A Typical Day in the Life

Here's a little photo-tour of what a typical day in my Coruña life could look like. Hope you enjoy it!              

My alarm clock, time to wake up!

Out the door

Bus Card

Here comes the bus!

Sociology building on the left, law on the right

Inside the bus

"Philosophy and letters" school on the inside

Coffee and tortilla break in between classes

My professor's chicken scratch

Up and down these stairs a few times a day!

Walk by the mini-amusement park on my way to the gym

More coffee!

Typical meeting spot- Elena and I's corner

Tapas!

Italy

Well that was a really long break wasn't it. School has been trying to kill me lately, but enough with the excuses, let's talk about Italy! So my friend Elena, who's here in Coruña with me, has a house in Italy. Her parents were born, grew up and met in this little village in the south of Italy. They then immigrated to the United States in their 20's, but they still have family there, a house there, and visit a good amount. Since they had come to visit Elena over Easter, they decided to head directly to Italy after, and they'll be there until mid-June. Naturally this meant that we had to get our butts over to Italy. Let me say- this was not an easy feat. As always, let me explain the travel process:
1. Taxi to the train station (we had 2 giant suitcases: 1 full of Elena's winter clothes that she was leaving with her parents, another one that we were sharing for the week)
2. Train from Coruña to Santiago de Compostela
3. Taxi from the train station in Santiago to  the Airport there
4. Fly from Santiago to Barcelona, arrive around midnight.
5. 8 hour overnight layover in the Barcelona airport.
6. Fly from Barcelona to Rome
7. Fly from Rome to Lamezia
8. Drive 1hr from Lamezia to the tiny village of Mongressano

Let me say, the worst part of this was definitely the layover in Barcelona. It was so freaky too because, Barcelona is a MAJOR airport and I'm telling you, this place was deserted. Another fun fact, marble floors are cold and not comfortable at all. However all of the traveling was completely worth it. This tiny village is one of many nestled up in the mountains of Calabria. You have to swerve in zig-zags up the mountains, going through tunnels that are literally carved into the earth, and occasionally finding yourself driving across a bridge connecting mountains. The mountains were completely covered in trees, and the air was so fresh. Another thing that made the traveling worth it? The food that we encountered when we arrived. I was so confused as to why there seemed to be food for about 30, yet only 8 place settings. I guess that's Italy for you though! Every time I thought that everything was out of the kitchen and on the table, Elena's aunt or mom would go back into the kitchen and bring out something else delicious. Some food highlights from the week include some type of sausage/pepperoni that her aunt MAKES, ricotta cheese with everything, jelly filled cookies, pasta, chicken rollatini, spinach, tomato salad, mozzerella, more jelly filled cookies, gelato and cheesy-fried rice and eggplant balls. Yummmmm!
We went on a few excursions too which were fun. We went to the beach twice, once just to walk around the second time to get our tan on. We even got to go swimming in the Mediterranean Ocean. It was a little cold initially, but hey, I consider myself a nauset-beach girl. It was nothing in comparison to that. We had a minor injury when Elena stubbed her toe on a giant rock in the water, but other than that we had a great time! We also went to a church/retreat place of San Francisco (Saint Francis, possible translation?). Apparently the dude got there a few (thousand) years ago, cracked open a rock, water came bursting out of it and it hasn't stopped flowing yet. I drank some of the holy water. No miracles yet, but I'm sure mine will come soon.
Another fun part of the trip was the last day when we had a little photo-shoot. Elena's aunt makes traditional Calabrese dresses for people of the town. Apparently they're really popular for festivals, and people just like to have them because they're so traditional. They used to be what women wore for their weddings! They were gorgeous in satin or velvet, and such vibrant colors.
Elena's family was so kind and welcoming and I had such a great time. I honestly felt like I had been adopted in a a big ol' Italian family. We also had a lot of homework that we had to do while we were there, so it was nice to be in a family setting and just keep everything really relaxed. I picked up a few Italian words too given that I was the only one that wasn't able to communicate with others. Apparently my accent was really cute too, because Elena's Italian guy friends loved hearing me say words. I had no real idea what I was saying, but they just get throwing out words for me to say and then would freak out as soon as it came off my lips. I even got made into a ringtone, so now apparently when this kid receives a text message, it's me saying "butterfly" in the town dialect of Italian. It was so funny at the time!

Okay, I'm really sorry that there are no pictures in this blog, Blogger is having a problem and can't retrieve them. But this might work out to your favor, because here is the link for my facebook album and you can see all 80+ pictures from the trip!
Love ya guys! 2 weeks!

Sevilla and Granada

So I'm a little delayed on this blog post about my trip to the south of Spain. The truth is that this trip went so smoothly that I really can't think of any crazy stories like running through airports to catch planes, or weird hostel-mates. So I was kind of just pushing it off because I'm not quite sure how fun/interesting of a post this will be. However I have a pushy mom who sends me discreet texts asking when I'll be updating my blog. So here it is!

So I'm up in the pink Galicia, which is located all the way in the northwest corner and Andalucia is all the way down in the south. As I'm sure you can imagine, things are a little different on opposite sides of the country. Basically though, Andalucia is Spain through and through. It's the bullfighting, flamenco, sangria and tapas. If you want to get what you imagine is Spain, Andalucia is where you wanna be!
We started our trip in an old city called Granada. This was a trip planned out by our housing director, and paid for by Holy Cross. So all 6 of us here in Coruña were finally able to go on a trip together. We were lead by our housing director, and a woman that works with him. We naturally spent the entire trip speculating whether they're together or not. We're leaning towards a yes...
Anyways! I digress, we arrived in Granada late Wednesday night, and dropped off our things at the hotel. What a luxury to been in a hotel instead of a hostel. Who would have though that not sleeping in a bunkbed, and knowing all my roommates would be considered a luxury! After quickly freshening up, we went to get some food to eat. Our director's brother actually lives in Granada with his American wife, and 2 children, so he came with us to a good place to get food. The great thing about Andalucia is that with a drink you get free food, and tons of it! With one drink each we got a platter with a ham and cheese sandwich for each person, a huge pile of french fries, and some green olives.


OKAY. So...my deepest apologies but, I wrote a great blog full of pictures, when blogger.com decided to have issues and NOT save what I wrote after what you see above. I do get a little worried that this trip will become like the forgotten trip of the year, similar to our family trip to California when all of our film (pre-digital years) got exposed to light therefore leaving us with no pictures, but I honestly can not go and write the whole thing again.  So instead, I will leave you with a link to see my pictures on facebook, for those of you who don't have facebook! Again, I'm so sorry, but a travel blog about Italy will be coming soon, and I'm sure some opinions on the end of this entire experience will be on there way as well.


