And the trip continues

First of all, let me just make a random and unrelated comment. I'm not a person to re-read things. I finish tests quickly, and rarely look back (inhale and exhale mom and dad, I make exceptions for finals). Even with papers, my motto is most often (again, exceptions have most definitely been made), once I'm done... I'm done. That being said, proofreading is probably something that I could improve upon. Where is this going, you may ask? Well doing a comparison of my blog posts, and my former roommate Audrey's blog who happens to be an English major, I realize that my posts have a significant higher amount of gramatical/spelling/general errors. That being said, thank you for being able to tolerate them, and continuing to read this occasionally incomprehensible blog. The recent addition of more pictures may be related to the phrase "a pictures tells a thousand words."
So, where did I leave off...? Oh yes, Lucas, misery, unsweetened cheesecake, beer and war. So the next morning we woke up and were both able to sleep in a while. Claire had class and some official Visa business to do, as did Veronica (the friend that Elena was staying with) so we were on our own again. They gave us a recommendation of where to go for lunch, so we headed on over that way. The restaurant was adorable, whimsical, and very reasonable priced. It specialized in these open-faced sandwich type things that were delicious. I got one with some type of cheese spread on it, smoked salmon, and capers. Elena had one with brie, walnuts, and honey. Yum! Dessert was coffee for Elena, a ginormous hot chocolate for me, and crepes at the Christmas market! After stuffing our faces (recurring theme of the trip) we went back to Veronica's house and just relaxed, and watched some American TV shows online. While I'd never met Veronica prior to this visit, I would say that if a Christmas episode of Glee can't unite people together, either one of them is untrustworthy, or nothing is possible. After watching Glee, we learned that there's a movie theater that shows movies in English, something that Spain has yet to even consider. Elena and I jumped on that idea like white on rice, and soon enough we were surrounded by the smell of hot, buttery popcorn, and watching The Next Three Days starring Russell Crowe. I'm a terrible critic because I tend to like almost every movie I see, but I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for an action/thriller flick!

Wait, how do you know I don't live here?

The next morning we took a train back to Paris. A few hours later Elena and I were dropped off at the train station surrounded by Lucas, Lucas Jr, Misako, Borealis, and Big Red. Our overnight train to Madrid didn't leave until 7:30 PM so we decided to go to the Louvre and store all our friends at the bag drop. Another random and fun fact, with our student I.D we got into every museum in Paris for free. Back to the subject! The Louvre is huge, thankfully on the map they point out the main pieces and where to find them. So off we went to the Mona Lisa! I'm not much of an art person, but I have to admit it was pretty cool to see the actual Mona Lisa. Unfortunately from there my attention span and good attitude both spiraled down to that of about a 5 year old. God bless Elena for dealing with me. I admit that I probably should have tried to appreciate the moment a little more, but for some reason I was just not enjoying it. We all have days we're not proud of. One observation I did make though was the unnaturally high concentration of Asian tourists. Some stereotypes are just too true. Giant cameras were seen. Peace signs witnessed. Headphones, tour-guides with microphones- the whole kit and kaboodle.

Soon enough we found ourselves back on Elipsos, our train hotel. Unfortunately, due to our student budget, we had previously booked the cheapest options, which happened to be "super-butacas". Sounds cool right? Wrong answer. They're recliner seats. Like a first class seat on a plane, but older, and uncomfortable and for 13 hours. Oh also, I'd say it was about 80 degrees in this room that we shared with more or less 16 other people. We did meet some guys from South Africa who were doing a full-out EuroTrip by train. I'd never met anyone from there so it was pretty cool to talk to them. And when they offered us each a free beer at the bar on the train? Added bonus! Don't mind if I do. Anyways, I think the best way to describe my sleeping patterns that night is "hot yoga." Hot, because I was legitimately sweating in my t-shirt and jeans. Yoga because of the innumerable and incomprehensible ways I managed to sleep. Many of you are aware of my unique sleeping patterns. Multiply the creativity/intensity by 100 and you get what occurred that night. A lot of fetal position, strange leg twisting, and perpendicular angles all happened.

It was totally worth it though to wake up in Madrid, where they speak SPANISH and had abnormally warm weather of about 60 degrees. We were also happy to be saving some money since we were staying with Elena's, sister-in-law's best friend, who lives in Madrid with her husband. Neither of us had ever met her so we were a little nervous about how it would be, but I have to say that Belen and her husband were some of the kindest and most gracious hosts ever. They fed us, gave us suggestions of what to do, and even printed out google maps showing us how to get from metro stops to major attractions.

Plaza Mayor

Madrid was absolutely amazing, and I totally wish I could have had some more time there. It was also really cool to be in the city that my best friend, Sarah, lived in for 6 weeks this summer. She gave us the name of this amazing churros place that's open until 7 AM, so everyone goes there after partying. Naturally, Elena and I had to experience this tradition for ourselves. Let's just say, it's probably a good thing that Coruña's churro spot doesn't do that. It was also interesting being in Madrid because there were so many Americans! We met some guys from Vassar, and it was cool to talk to them and their experiences. Clearly we're a little biased, but Elena and I both think that it's much better that we're in a smaller city like Coruña. We are basically THE Americans in the city, and it's nice to feel like you're part of a community instead of in a constantly moving, changing, and touristy city.

That being said, after being away for over a week, we were both VERY happy to be getting back to Coruña, our families, home-cooked meals, and our houses. Arinelli is leaving for the U.S tomorrow, Elena- Friday, and I'll be back in WeHa in 1 week! It's a strange feeling that we're all experiencing right now. We're definitely excited to be going home, but it's going to be a bit surreal to be back in America. At the same time we all agree that we'd be perfectly happy had we decided to stay in Coruña. Things are good, things feel normal, comfortable and right. Hopefully that feeling won't seize after being away from it! Here are a couple Christmas themed photo-shout outs!

Fashionable glasses Mom

Papa and I

Merry Christmas From Coruña

Speak Little French

Elena, James, and I left Friday afternoon for our whirlwind trip to Paris, Strasbourg, and Madrid. Per usual, things did not go smoothly, but everything worked out. So the travel plans were to take a plane from Coruña to Madrid, and then an overnight train from Madrid to Paris. We gave ourselves a 2 hour layover between getting to Madrid and the train leaving, thinking that would be plenty. We didn't expect a 30 minute delaying, and actually leaving the airport 1 hour late. We also forgot that for the first time we were checking a bag, so we had to wait for the baggage to come in Madrid, which is a huge airport. Needless to say there was some airport running, and a hectic taxi ride. Thankfully we got onto the train though, and 5 minutes later, we were off!

 The overnight train was pretty cool. Elena and I had our own room with bunkbeds, and a sink. I have to say thought I would not recommend it to people who are claustrophobic or get motion sick. The room was verrry small, and it felt like we were sleeping in a washing machine. I think I got about 1 hour (tops) of sleep that night. Funny story: Elena and I learned that your room key can open more than just your room, when we busted into this random man´s room. But the next morning we were in Paris and I got to see Claire and Elizabeth! It was really fun to walk around, and we went to a few museums. It was absolutely freezing but still fun. Later that night we went to the Eiffel Tower which was really cool. There were all these vendor people selling mini Eiffel towers for five for 1 euro. They seemed a little unnecessary but definitely a good deal if you´re into that sort of thing!

