Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando, Florida, December 21, 2007

The city: Orlando is actually a really cool city. Not too big, perfect weather, a nice combination of chain and individual restaraunts (believe me, I partook in both), and things to do (about 45 minutes from Daytona Beach). And you can't forget Disney World! Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to visit the "happiest place on Earth;" however, I was surprised by how little this major tourist attraction interfered with life in Orlando. That was nice.

The program: The Orlando Regional Medical Center program is a pretty solid academic/community program mix. They are associated with both the Arnold Palmer children's hospital and also the Winnie Palmer women's and children's hospital, both of which, of course, are gorgeous. The residents do quite a bit of trauma (4800 trauma admits last year) and ICU work, which I liked. And the attendings that I met with were really friendly and laid back. They seemed to like me as well. The residents get 3 weeks off during the year, in addition to a fourth week either during Christmas or New Year's. However, the interview day was really disorganized, and myself and the other applicants did a lot of sitting around and waiting! :(

The residents: The ORMC program is pretty small--only 4 categorical residents per class. And most of the residents seemed to be from the south--despite this, they didn't seem too much like beach bums! They were all very friendly and helpful, and said that ORMC was one of their top choices for the match. Once again, I felt a lot younger than all the residents, but it didn't seem to bother me as much this time.

UF-Jacksonville/Shands, Jacksonville, Florida, December 13, 2007

The program: Jacksonville has a pretty solid clinical program, with TONS of ICU and trauma rotations (4300 rotations a year), which I was really pumped about. However, they weren't very academic, and I even had a resident tell me that if academic was what I was looking for, then UF-Jacksonville wasn't the place for me. The residents that do do research usually have to go to a different location (Pittsburgh, Gainesville), and have a tendency NOT to return to Jacksonville.

The city: Jacksonville is a pretty nice town, really. It's the largest city in the nation, square-mile-wise (840 sq mi), and it feels like it. I rented a car (my first time ever), and got lost 3 times while pimping in my white PT Cruiser. Of course there are a ton of outdoor and water activities to partake in, and the entire city looks like the pictures above. However, the hospital is in a pretty bad part of town, and the residents even admitted that there are regularly transvestite prostitutes and homeless people milling around the hospital at night. Awesome.

The residents: So, the residents seemed a little like beach bums, to be quite honest. Many of them were bald and had big muscles (I know, you are thinking, that sounds perfect for you!), and spend all their post-call days at the beach ("Dude, if I leave the hospital at 12, I can totally be on the beach by 12:20" Seriously, that's what they said). They also frequently talked about hanging out with their attendings and "ripping it up." Not sure that's for me....

Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana, December 11, 2007

The program: So, IU has a solid program. They seem to do a good diversity of rotations and have five hospitals that they rotate at, including Wishard (a VA hospital that was built before the Civil War, second picture, above), and Methodist Hospital (a HUGE private hospital that is absolutely gorgeous, first picture, above). All their hospitals are right within walking distance, except for Methodist which is one mile away, and which you can get to by Monorail (aka: "The People Mover"). That's pretty sweet.

The city: I'm really not too keen on the city of Indianapolis. I guess there are some cool things to do, and it would be a good geographic location for me--close to Columbus, Champaign, and Chicago. I guess I wouldn't be diverting much off I-70 though. While in Indy I stayed with a girl from my class who was interviewing for peds at IU. Apparently the peds department is nicer than the surgery department, as they put her (and therefore, me) up at a super duper nice hotel downtown, with a sweet view (third picture, above).

The residents: I really can't say anything bad about the residents at IU. Most of them seemed happy, and I talked to a few who have had majorly productive research, which was cool. I had a million interviews that day--3 interviews with 2 people each, then 2 interviews with 1 person each--which was draining. I hope I don't have to do that anymore. I withhold further comments because, as my dad says, "be careful what you write, anyone can read that!"

Too Tired, so stay tuned.....

So, I got back from Indianapolis today, and I leave tomorrow at 12:25 for Jacksonville, FL. Aka: I'm pooped, so I will update on both interviews when I get back!