Click here to look at my pictures from Grenada and Sevilla

Gran Canaria

Ooh Gran Canaria. For such a short trip, with so very few people on it, you have provided me with memories and stories that I hope to never forget. Lucky for you my dear readers, I will divulge the details of this trip to you! So here are the statistics: 3.5 days on the island, 2 people (Arinelli and I), 1 studio apartment style hotel room, 2 beds, 1 balcony with 1 table and 2 chairs, and 3.5 days of 75 degree + weather.

So the trip started off Sunday afternoon when Arinelli's host dad drove us to the train station. From there we took a train to Santiago de Compostela, a bus to the airport in Santiago, and a 3 hour flight to Gran Canaria. When we got to the airport we still needed to get to the hotel and my parents had told me to just take a cab, bill it to them, and consider it part of my birthday present. So we hopped in a cab but quickly found out that it didn't accept credit card. The cab driver told us that it would be about 60 euros, so given that we were tired we do that instead of trying to figure out the bus system at 11:00 at night. The cab driver was so nice and on the 30 minute drive to the hotel he told us all about the island. He pointed out the most populated parts of the island (Playa del Ingles and Maspalomas), told us to try the famous Canarian bananas, and roasted potatoes with a special spicy-ish sauce on top. He even stopped the meter when it got to 60 euros since that was the price he told us, and didn't want to charge us more. So nice!
We got to the hotel and realized that when the online reviews said that it was on top of a mountain, they truly meant a mountain. I was expecting something like Mount St. James that Holy Cross is perched upon, but this was a whole different animal. If you didn't want to spent 30 minutes going down, and who knows how long going up, a taxi was really necessary. This taxi driver was so nice though and let us run in the hotel to check in and drop our bags, and he drove us back down the mountain without charging us the 3 euros that it usually cost to drive down. We grabbed some dinner and explored the "shopping center" which honestly felt just like something you'd find in Florida. We also quickly realized that were were in British/Norwegian/Swedish/Danish tourist-world. Everyone, including the people who worked there spoke English. Needless to say, it didn't really feel like Spain, but that does not in anyway mean it was bad!

 The next day we were ready to start vacation! We headed down the mountain and made a bee-line for the beach! We had a great day just relaxing there, and even got lunch at a restaurant right on the sand. Around 4:00 we headed back and stopped at a kiosk advertising dolphin rides. The guy who was working there though said that something that we might enjoy more would be the "party boat". It was 3 hours on a giant catamaran with drinks and food included. There was a hot tub on board, and they boat would dock and give us the opportunity to jump off and swim around. We figured that it sounded good to us so we put our deposit down, and then continued on our merry way to the supermarket. Given that we had a kitchen in our room we decided that we would save money and make dinner ourselves. We also grabbed some cheese and crackers for a Carlson tradition of happy hour on the deck. After our happy hour we headed down to the pool to discover that we basically had the entire hotel to ourselves. Minus one "car wreck" couple. I call them the "car wreck" couple because they were a Spanish couple that were both insanely, out of this world, unnaturally tan. The girl clearly had a lot of confidence too because despite a not so stellar body, she was rocking the topless + thong bottom look. Arinelli and I couldn't peel our eyes away even though we wanted to! I'd say by the end of the trip we had gotten a little more used to the whole topless thing, that being said, neither of us decided to try it out. I still don't understand how 2 friends can be laying on their towels, having a nice conversation, with there boobs hanging out! Strange.

The next day we headed down to the beach again to spend the morning there before going on the party boat. They told us that people could start boarding the boat around 3 so we headed there a little early. Little did we know that the boat would be about an hour and a half late. Finally we headed onto it and it was a lot of fun. The boat was huge, there was a DJ playing good music, drinks, food and a bunch of young people on it. My only complaint is that we weren't moving a lot. We basically sailed like 30 minutes, put the anchor down for 2 hours, and then sailed back for the 30 minutes. I did jump off the back of the boat while we were stationary though! I was a little nervous that the water was gonna be freezing, and they warned about a strong current, but the water was gorgeous, and hey, I'm still alive so the current didn't take me away!
I even met a Swedish boy on the boat! I tested out the few words I know in Swedish, you know the basics, thank you/you're welcome. Unfortunately he couldn't really understand either of those words when they came out with a strange English/Spanish accent, so it was a good thing that he spoke English perfectly. We even ended up exchanging phone numbers and meeting up again later that night.

And what an interesting night it was. The area where all the younger people, and cool bars/pubs/clubs are is about 25 minutes away, so we needed to take a bus to get there. So we hopped onto the bus, but we really had no idea of when to press the "stop" button and get off. So when finally got off and realized we had no idea where we were, we hailed a taxi that basically brought us around the block to this place called the Kasbah which is just full of bars. It's also full of club promoters. Literally within 50 ft we had at least 5 promoters stop us, and try and convince us to go into their bar. Let me say that they are VERY persistent. It was kind of annoying, but I'd take that over the 2 person team that tried to sell us cocaine! One of the strangest moments of my life, ever.

We then went into the bar that we thought the Swedish kid was at and got sucked into buying the "happy hour deal" which consisted of 3 drinks. However, Arinelli and I aren't so sure of the amount of alcohol that they put into these drinks. We still had a really good time though there and at the other club we went to. We missed the last bus to go back to our area though so we had to take a taxi. We ended up meeting nicest taxi driver #2 when he let us pay for the 30 euro ride with all the money we had, which was only 25 euros.

The next day we headed out to an area called Maspalomas, which was such a cool area. The beach has huge dunes, there's a legitimate desert, and gorgeous hotel resorts there! But our real inspiration for going to Maspalomas was our search for....

CAMELS!!

That's right! We went on a camel ride. I must say that those animals are not very attractive and I am SO glad that we were the last one in the line. I did not want a camel all up in my business, near the back of my head or anything like that. I've heard stories about their spit... After the camel ride we grabbed some lunch and then went to chill on the beach. By that time it wasn't super hot so we didn't go in the water, but it was perfect temperature to just relax. I even ended up falling asleep listening to some Bob Marley on the beach. This is my life!?

For some reason when we got back to the hotel both Arinelli and I felt a little sick so we spent a good hour or more lying on our beds complaining about our stomachs. We rallied though for some happy hour and dinner. Plate du jour was chicken with the famous spicy-ish red sauce of the Canary Islands, with flan from plastic containers for dessert. We kept the night relaxed just hanging out in the room reading our books and magazines and talking.

