país vasco.

Two weekends ago I took a trip to the Basque Country (País Vasco in Spanish) with my Peace and Conflict class. The Basque Country is an “autonomous community” in Spain, just like Madrid, Cataluña (where Barcelona is), Andalucia, Galicia, and others. When Spain was established as a democracy in the late 1970s, they chose to forgo the state system like we have in the United States and instead separated into autonomous communities. They essentially function as our states, with local governments as well as national representatives to the Spanish government. The only difference is that each autonomous community can choose what powers they want to have, and what powers the Spanish government can have. This means each community’s relationship with the state is different.

The Basque Country is an interesting case because of the history of the Basque peoples. Their culture and tradition dates back hundreds of years, and there are those that “feel Basque” rather than “feel Spanish”. Many of these people feel neglected because nobody asked them if they wanted to be a part of Spain, and now Spain’s laws are being forced upon them. (Part of the Basque Homeland is located in France, but in class we only referred to the area located in Spain). As a result of “not feeling Spanish”, the Basque Country has received almost total autonomy from the Spanish state in terms of laws and taxes.

However, there is still conflict. If you’ve heard of the terrorist group ETA, then you’ve heard of the Basque Country. ETA is a leftist-extremist group that wants to secede from Spain. While there are political parties that also support this secession, they do not condone violence from ETA. They would prefer to have a referendum and a country-wide vote to determine the fate of the Basque Country.

I could write about the arguments for and against this secession for days – in fact, we spent weeks on it in class. But instead of boring you with the details, I’ll let you read about it on Wikipedia instead.

On the trip, we got to speak to politicians from the Socialist party (PSOE) and the right wing party (PP, that is currently in power with Zapatero as president). The most interesting interview was definitely the last one, where we spoke to a man named Xavier who does not identify as Spanish at all – only as Basque. Although he speaks Spanish, he prefers the Basque language, Euskadi, and wants his children to speak it as well. Although he is not associated with ETA, he said that he understood how some people could feel as though violence was their only hope.

He was extremely clear in his explanation and his opinions, and was incredibly smart. But I couldn´t help but have the same feeling towards him that I had towards the two mainstream politicians – none of these people were willing to concede their point, or to even think about things in another manner. I take it for granted that, even in our tense and polarized political environment in the United States, Republicans and Democrats are still willing to work together on issues, and make compromises when necessary. Even though this sometimes leads to ineffective policy, they’re not ignorant to other opinions. I think we take our democracy for granted, complaining about partisan politics and bureaucracy and lobbyists, but compared to Spain we get a whole lot more accomplished by working together.

The rest of the trip was spent sightseeing and touring different Parliaments. We traveled to four different cities – Vitoria, Bilbao, Gernika, and San Sebastian. We went to the Guggenhem in Bilbao, saw the inspiration for Picasso’s Guernica painting, and walked along the beach in San Sebastian. (Sidenote: I highly recommend San Sebastian as a summer vacation – the beach was gorgeous, there was great shopping, the people were really friendly, and the food was AMAZING.)

First day in the Basque Country, overlooking the mountains

The path we walked to get to the mountain view - the fall colors were gorgeous

Loving the statue of Ken Follett - his book, Pillars of the Earth, brought a lot of tourism to Vittoria

We toured the ancient cathedral in Vittoria - the helmet is for security during the restoration

City center in Vittoria during the sunset

View outside of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao

Me, Haley, and Lineasha overlooking San Sebastian at night

Part of the conch shaped beach in San Sebastian

River view in San Sebastian

I was in Istanbul, Turkey this past weekend, so I’ll be updating about that with pictures soon. Thankfully the “Turkish toilet” that we had to deal with in Morocco has been replaced with Western toilets… I appreciated that.

morocco.

My World Economy class took a field trip to Morocco for 5 days to study the economics of a rapidly developing country. Immediately I noticed the juxtaposition of old and new within the city – the airport we landed at in Tangier was brand new and gorgeous, but the cars in the parking lot were pretty beaten up.

We started our adventure in Tangier, which is in the northern part of Morocco. Morocco is only 14 km (or roughly 10 miles) away from Spain, so many Moroccans migrate up to Tangier and wait around for the perfect opportunity to sneak into Spain.

Our first stop was a women’s center in Tangier called Darna. Even though Morocco is a fairly liberal Muslim country, women still have a difficult time living without the support of her family or a husband. Darna offers classes on computers, sewing, and French so women can enter the workforce. We ate lunch at Darna and met a few English-speaking Moroccan students who hung out with us for a few days. They were all really great and open to our questions about their culture and habits.