Not like anyone reads this anyway.... :)

Updated Interview Schedule, as of 12/9/07, 2232

I have done some cancelling, so here is my updated interview schedule so everyone can be on the same page:

November 14, 2007--Temple University, Philadelphia, PA--DONE
November 27, 2007--University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN--DONE
December 1, 2007--UT-Southwestern, Dallas, TX--DONE
December 11, 2007--Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
December 13, 2007--University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL
December 15, 2007--University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ--CANCELLED
December 21, 2007--Orlando Regional, Orlando, FL
January 4, 2008--Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
January 5, 2008--Penn State University, Hershey, PA
January 9, 2008--Maricopa Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ
January 10, 2008--Wright State University, Dayton, OH--CANCELLED
January 11, 2008--University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX
January 12, 2008--Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI--CANCELLED
January 16, 2008--Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH--CANCELLED
January 16, 2008--University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH--CANCELLED
January 16, 2008--Loyola University, Chicago, IL
January 18, 2008--Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
January 24, 2008--Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
January 25, 2008--Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX--CANCELLED
January 25, 2008--Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN
January 31, 2008--Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME
February 7, 2008--The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

UT-Southwestern, Dallas, Texas, December 1, 2007

Back at last! My flight(s) home from Dallas was delayed, and I didn't get home until 3am this morning. But, here's the scoop on the program nonetheless:


The city: So, I have some family and friends in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and with that comes a lot of happy memories from my childhood, some of which were able to be relived this past weekend. While in town in the Fort Worth area, I was able to hang out with two of my cousins and my aunt who live in the great state of Texas, which was awesome! The actual cities of Dallas/Fort Worth (I honestly had a hard time telling them apart during all the driving around the area, so I shall henceforth refer to them as one entity, DFW) are pretty cool. The highway system seems to me to be ridiculously confusing, but there is tons of stuff to do, including several professional sports teams, which I'm excited about. The crime rate doesn't seem to be too high either. My only reservation is the heat--yikes! They also have strange birds (see above). I chased this one around the parking lot for a good 10 minutes after my interview.

The program: So, UT-Southwestern is the largest surgery residency program in the country. The accept 39 first year residents, 13 of which are categorical. In addition, they have a 5-year 100% board pass rate--one of only 4 surgery programs out of 248 that can boast this stat. And out of the 4 programs that have a 100% pass rate, UT-SW is the only one that has more than 4 residents per year that graduate. Their hospital system is humongous and includes Parkland Hospital (5500 trauma admissions per year) (see picture above), Dallas Children's, the VA, and a couple private hospitals, all in very close proximity to each other. They send more than 80% of their residents onto fellowships and research is optional.

The residents: So, there has definitely been a difference in the types of residents that I have encountered at each program thus far. The residents at UT-SW were very friendly, and were actually from all areas of the country. The thing that stood out to me this time was that I felt so much younger than all of them. I mean, I guess I am, but I just felt it and probably looked it this time! Not sure why.

That's all I have to say right now. I have a little break before my next interview at Indiana University on the 11th! :) Peace out!

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, November 27, 2007

So, I didn't really have the opportunity to take any pictures of the medical center, mostly because it was too cold to stand outside with a camera, but also because I had to miss the tour due to my early flight home. So, you will have to imagine it. The report:

The city: I LOVE Minneapolis! Gosh, it is such a friendly, clean city. And when I say clean--I mean it! We (me and my dad's friend/my pseudouncle, Chip, who I stayed with) were driving around, and I seriously (no exaggerating here), saw no pieces of trash on the street or sidewalks or anything. It was amazing. There is also a ton of stuff to do in Minneapolis. I have two cousins and a bunch of family friends who live there as well, and because of this I have many a happy memory coming up there to visit. So, I made Chip take me to the same Byerly's (grocery store) that we went to when we visited my grandma, and even got the same peppermint stick ice cream. Tasty and memorable! Although, as we were getting out of the car for my interview, the radio said it was 5 degrees outside. I thought, "Five? Just five? No other numbers?" But this is made up by the fact that the city has Joe Mauer. Sigh.

The program: It seems like the University has a strong program in many areas. They have four major hospitals they rotate at, all within 15 minutes of each other, which is nice. There is a period of two or more years in between third and fourth year where they encourage the residents to pursue research. I've never done research, but I think if I had the right guidance, then I could handle it. They typically send about %80 of their residents on to fellowships--frequently in cardiothoracic or transplant. They have a strong history of cardiothoracic surgery, with the help of Dr. Lillehei, who performed the first heart-lung bypass procedure, with the patient's parent being the bypass machine! Awesome.

The residents: Maybe it's a midwest thing, but I definitely felt like I got along with the residents at Minnesota. I also had a blast hanging out with the other applicants--there were almost all the BigTen schools represented--and I even met a girl that threw at Minnesota, so we were chatting about BigTen athletics, and also the burden that is the sewn-in shoulder pads that come standard in all women's suits.