The next morning we had to be out of the hotel by 11 and we didn't even think to ask if they had a place where they could store our luggage so we spent most of the day in a park on a bench with our bags. Most likely looking like homeless people. We then headed to Subway to get some lunch and sat there for a while with our bags. And then the journey home began. Sit tight kiddos, this is quite a story as well.
So we took a bus to the airport. After a little confusion and having to go through security twice, we got to the gate. We boarded onto the plane no problem and landed in Santiago around 9:30. We then needed to catch the bus to bring us to the train station. We were a little confused though and were apparently sitting in the wrong spot and missed the first bus (they come every 30 mins). So we waited for the next bus, when we got to the train station we realized that there were no more trains coming. We were so shocked. Neither of us had really planned it out, we were just assuming that they'd be going until at least midnight. At that point we met kind taxi man #3. After explaining our situation to him and asking if he knew any cheap hotels he took out 2 cellphones and started calling people and hotels/hostals. He brought us to a nice place so Ari and I dropped our bags and headed out to find some food. Both of us were just mentally and emotionally spent after that so we headed back to our room. For some reason though neither of us had a good night's sleep. The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and headed back to good old La Coruña.
So that was my trip! I hope that everyone is having a great Easter and I can't wait to see ya'll soon!!
Love you!

P.S- Shoutouts go to everyone who sent me a card! Love getting mail!

I'm officially old

Friday was my birthday which means that I am 21 and can now buy alcohol for the first time ever! Oh wait... I've been doing that since August 21st in Spain. Turning 21 in Spain was a bit anti-climactic, but it was still a lot of fun! Everyone except for Arinelli has left for their Semana Santa trips, so we went out Thursday and celebrated with our Spanish friends. As it often does, the night ended up with Kebab sandwiches by the beach, something that I immediately regretted. It's a big sandwich, not a particularly healthy one, being eaten at 4:30 AM, a few days before going on a beach vacation. Oh well, it was good in the moment!

Arinelli, Maria, Me, and Camino

They next day Arinelli came over to my house for lunch which was so much fun. We played with the girls and then had a delicious meal consisiting of prawns, steak, chocolate cake, and even some rioja wine! So good! Later that afternoon the two of us headed off to Marineda City. Marineda City is a big shopping center that just opened up on Thursday. It's actually the largest in Spain and the third largest in Europe. The mall was the size of a normal American mall, and being in it did actually make me feel like I was in America. Especially when we got authentic cinnamon buns! Yumm!!

Arinelli in her dream house

After exploring the mall we decided to go into Ikea, Although I'd been to the one in New Haven, I'd forgotten how long of a process it was to walk through those! A few hours later we reappeared from it. It was a lot of fun though, and Ari and I gathered ideas of what we want our future apartments/condos/homes to look like. We also looked really cool when we started to take pictures of each other pretending that we lived in the exhibition pieces that Ikea sets up. It's like playing pretend/dolls, except for 20+ year olds! We were so excited when we finally arrived at the cafeteria because they were offering a special of 10 swedish meatballs for 1 euro! Since Arinelli has never had swedish meatballs I had planned on introducing them to her and splitting a plate of them. Unfortunately, the moment we got there they pulled the tape across the entrance to the buffet and announced that they had just closed. Oh well, that just means that we'll have to go back!

My hair attacked my face

That night we went to Abica for dinner, and as always got delicious food. To celebrate my birthday we decided to split a bottle of wine. I think the wine got us both talking though, because although we finished eating in about an hour, we were there for almost two and a half hours, finally leaving at 1:15 AM! The next day we did a little shopping and walked around. There's this old castle/fort in Coruña which used to defend the city, so since neither of us had been there we decided to check it out. It was free entrance which is good, because there wasn't much to it. It was so nice out though so it was fun to just walk around and check out the views of the port. It was a little windy though as you can see from this photo!
Today we're heading off to the Canary Islands! The trip is a relatively simple one, taking a city bus to the train station, train to Santiago train station, bus to the Santiago Airport, Fly to Gran Canaria airport, taxi to the hotel! Oh and the hotel doesn't have 24 hour reception so our keys are going to be left for us in the mailbox and then we have to find our way to our room!
Okay, so maybe not that simple of a journey there, but only one airplane! The rest is just little filler transportation means. I'm sure we'll be fine though! I'll get back Thursday, so get ready for a travel blog post!

Oh Nothing's Sweeter

So I remember listening to this song in the summer, and belting out the line "couldn't want to get going, but wasn't quite ready to leave" and absolutely loving it and connecting with it. I was so excited to go to Spain, but so scared at the same time. This song recently came up in my itunes, and listening to it now I have a completely different perspective. It's not just that one line that get's me, but all the lyrics.
It's a song about summer obviously, but also about home, being where you're comfortable, and not wanting to grow up and change. All things that I can definitely understand.
Hope you enjoy the song! Even if you've heard it before, take a moment for yourself. Close your eyes. Listen to it. Listen to the lyrics. We all need a break every now and then :-)

Where's the pause button??

You know the Adam Sandler movie where he finds that magical remote control, where he can pause, rewind and fast forward life? Well, I could definitely use that right now, if anything just for the "pause" button, maybe I'd utilize "rewind" a little, but I'm trying to test out this whole "live with out regrets" idea.
See the thing is, I need this special clicker because this year has gone by way too fast. So much of this year was spent adjusting to this new life that I now have. Learning the language, learning the culture, the higher education system, living with a family...and the list of things big and small goes on and on. That being said, I think I finally get it, and I feel comfortable and now it's almost time to leave? That doesn't seem right!
Now you may think that I'm being a little dramatic, I mean 2 months is a long time right? Well although the general pace of life in Spain is pretty slow, I'm pretty sure that the rest of my time here is going to FLY by. Let me give you a break down of how the rest of this year is going to go.
Well next Friday is my birthday! Yay! Then two days later, Sunday the 17th, Arinelli and I leave for the Canary Islands. We come back on Thursday the 21st, and then we're either going to stay here and relax, or we might go to León with her host family. The following Wednesday the 27th, all 6 of us in Coruña leave for the south of Spain with our housing director, Pablo. It should be a really fun trip, especially since Holy Cross pays for everything! We're down there until either Sunday or Monday the 1st or 2nd of MAY (that's right, it's MAY ALREADY) We'll be in Coruña the weekend of Saturday the 7th and then the next weekend I'm heading to Italy with Elena to meet her family who still lives in a little village in the south of Italy! I then (for now) plan on having 3 weekends in Coruña until I leave for America on June 11th!
So that's the breakdown, and it's pretty surreal! I have bi-polar emotions everyday. One second I don't want to leave, and the next second I can not wait to be back in West Hartford, and even Holy Cross next year! Of course, that being said, I'm 100% positive that next year I will be wishing I was in Coruña on an 80 degree day in April, with a 5 minute walk to the beach. That's life though right.
Shout out to my mamaaaa who sent me a fantastic package full of reeses products. Yummm! Now the only question is who will eat more of these easter candy reeses eggs, me or my host sisters?

