Forests and Waterfalls

Taken by Giselle Helene Elizabeth Boxer 

Monasterio de Piedra, Zaragoza, Spain. 

Monasterio De Piedra

During my Aupairing adventure, I spent just over a week in a place called Monasterio De Piedra, a forestal area near Zaragoza. We stayed in a Spanish farm house on the top of a cliff, which looked down onto waterfalls and a huge forest. Despite the area being beautiful, it was my least favourite place during my Aupairing experience, as it was pretty bloody boring. There was no TV or internet in the house, and the nearest shop was at least 20 minutes away in the car. Despite dying a little inside when I found out there was no internet, it was actually really refreshing to spend a week away from technology, focusing on my own thoughts and taking in breathtaking surroundings. We spent our mornings at the swimming pool, afternoons walking around the national park, and our evenings making pancakes.

Madrid In The Summertime

Huelga!

The word 'huelga' will be a well known piece of Spanish vocabularly for anyone who has lived in Spain recently. Madrid is a city full of life and fiestas but also of deep underlying social unrest. Huelga is the spanish word for strike, and during my year abroad, a week wouldn't pass without this word coming up in conversation. 

Most of you will know that the Spanish economy is up the swanny. The country's situation is particularly poor for students at the moment. At my University, there wasn't a month that went past, where there wouldn't be a huelga. After listening to a lecturer speak for over an hour in Spanish about Organisational Structure, my mind would begin to wander. But as soon as I heard the word HUELGA, my ears would prick up like a little overexcited puppy. Remember back in High School when it would snow, and the next morning you would pray that school would be called off. Well imagine the excitement of a snow day, times a million, every couple of weeks. Yeah it's awesome. You get to spend the whole day in the sun, without that 2 hour round trip to Uni, sipping on Tinto de Verano, without a care in the world.

During my first couple of weeks in Madrid, I was told that if an Erasmus student went into Uni when the others were on strike, that they would get oranges thrown at them… pretty hilarious. Pretty weird as well though… Another hilarious strike which I encountered was a cleaning strike in my faculty. On the first day of the strike, I was greeted with thousands of little pieces of shredded paper all over the floor in the Business School. 13 days later, lifts were full of rubbish, the toilets were indescribable, and there were news reports that rats had invaded the campus. Not so funny anymore… However, when we returned to University on the 14th day, we were pleased to see that the students had spent their own time cleaning the entire building. Cheers guys!

On a serious note, I’m not surprised that Spanish students are protesting and striking all the time. There has been a huge increase in tuition fees, which means that many Spanish youngsters will not be able to go into higher education. And without an education, it will be difficult to get a job. (if there are any..) There is a severe lack of jobs in Spain at the moment and the unemployment rate for under 25 year olds is currently 55%. Pretty bad ey? With such little opportunity for youngsters in Spain, it really makes me appreciate my education so much more. 

Another issue which I am concerned about is the state of Spanish healthcare system. One of my house mates had to take a trip to the public hospital as he had an inflamed gland in his throat. We knew that he would have to wait for a long time, but we didn't think that it would be as much as an ordeal as it was. The waiting room was full to the brim of people who needed immediate medical attention. We took a seat on the floor as we waited for someone to call out our name and luckily we only had to wait 4 hours in total for the doctors to give us their verdict. However, others weren't as lucky as us, and could have been waiting there all night.The facilities were very poor, the bathrooms were dirty and there was a severe lack of staff. A couple of months before our hospital trip, we attended one of the biggest strikes of 2013 in Madrid. Hospital staff, students, pensioners, single parents and many other unhappy Madrileños lined the streets to protest against the budget cuts. 

Let's hope that the economy begins to improve, because Spain is in a pretty bad place right now. 

Pamplona - San Fermin

When I was in Madrid I decided to go to Pamplona for 1 night to experience the festival San Fermin aka the Pamplona Bull Run. I knew it was going to be a great weekend, but I never thought it would ever be as eventful as it was!

I embarked on a 5 hour bus journey down to Pamplona very early on the Saturday morning. The journey was actually pretty chilled, and went by a lot quicker than I expected. But as soon as I arrived in Pamplona, I was feeling out of place, silly and very embarrassed. When I arrived I realised that I was wearing completely the wrong outfit. The whole flipping city was wearing white tops, white shorts and red scarves round their necks, and I turn up in a full length black jumpsuit. Typical Giselle getting herself into awkward situations. 

I met up with some friends from Madrid and we got drunk Spanish style in the street. We were all in high spirits, but as it approached the early hours of the morning we all started to lag. We didn't have a hostel to stay in as they had all been booked up months in advance, so we had to stay awake until 8.30am on the Sunday to watch the bull run. The boys decided to do the run, whilst the girls waited in the Bull Ring to watch the run on the big screens. The bull run only lasts a couple of minutes, and then the bulls and the men enter the ring. The Bull Ring was completely packed and holds nearly 20,000 people. As you can imagine the atmosphere was insane! After the big bulls left the ring, the next event involved baby bulls entering the ring so the participants of the bull run can 'play' with them. I really didn't enjoy this part. These poor bulls are let out into the ring with hundreds of drunk men prodding them, slapping them and generally winding them up. Obviously the bulls react, and I witnessed many males thrown into the air and trampled on. One of the guys that I was with jokingly smacked the baby bull on the bottom, which resulted in a horn going through his mouth. Not a pretty sight. Pretty damn scary as well. Multiple stitches later he was left with a very swollen mouth and couldn't eat properly for a couple of weeks.

I told you it was eventful! Here are some photos which I took during my 24 hours in Pamplona...