What I´ve been up to

Feeling a little tired to write a long post, so here´s what I´ve been up to in the past few days:

- Experiencing the nightlife in Barceloneta - where they have men standing outside every bar to bring girls in for free drinks/shots

-Salsa dancing till 6am with a (non-mulleted) Spanish man.  Maybe they´re not all that bad…

-More liberating sunbathing

-Catalonian history museum

-Overnight train to Sevilla

-Sevilla sightseeing (beautiful out here)

-Tapas, tapas, tapas

-Sweating my ass off

-Flamenco shows

Yeah…that about boils it down :)  Getting ready for my last week in Barcelona.  Then it´s off to Nice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Venice, and the Greek Islands!  I get so excited for every leg of my trip…yay!

Soy un idiota

So I was supposed to leave for Sevilla at 8am today.  But yo soy un idiota.  Last night I went out and had a crazy night at the bars on the beach.  I was out till 6am.  And silly me, I thought I could take a disco nap and be good to go.  I woke up at 8:45.  Next train I can catch is at 10pm.  GRRRRR!  Guess I´ll have to suck it up and enjoy the day in this beautiful city.  I wasn´t going to arrive in Sevilla until late anyway (and seeing as how last night was, I´m not sure I would be able to handle going out tonight) but still quite a bummer.

Etc

Thanks so much to everyone for your condolences.  It means a lot to me.

 Let´s see now, what else is new (and not sad)…Well I took myself to the Harry Potter movie the other night.  That was fun!  Looking forward to the last book (but please don´t say  a word about it!).  Went to the beach yesterday in Barceloneta.  And I did the topless thing for the first time!  (well, in public anyway)  It was strange though, most beaches I´ve been to, at least 1/2 of the women were topless.  In Barceloneta, I was in the minority.  And it was awesome.  So liberating!  I was lying on the beach, doing Spanish homework, topless!  Course now my tatas are a bit pink, as they don´t usually see the sun.  So it goes.

Also bought myself a couple new books, finally.  I only brought one on my trip, to reduce bulk, but I read it within a week.  Fortunately for me, at my hostel in Madrid they had a book exchange where you could leave a book in exchange for a new one.  The only one in English was by one of those pretentious Jonathans (Safen Foer, I believe).  But it was an interesting, if not fabulous, read.  Yesterday I bought a Roald Dahl book I´d never heard of - My Uncle Oswald, and A Handmaid´s Tale.  Excited for both, especially since I have a nice long trip to Sevilla tomorrow morning (somehow could only book a ticket on the slow-boat train.  grr). 

Went to a club last night.  Pretty uneventful.  Still feel the same about Spanish men (with or without mullets).

Today I went on a tour of the Park Guell.  It was really cool, Gaudi´s failed masterpiece.  Also met an awesome teacher on the tour, yay!

So people keep asking me about pictures.  I want to post them!  The problem is, I only have internet access at my school (where it is v. slow and there is a long wait always), or at an internet cafe (where I am paying by the hour).  So I don´t really have the time to load them.  Which sucks, cause I want to!  I´ve taken a ton of pictures.  I am glad I didn´t bring my laptop for travel purposes, but in this case, it would have been much easier for picture sharing.  Oh well, you will have to wait until I meet another person with a computer that I can use for an extended period, or until I return with millions of pictures to post all at once!

RIP Lilly

Last night I went to a flamenco show with a friend.  Immediately after leaving the show, my father called to tell me that our dog, Lilly, had died.

Lilly was about 16 years old and was truly the sweetest dog in the world.  She was a beautiful and loving English Springer Spaniel.  We got her when I was 10 and I remember holding her in my arms and debating over names.  However, she was quite old.  When our other dog, Sami, died last year, Lilly lost a best friend and was definitely affected by it.  She had also been going deaf and had problems controlling her bowel movements.  My mother was at a loss at what to do.  With the family moving to DC/Maryland this fall, she was worried that Lilly wouldn´t survive the move and yesterday had mentioned the possibility of putting her to sleep.