Another perspective

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to let you know that you could read about Audrey's visit to Spain on her blog by clicking here. It's always fun to see how another person describes the same vacation, and what things pop up out in their mind.

Barcelona

Well after a verrry busy and long week, I'm finally getting the chance to blog about last weekend! So last Wednesday I got a visitor! After many long and strenuous hours of traveling my ex-roommate, Audrey arrived at the Coruña airport!! Unfortunately I was able to make a sign for her, but hopefully she was still happy to see me and have someone meet her at the airport. From there we went to the hostel in Coruña that we were going to be staying at together. Given that we're poor college students studying abroad, we were in seventh heaven seeing our "Deluxe" room that had a giant window looking out to the street, a double bed, a little table with two chairs, one random mini-sitting chair, and a private bathroom with a toilet that made a noise similar to a foghorn when you flushed it. While I know that sounds like I'm being sarcastic, we actually REALLY happy with it!
After finally getting settled it was around 5:00 when we decided to go out and find food. Fun fact about Spain: there is NO food being served at 5:00. Lunch stops around 4:30, dinner starts back up around 8. Restaurants are closed in between. After walking around, and by around I mean all over the city, we finally ended up at La Bombilla, the famous 1 euro tapas joint in Coruña. Thankfully, as always, the food was delicious and Audrey loved it. After we refueled up we went to go do some shopping. Apparently the stores in Galway aren't really top-notch, she's only bought like 2 pieces of clothing there! Yeah...that's pretty much all I've bought too....(lies). We had a pretty low-key night given that I had an in class essay the next morning, and Audrey was pretty tired from all of her traveling. The next day I had a busy day of classes so Audrey was able to catch up on her sleep. We did manage to grab a delicious lunch at a restaurant called O'Galiñeiro right near my house. Although we had only planned on staying in Coruña for one night, and then heading to Santiago for Thursday night we decided that it would just be easier to stay in Coruña both nights. Thursday night I introduced Audrey to the Spanish night life, which I'm pretty sure she enjoyed, despite the challenge of staying up until the wee hours of the morning.
The next morning our travels to Barcelona began, and as always, there are stories! The plan was to take a train from Coruña to Santiago, and then find a way to get from the train station to the Santiago Airport where our flight was out of. So we had written down the times of the trains leaving from Coruña going to Barcelona. So we decided to take the 11:19 train, we woke up in time, get on the city bus to bring us to the train station. Audrey then whips out her Iphone where we had written down the time, and we see that neither of our train options were leaving at 11:19. How we BOTH got that time in our head, I do not know. Given that the train station and the bus station are close to each other, we decided to get off the city-bus at the bus station to get some information about the buses to Santiago. There was one that would get us to Santiago 30 minutes earlier than the train so we decided to take that one. We were waiting inside the station watching the board, waiting for the platform number to come up, and as soon as it did we went downstairs to find the bus. Well we found it as it was slowly backing out of it's spot. Audrey runs up and knocks on the door, and even though the bus driver didn't seem particularly happy with us, he opened up the luggage area, and let us on. After getting to the bus station in Santiago, we bought tickets for a bus that would bring us to the Santiago airport. After waiting for 15 minutes downstairs where all the buses park, we finally found the gate where that specific bus company parked. Unfortunately, the airport bus apparently parks somewhere else because 5 minutes later, we saw a completely full bus with a picture of an airplane on it turn the corner and leave the station. So 30 minutes and 20 euros later we arrived at airport in taxi. From there everything went smoothly and we arrived in Barcelona!

Audrey and I spent the afternoon walking around and anxiously waiting the arrival of Elizabeth, Claire, and other friends from various study abroad sites. Claire had her own travel issues and ended up coming in later, and then went straight to visit her friend from home who was studying in Barcelona. Audrey, Elizabeth and I went walking around in search of some food. We ended up at some little bar that had tapas and feasted on cockles, home fries with a spicy sauce (patatas bravas) and chicken wings. The food was cheap, simple, and pretty darn good too.

The next day was our super-tourists day. Elizabeth, Claire and I who were all in one hostel met up with two Holy Cross kids who are studying in Scotland with Elizabeth that morning. We met at The Cathedral (sorry I don't know it's real name!) and from there we started walking the city. We went to a gorgeous basilica, and then headed off to Park Güell. I was really excited to go to this Park since I didn't get a chance 3 years ago when I was in Barcelona with my parents. It was designed by the artist Gaudi, and is really modern, and funky, with bright colors, and crazy shapes all over the place. On our way to the park we had grabbed sandwiches, so we had an amazing picnic in the park, sitting on the longest bench in the world (according to our friend Michelle), listening to live music, and basking in the 75 degree weather. This is my life?

Wait, your ceiling doesn't look like this?

From there we went to La Sagrada Familia which is the huge cathedral also designed by Gaudi. This gigantic church broke ground in March of 1882 and they're expecting it to be done in 2026! You know what they say: measure twice, cut once! You have to make sure everything's perfect! In all seriousness though, if you ever get the chance to see this you'll understand the undertaking of it. It's also pretty inspiring that all costs of the construction come from donations to the church.

Putting on a brave face

Claire, Elizabeth and I decided to pay the little extra to climb up the towers. Somehow we managed to get lost and go in a big circle, despite there being pretty basic signs with a stick-man following an arrow down stairs. Whatever...we just enhanced our tour. The views from up there are pretty impressive of the city. Although you take an elevator up the tower,  you have to take stairs to go down and they're quite tight, dark, and long. Let's just say that none of us really enjoyed the stairs down, but Claire in particular was not having much fun with it.
After Sagrada Familia we were all pretty wiped out, and in a weird daze so we decide to split up in our 2 hostel groups and meet up later for dinner. The 4 of us stopped at a bakery on the way back, and got a little food and sugar to fuel us a little longer. We then headed back to the hostel and all took some naps before showering up and getting ready for dinner.  We ended up going to this place called Tapa Tapa for dinner. It had a really cool vibe, but was very clearly aimed at tourists. It was a little pricier than I'm used to for tapas, but it was a fun restaurant for our crowd. Our friend Kate and her friend from home who was studying in Barcelona for the semester also joined us. It was good to sit down in a relaxed setting and get to know everyone.
The next morning I headed out back to La Coruña. It was a quick weekend and I wish that I could have gotten to spend a little more time with everyone. For better or for worse though, summer is soon approaching and we've already made plans to all get together.
Love you all!

A preview

 

Guess where I was this past weekend??

Blog post to come very soon....

