had never been to the continent. I should also note that my mom thought she was SO funny for surprising us in our picture by pretending to be a Chinese woman. After Asia, the plan was to go to Princes Island for the afternoon, and in true McCrory fashion, we barely made it back make our boat to the island (literally, if we had been 10 seconds later we wouldn't have made it. But where's the fun in making it to your destination with time to spare?)

After an 1.5 hour scenic boat ride, we finally made it to Princes Island. We took a "hike" up to the monastery at the top of the mountain and got beautiful views of Istanbul as well as other Turkish islands. We spend our last night back at our favorite restaurant, where they treated us like royalty and gave us lots of free treats. Something I'll never forget was the way the waiter addressed us as "my friend" every time he spoke to us. It us just one example of how friendly the people of Turkey were.

My parents and brother had a 3 o'clock flight back to Barcelona, so we didn't have a whole lot of time to enjoy our last afternoon. At the last minute, after a leisurely breakfast, we decided to go back to the Grand Bazaar and check out the rugs and scarves one more time. We became friends with a vendor on our first visit, so we wanted to go support him and knew he was someone to be trusted. After terrible negotiating, my mom finally got a good price on some Turkish rugs and got two beautiful rugs for our house. I also walked away with a couple of Pashmina and silk traditional Turkish scarves. Once again though, we pushed our timing to the limit and barely made it back for our driver at the hotel waiting for us.

We arrived in Barcelona late Wednesday night after a long day of traveling. I flew through Zurich, Switzerland, while the rest of my family went through Paris. We rented an apartment on the Ramblas which ended up being a perfect location for all of the places we visited. My mom went right to bed on Wednesday night but my dad, Wilson and I all enjoyed a (frozen) beer by the post as we enjoyed the wonderful weather. We then had a leisurely morning on Thursday, eventually making it to the Plaza Catalunya and my school building to show them a glimpse into my life. After this, we walked up to my apartment, had lunch, and then toured the Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Even though I had been to the cathedral before, I had never been inside and it was absolutely incredible to see. It was truly unlike any church I have ever been inside, and fascinating to learn about the history and the future of the building. My family has vowed to return to Barcelona whenever the Sagrada Familia is finished (it's estimated to be done around 2026). We left the cathedral and walked down to the Arc de Triumph and Parc Ciutadella before heading in to rest before dinner. Mimi recommended a restaurant called Santa Canterina market that she and her family went to last week which we ended up going to. It was absolutely incredible and Mimi and I both want to go back with friends for a special going away dinner.

On Friday, we again had a leisurely morning and finally got ready to go to Parc Guell, which is another Gaudi creation. With blue skies and warm temperatures, it was a perfect day to go to the park and get outstanding views of the city. We eventually made it to the port, where we had a traditional Spanish meal on the beach of Paella and Sangria. Following this, we walked around the port and the beach and even laid on the beach for a while soaking up the sun and pleasant weather. After our day at the beach, we met up with Elena when she got off of work at 9. It was very important to me that my family meet my host mom, and despite the language barrier, everyone really enjoyed each other. It wasn't until around 10:30 or 11 that we left my apartment, and much of Barcelona was closed because of Holy Week, so we had a simple meal of Spanish bocadillos (baguette sandwiches) and Tortilla de Patatas/Tortilla Espanola (Potato Omelet). The evening was bittersweet as I had wonderful time with my family all week but was sad to have to say goodbye to my parents in the moring.

Wilson and I woke up at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday to catch our flight to Paris where we visited for the weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better person to go with, as he is so special to me and also knows the city pretty well. We toured the Louvre during the day and then walked down the Seine River, viewing Notre Dame Cathedral, the Orsay museum and Eiffel Tower along the way.

On Easter Sunday, we went to the Eiffel Tower for the official tour in the morning. After waiting for about an hour and a half in cold, windy weather, we finally made it to the front of the line to climb the 704 steps to the second level of the tower. It was well worth the wait as the views were absolutely incredible. We then grabbed lunch and tried to go inside Orsay but because the admission on the first Sunday of every month is free, the lines were way too long. Instead, we walked on to Champs Elysees and theArc de Triumph, and eventually made it to Sacre Coeur for a Easter Mass service. Wilson and I then enjoyed a late, leisurely dinner and set out to make it to the 11 pm light show at the Eiffel Tower. Again, true to McCrory style, we pushed the limits, but this time the outcome did not work in our favor. We just missed the show, and ended up grabbing a beer before watching the incredible midnight light show. It was well worth the wait!

Wilson and I got back to our hostel around 1 and got ready for our 4:45 am wake-up call to head back to Barcelona and Charlotte. We had our biggest problem at the train station, which would not accept any coins, cash, or American credit cards. Needless to say, we were both quite frustrated and I feared I would miss my flight if we didn't get a ticket fast. Fortunately, a very friendly French couple helped us out by putting the ticket on her French credit card (with a special chip) and we then paid them cash. I have always heard the French are rude people, but everyone I met in Paris was so friendly. I had the most amazing trip to Paris with my brother and I am so sad the Spring Break has ended! This weekend, I finally have a weekend back in Barcelona and Sarah and Margaret are coming to visit us from Rome!

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter holiday and I look forward to seeing many of you soon!

The Blue Mosque, Istanbul

The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Istanbul

The street vendors in Istanbul were everywhere. My mom and I particularly enjoyed the grilled corn!

Each day, there were three fine Turkish rugs that were laid out in the middle of the street for cars to go over. We asked the rug expect why this was happening, and he said it was a way for them to "antique" their rugs. Bizarre!