I think Lilly knew.  She had been spending a lot of time by the pool, (my mom says dogs gravitate towards water when they´re not well), and yesterday the housekeeper saw her floating in the deep end.  My sister jumped in to save her, but there was no water in her lungs so she didn´t drown.  She was just not well, and I guess it was her time.  To be honest, I haven´t entirely processed it yet.  It´s still very much a shock.  And even though I know it was probably for the better, like most things, that doesn´t make it any easier. 

After the first week…

So wow, I have been in Barcelona for a week now! 
Travel blogging has been harder than expected because internet access is somewhat limited.  Bah.
My host family situation was a nightmare from my arrival in Barcelona onwards, (they switched it last minute, I arrived at the old host family, hauled my ass all around after not sleeping in Pamplona, yada yada) but it ended with my being placed with a very old couple who were housing  5 other students.  All of them French.  And all aged 17-21.  Um, where are my peers?  And all 8 of us shared 1 bathroom.  My room had one window, which overlooked a wall, so I had no light and found it extremely difficult to get out of bed (well, that´s not new).  The food was terrible (okay, I can tolerate that) but the host family would not eat with us.  They would WATCH us eat.  Really uncomfortable.  The whole place was uncomfortable, I felt like I was always being watched.  Yesterday I was able to move to a student residence.  Still most of them are young and French (WTF?) but at least I have my space with a lock on the door and feel like I can relax there.
So let´s see, lots of things….Woody Allen is shooting a movie here. Everyone´s obsessed with that. Classes are good and challenging, and very international - there were 3 people from the Netherlands in my class last week (there was a girl in my class who was on the Netherlands´version of Temptation Island - random!). It definitely has been strange practicing in Barcelona where they also speak Catalan.  I didn´t know enough about the culture here before I came, but there is a huge divide between the Catalonian and Spanish cultures, and Catalonians consider themselves Catalonian first.  There are all these issues with immigration that have popped up within the past 5 years and they are worried about losing their culture and language.
Last week I visited lots of good sites - La Familia Sagrada, Picasso Museum, Port Barcelona/Barceloneta, La Boqueria Market, Montjuc… keeping busy
Went out to dinner last week with my new friend Sarah.  Had one of the best meals I´ve had all vacation at a tapas place called Inopia.  To die for!  Everything we ate was incredible.  I hope to return later this week.
Today I went to the Sitges beach.  About 40 min from Barcelona, it was the best excursion.  Sarah went with me and a friend from my Madrid trip met up with us.  We layed on the beach, ate a massive seafood paella, drank sangria, and had the most lovely day.  I´m feeling happy, tired, and ready for my next week.  I´m heading to Sevilla on Friday.  Viva España!

Soy en Barcelona

I made it!  Am in Barcelona (well, I have been since Sunday) and am finally recuperating a bit.  This city is so beautiful, I´m glad I get to spend a good amount of time here.

This computer is really difficult to type on (as most Spanish  computers seem to be) so I´m going to be brief.

- not into spanish men.  the mullet they´re all sporting?  no thanks.

- amerispan is a disorganized and disasterous program.  i would not recommend it to anyone.  however, the school i´m at - don quixote- is great.

- host family was a bad idea.  i´m getting out of there asap.

- overall, i´m just really happy to be in this city. i haven´t seen a whole lot, as i have been settling in, but i really love it.  each leg of my trip brings new adventures and amazing people, this has been such a fantastic experience!

Pamplona = crazy

And I = tired.  Pooooor planning for this part of the journey on my part.  But I will write a real post after rest.  But next time I´m running with the bulls!