Madrid Round 3: The Whirlwind

So this past weekend I was back in Madrid for the third time. Let me just reiterate how much I love that city. Every time I go back I realize how great of a city it is. It's very Spanish, and traditional, but huge with a modern city feel to it.
Our flight to Madrid was Friday morning, which unfortunately met that most of us (except Elena) had to keep St. Patricks day pretty mild. I did however drink my first Guinness! I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The next morning I was on the bus to the airport when I saw that Elena had texted me at 5 AM, telling me to call her to wake her up. Woops, saw that a little late. She had to rush a little bit, but at the point I knew that she wasn't in any danger of missing her flight. I did start to freak out though when we got to the airport, and Nora starts talking about the Taylor Swift concert we were going to in Madrid. My reason for freaking out? I had completely forgot to pack my ticket. Thankfully Elena was still at home so I had her go up to my room to grab it off my desk. The star's apparently aligned in my favor because my host mom was just about to leave for work when Elena rang the doorbell. In the end I got my ticket, and Elena got to the airport in time with plenty of time to spare due to an hour long delay. Unfortunately though, Arinelli overslept and missed her flight, so she wasn't able to join us :-(
When we got to Madrid, Elena and I separated from the rest of the group (James, Nora, and Kelsey) because the two of us were again staying with Belen, Elena's sister in-law's friend. On the other hand, James, Nora, and Kelsey were staying at James' host-mom's parent's apartment. Wow, there were a lot of possessives in those two sentences. Basically, I truly feel that when you're abroad, people become a lot more helpful, accommodating and welcoming. Anyways, once we got to the apartment Elena needed a little nap which worked out well since Kelsey's friend was flying in to meet us in Madrid a little bit later. Around 5 we all met up to grab some lunch, and frozen yogurt for dessert. Mmm delish! We walked around for a little longer, and then ended up going to Mercado de San Miguel to get some dinner. None of us were really hungry at that point, but we decided to get a little something. Afterwards we went to the famous churros spot in Madrid called San Gines. We had gorgeous weather, so we were able to sit outside and enjoy good food, company, and fresh air.

The Aqueduct

 The next morning James, Elena and I headed off to Segovia. Since the three of us had already been to Madrid, we took the opportunity to explore another close-by city. It was a 30 minute train ride, but we ended up spending about 2.5 hours in the train station because the train that we had originally planned on taking was already sold-out. We passed the time with coffee, exploring the shops, and James even took the opportunity to get a haircut. Only a guy would get a haircut in a train station, don't you agree?
On the train we were seated around a table that seats 4 people. Just by chance we ended up sitting next to an American girl who had just graduated from school in December and arrived in Madrid a few weeks ago to teach English. She was really nice and since she was traveling solo, we asked if she wanted to spend the day with us. She was really nice, and hopefully she didn't think we were too weird! James, Elena and I have a bit of a weird, really close and open relationship that can be a bit strange to people who don't know us.
So the important parts about Segovia that you need to know are the Aqueduct, the Cathedral, and the castle called the Alcazar. The Aqueduct is 19.9 miles long, and used to bring water from a river outside of the city into Segovia. It's a pretty impressive structure and is made only out of rock. That was the first thing we saw when we got off the bus which brought us from the train station to the center of the city. From there we went walking, following all off the tourist signs. We climbed up some stairs, preparing ourselves for re-immersion to Holy Cross, and were rewarded with some beautiful views of the city and mountains behind it.

 

We were clearly obsessed and fixated on this view for a while, but we finally pulled ourselves away, and kept walking throughout the city. It's an adorable city with cobblestone streets, and historic homes and buildings. Although it's obviously a touristy city, it managed to balance it's "realness" with its tourism. The other great thing about the city is that it's small enough to tackle in a day. That being said within 10 minutes of leaving our scenic view, we arrived at the Plaza Mayor which housed the Cathedral. It was huge, with beautiful architecture. We opted to not pay the 3 euros to go inside, but I'm sure that was just as impressive if not more.

The next stop was El Alcazar, which is obviously a castle! It's even rumored to be one of Walt Disney's inspirations for his Disneyland castle. If you do a google image search of "Segovia El Alcazar" you'll be able to see some better pictures where you can see the resemblance. Since this is one of the most important sites of Segovia we were all in agreement that we wanted to pay to walk around it. Let me tell you, this place is old, and cold. It was almost 70 degrees outside on Saturday, but inside of this damp, dark, stone castle- it was nippy! Time for a fun story from El Alcazar. I don't know if this is going to be one of those "I guess you needed to be there..." type of things, but I'll try it out. So were were in some room in the castle, and we were looking out a glass window when James saw something and asked if we had any idea what it was. Elena came over, and clearly wanted to give it a good look, and ended up slamming her head straight into the glass window. Oh my God, I legitimately almost peed in my pants. It was so loud too. Ohh good memories. Almost as good as when Arinelli hit her head in the mirror of a dressing room trying on clothes and had a huge egg on her forehead. Well, everyone knows the phrase about Karma, so we'll see what happens to me this weekend...

After going through the castle we were all getting a bit hungry, so decided to set off on a search for food. Segovia is known for a dish called "cochinillo" which is a roasted suckling pig. I would not recommend google imaging it. James ordered it, and I tried a bite and while it tasted good, the pictures are not very appealing. While it is possible to order an entire baby pig, what James and our new friend Elizabeth ended up getting was some unknown body part of it. I decided to go a less exotic root with steamed veggies, and white fish with a Spanish version of ratatouille (called pisto) on top. I topped it off with a cup of "arroz con leche" all for 15 euros. Not too shabby. We also got a pretty strong wine, which really helped ease the conversation between the 4 of us.

That night Elena, Nora and I headed off to the Taylor Swift concert. We had made our own t-shirts in hopes of getting backstage, and while that didn't happen, we had a great time. Apparently not too many people know who Taylor Swift is in Spain, so the giant stadium was pretty empty. Although this might not be the best conditions for a singer, it worked out well for us because we were able to get up close and personal!

After the concert we met up with a guy that Elena had met from Coruña that's now living in Madrid. We also met up with some Holy Cross girls who studied in Coruña 2 years ago but are now teaching English in Madrid. We first went to an Irish bar called Dubliners, which I'm pretty sure had an 80-20 ratio of Americans to Spaniards. Definitely different from La Coruña. After that we headed to a club called Joy, which is in an old theater. It was really cool looking but by around 3:00 AM we were exhausted and realized it would be smart to head home to get a little sleep before going to the airport to catch our flight home.
Overall it was a great, non-stop, busy weekend. Every time I go to Madrid I like it more, and being able to get out to Segovia was great. Of course getting a little dosage of America, with a Taylor Swift was just the cherry on top!
So what's next? Well my roommate from last year, Audrey, is coming down from Galway to visit me in Coruña. We're heading to Santiago de Compostela on Thursday night, and then catching a flight to Barcelona out of Santiago Friday afternoon! In Barcelona Audrey and I will be meeting up with Claire, Elizabeth, and a bunch of other people studying in Scotland and France all from Holy Cross. It should be a really good time! I went to Barcelona a few years ago before my family cruise, but it should be fun to see it in another light as a broke college student traveling with friends!