That's about all I can think of for right now. Off to Dallas on Friday for a major change in weather! :)

Up Next: Minnesota

Hello there. I will do an official Minnesota post after my interview on Tuesday, but I wanted to comment on a freaky dream I had last night. I flew into Minneapolis yesterday, and have basically been bumming around and doing nothing since then. But it has been nice. Except for this dream:

So in my dream I was interviewing at the University of Minnesota. Well, for some reason I didn't show up for the interview day. And then I decided to show up at approximately 3 pm, when the interview day was supposed to start at 7 am. So, I missed my interview, and was begging them to grant me another one. In the meantime, I witnessed the administrative people calling the residency applicants fat and ugly, and discriminating against them because of it! So I was finally given a chance to talk to someone, and I merely used this time to reprimand them for said discrimination. Then I missed my flight back to Columbus. Awesome.

I actually woke up really freaked out and convinced that I had ruined my chances of living in Minneapolis, which upset me quite a bit! Then I realized it was just a dream...phew!

The REAL interview doesn't start until Tuesday, with the reception with the residents tomorrow night. Hopefully things will go better than I dreamed!

Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, November 14, 2007

So, this week was my first interview at Temple University, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I will try to go about this in an organized fashion:

The town: Philadelphia has some really cute parts, including a lot of historical stuff and arts. I actually had a few free hours before my flight out, so I was able to see both the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (the location of the writing of the Constitution), the former Pennsylvania State House. However, a lot of Philadelphia is kind of crappy and dangerous. I've already heard some stories about people being mugged within their first week of moving there. There's a reason they have the highest rate of penetrating trauma in the state!

The program: I actually liked the Temple program quite a bit. They do a bunch of trauma and surgical oncology, which I liked. But they take q3 call, which I was not pumped about. One of the residents even told us that the nurses were not that great. The strengths of the program that were presented to me included the diversity of faculty, operative experience (~100 cases intern year), and the fact that the residents like each other. The one weakness that kept coming up was research.

The residents: Here's the kicker for me: I didn't really feel like I fit in with the residents. There were TONS of women (3 of out of 5 classes had 6 women out of 7 residents), which was a little bit of a turn-off for me, for some reason. All most of the girls were kind of prissy. I don't know--first impression: they weren't my kind of people.

But, all in all, I felt like it was a good first interview experience. Now I'll see if I can get some picures up here! :)

And here we go!

So tomorrow I leave for my first residency interview. This one's at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. I'm actually pretty pumped to go to Philadelphia (even though I've heard it's a sketchy town), but I'm getting really nervous for the actual interview. I'm just telling myself to be myself, and I'm not sure I would want to move there for the next 5+ years anyway.

There has already been a kerfuffle with the hotel reservations....the cheapest one they offered me was the Holiday Inn for what I was told would be $89. When I called them, however, they told me the Temple University "deal" was $176--yeah right! So, when the lady said, "do you want me to hold it for you?" I responded with, "um, no!" and hung up. Fortunately, I found another hotel for $99 (yeesh, this is going to get expensive--fast), which is close to the medical center and the hotel where tomorrow night's reception is.

I'm hoping to have some free time on Wednesday post-interview and pre-flight home to check out the historic sites of Philadelphia (aka: The Liberty Bell). Some of the dudes that I'm working with right now pointed out that they would rather see the "Rocky stairs," but since I've never seen the Rocky movies, nor did I even know they took place in Philly, I think I'll opt for that old cracked remnant of our patriotic American past. That is, if I can find my way there....

Stay tuned for an update and pictures...

Makin' The Interview Circuit

So, I've decided to use this blog to update everyone on the places that I go to interivew for a general surgery residency. I am also planning on putting up pictures of all the places I go to visit. Here's a current list of my interview locations thus far:

November 14, 2007--Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
November 27, 2007--University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
December 1, 2007--UT-Southwestern, Dallas, TX
December 11, 2007--Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
December 13, 2007--University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL
December 15, 2007--University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
December 21, 2007--Orlando Regional, Orlando, FL
January 4, 2008--Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
January 5, 2008--Penn State University, Hershey, PA
January 9, 2008--Maricopa Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ
January 11, 2008--University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX
January 12, 2008--Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI
January 16, 2008--Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH
January 18, 2008--Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
January 24, 2008--Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
January 25, 2008--Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX
January 31, 2008--Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME
February 7, 2008--The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Stay tuned--my first interview is coming up! :)

Pictures are up!