I think they liked stained glass

The next morning Elena, James, and I woke up, and got going a little later than Claire and Elizabeth. This was partially due to the necessary trip to Starbucks that we now take in every available city. Let me reiterate: Toffee Nut Latte...oh how I love you. After getting breakfast and caffeine we headed to a church called Sainte-Chappelle. There was about a 45 minute wait to get in, but it was absolutely gorgeous. I think the combination of caffeine, cold weather, and a relatively early-morning wake up call made us a little crazy though. Elena, James, and I ended up making some weird jokes about cankles and discussing English linguistics. Normal?
After Sainte-Chappelle we headed over to Notre-Dame. Again, the line was really long so we just decided to look at it from the outside in hopes of catching up with Claire and Elizabeth. The cathedral is huge and the architecture really is stunning. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to Paris and see the inside of it! From there we headed over to the military museum and tomb of Napoleon. I gotta say, Napoleon really outdid himself with his tomb. It is humongous! After checking out the inside, the next step was naturally to take some jumping pictures outside.

 

 

 

We started a trend too

The next day was mostly spent packing up all of our stuff, since we were heading off to Strasbourg. We needed to check out of the hotel at 11:45 which meant lugging all of our stuff around Paris. It was at that moment that we formed The Clan. The Clan consisted of naming every piece of luggage, usually by their brand name. So, we had: Lucas, Lucas Jr, Misako, Big Red, and Borealis. Quite a crowd, and yes we referred to them by name in public. Lucas was the standout star...as you'll see later in the post.

We got to Strasbourg that night, where I was staying with Claire and Elena was staying with Veronica. For dinner we were invited over to Veronica's house to celebrate her birthday with all of the Strasbourg girls and her host family. It was a crepe party which was really fun, since they had these griddle things, that had 6 mini crepe spots on them. So Veronica's host parents continuously kept pouring batter onto the griddles and showed us how to flip them, and put on delicious toppings like cheese, ham, smoked salmon, and even eggs for the brave. Of course after the Crepes Saladas ("salty" crepes) we had Crepes Dulces (sweet crepes) where we smeared nuttella, marmelades, and the occasional simple cinnamon and sugar over them. So. Good.

The next morning the Strasbourg girls had to go to class so Elena and I were on our own. Poor Elena brought Lucas Jr (her huge backpack) along with her laptop in it, thinking that we were going to find an internet café, but I was in a rush and completely forgot about that plan. It was cold and rainy out, and Elena had to carry Lucas around with her which was kind of a pain. We also realized that not too many people speak English in Strasbourg when we went to this delicious chain café named Paul. The place was packed, and everyone just went in a line kind of shouting out what they wanted. Needless to say there was a lot of murdering of the french language, frustrated workers, and general chaos and confusion. Thankfully we made it through the line and got our chicken sandwiches, sodas, and pastries!

When Claire got out of class we went back to her house. Elena and I quickly fell into quite a slumber, we blame the siesta-withdrawal. Unfortunately, Elena couldn't go back to Veronica's house so Lucas came out to dinner with us! After dinner the Strasbourg girls had a planned trip to the circus, so we were once again on our own. This is when the misery began. We couldn't find anywhere to just sit and get a coffee/dessert indoors. Although there is a wonderful Christmas market in Strasbourg with crepes, and waffles with delicious topics, it was freezing, and pouring, so we really didn't even consider that an option. So we finally found a place that was open. Little did we know that a cappuccino and cheesecake would cost us 9 euros each. Let me also add that it was the most disgusting cappuccino EVER, and we later learned that cheesecake in France is nothing like the cheesecake we're used to. I'm pretty sure no sugar or sweetener was used. At that point we were pretty much miserable. We had spent a lot of money that night, in addition to a lot in Paris. Let me just say that we looked at the prices of getting a hotel room for a night. We decided instead to go to bar and drink. Of course we had Lucas with us too. Lucas, a couple beers, and intense game of the card game war. Does it get any better?
Well this is pretty long already, so I think I'll save the rest of the trip, which is basically just our weekend in Madrid for my next post. On this note, I have a few shout-outs to make. I know I said that I would only be doing 1 post at a time, but I can't choose, so this week there are 3. Why did I choose 3? Well that's because I received 3 cards today! So my shout outs go to:
1. Kelly Garvey: Thank you so much for the Halloween card, I found it to be rather amusing given that it finally arrived about a month and a half later!
2. The Rossi family: Alec and Matt you guys look amazing on your card! I think my host sisters may have some crushes...
3. Aunt Maureen, Uncle Lenny, Danny, Andrew, and Jackie: Another stunning Christmas card and I can't wait to see you guys at Christmas!

Shout-outs

So I've decided that I'm going to try and do a "shout-out" on every post. Of course I can't do all the work people, you gotta earn these shout-outs! Some hints include: posting comments at the end of blog posts, sending emails to kc415@comcast.net, care packages/cards, and of course flattery is always nice. Oh and don't let me forget that Christmas is right around the corner?
Anyways, we're going to pretend that I'm putting this at the end of my Thanksgiving post. So obviously a lot of people could receive this shout out, but due to a direct request via my mother, this shout-out goes to Uncle Michael and the entire McCann family! I truly missed Thanksgiving morning with you guys this year! A brisk run around the lake, monkey bread, mimosas? Does it get any better. I also missed watching the Macy's day parade, 10 minutes of the Eukanuba dog show, and the inevitable changing of channels to football. My memories of Thanksgiving morning always include playing hide and go seek with Grace and Maya, but I realize that we're probably a bit beyond that stage by now. I hope you had a wonderful day, and I can't wait to see you, whenever that may be!

Just as a bonus, let's consider this to be a photo shout-out. Doesn't your family whip out the caution tape every Thanksgiving? We're a normal bunch for sure.

Amsterdam

I hope everyone stateside and abroad had an amazing Thanksgiving either celebrating in traditional fashion, or making new memories. I know that my Thanksgiving definitely leaned towards the second, given that I was in Amsterdam!
Before I give the breakdown of the trip, let me first say how amazing the city of Amsterdam is. Given that it's basically famous for sex and drugs, I was expecting to see kind of a grungy, dirty, somewhat sketchy city. Boy was I surprised to see this


So the journey began Thursday morning at 7:30 AM when I left my house, stopping at La Tahona (the deadly bakery on my block) grabbing a raisin bun for Emily, and a chunk of freshly baked, warm, raisin bread. This raisin bread is a new obsession/addiction that really deserves it's own post, so we'll talk about that later. Anyways, after that necessary stop I met Elena and James at the bus stop and we were off to the La Coruña airport. Everything went smoothly until we realized that we only had a 45 minute layover, and since we (for some unknown reason) decided to book our two flights separately, we were still going to need to go through security. So, we got to Barcelona, and we ran. We ran like chickens with our heads cut off. We finally found a stand called transfers, and the woman gave us our tickets and sent us off. We finally got to our gate and saw our friends Drew and Liz who had come from Palma de Mallorca, an island in Spain.

We got to Amsterdam, and to our dismay realized that due to the fact that we're traveling within the European Union, we weren't going to get our passports stamped. This did however save us the hassle of going through customs, and allowed us to get Starbucks quickly. A toffee nut latte in a Christmas Starbucks cup on Thanksgiving in Amsterdam? Heaven on earth. From the airport we then took a train into the city, and then a tram to get us close to our hostel. Thank goodness for Drew's blackberry that told us exactly what trains/trams/streets to go to. Once we got to the hostel we met up with 2 more of our friends, Emily and Andy (remember? the ones that visited me?) and 3 of their friends in Leon who are actually from England. For dinner we all went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Although they offered a special Thanksgiving dinner, it was kind of expensive and knew that it would not even compare to Uncle Lenny and Aunt Maureen's thanksgiving feast in Berlin, CT. So instead I went with the not so typical thanksgiving meal of a pulled pork sandwich, fries, and baked beans. Although it wasn't typical, I didn't realize how much I missed barbecue sauce until I was eating it!

The next morning we woke up early to get the free breakfast at the hostel, and go out on the free 3 hr walking tour. Honestly, that tour was probably the best thing that I did the entire weekend. I learned so much, so let me share a few fun facts!