Carnaval

So the 5 day celebration of Carnaval has come to end, and quite a celebration it was! The best way to describe it would have to be like Halloween for 5 days. Everyone just parties non stop, and everyone walks around the city dressed up basically from Thursday night until Wednesday. The great part about it was that when I say everybody, I really mean it. It's little kids, big kids, parents, teenagers, college students. Well I guess I didn't really see many elderly people dressed up...but I'm sure there were some with hats, masks, or a little something.

As previously mentioned we went out Thursday night after Kelsey's birthday dinner, and were surprised to see basically everyone in the gardens dressed up! Sorry if I'm repeating myself but some of my favorite costumes were a group of guys dressed as the toy soldiers from Toy Story, Mario Kart characters (cars included), American tourists, and a shockingly high percentage of guys dressed as women. We hadn't gotten our costumes ready for Thursday, but Saturday we spent the day preparing our pirate outfits. We had already bought the accessories: eye patch, bandanna-thingy, and a waist sarong with cold coins. On Saturday we finally decided to buy men's red t-shirts, and we cut them all up to layer them on top of a black tank-top. Although some people might have looked more piratey or sexy with their store bought costumes, I think our DIY outfits looked pretty stellar. I wish I had gotten a full body shot of Arinelli, Elena, and I but you'll have to deal with this 1 picture of Elena to get an idea of our costumes.
James' host family had gone away for the weekend and had given him permission to have people over, so we hung out there for a while. We had some drinks, listened to music, and then even got the grand honor of having James play the guitar for us. He even explored the realm of Bachata music, a typical genre of music stemming from the Dominican Republic. Of course Arinelli couldn't hold herself back and started on the lead vocals. We then headed out and spent the rest of the night dancing and singing. The three of us also became very easily amused by our little sarongs since they made a very fun jingling sound whenever we moved our hips. Our inner belly-dancers may have come out a few times during the night. Elena went back a little early, and James, Arinelli and I ended our night eating kebab sandwiches and french fries on a bench by the ocean. Not too bad. This is my life.

 

So this next day was this. It was a gorgeous, beautiful, amazing warm day so Arinelli, Elena and I headed off to the beach. Let me just say how nice it is to live in a city by the ocean. Even on days when it's not warm it's so nice to just be able to walk by the paseo maritimo and stare at the water and let yourself get by mesmerized by the waves. We ended up staying there for almost 2 hours just talking, listening to music, reading, and taking in the sun. I can't wait until it gets nice and warm like this (or warmer!) every day. If you need to find me, you know where I'll be!

That night we headed out to Santa Cristina where our friend Giselle lives, and also where the sunday funday party scene resides! That's right, in Spain there's even a place to get your drink-on on Sunday. Because of Semanta Santa we didn't have school, so Arinelli, Elena, James and I headed out there to go out and then have a little sleepover. It was fun to see some new places, and of course the costumes were great too. There were a group of spartans that kept showing up at every place we went. Let me note that while these spartans had a lot of accessories, they didn't have too much clothing on! The kicker was definitely their paint on 6 packs. They actually looked pretty realistic, maybe I'll have to try that this summer when I go to the beach. "Yeah it's weird! Those Spanish pastries just turn right into muscle and now I have a 6-pack!!" Do you think people will believe me?? Anyways, we got back to her house around 6, and everyone was starving. So I busted out my omelet making skills, I have to say, I think everyone was pretty impressed!

By Monday night we were all pretty exhausted (that might have been partly because I was getting sick) so we decided to lay low and just get dinner. It ended up being more expensive than planned (wamp wamp) but at least it tasted good! The next day I unfortunately woke up with a killer sore throat, that is still slightly persisting, but I do feel like I'm getting better and not worse, so that's good. All 6 of us walked around Tuesday because we heard that there were a lot of things going on during the day, including a parade. Unfortunately, either Spain's definition of "a lot of things" and "parade" are a little different, or we just never found them. We came upon a child's costume contest, and walked down a packed street of people who all seemed to be going in one direction, but never really came to anything. It was still fun though to be out, and see all the people in costumes. It was another gorgeous day, and we ended it checking out the sunset, and then grabbing a little tapa.

It was an end to a great weekend. Another great part about the weekend? Arinelli and I booked our trip for Semana Santa. While I had originally been planning on going to Ireland and Scotland, it just ended up being much too expensive and very difficult to travel there. So instead, the two of us are going to the Canary Islands!!! We'll just spend the time laying out on the beach, getting tan, and drinking some cocktails. Oh, and I'll be celebrating a little thing called my 21st BIRTHDAY!!! I'm so excited! It should be a lot of fun! What can I say? This is my life.

**Shout-outs of the post go to Audrey Gehring and Elizabeth Davin. These two lovely ladies were the people that I had been planning on visiting in Ireland and Scotland (respectively) and unfortunately due to stupid airplane carriers, it doesn't look like it'll be happening this year. Thankfully though, I'll be seeing Elizabeth in Barcelona in a couple weeks, and Audrey is actually coming to Coruña before we head out to Barcelona together!

Hi again!

Okay, guilty as charged, that was an unforseen and unfortunate hiatus in blogging. I was doing so well too wasn't I! Well don't worry, I AM alive and doing well. Very well actually because my parents were in Spain last weekend! We spent a fantastic 4 days in Madrid together, and even though I had already been it was fun to be able to show them around a little bit.
The trip for me actually started on Thursday night because I was going to check into the hotel that night, so that when my parents arrived jet-lagged the next morning around 8 AM, they wouldn't have to worry about waiting for the room to be ready. After a bus to the airport, a 1.5 hour flight, 2 subway line changes, and a walk to the hotel, I finally arrived in our room. This room was amazing. Top floor, and the only room on that top floor, which means that when we pressed floor 6 in the elevator, it opened up to our door. I have to admit, I kind of felt like a princess in the room by myself! I spent the night video-chatting with my friends Dani and Kelly, bathing in the huge jacuzzi-jet tub, shoving the most delicious frozen yogurt down my throat, and possibly walking around the room naked.

