and to continue my fall break...

So I am finally in the mood to continue my fall break extravaganza. I last left off in Madrid...ready, set, go.

Madrid: I had the most fabulous time with Gilad. Gilad has been living in Madrid for 1.5 years and has the most spectacular life there with an incredible group of friends. He picked me up at the airport and it was just so wonderful seeing him after so long. We took the subway to the center of Madrid where he lives in the most adorable 3 bedroom apt with three cute Spaniards-José, Luiz, and Rafa. After a shower and some unpacking, we headed out to a café where I got tea, then to a bar for beer, then to a Tapas restaurant! the food was AMAZING and the atomosphere was so unique. It was loud, cramped, dirty, and smoky, but so spanish. Afterwards, we headed back to his place with a few of his friends and got after a few hours of catching up, went out to a club called Nastí. It reminded me of Bside in cleveland, which made it a lot of fun. This was at 3am, because in spain no one goes out till at least then. This club is only open till 4am, so it was not very busy. As soon as it closed, we went back to the apt and quickly fell asleep. Friday morning, Gilad had work, so José took me out sightseeing. He was incredible and so sweet. We spent most of our time at the royal palace. it was beautiful, still furnished which was the best part. At around 3, we met up with Gilad and got lunch. Madrid restaurants commonly have 10€ lunch menus that are three courses and come with wine. it was perfect. We then walked around some more and eventually ended up at the big park in the middle of the city. it was so beautiful. we took a nap on the grass next to the lake, as were many people. and then we went to the train station that has a green house inside and got churros (SO GOOD). We then went back at the apt, where we got ready to go out to his friend Julita's 20th birthday party. I was able to enjoy a truely local experience. It was all spaniards except for me and Gilad and everyone spoke in Spanish the whole time. We had an early morning the next day, so we left the group when they decided to go to a club. That Saturday morning, we woke up early and got on a bus to go to El Escorial and Franco's tomb. Francos tomb was sureal, its a huge cathedral built into a mountain. I would highly recommend it if you go to Spain. I had told Gilad that I wanted a true Madrid night experience. So after getting back from our day trip, we took a nap, cooked and ate dinner around 10pm, got dressed, and his friends came over at 12. Gilad and I then went to a club called Pachá that I had been waiting to go to since he had posted so many pictures of it last semester. It was sooo cool. Gilad is the most networked person I know, he always knows the best people. so of course he knew the main PR guy who makes the Lists. But we didnt have to wait in line. Instead we met him at the doors, he brought us in for free and got us free drinks and brought us to the VIP floor. I doubt I'll have that experience again. His friends did not join us, so after an hour or so, we left and met up with them at a place called Elastico that was also like Bside but Huge! We stayed there till it closed at 6, then went to a diner type place, ate spanish tortiallas which are now my favorite food till we were tired (around 8), then went back to gilad's apt. About a dozen people stayed there talking, chain-smoking, and sobering up till 930am! I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep, but I did have my true Madrid night and it was amazing. The next day, we woke up late and walked around town some more. That evening we went to see an independent movie that was in French with Spanish subtitles, though I understood most of it with my high school level spanish (points for me). Then we went and got tostas for dinner which were incredible and drank sangria, also very nice though I am now a bigger fan of tinto verano. Monday I left Madrid and made my way to...