Ok, so instead of sleeping, I have posted some in-demand pictures from our trip to Spain. Enjoy! I have tons more pictures if anyone wants to see them; I also have some short videos of flamenco dancing for anyone who is interested. :)

There's no place like home...

So, I made it back to the United States without too much hassle. We did indeed get closer and closer to the airport throughout the night, but around 1:30, after trying to sleep in the car, we realized that Torremolinos was in fact a super sketchball town, so we headed to Malaga, and arrived at the airport at 2 am. Dan C., Jamie, and Mia all slept at the airport, but Dan K. and I were wide awake (maybe it's all those nights on call). As we were waiting, we saw a homeless crazy woman talking to herself and who also told us she was from Mexico. Later on we saw a homeless man (also in the airport terminal) who pulled down his pants and sat down on the seats by the arrivals (about 100 feet from us) like he was going to the bathroom. He sat there for a while, adjusted himself, and after a few minutes pulled his pants back up and went about his other business. We later saw him take off his shoes and sleep on the ground using one of those luggage dollies as a pillow.

I had the first flight out of Malaga at 6:30 (slept the whole way), then had more of the same craziness at the Madrid airport (see previous posts), but was able to sleep for about 5 out of the 8 hours on the plane (those eye masks and ear plugs might just be my new best friends). Then got into icky JFK, taxi-ed on the runway for about an hour, then got into Columbus tonight around 7:15. At this point I had been at an airport or on a plane for the last 23 hours, and was desperate for home. Amanda picked me up, and we headed for--big surprise here--Chipotle, where I was heckled for still having my eye mask around my neck.

Anyway, back home, still working on unpacking and doing laundry, and organizing all of my 260 pictures from the trip. Back to work tomorrow, which I'm actually kind of excited about, although the 6 hour time change could throw me for a loop. I'm really looking forward to a normal-sized bed and a full-strength shower!

Stay tuned for lots of pictures from each of the 10 cities we visited! :)

The Costa del Sol...Saturday

So we were up and out of our dirty hostal around 10am, and Jamie and I hit up some little stores right when they opened, since we had missed them last night.

Then we reloaded into the car, squeezed out of our money parking spot, and headed off to Ronda. Ronda is about 1.5 hours away from Sevilla and is a very small and very touristy, but also very attractive city. Their claim to fame is a large bridge, the original of which was built around 1400, and from which 30 people were thrown at the start of the Spanish Civil War. For 1 euro, we went into the bridge and visited the museum. It is actually a very high bridge--I definitely would not want to be thrown off of it for any reason...unless I was attached to a bungee cord I guess.

After Ronda we zipped (well, not really zipped) down to Gibraltar, which is a British colony (passports needed, but no stamp provided!) on the very southern tip of Spain. You can actually see northern Africa from the miradors (viewpoints).

Gibraltar´s claim to fame is the crazy tailless monkeys they have, who are very brave and can jump ridiculous distances. We found the monkey area, and the car was immediately attacked by half a dozen monkeys when they saw that we had bread in the car. A couple of times they almost jumped into the car! One also pooped on the hood of the car. Apparently we could have gotten fined 500 pounds for feeding them, but guess what? We did it anyway. I almost had some video, but my camera, usually ever-so faithful, decided to crap out on me at that moment. But, we got some hilarious pictures. I´m hoping to send one into the Illinois alumni magazine!

After Gibraltar, we toured up the coast even further (we all have to be at the Malaga airport around 4:30, so we´re planning on staying up the whole night and moving progressively closer to the city through the night), to Marbella. Marbella is a really attractive small city along the Costal del Sol which is known for their previous mayor laundering 27 million euros around 2002, who was put into jail in 2002 and was subsequently out on bail. However, he died in 2004.

So, that´s where we are now. We looked in the guide book and found an authentic restaraunt with cheap food. We found it, and I thought it would be cool to order the rabbit, since I´d never had it. The meat itself was tender (once you picked it off the vertebrae) and flavorful, but a little gamey. However, I had to stop eating it once I found the skull, brain, optic nerve, and liver on my plate staring back at me. Ick.

So, I don´t think I´ll be able to post again until I get home tomorrow at 6:30 EST. I´ll have pictures up soon! :)

Seville continued...Friday 3-2-07

Well, we had to be out of our apartment in Sevilla pretty early, and we also had to clean, which was kind of annoying. Since we decided to stay in Sevilla for a 4th night, we had to find another hostal, which was very easy and also cheaper than the apartment. We then headed out to Italica.