The view of Tangier from the roof of Darna

The view from the casbah in Tangier

Lauren, Jess, and I with Paul, our program director/professor at the casbah

Lauren, me, and Jess at the lighthouse to watch the sunset

After spending Wednesday night at a hotel in Tangier, we headed to our next location, Rabat – the capital of Morocco. On our way there, we made a few sightseeing stops. First up – the camels. We’re driving along, and all of a sudden our driver pulls of onto the side of the road. We look out the window and see an enormous stretch of beach and, a few Moroccan guys, and some camels. Yep – we took turns and rode camels along the beach. Sidenote – camels smell AWFUL and getting on/off is incredibly scary.

Camel riding!

My World Economy class pet

After the camels, we got back on the road and drove to Asilah. Asilah is a quiet, quaint little beach town that is a major tourist destination. We only spent a little bit of time there, but the view was gorgeous and the pastries were delicious.

The view while walking through the town of Asilah

The ocean view of Asilah

The town of Asilah

After Asilah, we headed to Rabat. In Rabat, we stayed with a Moroccan host family. We were in groups of three, and each family had at least one English speaker. Our family was fantastic, and Fatima, our 17-year old host sister, spoke perfect English. They were so nice and welcoming, and the food was amazing.

Fatima, me, Lauren and Jess chatting after dinner

Where we slept. Most Moroccan families have a room like this where guests stay

The main room of our house

On Friday afternoon, we visited a local Moroccan school in a bad part of Rabat. The school served the slum neighborhoods, which are full of poor immigrants who build shacks that may have electricity but no running water or indoor plumbing. The children are generally under-educated, and this school was started by a group of men who wanted to help this population. After they showed us around the school, they took us into one of their homes for some Moroccan pastries and a little dancing.

Lisa, me, Lauren and Jess at our Moroccan party

The hosts dressed Kamel up in traditional Moroccan wedding garb

One of our hosts - this guy could not stop singing!

On Saturday, we left Rabat for a smaller town called Chefchaouen. En route to Chefchaouen, we stopped in a tiny village and spoke with Mohammed about the growing industry in Morocco. Plants such as lavender and other medicinal herbs grow wild in Morocco, so small villages are learning how to use this to their advantage and make a profit.

Hiking around the hills of the village

We finally made it to Chefchaouen and spent the night there. We did some shopping in the markets, and then headed home Sunday morning. It was a great trip – I loved Morocco, but coming back to Madrid made me appreciate the Western world and it’s modern amenities a little bit more!

The view of Chefchaouen from the roof of our hotel, where our room was

updates and plans.

So I’ve pretty much caught up in all of my major event blog posts, and have added some pictures. It’s only a fraction of the nearly 1,000 pictures I’ve taken so far, but hopefully it gives you a sense of where I’ve been. I’ve also gone through and added photographs to the posts I wrote without my laptop, so you can now see pictures to go along with the stories from Amsterdam and Heidelberg. Also, if you click on the picture thumbnail, you can see a much larger version of the picture.

School started two weeks ago, and it’s already flying by. Four of my classes have weekend trips, so I’ll be traveling to Morocco, the Basque Country in Northern Spain, Turkey, and Andalucia. In addition, I hope to meet up with some friends in Greece and spend a weekend with my Tufts roommate, Marissa, in London. I’m trying to get it all settled now so that the flights don’t get super expensive!

My 21st birthday is on Thursday, and I think we’re all going out dancing in a discoteca to celebrate. Turning 21 isn’t as big of a deal in Europe as it is in the States, since the teenagers here can legally drink at age 18. A few other kids on my program have birthdays soon too so we’ll combine into one big night.

Two days after my birthday, on Saturday, my dad is coming to Madrid to spend the weekend! He is going to be in Belgium for business that following week anyway, so he’s leaving a few days early to come see me. It’s a good thing too, because with all of my travel plans I’m not going to spend much more time in Madrid!

I think that’s all for now. As always, feel free to call my US number (it rings on my computer at no charge to you) at 847.852.4656 or e-mail me at jenninmadrid[at]gmail[dot]com. I look forward to hearing from you!

In Madrid, in the Plaza de Alcala, near the Parque del Retiro

hiking in cercedilla.

I’m not big on “nature” or “hiking” or “camping”, so when our school offered a hiking trip on Tuesday to Cercedilla, a mountain town of about 7,000 only 60 km outside of Madrid, I figured I would give it a shot. It’s not something I would ever seek out on my own, but if the school was organizing it and paying for it I could at least show up, right?