* Amsterdam is a tiny city with less than 1 million residents, but very diverse with over 170 nationalities represented.
* House taxes were determined by the width of your house, so due to very narrow staircases, every house has a hook on top of it. They still use these hooks along with a pulley system to move people's belongings like mattresses and furniture into their houses.

* The first stock market was in Amsterdam
* Amsterdam was the only city in Europe to stand up to the Nazis
* Possession/use/selling of Marijuana is actually NOT legal in Amsterdam, it's just not illegal

After the tour ended we met up with my roommate from last year, Audrey, and my friend Mary! We all then grabbed pizza for lunch and split up from there. Mary, Audrey, James, and I went back to the hostel to grab our tickets for the Heineken museum, while everyone else already had theirs so they went ahead. The Heineken museum was really cool, and came with 2.5 free glasses of beer! After that we grabbed dinner at 1 of many hot dog stands in the city. We all went out that night on a pub crawl which is basically like a guided tour of the nightlife. You pay money up front, but get free drinks and entrances into the bars/clubs. Lots of fun!

The next morning we woke up early again to get breakfast, and then headed off to the Van Gogh museum. Although I would like to say that I'm cultured enough to have truly appreciated it, I can't say that I am. Audrey and I quickly (as in before finishing the 1st floor) grew bored of Van Gogh. On a trip to the bathroom we did stumble upon a temporary exhibit called, "Illusions of Reality: naturalist painting, photography, and cinema" that was really cool and we enjoyed a lot. After we went through that small part though, our patience grew thin. We found ourselves sitting on a bench, literally crying from laughter talking about the fact that Van Gogh had just "decided" to become a painter despite not knowing if he had any talent, and making up an overly dramatic and completely fictional biography for Audrey, which consisted of suicide attempts and modern art. Clearly we have a little bit of black humor...

After getting out of the museum Audrey, Mary, and I embarked on our own walking/eating tour of Amsterdam. I say eating tour because throughout the day Audrey and I ate: cereal and toast at breakfast at the hostel, 3 AMERICAN style pancakes with syrup, Dim Sum (Chinese food), bratwurst, Thai food, chocolate covered strawberries, and hot chocolate made out of chocolate ice cream.
Sunday morning we were up at 7 again to get to the airport. We were waiting at the bus station for longer than expected, and ended up getting to the airport late. For a fun image imagine me with one of those dorky luggage carts, legitimately running and weaving through the airport. Moving sidewalks were not exempt from my workout. Of course, it all worked out and we got on the plane on time. Funny observation, in Barcelona at the ticket counter their was a special counter for "Last Minute." To quote Elena- Spaniards WOULD need a "Last Minute" counter.

Over all it was an amazing weekend. If you have another minute I would highly recommend that you read Audrey's Blog to get more fun stories and another perspective on the weekend. Also, for those non-facebook users, click here to see all of my pictures from the weekend!

Next weekend I leave for a whirlwind tour of Paris, Strasbourg, and Madrid so get ready for a book of a blog post! After that, Christmas is right around the corner! Love you all! Remember, emails and blog comments are always enjoyed!

London

First things first, let me apologize for the boring title, but I do think that it gets right to the point: I was in London! Another quick thing- I'm pretty sure that I'm officially old. Or at least not a kid anymore. Why this sudden realization, you may ask? Well because kids do not say that they're flying to London alone to go visit a friend who's living there. That is something old people say. Anyways! Let's do the play by play of the trip, since as you know, travels always bring stories!
So my flight left Coruña at 9:40 AM, which means that I needed to get there around 8:15 which means that I needed to catch the bus to the airport at 7:45, which means that I needed to wake up around 7. Let me tell you, I was SO nervous that I wasn't going to wake up. Thankfully I think I was so excited that I got up without a problem really. Walking to the bus stop at 7:30 in the morning was kind of creepy though. It was dark, and I saw like 4 people on the streets, and no cars. Clearly Spain doesn't really start going until around 9.
Once I got to the airport I was very excited to find out that I was in the 9th row, window seat, with an empty middle seat separating me and my fellow row member, a woman who appeared to be in her low 60s. I was even more appreciative of this fact when BEFORE TAKING OFF, she shifted her weight to the aisle, raised her right leg a bit, and let a nice loud and pungent fart rip through. Really. You can't make this stuff up. Although this was her only fart, she then proceeded to grab and utilize the barf bag.
I finally got off the plane, and proceeded to customs, a little detail that I hadn't really thought much about. The line took forever but I finally got up to the stand with the customs worker. Our conversation (please do not read/interpret this with a drop of friendliness):

Customs Worker (CW): Where are you coming from
Me: La Coruña Spain
CW: How long are you here for
Me: 4 days
CW: What are you doing here
Me: Visiting a friend.
CW: What is your friend doing here
Me: Studying
CW: Where
Me: Richmond University
CW: Where are you staying
Me: With him
CW: What's his address
Me: Uhhh...I don't know
CW: Do you know his phone-number
Me: *Whip out the blackberry frantically looking for it somewhere on facebook, not to be found* ahh, umm, ehh, I don't think I have it here
CW: You were here in june
Me: Yes, before a cruise
CW: Next time you come here you better know where you're staying, you should know that already, you've been here **STAMP STAMP STAMP ON THE PASSPORT**

I think my heart rate, pulse, and blood pressure all increased significantly in that 5 minute interaction, but thankfully it all worked out! Got out of customs, and I saw Ross!!!
It was so nice to spend the weekend with a friend that I've known since I was 12. I love everyone in Coruña, but it's definitely different being that we've really only known each other for about 3 months now. There's just a comfort of being with one of your best friends who really knows you in and out. We were able to spend a lot of time just kind of relaxing because I'd done the touristy things this summer with my family.
Some highlights of the trip include going to an area called Camden Town. It's kind of like a big funky market and shopping area. There are a lot of food stands, clothing stands, t-shirt/sweatshirt places, vintage clothing shops, and tattoo/piercing parlors. The place was huge and was it was so much fun to just walk around. The food wasn't too bad either: a chicken burrito and then a nutella + banana crepe for dessert? Delish!
The next day Ross and I went to Harrods. We ended up spending 4 hours in there, feeling poorer and poorer as we walked through it. I found a touchscreen computer/table thing that I plan on buying when I'm a billionaire, and Ross will be buying 2 chinese dog statues that go for 20,000 pounds each (aka- $64,580 american dollars total).
It was such a great week, but I am happy to be back. I think this place is starting to feel like home, which is definitely a good thing. Unfortunately these next couple weeks are going to be very busy school-wise, and I don't even have my own laptop. Hopefully that'll be fixed soon though, and I'll be back on track. Big thank you to Nora Marino (follow her at, http://nmmari12.me.holycross.edu/ if you want to read about another perspective from Coruña) for lending me her extra laptop!
Love you all!

Who me? Procrastinate?