Italica is about 15 min outside the city, and is a Roman city that was built around 206 BC. There was a huge Roman amphitheater which seats 28,000, some residential areas, and multiple baths. As cool and as old as it was, I think we definitely spent much more time there than was necessary.

After Italica we headed to Aracena, which is about 45 min away and has pretty much nothing except some tourist shops and some very cool grutas (caves). So we forked out 7 euros and went on a 45 min tour of underground caves. Once again, pictures were prohibited, but, once again, I snuck some anyway. These caves were much better than any I´ve seen before, so it was a good use of our dinero.

Friday night Mia and Dan wanted to go a paelladora, a restaraunt which supposedly specializes on paella. So Dan and Jamie and I went to a different restaraunt and got the menu del dia (these are super popular in Spain, and usually consist of a large quantity of moderately delicious food). I really enjoyed just sitting around and chatting at the table, without the stress of planning something else to do.

Almost home...

So, we did indeed go to find the Archivo de Indias, which was, in fact, ridiculously boring. Jamie and I got lost on the way there, but it didn´t matter that we got there 5 minutes before it closed, because it took us approximately 4 minutes to go through the exhibit. I definitely feel duped, because there were no Columbus documents...only some computer printed maps and an old canon. Atleast it was gratis (free), because I would have been mad if I had had to pay.

After the Archivo, we walked across the city to the Plaza de Espana, which is a huge building which was constructed for the Worlds Fair in 1929. It is actually really neat looking, and has huge murals of all the major cities along the front. These were made in an effort to advertise and promote Spain during the Fair. I also ate an ice cream treat shaped like a foot, which was awesome.

After that, Dan was supposed to meet up with his host family that he stayed with while he studied in Sevilla. Well, he got lost and so we ended up being late, and by the time we got back, the other Dan and Mia were asleep. So Dan, Jamie, and I went to a tapas place which had no tablets, only tile-mosaic stairs to sit on, which was kind of cool. Unfortunately, the chorizo was less than cooked and rather chewy. However, I did have the best zumo de naranja (orange juice) that I´ve ever had.

Feb 28=Andalucia Day

So, we don´t really know what Anadalucia day is, and apparently neither do the locals. But this made everything closed, including the post office, bank, and grocery store, and therefore, we were unable to get toilet paper.

However, during the day, we went to the cathedral in Sevilla, which is the third largest in the world (second only to the Vatican and the one in London), and also holds the ashes of Christopher Columbus. We also climbed the 34 flights of stairs to get to the very top, which had an awesome view of the city, and very large bells that broke your ear drums every 15 minutes.

Later in the day, we met up with some of Dan´s friends, Neria and Susannah, who he knew when he studied here several years ago. We first went to another tapas bar (beware of pig grease), then went to an Italian restaraunt (notice the strange combination of foods we´ve eaten), which was very tasty.

After that we headed to a very smoky bar where there was a free flamenco show. The whole time we were debating about the gender of the flamenco dancer, but we were assured that it was in fact a woman, just a very ugly and very hairy gypsy woman. I was also concerned the whole time about the health of the man who was singing during the dancing. He was straining to hold the notes for way too long, and was beat red in the face during the entire song. I decided if he was to flop over and have a heart attack, that Dan and I would spring into action, and I would shove some Aleve down his throat...

Oh, I left out a very important point..the arguing. I won´t tell the details, except for the fact that there was a lot of name calling, slamming doors, us almost getting kicked out of our hostal, and a lot later bedtime than we had anticipated...more on that when I get back.

I think now we´re about to head to the Archivo de Indios, which has a bunch of stuff from Christopher Columbus´ trips. Should be neat! :)

Sevilla

SEVILLA:

After the Capilla Real, we hopped in the car and headed to Sevilla, which is about 200 km from Granada. It was an interesting car ride, with a few pitstops for Spanish cheetos and ice cream treats. All 5 of us are crammed into a mini-minivan, which always makes for interesting trips.

Sevilla is also kind of a crazy place to drive, so we had to have some members of our group hop out of the car and find the hostal, while the rest of us drove around and tried to find a parking spot that was less than a 30 minute walk. We ended up finding one in a parking garage, and carrying the others´luggage the whole way...awesome.

Tuesday night in Seville, Dan and Jamie and I went to a little Mexican restaraunt called Tijuana, which was pretty tasty and had live music, but the servings were really small, and since I hadn´t eaten lunch that day, I ordered a second burrito, and got quite a few weird looks from the people waiting in the line to be seated. ¨Fat American pig!¨is pretty much what they were saying I think...