The next morning I woke up around 8 when I heard my parents come into the room, and they crashed into their king size bed that I had commandeered for the night. It  was so nice to see them, even if we were all half asleep. I laid there for an hour or so more, but they slept until around 11. I decided to be a nice daughter and go grab them some coffee from starbucks. Due to our various levels of tiredness/size/normal coffee consumption I ended up ordering 1cafe latte of each size. We then headed out to the Plaza Mayor and grabbed a lunch outside right in the plaza. The weather was amazing, almost 70 degrees. I hadn't actually felt hot in a while, but it was a great feeling. We walked around the area a little longer, and just took in some sun in the plaza while we waited for our free walking tour to start. I had done the walking tour last time I went to Madrid, but there was a new guide, and he was great. They take you all over the city, and teach you a lot about the history. It was a small group, I think only 8 of us, so it was really interactive and informative.
After the tour we headed to the Corte Ingles which is a giant department store that also has a supermarket. Our family is known for our epic "happy hours" on vacation, which basically just prepare and stretch our stomachs out before eating dinner! We had a very European happy hour this vacation which included a cheese medley, a baguette of bread, some wine, and paté for Mom. Another European factor was that we dined al fresco, that's right- fresh air, under the stars on our private deck overlooking the city. It was so nice to be able to eat good food, drink good wine, and be able to talk to my parents face to face instead of on skype. While technology is amazing, there's something to be said about a normal in person conversation. After happy hour my mom was stuffed and decided that she wanted to just relax in the hotel room, take a bath, and read her book. My dad and I decided that we were going to walk around a little and then maybe grab a late night dinner/snack/tapa. We walked around for a little and found a "chinatown" street, a TGI Fridays, and an "American Plaza" which consisted of burger king, McDonalds, and starbucks all in a row. We decided to take a turn off the main road of Madrid, and found ourselves in a really cute neighborhood. However we were having trouble finding a good place to eat that didn't seem overpriced, or too old-man just the neighborhood joint. Finally we made a turn, and right on the corner was the perfect spot. It had really cool decor with tiled walls, was packed but had tables to sit at with waiters running around and working hard to get orders quickly and the food out. We ordere patatas bravas (basically homefries with a spicy ketchup on it), chicken wings with REAL barbecue sauce (mmm delish), and then a thing called a "tosta" which is basically like a toasted piece of bread, and on top of ours it had baby shrimp and baby eels with a garlicky mayonnaise sauce on it. I may not have described it well, but it was delicious.
We also did an afternoon trip to a touristy town called Toledo. It was about an hour train-ride, and although we were a little rushed and off schedule, it was a pretty cool place! They're apparently known for their knives and swords, because basically EVERY store sells them there. The rest of the trip consisted of stuffing our faces with delicious food, taking in the good weather, and spending quality time with each other!
Well, right now we're in the midst of Carnaval, which is basically just like a 5 day party! So I PROMISE that a blog updated will be coming soon to give a recap of all that has happened.
Shout out of the post goes to Kelly Garvey and Dani O'Connor who are currently spending their spring break doing a volunteer immersion trip. This is the same trip where I met both of them last year! I hope they have an amazing time and I can't wait to hear about it!

This is my life

This is my life. It's a phrase that since around August 20th of 2010 I've been repeating in my head. I say it to myself when something good is happening, and I just give myself a second to pause, take in the moment and then just let it take me over. In this moment I usually end up looking like a crazy woman just smiling for no apparent reason. Luckily for me though I have a few "this is my life" moments recently.
Thursday night was our friend Giselle's birthday. She's from Spain, and rented out something that appeared to be a basement of a home. I'm not quite sure how that works. But anyways, she's in my Spanish Literature class and there were a bunch of other kids at the party that are in that class with me, so it was nice to actually get to meet and talk to them. The only problem was that a lot of them are English majors, and spoke English really well and wanted to practice. So a lot of the time they would be talking to me in English and I'd be speaking in Spanish, but hey, in the end we were able to communicate and practice the languages we wanted! Before I get more into the night though I should start at the beginning. So we had class until 6:00, but we still hadn't bought Giselle a present. Nora, Kelsey and I were put in charge of the gift so we got her a American cookbook written in Spanish, a shirt and earrings. We then headed back to our houses to get ready so that we could meet at the bus station at 8:30.

Now given the Spanish "party-schedule" this was possibly the earliest that I had gotten ready. I kind of felt like I was back in America! Of course people ended up running late and we finally got to the bus station around 8:45. Giselle lives outside of the city, so we needed to catch a specific bus, but when we got there we realized that we had about half an hour until the bus was coming. We were all starving though, so we decided to go the cafeteria in the bus station. Now just imagine the six of us walking in, all dressed up and made up. Heels and dresses, lookin' fine. I'm pretty sure the workers and the few other people in there were very confused as to why we were eating there. We knew that there would be some food at Giselle's so we all just decided to get a piece of tortilla (if you are a loyal reader to the blog, you should know what this is, but let me remind you again with this link). Unfortunately, this was legitimately the WORST tortilla I have ever had. I mean, I've never actually made tortilla, but it seems pretty hard to mess up that bad. It's fried potatoes and eggs. Somehow though the bus station cafeteria managed to screw it up. It was hard, rubbery, flavorless, hard. Even the bread was bad. That being said, I think we all finished ours anyway. Beggars can't be choosers right!
After eating we got onto the bus, where all we knew was that we had to get off at the stop right after the bridge. We had no idea what bridge this was, or when it would appear, so we were basically just staring out of the windows, being obnoxious and yelling out "Was that a bridge??" "Nope! No bridge yet" "I THINK I SEE A BRIDGE!" Eventually we did see a bridge so we got off and called Giselle who was going to pick us up at the bus stop. There were about 15 people there, and the 6 of us were all relieved to see that there was still food there, including tortilla that Giselle's dad had made. Aka- 10 times better than bus station tortilla. The only bad thing with all the food just sitting there is that when you're drinking, and inhibitions start to go, that food just starts to look and taste more appealing.

Eyes closed, or super-asian?

The party was so fun though. There was great music playing out of a speaker system from homemade mix-tapes, and therefore tons of dancing too! We knew a couple people there already, but it was great to talk and meet other students who are in me and James' literature class.
Unfortunately, Arinelli actually had a test/quiz (a quest!) the next morning, so she left and Kelsey accompanied her back to Coruña.
The party ended soon after and James, Nora, Elena and I took a taxi back into Coruña to where the bars/clubs are. I had a 10:00 class though that morning, so by 3:00 AM I was pretty tired, and had sobered up pretty quick, so I was ready to go home. Nora and I walked home, and although my feet were killing me from my heels and I was exhausted, I still managed to have a "this is my life" moment. It was a gorgeous night out, and had had such a fun time at Giselle's party.
I don't have classes on Fridays this semester so I just had a relaxing morning and caught up on some TV shows. It was a really nice day though so I went with Nora to the post-office and then we went for a walk before lunch. Later that afternoon though, Nora, Kelsey and I had a spa appointment. Yes, you heard me right. SPA. I am most definitely my mother's daughter.
We had booked it a couple days before and we decided to do a "spa circuit" and then each get an hour long massage. The spa circuit was really cool with crazy showers, a sauna, and a huge hot tub. The funniest part though was one of the showers called the "chorro jet". It basically consisted of a woman shooting water out of a fireman's hose at your back. She did it in a way though that the strong pressure of it made it a massage, but it definitely took a little getting used to. I also had to hold back my laughter when my hair started hitting me in my face when she was shooting the water at my shoulder. The spa circuit ended in this giant hot tub, more like a pool with hot water. The three of us just got to swim around, lay on the "bubble loungers" and relax in there for about 20 minutes. After that was massage time! The massage felt so nice, and was so relaxing. Let me just say though that the masseuse saw A LOT of my body, a lot more than one in the United States would see, for sure! I decided to stay in my relaxed mode Friday night, and we all just stayed in and relaxed at home. On Saturday Kelsey and I went for a run, and then the 4 of us here went to Caffe Vecchio and got frappes. We all went out to botellon that night, and then Nora, James, and I stayed out a little later drinking, dancing, and just having a good time.
This should be a pretty good week too. We don't have our Holy Cross class this week, so on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I'm free, and then I'm leaving for Madrid on Thursday to see my parents! Yayy! Hope everyone has a good week too. Love you all <3