So I'm currently sitting in the library. Let me remind you that it is a Friday. And I am in Spain. Unfortunately, due to the Spanish school system, I am all of the sudden up to my eyeballs in work that needs to get done. Another unfortunate fact is that after about 6 months of not doing any school work, my brain is having a hard time understanding why it needs to be reading and writing in such excess all of the sudden. Therefore, here I am blogging- something that I find to be much more enjoyable and beneficial for everyone!
So first off, I have some good news! I just found out that I got into Holy Cross' Summer Internship Program. Now this does not guarantee anything, including an internship, but the process included submitting a cover letter, resume, and doing an interview, so I'm very happy to have gotten in. Now this means that I have another way to procrastinate by trying to find internships for next summer!
Last weekend my parents were here, which was SO great. They got here around noon on Friday, and left early early Tuesday morning. It was a quick visit, but a great one none the less. We had awful weather, but it was still fun to walk around and show them my city. For once it was me knowing exactly where I was and how to get places, instead of following my parents around Boston, where they know all the short-cuts and side streets. We also ate some amazing food, including typical Galician food such as octopus. I'm pretty sure we had octopus at every meal except for breakfasts. The most typical way is Pulpo a la Feira, which is just boiled, cut up into little circles, and sprinkled with some paprika and salt. Simple but delish! We also went to this restaurant called Abica, which may have had some of the most delicious food I've ever tasted. We got this one thing which was a piece of white fish, a roasted pepper, and some cheesy sauce all on top of a piece of toasted bread. SO good. Words can not even begin to describe it.
Although stores were closed on Sunday and Monday due to a holiday, we were still able to get some shopping in on Saturday. Dad got a stylish pair of high-top sneakers and mom a very Euro scarf from a store called Massismo Dutti.
I'm feeling much better than I have, in all ways, in a long time. I think having my parents here, and being able to talk to them about everything was just what I needed. I'm having a really good time here, and getting a fresh start with my host family. I was nervous that I was going to be in a culture shock/homesick funk until Christmas, but I think, for now (knock on wood) I'm through it. The study abroad website says that most people hit the culture shock low around Thanksgiving, but I guess it just must have hit me hard and fast at the beginning. Thankfully from here on out I'll be pretty busy. I'm going to see my friend Ross in London on Thursday!! Then 2 weeks after that I'll be in Amsterdam for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll then be going to Paris/Strasbourg in the beginning of December and seeing my best friends Elizabeth and Claire. Then, before you know it, it's Christmas!! For my family reading this- I can not wait! The other night for dessert we had "arroz con leche" which is basically like Christmas star, but more pudding-esque. I also plan on bringing some traditional Spanish Christmas treats to add to the eclectic mix of food we have on Christmas Eve.
I think I might have mentioned this before, but the lack of Thanksgiving here really eliminates that separation of holidays. So I leave you now listening to "I'll be home for Christmas" dreaming of sugar plums and christmas trees. Maybe tomorrow I'll even go get some roasted chestnuts that they're selling on the street...just to get myself in the mood. Also, FYI- Mariah Carey has a new xmas CD out, which includes the song: All I Want for Christmas Is You (extra festive edition). That's right. As if the first one was not festive enough, she has extra festivized it.
Okay, I should probably get back to my work! Love you all!

Fanastic Day

I know what you're thinking. What is this!? 2 posts in less than 1 week? Am I on the right site? Have no fear, this is Kristen, and I hope you're able to keep up with my constant blogging.
Anyways, as the title says, today was generally an all around good day, and after a few dismal posts, I figured I need to convince people that I am actually happy here! Despite being a little late to Social Psych this morning (a little mortifying to walk into class late; the doors in the front of the room) I really do like the class. It's probably because I know psych, and have an idea of what's going on. It kind of puts me on the same level as the Spanish kids, since they can understand everything he's saying, but I already understand the concepts. Anyways, after that I had Colloquial Spanish, which although it sounds cool, is actually the strangest thing to study, and extremely boring. Today the professor called on Kelsey and I to read a dialog though. Now imagine to foreign people reading a transcript of a VERY colloquial conversation. I can only imagine how ridiculous we sounded.
Then when I got home I had a package waiting for me!! I would like to give a HUGE shout-out to Aunty Nan for sending it to me. For friends, and people who don't know her, she's not a real aunt, but she's my mom's best friend, and I've known her since birth, so she's basically family. She also studied abroad for a year in Spain and lived with a family her junior year of high school, so she has a really good idea of everything that I'm going through now. The care package had peanut butter, ritz crackers, chocolate, nail polish, some books, and a bunch of other little doodads. It was like Christmas, opening it up, and unwrapping everything from the bubble wrap.
Speaking of Christmas, I think I might have broken a record...I've already started to listen to Christmas music. I know, it's bad, it's not even halloween, but hear me out! My little Spanish sisters are already eating a traditional holiday sweet called polvórnes, and the interior decorating store below my apartment is basically only selling christmas decorations, and has like 3 xmas trees in the front window. If it looks like Christmas, and tastes like Christmas, it should be okay to sound like Christmas.
Thankfully, I'll be getting the best present every in a couple days! My parents!!!

I'm going to start off this post with my customary "I'm sorry for the taking so long to update this." To be honest, I think the reason that I've been taking such long breaks in between posting is because I don't feel like I've had much exciting to talk about. I've been here for about a month and a half, and it's getting to the point where it just feels like I'm living here. This city is so small, and while there are still a lot of parts of it to explore, it's not something new and exciting and vacation-like. That being said, I want to make sure it is clear that I love this city, and falling in love more and more every day. There have been so many times recently where I'll just be walking around, looking around, and realizing how happy I am that I'm in Coruña. I'm so excited for my parents to come (less than a week!) and show them my home for the year. Although I might be a little biased, even Andy and Emily said that they like Coruña better than Leon. That's a pretty strong statement right there.
Things are going well though! I had a little rough patch a couple weeks ago, especially when I lost internet for a few days. At the time I honestly felt like I was going to be in that "patch" forever, but a week later, I was doing great. I think it helps to be busy with school now during the week. I also tutor 3 kids in English every Wednesday for 2.5 hours, so that's a nice way to kind of give back, while getting some money at the same time. My friend Nora and I are also going to do a language exchange with 2 students in our Social Psych class, so we speak English with them for 1 hour, and then the next week we speak Spanish. They both seem really cool, so hopefully it'll be a good way to get to know each other, with a mutual benefit of improving the languages that we want! I might also do something like that with an older woman, just meet once a week over coffee and talk in English. That one I'll get paid for, so that sounds pretty good to me!
So yeah, that's really about all I have, but I figured I'd post some recent pictures!

What Could Really Go Wrong?

So I guess you could say that I've had a streak of bad luck in the past couple weeks:

- A cold in the first week
- Last week I had a flu + stomach bug
- Went to the hospital
- Got my first IV
- I sprained my finger
- Lost my wallet on Saturday night

Now I should probably do a little explaining. The cold should have been a review for my loyal readers, since I'm pretty sure that I already talked about that. Of course as soon as I get over that, I have about a week and a half maybe of being healthy when all of the sudden I come down with a flu. I have felt that terrible in a very long time, and I hope I don't have to feel like it again for a while. Fever, unstoppable shivers, sweating,body aches, and the worst headache/migrane I'd ever experienced. Naturally my body doesn't feel like that's bad enough, so on day 2 I got a stomach bug that added nauseating stomach cramps and some gastrointestinal issues to the mix. I basically slept for about 72 hours straight. I was feeling awful, so when my "padre" asked if I wanted to see a doctor I decided that was a good idea. Apparently though the fastest way to see a doctor is to go to the ER of the hospital. I think because the medical/insurance system is different here, it seemed to be more of an American equivalent of a walk in clinic. The doctor examined me, did a blood test, and gave me an IV of basically really strong ibuprofen to get rid of my headache. The headache went away that night, but the stomach bug symptoms lasted a little bit longer. The good news is that I lost all of my appetite for about 5 days, so I think I lost a little weight!
Now the sprained finger is actually a pretty funny story. So my friends Emily and Andy are visiting James and I this weekend, which has been so nice. James and I went to pick them up at the bus station, and as soon as Emily and I spotted each other, she came running over to me. Now let me explain for those of you don't know her, Emily is shorter and significantly skinnier than me. We therefore blame her backpack for what occured. She's comes running at me and hugs me. Next thing we know, we're both on the ground, me on my back and she on top of me. All of the sudden I realized that my left pointer finger is basically numb, and within 5 minutes is about double the size of my other pointer finger. Poor Emily felt terrible, but nothing is broken, and it honestly hasn't even really hurt that much. It's a little black and blue now, and maybe a little swollen, but I basically have all range of movement with it, so it's fine.
The wallet issues is/was a little more stressful. I'm pretty sure I got pick-pocketed which really sucks, and is really surprising and unfortunate given that Coruña is such a safe city. So yeah, thank God for Skype, I was able to call my parents as soon as I got home. We got both my credit card and ATM card canceled. Today I'm going to open up a bank account so that they can wire some money to me, and hopefully I'll be getting a new credit card in about a week. I'm also in the process of getting a new drivers license sent to me. It was really stressful, but the good news is that I actually had no cash in my wallet, so whoever got it didn't really get much, except for an adorable, new Vera Bradley wallet.
So yeah, it definitely hasn't been the easiest couple weeks, but I'm trying to keep the attitude of whatever doesn't kill me will only make me stronger. I figure if I can get through all of this crap in the first couple months, I should be able to do anything in the next seven! That being said, I am counting down the days until I get to see my parents, I'm pretty sure that it's 18 days today!!

