Amsterdam

This past weekend I went to Amsterdam to visit Andrew and did all the typical touristy activities. We visited many of Andrew's favorite coffee shops and bummed around the Red Light District for a bit. The weather there was wicked cold, but we still rode bikes everywhere. When I got into Amsterdam Central Station, I immediately bought a bike and Andrew and I took off to his place. For most of my weekend there we rode around and he showed me the city. At night we went to many of Andrews hangouts with his friends from school. One night we even went to a Spanish girls birthday party with all her spanish friends (guess I went to Amsterdam to hang out with more spanish people). We went to the Anne Frank House and on a canal tour for 10 euros each that we immediately got off of because it was terrible. There was a light festival at night, which was pretty sweet. The best tourist attraction was the Heineken Experience where we got double the drinks because the guy at the desk was a nice guy who apologized for us waiting behind an annoying Dutch tour group. Throughout my weekend there, I ate a bunch of Stroopwafel and tried raw herring which was subpar. I tried to extend my trip because when I booked it I didn't realize I would essentially be done with school, but it was too expensive. It was a nice safe trip compared to Lisbon and I had a great time. I have 10 more days in Madrid and then am off to Rome to meet up with Andrew and his friend from home. It's crazy than in a little over two weeks I'll be wrestling twice a day, while being jetlagged, trying to unpack my stuff from storage  and trying to drop weight. I am still planning a few excursions around Spain including maybe Salamanca, Granada and a quick train ride over to another royal palace in Aranjuez. Got to get back to studying for my tests for tomorrow and Friday. Barack never blogged haha
Joey

El Escorial y Valle de los caídos

Friday I missed the excursion to San Antonio de Florida in exchange for researching and writing my econ final paper that was due that midnight and was 60% of my grade. It was a little stressful but went well. Saturday I got up early to head over to El Escorial. There we checked out a huge monastery where all the kings of Spain and their families are buried. Then we had huge steaks for lunch and hopped on the bus for 15minutes to the 'Valley of the Fallen' where Fransisco Franco is buried. Despite the cold, it was a very cool place to check out for day on our last program excursion. I have finals this week in my Cursos Estudios Hispanicos and then will have one class left that ends in a couple weeks. Thursday I leave in the afternoon for Amsterdam to visit Andrew Cohen and Ilir is tagging along now on a last minute. It should be a good weekend to celebrate the end of finals and get ready for the home stretch of the semester abroad. 3 weeks left and going to make them count.

Fuck Lisbon

Jake here-it has been way too long since I last posted and I'm sorry... but I've been way too busy having a great time here. For example: http://www.facebook.com/ice.monster.tw/photos_stream Imagine any of those deserts .... best deserts I've ever had-famous place in Taiwan. So yeah, basically I've been enjoying a lot of the food all over Taiwan, particularly in Taipei. I've been having a lot of traditional Taiwanese dishes like Stinky Tofu, Hot Pot (http://tinyurl.com/cwlpsg7), 包子-pronounced baozi (http://tinyurl.com/cxsu8eh), and 小籠包 (xiaolongbao) which are steamed dumplings filled with meat or veggies with soup. If you love food and ridiculous weather (it was 82 today in Taipei) you would love it here. I've been doing tons of work for my upcoming final along with my research into Chinese Medicine. I received acupuncture for the 4th time two weeks ago... it was underwhelming this time. I had received such relaxing treatments before, this one just kind of left me feeling the same. My research has revealed a few American and European studies that prove acupuncture's analgesic properties (it doesn't prevent pain but changes the way your brain interprets them... people can actually have surgery with nothing but acupuncture for anesthetic, really cool!), but I wasn't in particular pain beforehand, so it is no surprise I had no drastic aftereffects. 

I've picked up a lot from my meditation classes here which have been really informative if not heavy-handed with the Buddhist undertones. I feel like a lot of people out West (used to include me) say that they buy into Buddhist philosophies... and there are some really great ideas on forgiveness, impermanence and all that jazz... but don't think that because Buddhism has great ideas doesn't mean that a lot of its followers combine it with a lot of superstitious behavior that is usually associated with Daoism. 

Also-being in a foreign country provides a unique opportunity to get into habits you thought you didn't have the time or motivation to start at home. I think I've worked out more often this fall than the past two combined in preparation for wrestling season this year. Weird. Sorry it was so long since my last post, promise it won't take that long again.

Quick Post Sevilla and Córdoba

Last weekend Andrew came in from Amsterdam to join our weekend excursion to Sevilla and Córdoba in Andalusia. The weather overall was very nice. We saw a cool gothic church and garden with peacocks in Sevilla. In Córdoba we saw a Synagogue and la Mezquita. La Mezquita was probably one of the cooler tourist destinations I've been to. It was a huge, unique mosque converted into a church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque%E2%80%93Cathedral_of_C%C3%B3rdoba. The nightlife in Sevilla was very unique as people piled into the streets to hang out when the bars got too packed. Overall a great weekend and a great final excursion for our program. Works starting to pile up and the semesters winding down, which is a little depressing. This thursday we are having a thanksgiving dinner and then Max, Ilir, Matt and I are taking off on a 6hr road trip to Lisbon. Then we have final exams Dec 3, 4 and 5. Then I take off the next day for Amsterdam to go visit Andrew

Joey.