I was able to get lots of cool pictures of Sevilla at night, with the cathedral, the bull-fighting ring, and the river all lit up. The also had some really weird art work in the center of the city, with heads and anatomical parts that were several feet high.

We then attempted to move the car to a cheaper and closer parking spot, which led to some arguing (the beginning of much, actually)...

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, Granada

So, our last full day in Granada was spent at the cathedral, which was enormous and gorgeous. Unfortunately, we missed the time for the Capilla Real, so we had to go on Tuesday. The Capilla Real is an enormous building which was built for Ferdinand and Isabella, and has both their coffins and some of their paraphenelia, including their crowns and septers. No photos were allowed, but, because I´m a criminal, I snagged a couple of shots.

Both Monday and Sunday nights we went ¨tapeando,¨ otherwise known as eating tapas at various bars, which is what Granada is known for. A tapa is just a fancy name for an appetizer. In all honesty, I´m really not that impressed with them. The purpose of eating tapas is a social thing, and sometimes you get free tapas when you order a drink. In addition, the tapas supposedly get better the more drinks you order and the later it gets into the night. So, a good portion of our nights were spent hurrying to finish drinks and the current tapa in order to see what the next tapa would be. Hmm. This can make it not as relaxing as I thought it should be. However, some of the tapas bars are really funky, and have pork legs hanging from the ceiling with these little funnels attached to catch the grease. Kind of cool, but I am still in perpetual fear of having pig grease drip on my head...

A few comments on Spain in general

A few comments on Spain in general:

1. I´m getting really tired of spending my euros on water. Since you can´t drink the tap water, you have to buy water at every restaraunt (and refills aren´t free!). I always specify ägua sin gas,¨otherwise I´ll get stuck with some nasty seltzer water. So we´ve been making attempts to buy big bottles and jugs of water at grocery stores. Today I purchased 1.5 liters for .37 euros (about 50 cents).

2. There are dogs and cats everywhere! Literally, I´ve seen atleast 100 dogs. Sometimes they´re on leashes, and sometimes not. Most of the time the cats are roaming around and digging in the trash. You can even bring your pets in public places. Oh yeah, they also poop right in the middle of the streets as well, so you´d better be careful not to cut your foot!

3. Apparently tight jeans and neon orange and lime green business suits are in. I don´t really know what to say to that.

4. PDA in excess! Ick. Even on the streets, there are just people standing around making out, no exaggeration here.

5. I guess it´s hard for me to comprehend smoking in public places since in Columbus we don´t have smoking anywhere. All restaraunts are smoking, and all the monuments we went to yesterday have little white buckets strategically placed around the exhibit so people can throw their butts in it. In the airport in Madrid, there are designated smoking areas. However, the smoking areas are made by three walls put together (like a cubicle with 1 side open), which are about 5 feet high. If these Spaniards knew anything about diffusion they would realize it doesn´t matter!

6. Service is horrible. I guess this is common throughout Europe. Once you order the food you´ll get it quickly, but if you don´t flag down a waiter for a menu or the check, you´ll easily be sitting there for 2+ hours. I guess that just demonstrates the crazy American way of hurrying through everything, but I still find it annoying.

I still can´t believe I´m in another country. I mean, it does seem foreign to me, but when I look at a map or a globe, it´s hard for me to comprehend that I´m äll the way over there!¨ But it has been fun so far, and I´m already feeling more confident in my Spanish.

I´d better head back to the hostal, where the others are waiting for me to go see the ancient church. Tomorrow we head to Seville, where we are spending 3 days, so hopefully I´ll be able to find another ¨cafe de internet¨when we get there.

Hope everyone is doing well--look for postcards! :)

Feb 25-26

GRANADA:

So we finally found our way to Granada (ps: road signs in Spain are terrible), and headed into the Alhambra for our appointment at 2. Luckily, Dan had purchased tickets online beforehand, which saved us a buttload of time.

When you get there, you have to go in at your designated time, into the Palacio de Nazaries, which is the big palace where the Muslim sultans lived and worshipped while they reigned in the area. Granada was the last big stronghold of the Muslims before they were pushed back by the Christians in 1492 (a good year for Spain, apparently). After seeing the palace, you then head into the Alcazaba and the palace of Carlos V, who was the Spanish ruler at the time and had built these items for himself after Granada was reclaimed. In the middle of the palace of Carlos, there is a huge colloseum-looking structure; apparently it´s supposed to represent bringing the country together...whatever. After that we checked out the Gardenlife, which is a huge garden/terrace area that Carlos also made. There are actually some pretty cool plants there, with TONS of orange trees (not sure if it´s legal, but Jamie and I knocked one down with a brick and made everyone in the car try it...unfortunately, it was terrifically sour, making one member of our group open the car door and spit it out, while Jamie swore that her left tonsil was swelling up because of it. ) Then you can head up to the highest point of the Alhambra, the fortress tower. A great view of the city, including many cave-dwelling people and their dogs on the hillsides.