A Glimmer of Hope?

So I have big news. A Spanish first.
I had coffee with a spanish girl after class today. Let me do a little backtracking to explain how this happened. So I had my small group session of Social Psychology today, which had about 25 kids. I actually really like the class, the professor is really nice and given that fact that everyone else can understand his jokes and laughs a lot, I would bet that he'll be pretty funny when I get a better grasp on the language. Anyways, the students stopped laughing when he was explaining a research project we're going to have to do, which involves finding journal articles, which are basically ENTIRELY in English. Sitting in class I couldn't help but let a smile creep on my face. Thoughts going through my head: I'm back on top! Ahh how great it is to see English! I'll be able to understand this better than anyone in my class! and lastly, it dawned on me, this might give me a way to meet people...
For a reason I can't remember, my professor had already called me out and established in front of the entire class that I was American. When the rest of the class was freaking out about these articles in English, one girl kind of turned to me and was like, Kristen will help me, and I heard her say that she barely knew any English. So at the end of the class I took a deep breath, and offered her my email address to help her with the articles when she needed it. We walked out of the classroom together and she asked if I wanted to "tomar un café" aka- get a coffee with her. So exciting!!! Thoughts running through my head: SPANISH FRIENDDD! STUDY BUDDY! OH GOD PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME WHEN I'M SPEAKING SPANISH!
Thankfully she could generally understand me, and I think we're going to try and do like a language exchange thing, where she practices/learns English with me and I practice my Spanish with her. So yeah! That's my exciting news of the day!!

Spanish phrase of the post (I know I've been forgetting about this)
Get a coffee = tomar un café

Transition

So that was a longer hiatus than expected, my sincerest apologies to my faithful readers. To be honest there were multiple times that I had considered posting an updated, but I never really felt like I had enough to say. This has been a very interesting two weeks. The best word to describe it really is Transition. Let's just imagine being in this small city in Spain, living in a hotel with 15 other Americans your age, and having 3 roommates. Having ridiculously easy classes that end at 1:00 everyday, trips and excursions planned for you, and the most amazing program director- Julian. All of the you're on a 10+ hr train ride to a brand new city with 5 other people. Now all of the sudden I'm living in a house with a genuine Spanish family by myself, with no one else who speaks English. I found myself feeling very lonely and isolated a lot, which obviously just opens the door and beckons for homesickness to walk right in. Apologies to Mom, but there was even one day when I saw she was calling me on Skype and I couldn't even answer. I haven't cried (yet) but it definitely hasn't been easy.
I'm sorry this is so depressing, and I really don't want to freak anyone out, because I am having a great time! It's just that I think this is normal, and important for me to not forget. Studying Abroad is obviously fun, but it's a lot of work too. It's work to learn a language, to force yourself into social situations you might not feel comfortable in, and I haven't even touched on the work that classes is going to take.
That being said, things are getting better and better every day. One day, all of the sudden my little sisters were obsessed with me, which is definitely a good thing, but they are a handful. I'm apologizing in advance to any friends that my 9 year old sister, Maria, calls on Skype without me knowing. I've established a rule that she can't go on Skype unless I'm in the room, so hopefully that rule will be followed. I've also realized that I just have to keep moving, and I can't just sit in my pink floral wallpapered room. Even if that means going to a café by myself in the morning, I just have to move. It's when I'm not doing something is when I start to drive myself crazy.
Well some exciting things happening soon: Andy and Emily visiting for a long weekend Oct 8th, Mom and Dad coming Oct 29th, and I'm going to London to visit Ross Nov 12th!
Love you all!

Photos

Just a few pictures of this beautiful city! I'm loving it more and more every day.


My apartment is on the 3rd floor of the yellow building. It's a 19th century building...and oh did I mention that there's no elevator? My legs are lovinnggg it!

The Arrival

Well I have made it to Coruña, my home for the next 9 months! To say the least, it has been a crazy, whirlwind transition. Shall we start with the trip here? Naturally, the universe would not let me get away with a smooth and hassle-free trip here!
So first of all, I think the reality of the fact that, on a train only YOU are responsible for your luggage (aka- no checking bags or anything like that) didn't really hit us until we got to the train station. The 6 of us were standing in the train station, surrounded by about 12 HUGE pieces of luggage, not including our backpacks. Thankfully one of our program directors, Rafa, met us at the station to help us see us off on our trip.
So here's the play-by-play:
- Train comes, we all rush up to the doors with our 50 lb bags
- **Simultaneous thought process** = Crap. 3 tall stairs to get from the platform onto the train. Two men. Two different train cars.
- James and Rafa basically throwing our bags onto the train
- Rafa having to jump off the train before it leaves with him on it
- 4 of us standing in the little area in front of the train doors, surrounded by the largest pieces of luggage that you've ever seen in your life.
- 45 minutes of putting our luggage onto the little bars above the train seats, and trying to move around other passenger's bags on the shelf without having them think that we're stealing it
- Due to a miners strike our train stops twice for 30 minutes (if we do that math that equals 1 hour of not moving)
- We originally had a 20 minute "layover" before our connecting train. We did the math (as shown above) and then begun to freak out. The conductor told us that our connecting train would wait for us, so we calmed down.
- I ate my weight in cereal and chorizo sandwiches due to a terrible combination of boredom and stress eating.
- We prepared ourselves, and got our luggage down from the racks about 15 minutes ahead of time before getting off at the connecting station
- We got ourselves and all of our luggage off the train, when all of the sudden a conductor comes up yelling at us to hurry up to get on the next
- We moved faster than ever before, throwing 12+ pieces of luggage onto the train, and within 5 minutes of getting the last bag and person on, we were off!

As we approached into Coruña we all started to get reallly antsy, nervous, and excited. As soon as the doors to the train opened we saw a huge mass of people including all three program directors, and a bunch of families. I met my family, and gave each of them "dos besos" (aka- the very euro double cheek kiss). We obviously drove home to my beautiful, early 1900s, ornate, yellow building. The apartment is on the third (top) floor, and there is no elevator, but hey, my butt needs a little work out anyway. My room is small but pink, floral decoated, and just over-all adorable. Pictures of the building, home, and my room to come!
My family is great, my "padres" Ignacio and Silvia are so kind and patient with me. My little sisters, Maria and Camino are also adorable, but most definitely a pair of dramatic divas. A little proof:


It has definitely been a transition from Pamplona, where I was basically with English speaking friends 24/7 to all of the sudden living with this random family by myself. On top of that I've been feeling a little sick and have had a really bad sore throat for the past few days, which have just made everything a little harder. I feel myself getting better though, and the awkwardness is slowly starting to dissipate as well. I still don't feel like I know the city very well, and I haven't gotten to see the beach, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll have time for a nice long walk to get my bearings and take some pictures!
Letters or packages are always greatly appreciated, so here's my new address:

Kristen Carlson
Ferrol 12, 3º
La Coruna 15005
Spain

Fun Stuff

After that novel that I wrote earlier this week, I've decided to go to the other extreme. This is just a little stream of consciousness post that has a little bit of everything, in a pretty concise manner!