San Sebastian

Made it to San Sebastian in one piece on the overnight train.  I had a reclining seat (did not go back too far) and it was pretty miserable.  What can ya do, I am not getting any real sleep on this trip anyway!  So my train got me in at 7am (I almost missed my stop because I actually did fall asleep eventually), and check in at my hostel wasn´t until 9am.  I buzzed them but nobody answered.  Fortunately, San Sebastian is a gorgeous beach town, so I did walk around a bit (with my ton of luggage) and took some nice pictures.  When I finally did get to my hostel, it still took forever for the bastard to buzz me in.  I´m standing outside, haven´t showered in 2 days, and suddenly this Spanish guy on a scooter starts trying to get my attention.  At first I ignored him, but he started saying something about the building I was in front of and I thought maybe he knew something about the hostel.  So I gave him my attention.  He did not speak a word of English.  He pulled over his motor scooter, tells me my hostel is closed, and starts begging me to walk on the beach with him.  I´m sorry, do you not see that I am 2 days dirty, tired, with an assload of luggage and trying desperately to get inside my hostel?  When I do finally get in, the man running the joint tells me I can´t check in until 1.  Ugh.  Okay, fine.  So I tell him I want to run on the beach and can I come back and shower.  No, I can´t use the facililties.  And he´s giving me a nasty attitude, yelling and arguing.  Plus the hostel was pretty grungy.  So I said fuck it, I´ll just go somewhere else.  Here I am, in San Sebastian, with all my things and without a place to stay.  Someone in Madrid had told me about a hostel on the other side of town, so I followed his rudimentary map, hiked all my stuff over, and was able to check into Olga´s Place.  Hooray!  I couldn´t use my room till 12, but I could use all the facilities.  Hooray again!  I got in a lovely hour run on the beach, showered, walked around town with an Aussie guy I met there, and had a very nice time.  Later that night I ment some girls at the hostel (from San Diego and Australia - I swear all of Australia is travelling Europe), and we had dinner in the Puerta Vieja.  The Aussie had a friend who had been travelling for almost 2 years and he met up with us, telling us his crazy stories about getting hijacked in Jamaica, and seeing someone throw himself in front of a train.  Insanity.  We hit up a couple bars, and ultimately wound up at a crazy club just over the beach until about 4am.  More on that another time.  I have just spent most of my day on the beach (hello sunburn) and am exhausted at an internet cafe.  Going to Pamplona at 5am tomorrow and then to Barcelona.  Where I will finally sleep! 

Update from Madrid

Madrid is so much fun, I´ve really been having a blast here. Hostel is great, very conducive to meeting super cool people (plus it´s clean and centrally located, we like that!). Had a crazy night out with some Minnesota boys (Joe, Travis, and Dan), an Australian girl(Emily), 2 girls from Venezuala and some Argentinians on Monday night. Siesta, tapas, beer, culture. Me gusta Espana! Yesterday was a trip to the public pool (excellent people watching) and up a cable car to a park where you can see the entire city. Really cool. I spent most of my time here with the Minnesota boys and Emily as we were all staying in the same room. Totally fun people. Today was my last day in Madrid. I did some walking around the city (I´ve pretty much seen all the major sights), shopped, and hung out at the hostel a bit. I´m meeting Emily for our last drink in Madrid in a bit and then I´m catching the overnight train to San Sebastian for beaches - yay!!! After that I plan to swing by Pamplona on the last day of the festival de San Fermin (running of the bulls), and end up in Barcelona on Sunday. Then I become un estudiante again! Maybe another chance to upload pictures at that point as well. Adios amigos!

Hola from Madrid!

Hello all. First off, check my flickr page for some pics from Brussels and Amsterdam. I ended up staying out till 4:30am on my bday night with Dani (as I learned his name is spelled). Hit a couple coffee shops, bar hopped, then ended up at some DJ festival called 5 Days Off. I knew Amsterdam would be a good place to celebrate! Had a relatively chill day wandering the city on Saturday - after deciding to nix the sex show and the Heineken tour. Then yesterday was pure travel. I arrived in Madrid this morning on the overnight train from Paris. Exhausting. Fortunately I was able to sleep (thank you Ambien). My hostel in Madrid is pretty nice and clean. I spent the past few hours exploring the city - La Plaza Mayor, El Palacio Real, El Gran Via, La Plaza Espana, El Museo de Reina Sofia (where I saw Guernica), El Parque del Buen Retiro. Good day so far. Methinks now is siesta time!