If I were a college organizing a trip like this, I would take into account a few important planning points. First, we’re leaving at 9 am. That’s early, especially considering it was a holiday and people didn’t get home until 3 or 4 am the night before. Second, in a group of 26 students, very few of them are likely to be avid hikers. It would probably strike me that this “hike” should be more of a “nature walk” to make sure everyone in the group could keep up.

Wrong. Not only did we HIKE up a mountain for 4 hours, we pretty much sprinted. We’ve never been so sore in our lives, and I fulfilled my life’s quota of hiking. The best part of the hike was when we got lost the first hour and ended up on a gorgeous rock formation overlooking the valley. And then we had to walk even faster to make up for the time we had lost getting lost.

The next time the school offers a “hiking” trip on a holiday, I think I’d rather do homework.

Hiking in Cercedilla

On the rock formation overlooking the valley

The Jen(n) picture! Jen K, Jenn B, and Jen A

We were all still happy since we had only been hiking for an hour

segovia.

Every weekend my school offers day trips to different places in Spain. The first trip we took was to Segovia. Segovia is famous for its Roman aqueduct and its castle. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel lived in the castle. We were able to tour the castle and even saw the room where Christopher Columbus likely asked Queen Isabel for the ship that he used to ultimately discover America.

The Roman aqueduct

The Cathedral in the Plaza in Segovia

The outside of the castle

The view from the top of the castle - looks like a painting

end of eurovision.

By the last few days of Eurovision, we were all exhausted and ready to arrive in Madrid. We had spent so many nights in different hotels, living out of a suitcase, and way too many hours on the bus. The good news is that I can now fall asleep in any moving vehicle, which has come in handy.

Luckily for us, the last few days were not too strenuous. We saw a couple of beaches in San Tropez and Sitges, a small town right outside of Barcelona.

The beach in San Tropez

The beach in Barcelona

The nicest hotel in Barcelona (left) and an office building overlooking the beach

The view from the top of Barcelona

After exploring Barcelona all day Saturday, we took a train to the suburbs and hit the beaches in Sitges. The beaches in Barcelona are nice, but they’re smaller and very crowded. Sitges has miles and miles of gorgeous beaches, so it was worth the hour-long train ride.

Miles and miles of gorgeous beaches in Sitges

The cathedral in Sitges

Jess and I after a day on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean

Gorgeous ocean

Hot sand and cool water

After spending a relaxing Sunday on the beach, we left Barcelona and were on our way to MADRID!

 

chamonix and geneva.

We left the hustle and bustle of Paris for a quaint little mountain town called Chamonix. It’s located in the Alps, and during the winter it is quite the vacation destination for the avid skiier. In the summer, however, it was dead.

Getting there on the bus was terrifying, to say the least. Our bus driver, Gerardo, was a very good driver and manipulated the narrow European streets in a wide bus very well. However, regardless of how good of a driver he is, whipping around the curves while scaling a mounting with nothing but a wimpy rail to stop you from crashing to your death is slightly nerve-wracking. I closed my eyes and held on tight, opening them only enough to notice that I was the only one freaking out about our imminent death.

Needless to say, we made it to Chamonix alive and spent the night in a lodge before heading to Geneva for the day. In Geneva, we stopped by the World Trade Organization and the United Nations before having “the best chicken in the world” for lunch (this is all according to Paul, the director). Both places were equally boring, and after spending the day before sleeping on a bus, none of us were very interested in what each place had to say.

The view of the United Nations gardens in Switzerland

Peacocks randomly roam the grounds at the UN

After our day in Geneva, we raced back to Chamonix to catch the last train up the mountain to see the glacier. After getting there, we were literally able to go INSIDE the glacier. It was a bit difficult seeing as how we were still in our suits and dresses from earlier in the day, but the view was incredible.

The Alps – view while going up the mountain

The Alps, near the glacier

More of the Alps

Standing in my suit in front of the Alps!

After taking a train UP the mountain and climbing down lots of stairs to go back DOWN into the valley, we got to go inside the glacier. Yes, inside, where the body heat inside was causing the ice to drip all over us and we could touch the walls. It was incredible.

Up close and personal with a glacier

There wasn’t much to do in Chamonix at night, except eat. We experienced what an American Burger was – an enormous beef patty on a huge kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato, American sauce (aka Thousand Island dressing) and French fries. All on the bun. It was delicious.