Oh, I have to insert this here. The highlight of the trip to the Alhambra was seeing not only a mullet, but a ¨double dread rat tail.¨ We actually got it on camera it was so fantastic. Apparently rat tails and mullets are making a come-back, because we´ve seen several more since then. Seriously, that DDRT made my week.

After 4 hours at the Alhambra, we hopped back in the car and struggled to find out hostal once again. This hostal is not as nice, but the owner is still very friendly and the water-pressure is good. We are also right in the downtown, so we´re closed to a major tourist plaza and an apparently very famous church, which we are about to go see.

Later on, we went to a few tapas bars, which Dan and Mia had researched. At a lot of places you get free tapas when you order drinks, so their mission was to order many drinks, as the tapas get better as you go along. Well, I don´t drink, so that left me with no tapas, and an empty stomach. So mcuh stomach rumbling and grouchiness from me, we headed to a different bar with actual food, where I ordered an hamberguesa; however, this was no cow! Instead, it was some sort of sausage, and the fries that were guaranteed in the picture were instead those little fried potato sticks. We actually saw another dude with an entire plate of real french fries, so we think the bar ran out and gave us the sticks from the can instead.

After that, we found a club which Dan wanted to go to, called Granada 10, which is a re-done opera house, which didn´t open until 12:30. He insisted that everyone would come ¨decked out.¨ So, we got all ready and went over there in the hopes of doing some Spanish dancing. However, ¨no hay gente,¨mostly because it was a Sunday night. They were playing some interesting music though, including Ï like to move it move it,¨and lots of people were making out on sparkly gold pleather couches.

This morning we decided not to set our alarms, so I woke up to the sound of people yelling in las calles, at approximately 11 am. Woo hoo! That was awesome. We had a leisurely breakfast at a cafe, where the waiter was ridiculously rude, and then headed off to the bank, grocery store, and post office (sounds like what I do at home on my days off). Then I ducked out to finally find the internet cafe. I´ve been using my Spanish a lot though!

Feb 24-25

NERJA:

Nerja is a small fishing and sherry-making town on the Mediterranean, a frequent vacation spot for the rest of Europe, including Spain. And we found out why. This has been our favorite place so far--the town is quaint, safe, near the ocean, and everyone is very friendly! The pictures are awesome.

We stayed at a hostal called Hostal Miguel, run by a British bloke and his wife. They were super friendly and gave us a great deal. It also had great location, so later in the night we went down to ¨Balcon de Europa¨where there are a bunch of restaraunts and little bars, the ocean, and some historical churches and the like. It was so peaceful! Dan and Jamie are seriously considering living there in the future, and I wouldn´t blame then one bit.

Unfortunately, we had to head out pretty early in the morning to get to the Alhambra at our designated time. But we woke up around 9 and ate breakfast at a little cafe overlooking the ocean; I had warm zumno de naranja and agua sin gas (see later post) to drink. Then we hopped in the mini-minivan that we rented and headed out to Granada...

February 24, 2007

MALAGA:

So after arriving in the airport in Malaga, we were able to successfully navigate to the train station, where we purchased tickets to go Malaga central, only 1,25 euros. Got off the train and headed into the city, where it took us about an hour to finally find the Museo Picasso Malaga. We actually got a fifty percent discount at the museum for being estudiantes, so it only cost us 3 euros, which pretty much rocked my world. The museum was chock-full of pieces of art that Picasso had made, and most of them were from his friends and family--what they call his ¨personal collection,¨ rather than his most famous pieces of work. We were going to try to go to the birthplace of Picasso (as in, his house until the age of 10) but we didn´t think we would have time until we were supposed to meet up with Dan and Jamie. So, we found a restaraunt called Cafeteria Lepanto, where we ended up sitting for almost 2 hours (so, in the end, we would have had time). The service was horrible, but the food was tasty.

Finally Dan and Jamie met up with us, after which we headed to the car and drove onward to Nerja...

I´m alive!

Howdy friends! I´m here in Spain, it´s true. This is the first open ¨cafe de internet¨ that I have found, so I´ll do separate entries for each city.