Copenhagen for the Week

I missed classes on Wednesday and, despite losing points,  do not regret it one bit. I took my flight at  730am to Copenhagen, Denmark for a Sensation White concert on Saturday. The other members of my group stopped in Berlin first, which I decided to skip. On Wednesday I got my whole plan down on all the tourist attractions I wanted to visit on a list, where they were so I could be as efficient as possible. We took it easy that night and, while my friend was in class all day Thursday I got going tearing apart Copenhagen given my limited time for tourist activities. Despite the expected dreary weather of the city, it never set me back from doing any of the activities on my list. I took the train early in the morning and stumbled upon the canal tour of the city. The boat was covered and heated, which was awesome. I decided it would be the best to start off with so I could get an overview of the city and then go from there. It was a great decision, as I got an amazing perspective of the city from the canals, as well as, a boatload of history from the audio. The tour made multiple stops that you could get off at for an hour and fifteen minutes until the boat came back around again with another tour. I got off at all, but one stop and basically saw every section of the city. I went to a church and the royal palace along the way. This took up the whole day and I got back at night, made some dinner at the dorm and headed out for the night with my buddy and his friends. Now that I knew the small city pretty well, the next day I got out midday and climbed to the top of the Rudetaarn and saw the whole city. Then I walked over to the second amusement park ever, Tivoli. It was closed so I didn't pay to go in, but it was something out of a Hans Christian Andersen story. I then went back to the dorm to meet up with my friend to head over to the Carlsberg beer factory. We took a self guided tour and bought some cool Carlsberg shirts. The man at the desk informed us that at night they were going around the city to drop off the Christmas beer, which was apparently a big deal. After going back to the dorm my friend made sure to take me over to Christiania. This was a tiny hippie sector of the city with an interesting history behind it. It was pretty crazy and sketchy, especially at night. It was definitely worth the trip. We then ate and went out for the night, obviously getting the Tuborg Christmas beer.  The next day my friend has a juijitsu tournament so I slept in and then met up with some Wesleyan friends. We got lunch and coffee. Walked around the city for a bit before I headed and back to meet back up with my friend. We chilled for awhile and then headed over to the concert. I was supposed to not stay in his dorm that night because of a bad situation last year. There was no security so I was easily able to crash in his room after Sensation. I'm hanging in the airport now waiting for my flight to Frankfort. We're boarding in a second so I got to get going, but overall it was a great weekend and am very proud of how well I was able to "conquer" the city in the few days I was in Denmark. Just realized my 21st birthday's in two days and this weekend Andrew Cohen comes to Madrid for our trip for Sevilla/Córdoba.
Until next weekend,
Joey

Barcelona, Segovia

I had a blast in Barcelona last weekend with a couple friends from the trip. I probably won't be able to remember everything, but am going to try. Day 1: We got in Thursday night and had a slight issue with the metros being closed, but got to our hostel safely. We decided to take it a little easy and got out of the hostel at around 2 and wandered around Barcelona a bit. We had a few drinks in a bar i the Gotic area and after a few hours called it a night. Day 2: I stayed in a hostel with one of my buddies from the trip and his friend from home came and shared a room with us for the rest of the trip. It was raining when we got up and the three of us grabbed a quick bite to eat. The rain stopped pretty quickly and we were able to attempt to navigate the city during this somewhat dreary afternoon. We decided to head over to the Picasso Museum. I really didn't appreciate Picasso as a painter until going here. It wasn't a huge Museum, but was very worthwhile. I did take a picture of a guy from Michigan/Amsterdam doing a handstand in the museum. We returned to the hostel late and took a nap before going out with people at the hostel to a bar and then a club on the beach. The hostel we stayed at was a "party" hostel the every night had planned trips and met up with the people staying at the 4-5 other Sant Jordi hostels throughout Barcelona. We met a bunch of cool people from around the world and had a great time. Day 3: We went to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia and Parque Güell. The inside of Sagrada Familia was very cool. It is still under construction as Gaudi got hit by a tram and then came Franco's dictatorship before it could be finished. We met up with some friends at Parque Güell. We walked around, were in a music video, and climbed a big hill where we could see the whole city. After another much needed nap,  we went out to get some nice seafood. Then my friend and I decided to go out to an Absinthe bar the was well over 100 years old. There we met up with two guys and chilled for awhile before moving on with the night. Day 4: We walked around the old Gotic part of the city, which was certainly worthwhile. From there we worked our way over to Barceloneta, an area with beaches created during the Barcelona Olympics. We spent some time on the beach and then got a great deal at this hole in the wall place that I found. We got a ton of meat and sides for 11 euros. I was full for days. We got some churros con chocolate from a street vender, which were amazing even given my food coma state. Back at the hostel, we decided to take it easy before our 6am train the next day. So we went next door to a bar due to the light rain that had a 30,000 euro bottle, got drinks, played some pool and called it a night. The Monday morning train was nice and quick (2.5 hours). I went straight to class and then headed home for a much needed nap. Overall, it was a great weekend, despite being a little sick.

Yesterday three guys and I took a 20 minute AVE train over to Segovia. We saw a really sweet Roman aqueduct, an old gothic church, and went to the top of a castle. The castle had about a 50-100 ft deep moat. We got a cochinillo for lunch, which is a roasted baby pig, and was delicious. We headed back around six. I proceeded to pass out at 8pm and wake up at 1pm today (I think I'm sick). Nonetheless, a good day trip and looking forward to my parents and a friend coming up this weekend to check out Madrid. Classes are going well and hanging with everyone from the trip, in general, has been great. Sorry that this is poorly written my brain isn't really working now after my 17hr sleep.