Leon

So this weekend James and I headed to Leon, Spain where our friends Emily and Andy are studying for the year. Kelsey and Nora also joined us for the 5 hour bus ride (yes, you read that correctly, 5 hours) but they went to a ski-resort about 45 minutes away for most of the weekend.

Leon is a smaller city located in the region of Castilla-Leon (here is a link to a map with all of the regions, I'm in Galicia). Compared to Galicia, which is it's own very strong culture and distinct vibe, Leon is very much a typical, interior Spanish city. It was fun to walk through the quiet cobblestone streets, and check out the old architecture. Although Coruña is by no means a big city, I can understand why Emily and Andy were looking around our city as if it was NYC when they came to visit. While Coruña always seems to be bustling with people walking, talking, shopping and eating, Leon just seemed calmer. They do have a gorgeous, and huge cathedral that we were able to see. We also were able to go up it, and learn all about the stained glass restoration that they've been doing.
That being said, the Leoneses (the people of León) sure do come out at night, for the WONDERFUL system of tapas. Let me just pause here for a second and address some comments I've received about the focus that I often put on food in my blog posts. While my mom claims that I may be developing a food obsession, I beg to differ. I believe that the food of different countries can teach a lot about different cultures. I also think that food is something that can always bring people together. No matter what language you speak or where you're from, as humans we need food to survive. Thankfully, throughout my travels I'm not eating for pure survival, so I get to enjoy everything that I try, and in the end isn't that what you people want to hear about? The fun, the enjoyment, and my ever expanding knowledge of different cultures? Well, you've got it in food. Maybe I should rename this blog to: Kristen's European Eating Adventure. Nahh. That makes me sound obese.

morcilla

Okay, I digress to TAPAS. So most of you out there must be a little confused. Don't they have tapas everywhere in Spain? Hasn't she talked about getting tapas in Coruña? Yes and yes. What makes León different? They're free. That's right, you don't pay any extra for them. So here's how it works, every bar in León has there own specialty tapa. So you go to the bar, give your money to a friend who's in charge of ordering, get small beer, wine, or beer/lemon-soda mix (more on that one later, it's delish though) for one euro, and then wait for the friend to hand you your drink and bring back a plate of food! The tapas that we got were this ham/fat/onion mixture (ehh, it got better from there), chicken wings and chorizo tapa similar to pigs in a blanket, a platter with a piece of sausage, chorizo, ham and cheese for each person, and last but not, morcilla. So what is that dish called morcilla, that frankly looks like poop spread onto bread? Well no worries, it's MUCH less gross, it's a paste made out of blood sausage! So a lesson that I've learned from studying abroad? I am definitely an adventurous eater. It pays off too, because the morcilla was actually delicious, it tasted kind of like chili. After tapas we went out to a bar which was offering free beer until 1 AM. Unfortunately, the lesson learned that nothing that comes free is ever good. I don't even know how to describe the taste, and even worst aftertaste of that beer. We were tired from our early wake up call, and long bus ride though, so we headed back to the apartment soon after.
James had decided to stay out with his boys (Andy and Dan) so Emily, her welsh friend also named Emily, and I went back and decided to watch glee. I legitimately fell asleep within 15 minutes, and Emily was out pretty quick too. However, we were roused from our peaceful slumber by our 3rd roommate, James. We learned that James snores. We also learned that he'll stop snoring for 5-10 minutes if you hit him. Therefore, we were awake most of the night, hitting him every 20 minutes or so.

The next morning we met up with Andy and walked around. The welsh roommate, Emily, was going to cook dinner, but we were in charge of going to the outdoors farmers market and getting the vegetables. It was really fun to walk around the farmers market since there's nothing like that in Coruña. I got an apple for breakfast, and we found everything we needed for the vegetable dish. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, and we ended up getting sucked in to watching about 8 episodes of Pimp My Ride in a row. The best was when a girl named Spechelle got her car "pimped". Yes, her name is pronounced special. Ohhh America. Emily then cooked us a chicken curry dish which was delicious, but probably the spiciest thing I've ever tasted. A bunch of European students who are part of the ERASMUS program (a huge, solely European student exchange program) came over for a little party before going out. However, Emily and I were both exhausted, so when everyone else was getting ready to head out, we decided to be lame and just stay in. Even though we felt bad, we were able to bond for the 30 more minutes that we were awake for.
It was so nice to see León, and even better to be able to spend time with Emily, Andy, and Dan. I'm really excited because Andy and Dan will be here next Sunday for a few hours. Given that Holy Cross is completely integrated with the Erasmus program in León, they get tons of free trips (so jealous, so unfair) and next week they're going to Porto, Santiago de Compostela, and then Coruña to see the Torre de Hercules. James' host mom said that there's a good octopus restaurant up there, so we're gonna try and find it and bring them there.

In other news, on Monday I made a bank account and joined the gym! It feels so nice to be exercising! Today though Elena and I decided to be bold and take a class. So we decided to "Step, level 2". There wasn't a level 1 at the time, and we're both in decent shape so we figured we'd be fine. We failed to think through the fact though that everyone who was in level 2, had probably done level 1, and therefore new all the moves. To say that we were uncoordinated would be an understatement. There was clearly an ex-semipro dancer next to me, who was flying in the air, pointing his toes, while simultaneously doing jazz hands. Me on the other hand, decided to eliminate any spin/turn that everyone else was doing, and almost ran into the people in front of me, behind me, and to the left and right. We looked like walruses in a room of dolphins. Regardless, it was a good workout. We might try level 1 though next time.
Shout out to my friends in León! Thanks to Emily, Debs, and Martin for letting us take over their apartment and more thanks to Andy, Emily, and Dan for spending time with us, showing us around their city, and bringing us for tapas!