Disclaimer: I´m typing this from a Spanish keyboard, so it may get botched just a little, so bear with me!

MADRID

Upon arrival, I went immediately into panic mode, as I realized how NOT fluent I am in Spanish, how I had never been out of the country, and I know approximately zero people in the western hemisphere. I almost sat down and cried, but luckily I was able to pull myself together and find an information booth, where they told me I had to go through police control, up the escalator, outside, find a green bus, and take it to terminal 4. Now, I know a lot of airports have buses, but this was ridiculous. Terminal 4 was so far away, that the bus had to go on the highway to get there! I could no longer see Terminals 1-3 when we finally got there. Then the airport is stupid and doesn´t tell you what gate you´re at until 30 minutes beforehand, so I was pacing around trying to find gate ¨JHK¨ when really I should have just been sitting. But alas, I found the gate at 11:15, met up with Dan and Mia, and successfully boarded the plane for the 40 minute flight to Malaga.

See next post...

T minus 15 hours

I'm not sure what I should put here, but I felt like I should type something since we are leaving tomorrow! I can't believe our trip is so soon! I fly out at 3:20 pm on Friday (2/23) and get there at 12:50 pm local time on Saturday. Then we'll let the fun begin! :)

Official Spain countdown: 15 hours

Gettin' Dorked Out and Ready to Go

Ok, so I know this is pretty much the definition of super-dork tourist, but in all honesty, I honestly don't care. I'm embracing the tourist image, what can I say? All I know is, my valuables will be safe and sound in my little marsupial pouch. :)

Official Spain countdown: 10 days

Heading toward the hostal circuit...

So, this might be a boring post, but I figured I'd better put something up! We're currently in the midst of planning our trip (and by that, I mean that Dan is in the midst of planning our trip). However, I'm not too concerned since he's lived in the area of Spain in which we'll be, and is fluent in Spanish.

I. Here's a rundown of where we're planning on staying; you can click on the links to check out the hostals and pictures of the scenery to be seen:

1. Nerja http://www.hostalmiguel.com/
2. Granada http://www.hostalpensionmeridiano.com/
3. Seville http://www.andalunet.com/azahardesevilla/
4. Malaga/Torremolinos

II. You can click here to check out map of our driving route!

III. A couple more people have been added to our group--Dan's friends, Dan and Mia, who are from Michigan (boo). So, as of right now, it's going to be Dan and Jamie, Dan and Mia, and me (the single one, whose dinner check doesn't get picked up, and who always gets set up by couple friends). Awesome.

IV. In any case, let the Spain Countdown begin! :)

Official Spain Countdown: 22 days

My Ticket Arrives

To make things more official, I received my airplane tickets in the mail today. I was getting a little concerned since they said I would receive a confirmation email, and I didn't. But alas, CheapTickets.com has come through in the end.

Destination: Malaga

Woo hoo! I'm officially a world-traveler. Well, as soon as I successfully step foot on the plane I will be. Last Wednesday, I purchased my ticket for a nine day trip to Malaga, Spain. Here's the rundown on the trip thus far:

When is said trip?
February 23-March 4, 2007

Who all is going on this trip?
Dan, Jamie, Casey, 3-oz bottles of shampoo

Where are you guys staying?
Hostels, of course! Cheap cheap cheap.

Spain? Yikes! How much was the plane ticket?
A measly $600. Hey, that's not much in the grand scheme of federal student loans. And I get to go on 3 different flights each way--heck yes!

How will you guys get around?
We're planning on renting a car. Apparently it's about $120 for the whole week.

What will you guys do there?
Casey says, "go to a beach!" Dan says, "see Roman ruins!" I imagine we'll do some of both.

Wait a second, if you've never been out of the country, do you have a passport?
Yeah, I had to get one when we went on a cruise in 2000, complete with a scary picture of myself as an unhappy 16-year old.

How dorky of a tourist are you going to be?
My goal is to be as dorky as possible. I've already got my new digital camera ready to go, complete with carrying case and neckstrap. I'm also planning on obtaining a fanny pack in the near future. My sister reminded me, "don't forget your knee-high white socks and loafers!" Thanks for the support, Bunny, as always. :)

My first attempt at leaving the country....and creating a blog

So, upon request, here is my blog. I know I already have my own website, but this blog will be specifically dedicated to my travels (or lack thereof, up until this point). My goal is to update this blog with pre-, intra-, and post- travel adventures and updates. So stay tuned, because I'm sure we'll all be in for a wild ride...