Things that Spain love and Hate
Love: Rotaries, yogurt (especially activia), parks, playscapes, mullets, dreadlocks, genie pants, red pants, winding roads through mountains, pork, fried meat, wine, bread, gummy candy

Hate: Street signs, refrigerated milk, salad dressing, granola bars, peanut butter, paper towels, air conditioning, iced beverages, pizza, red meat, opening stores on Sundays

A Few Memories
- Extremely attractive, but probably not the nicest "professor" Felipe
- Singing and dancing to we're off to see the wizard with Emily, Andy, and James
- Four in a row, linked arms with the same people above
- Drew and I chatting with 2 spanish boys on our way home
- Learning that school here costs about $4,000 a year
- Eating at Café Iruña
- Learning new ways to throw a frisbee, also learning that I'm actually pretttty good at it
- Meeting a 9 year old by from Morroco who moved to Spain 4 weeks ago, yet has learned to speak Spanish almost as well as us from watching TV
- Listening to James play the guitar while sitting on their porch drinking wine and eating Tortilla Española (like a quiche with potatoes)

Tomorrow (or today, in about 9 hrs) I leave for Coruña, where I'll be for the next 9 months. I'm anxious, nervous, sad, happy, excited... I'm basically feeling every emotion possible right now. I've made some great friends here, that I probably wouldn't have gotten to known had we all stayed at Holy Cross, so I'll be sad to leave them. I'm so excited to get to Coruña though, see this beautiful city, and meet my family that has only been described with words such as "amazing" "the best" and "so loving". Well I'm off to bed, next post will be after a 10 hour train ride, when I'm in my bedroom in La Coruña.

Spanish word of the day: besos --> kisses, also a casual, yet not romantic way of saying goodbye in a letter.

¡Besos!

Busy Week = Long Blog Post

So before writing this post, I had to take notes to figure out everything that happened this week. I can't believe I'm writing blog post outlines. I take this seriously, peeps, so you better appreciate it. Anyways, these weeks are long, crazy, exciting whirlwinds. Things are already starting to get a little mixed up, and I hope I'm not forgetting little details.
Monday was a pretty chill day, and a good way to start off the week. After class, and most likely a little siesta, Emily, Elena and I walked to a park downtown. Emily and I found a shady spot and did some journaling while Elena went for a run. Little did we know that a men's league soccer team was doing some running around the grassy area that we were laying in. All of the sudden we saw this heard of men coming at us, and like split in half just to run around us. It was a little ridiculous, especially since it happened, ohh, 3 times?
Tuesday we had an excursion to Olite, Spain. It was a verrrry small town, that had a huge castle! It was so old, and really cool just to walk around. We also got a taste of Holy Cross as we walked up the millions of stairs to get to the tops of the turrets. After Olite we took a stop at another small rural town, where there was no castle. There wasn't much there, but Julian and Nekane (the program directors) bought a baguette and some chorizo and made us all a little chorizo sandwich that was delicious! It was so nice of him to get it, and adorable to watch him cutting the bread and meat like at the register in this little corner grocery store. They also bought us some weird sweet, milk/juice product that is apparently made from potatoes? That was a little weird for my taste, but they made up for it by buying little marshmallow treats that they call "nubes" (clouds).
Wednesday we didn't have anything after class so Emily, Dan, Andy, James and I took a walk to the center of town. We first stopped at this park that has a little "zoo". It's hard to describe, but it's more just like an area where you can watch peacocks, ducks, chickens, goats, and deer all roam free in this green area. There's about a 20 ft stone wall around it, and us humans just look down on them. After watching the animals we were just walking around the park when all of the sudden we saw a huge group (50ish people) of young people appear. They had been swimming/playing in a fountain, were all chanting/yelling something and were clearly drunk. Naturally, the 5 of us American were intrigued, so we all kinda of shimmied in closer, and sat on a bench watching as the police came, talked with some of the kids, and observed who left and who stayed. We were all dying of curiosity of what was going on, so we finally worked up the courage to ask 2 Spanish guys. When we asked what it was they said that it was a "novatada" none of us had any idea what this was, but they kindly gave us an explanation that we quickly translated to mean, hazing. Although not many collge students in Spain ever live in dorms on campus, I think that when they do it's all years/ages. So apparently every year they have hazing for the first year students! It was pretty exciting just to watch it all unfold, police drama and all. It was also pretty exciting that we had some contact with a Spanish person our own age.
On Thursday we had Rumba dancing! It was about a 20 minute walk into town, and literally 2 minutes into the walk it started to rain a little, 5 minutes into the walk it was POURING. Emily, Elena, and I all tried to fit under a baby umbrella, but clearly that didn't work out. Nobody had rain jackets, and Emily was the only one with an umbrella. We had to walk a little bit to get to a bus station that would get us to the right place, but at least we didn't have to walk all the way there. We were all soaked, but I think everyone just kind of laughed it off as a "what are the chances" kind of thing. The dance class was SO much fun. I'd never really done anything like that so it was just a good time to try something new. I would also describe it as "Bikram Dancing" due to the fact that the dance studio had no A/C or fans. After dancing a group of us stayed downtown with Nekane (our culture class teacher who's around 25 years old) and she brought us to this really fun store where we could get some pretty good deals. I got a couple shirts, a bag, and a belt (first clothing purchases in Spain, woot woot!). After shopping we went to get pinchos (tapas) where I got a dish called Tortilla with ham and cheese. It's kind of like quiche that has potatoes in it, and in the middle it has a layer of ham and cheese. It was a pretty big triangle, with a peace of bread, all for 1.50 euros.
On Friday after class Emily, Dan, James, Andy, a girl named Brady, and I all walked into town. After some shopping Dan and Brady both left to go back to the hotel. Emily, Andy, James and I kept walking around and got some ice cream at our favorite spot. We were planning on going to a park called La Ciudadela to see if there was a concert going on, so James and I spontaneously decided to buy a bottle of wine to bring with us. There was no concert but it was fun to just sit under a tree in the park, share a bottle of wine without any glasses, and talk. There were 2 weddings going on, so it was really good people watching. The four of us were there for over an hour just talking about ourselves, and just kind of learning about each other.
On Saturday we had a trip to Bilbao, the fifth largest metropolitan area of Spain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilbao). We first took a stop at a town called Loiola where St. Ignatious of Loyla (who found the Jesuits) was born. There's a basilica there that was beautiful, and we got a tour of his house, which is huge! Once we got to Bilbao we first went into the Guggenheim Museum. Emily, Andy and I stuck together and really took our time with it. We got the audio tour things, which were really helpful to help us know what we were looking at it. There was a filming of some video for an orchestra going on which was actually really cool, because there was basically a full out concert going on and echoing throughout the museum. If anyone wants to do some googling, I would highly recommend searching "Anish Kapoor Yellow". I think it looks cool in the pictures, but that might just be because I know how amazing it looks in the museum. Definitely my favorite. After the museum we walked into Bilbao's old city and went into one of the most gorgeous churches. They had some music playing, and it was really peaceful to just sit there and contemplate these last 2 weeks.
So yeah! That was my week in a very large nutshell! I hope everything's going well at home, and I better receive updates of interesting things in people's lives! Love and miss you all!

Best Weekend Ever

First let me apologize for my little break from blogging. I really have no excuse except for the fact that I'm just trying to take in every moment that I'm here! Part of that includes this past weekend, which might just have been one of the most amazing 2 days of my life? Bold statement, I am aware. Anyways, let me start from the beginning!