Switzerland! Ok so definitely not my favorite place, but good nonetheless. I flew into Geneva and had to find a trainto Bern by myself for the first time ever. I was able to find a train 2 minutes before it left! so i didnt have to wait an hour alone in the station at 10pm. I arrived in Bern late and met up with my highschool friend also studying at DIS-Abby. We promptly fell asleep and spent the next day leisurly walking around, eating pretzles, and shopping. We did go to the big museum there and saw an awesome Albert Einstein exhibit. We decided to go to a semi-nice restaurant for dinner, which was great and very relaxed. my feet hurt so much at this point, i actually would have rather cut them off then walk more. We were only there two nights, so the next day we made our way to the train station and headed to Zurich. We arrived there and realized we did not have directions to the hostel...awesome. through some handy map work, we found where it was (while snowing/raining) and then up the 4 flights of stairs to reception. The hostel was so much fun, the people were incredibly friendly. We met one of the girls in our room, she was from new zealand and had been traveling for 5 months. she got a group of peope together to play cards and then go out for a drink-us (the 2 americans), an australian, and three canadians. Abby and I hung out with two of the canadians more that evening and learned they had both just graduated from culinary school, had just competed in a huge cooking competition in germany, and were moving to london for 6 months to do some internships, and just like us they wanted to go on a day trip to see the alps. so, the next morning the 4 of us left early for the train station, walked into the tourist office and said-"we want to see the alps, where should we go?". they told us, lucerne so that is where we went. it was so beautiful because of a fresh snow fall. we walked for hours. after we got back, we went to the grocery store, bought ingredients and then they cooked us dinner. it was so yummy and way better and cheaper than a restauran't/our own cooking. we just hung out at the hostel that night since we were so tired. the next day, we did the usual touristy thing, just walked around, ate roasted chestnuts, found the synagog (obviously we happened to find it), saw all the main churches, etc. we left the next day...but one last story. in the airport in zurich, i was about to go through security when the security man sees my pump. our conversation:
man-you have to take that off
ariella-i cant
m-you have to take that off
a-i cant its medicine
m-you have to put it in the basket
a-no, i cant its medicine, its ATTACHED to me (see the tubing)
m-you have to take it off
a-panicing...its ATTACHED
m- ooh, ok well you cant go through the metal detector, go around it and in the booth
a-no i can its fine
m-no, you cant
a-fined...and then i got patted down for like 5 minutes


so yeah, i arrived back in copenhagen saturday night. i wish i could have traveled for 3 more weeks, but alas, i had class.

now i am off to bake some pies for danish thanksgiving, but tomorrow i plan to update with more of my life here...which i mentioned previously, i am so much happier here and having a great time and cant imagine going back to america.

update

so i realize that i have not finished updating about my time away. i still have to write about madrid (which was amazing) and switzerland. but i just wanted to say for now, that i offically like it here. as always, and i should have seen it coming since it always happens like this...i made friends and now like it here. go figure. just wanted to let you all know.

Ok so continuation of my last week.

On Sunday I flew to London and met up with Stephanie in the airport, where her camp friend Dalia picked us up and drove us around and brought us to our hostel in Victoria. London is huge...i mean, really really huge and awesome. We walked around the city for a few hours that night and went to a pub for dinner. I had the best burger of my life and a pint of beer for 6 pounds. After that, we came back to the hostel and fell asleep after totally exhausted. The next morning we got up early to go on a free walking tour of royal london. it was led by an australian expat and was filled with australians. it was really informative and we even got to see the changing of the guards at buckingham palace. At the end of the two hour tour, we went for lunch at an all you can eat chinese buffet for 5 pounds. An auzzie, fin, and bulgarian joined us. best moment came when the bulgarian takes out his camera, points it at stephanie and me and says ´may i take advantage of you´...um what did you say, yeah he didnt realize you can´t say that to a girl. from there we went to the national portrait gallery, which was amazing. we came back to the hostel, napped for a few minutes and went out to a pub crawel. it was suppose to be 10 pounds but the guy just didnt take our money...fine by us. the next day, we decided to take it easy and spent like 5 hours in camden market where we did some shopping and ate lunch. i loved it there, so artsy and alternative and cheap. that night we went over to the lse area and met up with a friend from Case-nina. We were going to go to a club with two of her friends but strangly in london, they stop letting people in at 1230...you´ll soon read how you dont even go out till 3 or 4 in madrid. anyways, we ended up just getting kebab and then stephanie and i coudnt find our night bus, walked around a bit randomly, finally got on to a bus we new wasnt right but was in our direction, got off at a stop that looked familiar and somehow ended up directly in front of the bus stop we needed to get back to our hostel...we rule. the next day was our last, we went to the tower of london, the british museum, and the imperial war museum. the war one was my favorite because they had a special art exhibit of the holocaust. there are several survivors who are now artists. i started crying a bit bc it was so moving and some nice old british man gave me a tissue. i have been to two former camps in the past two weeks and not until that moment, did i actually feel something.

then i left london and am now in MADRID! i leave tomorrow for switzerland and will write about madrid later.