Saturday we got up at 8:30 to board onto a bus at 9:00 that would eventually bring us to Saint Jean Pied de Port (or in Spanish- San Juan de Pie de Puerto) which is in France! I should have been forewarned when our culture professor who was accompanying us on the trip told us that she had medicine for when you get carsick with her for the ride. Little did I know that the "highway of the mountains" that went through the Pyrenees mountains, honestly had the same, if not more, amount of tight twists and turns as oh..Superman at 6 Flags. It was ridiculous. I was pretty cocky about it getting onto the bus, like oh puh-lease, I can read books in the car...no problem. A quick stop at this beautiful lookout about 30 minutes into the ride, I was basically praying to God that our professor, who's name is Nakane (nah-kah-nay) still had more dramamine. Thankfully, my prayers were answered, and as soon as the drugs kicked in I was good for the rest of the day.

Anyways, that quick stop that we made was to look at La Foz de Arbayún, which I would consider to be like the Grand Canyon of Spain. We were so high up into the mountains, and this canyon was so low. It was absolutely gorgeous:


Next was a small pueblo (village) named Ochagavía. The town was adorable and it was really cool because they were having their annual culture festival. Everyone in the town was dressed up in traditional clothing, and kind of have little stations of old food and activities. It was kind of like sturbridge village/amish county except it was real town residents just acting like it for a day. They had this really delicious stuffing-esque thing that was just being made on huge pots over fires on the ground, and everyone just grabbed leaves off of the trees to make little plates to put the stuffing on. Best part? It was freeee!!


We also made a stop at a town called Roncevalles, which is the first stop on the Camino de Santiago. There wasn't much going on there, and I think we were all pretty anxious to get to Fraaannnceeee! Woo! It was so cool driving there, because all of the sudden our program directors were just like, oh heyy left side of the bus is in France, right side is in Spain. Then all of the sudden, it was like what up. You're in Spain. I might have altered their words and/or language a bit, but you get the point. No border patrol, police, passport checking, nada. Maybe the U.S and Mexico can take some notes from this Spain/France relationship? Just an idea. Anywho, I'm off topic (what? me? A.D.D?). France was absolutely gorgeous! The entire town was on this huge mountain, so I think all of our legs were a little confused thinking that we weren't going to encounter any of that now that we're away from Holy Cross. I also think our brain's were a bit confused as to what language we should be speaking. They don't speak English...so Spanish? Crap, they don't know that either...uhh sign language? Spanglish? Bon Jour? It was tough, but I got my iced tea (aka- carbonated nestea in a can. Strange to say the least) and other people got their coffees. Of course, being that San Juan de Pie de Port is on a mountain, here's a pic of the gorgeous views!


On Sunday we didn't have a planned trip, but we all wanted to go to the beach, so our program director (who I may or not be in love with) Julian offered to accompany us to San Sebastian, Spain. Although we somehow got onto the 2 hour bus, when it's normally only 1, it was completely worth it. The city was gorgeous, ornate, and just very Spanish overall. We also got lunch at this sandwich place which was delicious, fresh food that we'd all be craving. The beach was honestly one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my life. It was kind of enclosed by the mountains that wrapped around it so the beach was kind of shaped like a crescent moon. It was also interesting to see the way Spaniards go to the beach. By that I mean the lack of tops, and very small bottoms on both men and women. Also, it's completely acceptable to let your infant boys run around and do cartwheels naked on the beach. Seems like a lot of work to get the sand out from every nook and cranny...but that's just my opinion! As has been the theme of this post, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I now present you with San Sebastion!


So yeah! That was my weekend! It was one of those that just seemed to last forever, and was so amazing. I remember sitting on a step in front of a little store in France with my friend Emily, and we just said how content we were feeling. It wasn't like we were elated, or joyful but we were just happy and content with everything that was going on in our lives. It was a great moment, that I think I'll be seeing a lot more of this year. I hope everyone is enjoying reading these. I love the comments, and feel free to e-mail me too! I've added new pictures on facebook, so if you go back a couple posts and click on the link, you'll get to see some more pictures like the one's that you just saw!
Love you all <3

Here's a video of what Emily, Andy, Dan and I were looking at as we simultaneously fell in love with Pamplona yesterday:

Perfection

So I think today I can honestly say that I've fallen in love with Pamplona. It's a simple, classic, beautiful, city that is just so perfect for this orientation. Emily, Andy, Dan and I went on a walk today to check out some of the shopping in the center of town. Emily bought a dress, but I'm pretty sure that we'd all agree that the highlight of the walk was when we ended up at the Plaza de Castillo. It's this giant open square with beautiful old buildings enclosing it, and it has a giant gazebo in the middle. We were walking towards it when we started to hear music, and we realized that there was a full orchestra/band concert going on. The four of us were sitting on a bench, looking at the buildings and people, listening to the music, and admiring the beginning of the sunsetting. We probably sat there for about 20 minutes, and I think we were all just experiencing one of those moments, where everything just feels right.
I think another reason that this afternoon was so perfect was due to the fact that it was right after a 2 hour nap (gotta love the siestas here). The 2 hour nap was completely necessary though due to the fact that I got approximately 3.5 hours of sleep last night. It was our first thursday here so we all wanted to go out, and experience some true Pamplonian (totally made up that word) night life. We started back at that bar that we went to the other day. We promised the bartender, Tote (pronounced Toe-Tay), that this would from now on be our starting bar. It was a lot of fun this time because there were more people, aaaannd they had Karaoke!! I did not go up and sing, but about half of the group did which was a lot of fun to watch. After a little bit we were all ready to move on and go to this club called "Boca Boca" which the girls who went to Spain last year had told us about. Of course though, no one had any idea how to get there, so we asked Tote for directions. He was having a little trouble giving us clear directions, especially due to the fact that we know NO street names. Thankfully Tote is one of the most patient, and nicest men we've met, and actually walked us from his bar to the club. Like actually left the bar, to walk with us and show us how to get to Boca Boca. It was awesome. Anyways, we got into Boca Boca and quickly realized it was a major sausage fest (aka- about 70% of the population was men). While this may not have been favorable for the three guys in a group, I'm pretty sure we all had a really fun time. I have to say though that the Spaniards are verrry outgoing, and it's nice to have our 3 boys with us sometimes. Anyways, it was a lot of fun to dance to the spanish music, and I'm pretty sure I burnt the same amount of calories that I did when I went for my 20 minute run earlier in the day. We left Boca Boca around 3:30 and got back to the hotel around 4. It was a late night, but my internal clock was so thrown off because there were still so many people out at the time! cRaZy Spaniards...
Well, I should probably be going to bed soon because I have to get up early for our excursion to France tomorrow! We're going to visit the city where el Camino de Santiago starts. To get some Spanish history feel free to google it, and then if anyone cares to join me on a part of it, lemmmeee know!!

Pictures

Hi everyone! For those of you that don't have facebook, I'm including a link where you can look at my new pictures without having to log-in or make a "page". I'm not quite sure how it works, but let me know if there are any issues!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=14130990&l=422bf05fca&id=504455057

Livin la vida perfecta

So I've only been here for, what...4 days? It seems like so much longer! The apartment actually feels like ours, the bathroom is messy and strewn with thick black hair, fine blond hair, and some red locks sprinkled in there, and I've taken my 2nd trip to the grocery store/super-walmart called CarreFour.

Classes started on Monday with a placement test, a tour of the school, and then our culture class. There are 2 levels, and I was put into the higher one. I was a little nervous but it's really not too bad at all. We have our grammar + conversation class from 9:30-11:40 where we just do a lot of worksheets and exercises. It's nice that the class is only 6 people, and we all know each other pretty well by now, so we all feel comfortable admitting when we're confusing and asking our professor (Miguel) questions. After the grammar and conversation class, everyone joins up back together for a culture/daily life class. It's really interesting in the past 2 days we've learned about a thing called botellón which pretty much sounds like people going to a park, bringing their own mixed drinks and pre-gaming outside together. I guess there have been some issues though because with the internet, people have been planning these giant, like 1000 people botellónes, which the government isn't a huge fan of.

Last night we got ourselves on the Spain schedule...and I think we're all still recooping from it. It was Drew's birthday, so we went to a REAL restaurant instead of the one that is in the hotel. I got squid and was definitely the bravest one with my choice, we also had sangria to drink (mmmm!). James (who's going to Coruña with me) and I shared a table with Julian, our director who just might be the most adorable man in the world. He's honestly the sweetest and cutest little guy ever. So we had to speak Spanish the entire dinner, but we learned some slang and cool phrases. Best part of the night? We left the restaurant and my friend Emily really needed to use the bathroom, so we found this really cool, modern looking public toilet out side. So she goes into it, but comes out because she couldn't find the toilet paper. We sent her back into it though, and all of the sudden she yelled OHHH MY GOD!!! IT'S RAINING ON MEEEE!! And she came running out. I almost peed my pants on the street! Julian came over trying to help, but she was so flustered that she couldn't even speak Spanish haha. We realized it was self-cleaning so she went in one more time. I guess the light inside went out though? And there was soap but no water? She was such a mess, and I was soo amused.

Anyways, after that whole ordeal we attempted to find a bar/club, anything to celebrate Drew's birthday, but it was prettty hard considering it was a Tuesday. Julian tried his best, and we ended up at a bar which had approximately 4 other people in it. It was still fun though, especially when I joined in on Dan and James' chat with the bartender. It was cool to listen to him talk, and get a real feel for the Spanish people. Anyways we finally left around 1:30 and got back to the apartment around 2. Waking up at 8:00 the next day? Not fun. At all.
I just woke up from a siesta (nap) about 45 minutes ago, and in 15 mins I'm heading off to a wine tasting. Does life get any better?

Also, I'm going to try and do a "learn a Spanish word" per blog. So today's word is:Tikis-Mikis (pronounced tee-kee-smee-keys). This is a VERRRYY colloquial term that means a "picky eater". I absolutely love the word, and am going to try and use it every single day that I am in Spain. I can't see it getting old any time soon...

Here are some pictures of my apartment and the casca vieja of Pamplona, which is like the old neighborhood.

First night update

First Spanish meal:

A huge bowl of peas with some ham in it

A huge thigh and drumstick of chicken

French Fries

**The Kicker**
Activia Yogurt for dessert

Arrival!

So as we speak I am sitting in my hotel/apartment in Pamplona, Spain. I'm still not quite sure that it's setting in that I will be in Spain for the next 10 months. I'm sure it'll kick in sometime, as in when I am not completely exhausted from 12+ hours of traveling! So let me explain that, and EVERYTHING that went wrong.
1. So we were supposed to take a plane from Boston to D.C buuut that got delayed to the point that we would have missed our connecting flight to Madrid. So the extremely grumpy woman at the gate (named B.J...really) got us all onto a flight to Newark, NJ and then a direct flight from Newark to Madrid.
2. Woo! We got onto the flight to Newark! My two fellow seat mates were most likely reigned the King and Queen of PDA (public displays of affection). I honestly felt as though I was third-wheeling on a date. They were kissing, rubbing, hugging, hands all overing each other as I awkwardly sat next to them. At least I had the aisle?
3. We are finaallly going to Spain!! Naturally the seat in front of me has this weird box thing stuck to the bars of the chair, so I'm not able to put my backpack under the char in front of me. In addition to pissing off the flight attendants, it makes it a little uncomfortable for the next 6 hours. After watching Shawshank Redemption for the first time (shout to Mike Fask) I was able to slip into a nice slumber. A couple hours or so later I woke up though to the noise and lingering stench of a baby who had vomited on, what seemed to be everything (seats + parents included) on everything in the row right behind me.
4. After getting to Madrid and chilling in that airport for a good 4 hours, we were finally on our way to Pamplona. It was honestly the shortest flight of my life, 25 minutes in the air, and introduced me to the smallest airport of my life. The taxi drivers also had some very interesting faces as they looked at our copious amount of luggage, and their eco-friendly very small cabs. It all worked out though, and we were able to get to the hotel without leaving anyone on their own!

While traveling was extremely tiring, I do have to say that I feel very lucky that I have a lot of experience with it in the past. The actual traveling, airports, and flying were never things that I had even though to worry or stress out about. I could tell that this is not something that everyone else had the luxury of feeling. Another good feeling? Being able to talk solely in Spanish with the man at the Iberia ticket counter (except for when he quickly said aisle or window, and completely threw me off). Hopefully I'll be able to keep up my confidence with this whole language/travel thing and everything will continue to work out just fine! There were definitely a lot of bumps and hold ups on this journey, but we all made it here just fine and all in one piece, which is all that matters!

4 Days...

So, I have 4 days until I leave for Spain. Which means no more weekends in the United States until, possibly, Christmas!? This is kind of unreal right now. Today my friend Erin and I took a roadtrip up to Holy Cross, with the rule being that on the drive up, we would only speak in Spanish. She's going to Spain for fall semester, and we figured that it would be a good way to wipe off some of the cobwebs, and practice using the language we'll be surrounded by very soon. I'll be honest, it was kind of weird at first, but I would say within a half an hour, we were both feeling pretty good about it! Even when we got to school, we both found ourselves responding with "si" instead of yes for a little bit.
It was really nice to get up to Holy Cross one more time. It was weird to see the campus so empty, and notice the changes that they'd made around campus. Erin had never been so it was fun to show it off a little, and try and explain the confusing way the Holy Cross will give 1 building 4 different names (I'm talking to you Brooks, Smith, O'Kane, and Fenwick). I also got to see a few friends, Mike who's leaving for NY this fall, Kerry who's about to jump into the real world working down in Philly, and Joe who's up there was a football manager. I've been lucky enough to see all of these amazing people, and a few other of my Holy Cross friends this summer, but it was definitely sad to realize that this was the actual goodbye.
Saying bye to Joe was what really got me thinking, and probably what made me come back to update this blog. In typical Joe fashion, with his fantastic Mass accent, he told me to do something crazy in Spain. He didn't really have any specific ideas, but just...do something crazy. See, I feel like what I'm doing is already pretty crazy. Now I realize that "study abroad" is not some new-fangled super-rare idea that few people understand. But still, the closer that August 20th gets, the clearer it is that I'm doing this just for me. I'm not a Spanish major, so I'm not doing it to fulfill any requirements, and as of right now I don't really see myself in a career where fluency in Spanish is necessary. I'm doing this to experience something new, travel with friends, gain some independence, and master a language that I've been studying for half my life (if you count the first few years of songs, dances, numbers and colors). While I'm sure I'll be doing some cRaZy things next year, I feel like just getting on that plane on Friday is pretty high up there on my list.

Blogtastic!

So I've decided that it's finally time for me to enter the world of blogs (aka- the blogosphere). I've definitely eased myself into it, given that I'm pretty sure I made this account in June, and it's now August. I'm sure the web address, blog title, and awkward description to your left, make the purpose of this blog pretty clear, but I'll spell it out for you anyway... I AM GOING TO SPAIN. FOR A YEAR.
Honestly, it's a little overwhelming for me to even grasp the idea that I will be living in another country for about 10 months. Everyone keeps telling me that this year is going to be the best one of my life, so I figured that it might be nice to have this crazy year documented for myself to look back on. Obviously this will also be a great way to share my experiences with family and friends who I will no longer be able to call/text whenever my little heart desires. I think that most can attest that I suck at staying in touch during the school year, even when I'm in the U.S, so hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch with people through this!
Anyways, this was just my introduction, test the water blog entry. I promise that I will return again before I leave. I know that all my (non-existent) readers are at the edge of their seats right now, just waiting, and praying for me to come back soon to the blogosphere. I have no fear...I shall return.