Week in Review

So so much has happened this past week. I'll go by country:



Poland: 34 other classmates and two study tour leaders (alex and kristin, both doctors) and i drove for 12 hours to poznan, poland on what would become an incredible trip. poland is depressing and to top it off, we watched the pianist on the bus. overall not much to say about it though. they have an awesome mall and everything is cheap and i shadowed a pediatrician in the hospial there. we learned about lactose intolerance and then we sat in on an exam of a 7year old boy and when the doctor asked who was next for doing the exam, i was the only one to volunteer...when will i be able to do that again for at least 4 more years. i felt so grown up. after three nights there, we drove to...



BERLIN: alright, this is my FAVORITE place in the world. ive been twice and continually love it. we arrived on wednesday and within 1 hour got in a slight bus accident, no big deal but it was a great start... that night we went to unsicht bar-the blind restaurant...amazing just like it was last year. you eat in the dark and have blind waitors. afterwards, i became tour leader to about 7 students b/c i remembered berlin so well and can navigate. it was so much fun. thursday we did some cultural and educational stuff like going to the major hospital in berlin-charite and then we went to the olympic stadium and had a tour. so as we are driving back, im talking to some people about the perfume store i love there and who would have guessed, but we are driving on the correct street on the right block! so the driver pulled over and let a few of us off. we bought perfume and it was amazing. then i led the same group on a mini walking adventure to KaDeWe. that night we had a really lame dinner cruise. i ended up sitting next to both the tour leaders-alex and kristin. we had a really great conversation during dinner about religion in denmark and then some misc. stuff. after the boat ride, we went to the hopbanhopt big train station and got alcohol, then went back to the hostel...the events of the next 30 minutes can be asked directly to me. then me along with 8 other students and alex and kristin went to this awesome very local berlin underground club called Sage Club. There were about 10 different rooms, one with a live band. I hung out inthe live music room with maria and kristin, then alex came and got us to go downstairs to the dancing. we had a wonderful time there. Friday we went to the DDR museum and had a nice group lunch then had the afternoon free...so i bought birkenstocks. but, friday night was the hightlight so it gets its own paragraph.



Friday night!: about 15 of us and alex and kristin went on a pub crawel in east berlin and afterwards planned to go to this club called Panorama. At the first bar, alex and i talked about how excited we were for the club. of course i had dressed appropriatly for a club in europe...but no one else did. the leader of the crawel said that this club was one of the hottest in berlin therefore-appropriate clothing needed, no americans, no big groups, speak german. so, it ended up that after the third bar, alex kristin and i (he speaks german and we were all dressed right) snuck off to panorama. BEST NIGHT EVER. It was fabulous and they were fabulous and the music was amazing and the vibe was amazing. I danced till 545am and then we took a taxi back to the hostel. i had so much and didnt want to leave. the next morning i got up at 745am (next morning...maybe not) to leave for copenhagen.



BUS: the bus ride was painful. by the end of the trip though, i feel like i made a few really good friends and hoping that some new friendships develope in november when i return...even if two of those friends are doctors.



I got back saturday night at 7pm, packed, and left the next morning for LONDON with stephanie. We have had the busiest few days and tomorrow i go to MADRID to visit gilad!!



London: i will write about later because i just typed a lotttt.

I leave for London in 1 hour, so I don't have time for a long entry. I just wanted to say, I had the most AMAZING time in Berlin. I hung out with my two tour leaders two of the nights and went to what we learned is the hottest club in Berlin right now called Berghain-Panorama Bar and the rest of the time I acted as tour guide to a group of students because I remembered my way around from last summer.

I leave for London today, Madrid Thursday, Bern on Monday, and Zurich on Wednesday. I return Nov 1st and will write about my travels that weekend.

Study Tour

I leave tomorrow for a week long study tour to Poznan, Poland and Berlin, Germany. I return Saturday and promptly leave again on Sunday for: London, Madrid, Bern, and Zurich. I return November 1st.

a local?

Today, walking to DIS for a field study was the first time in almost 7 weeks that I finally feel like a local. Though I don't know how long that will last or even why. But it was kind of nice. I think it had something to do with my outfit-black dress, tights, ballet flats...getting ready for synagogue.

and look at all these crazy letters I can use on the danish keyboard-æ, ø, å