Friday, July 24, 2009
Ramblin' Man
Prague is 5 hours with some really really great people! About to have an unforgettable experience in an unbelievable city! I'm out until Tuesday.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Countdowns!
Two days -> Prague with my girls!
Ten days -> The Dreamers leave :(
Twelve days -> ZP gets into Barca!!!!!!
Fourteen days -> MY 23rd BDAY. yikes.
Twenty-four days -> Back to Wisco! bittersweet.
Ten days -> The Dreamers leave :(
Twelve days -> ZP gets into Barca!!!!!!
Fourteen days -> MY 23rd BDAY. yikes.
Twenty-four days -> Back to Wisco! bittersweet.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Finally Recieved My Package!
Finally after much trial and tribulation I have received my package! It arrived here on July 8th and took 13 days to get from Madrid to Bellaterra. I miss customer service sooooooo much. The woman I was contacting at UPS Espana about my package sent me an automated response when I emailed her that she would be out of the office until August 16th...thank you for the heads up. That's so standard here in Spain and Europe in general. Everyone leaves for three-four weeks in the summer for "holiday." I'm really thinking we should have something like this is the states!!
On a lighter note...I just took a spinning class at the gym all in Spanish. So ridiculous! It was so much fun. But its making me even more excited to come home...EVERYTHING IN ENGLISH!!
On a lighter note...I just took a spinning class at the gym all in Spanish. So ridiculous! It was so much fun. But its making me even more excited to come home...EVERYTHING IN ENGLISH!!
Monday, July 20, 2009
One of the clubs we went to
This was a club in a legitimate castle! Called La Terrazza! It was amazing.
Two weeks left with the dreamers!
My program is over in less than two weeks, meaning that all the Dreamers are leaving me!! Although I have two weeks of traveling with Zach to look forward to I am really sad that my program is ending so soon. I feel like it took about 4 weeks with everyone to really get settled in and make really strong, long lasting friendship....giving us only another 4 weeks before leaving. So the next 12 days are literally going to have to be packed with time with friends, last minute tours and travels and lots and lots of time spent in the city! I'm going to try and hold off on the sadness until August 1st but its hard when you are watching time slip through your fingers.
This weekend I am going to Prague with my six closest girl friends, another group of four awesome girls and two of the guys! The girls that I'm going with are Margo (obv), Julia, Theresa, Susie and Gina. Its going to be so much fun. All of us Dreamers are on the same Saturday morning flight...it most likely be completely ridiculous! We are staying at a really nice hostel and we don't really have much planned out...but I'm not concerned because somehow we always manage to have the best time ever, no matter what we're doing. Like this weekend Margo and I missed the weekend trip to Costa Brava (don't ask) but we ended up having SUCH a great, completely ridiculous time just hanging out at Bellaterra and in the city. I guess that's really what it means to just go with the flow and make the best of every situation.
So that's that for a some introspective thoughts about my situation and my time left here. Back to work.
This weekend I am going to Prague with my six closest girl friends, another group of four awesome girls and two of the guys! The girls that I'm going with are Margo (obv), Julia, Theresa, Susie and Gina. Its going to be so much fun. All of us Dreamers are on the same Saturday morning flight...it most likely be completely ridiculous! We are staying at a really nice hostel and we don't really have much planned out...but I'm not concerned because somehow we always manage to have the best time ever, no matter what we're doing. Like this weekend Margo and I missed the weekend trip to Costa Brava (don't ask) but we ended up having SUCH a great, completely ridiculous time just hanging out at Bellaterra and in the city. I guess that's really what it means to just go with the flow and make the best of every situation.
So that's that for a some introspective thoughts about my situation and my time left here. Back to work.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Pamplona - Running of the Bulls!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiP82XX7Pro&feature=popular
Copy and paste this post and watch the entire thing. This is what some of my friends here did this weekend! Insane. It was the first time in 15 years that someone has died from running with the bulls....although each year many many people are hospitalized!
All my friends are fine save for a few bruises and a hoof print on one of my friend's backs!
Copy and paste this post and watch the entire thing. This is what some of my friends here did this weekend! Insane. It was the first time in 15 years that someone has died from running with the bulls....although each year many many people are hospitalized!
All my friends are fine save for a few bruises and a hoof print on one of my friend's backs!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Last weekend.....FRANCE!
So Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn (9 am) and we all boarded the bus to France. Now this is four hour bus ride with a bunch of people that just got back from the clubs and bars like 2 hours before.....so basically its just a ridiculous bus ride! And I always have so much fun on these Saturday planned activities, just because we are all in the same boat. Half the people just want everyone to be quiet so they can sleep and the other half just want to continue the party from the night before (I of course belong in the second half....along with Margo). I just had fun exchanging stories from the night before and what everyone else did.
Four long hours later we arrived in Carcassonne, France and checked into our hotel for the night. All of my girls and I were all put on the same floor and Margo and I were put together, so it was bound to be a great weekend! We then took a guided tour of the "Old City" of Carcassonne, which is this old fortress and castle from the middle ages that is surrounded by two thick walls. I guess its like one of the only fortresses in Europe that still has both defensive walls still intact.
The tour was long and hot but the castle was really beautiful and it was huge! We took at least 100 pictures that I will eventually post on Facebook. (one of my friends here broke my camera at the castle during one of the photo shoots so I may start to be slacking on the pictures but I am trying to steal a bunch of memory cards from people) It was really really beautiful and at night it is all lit up and you can see in on top of the hill from anywhere in the "New City". All of the people that live in Carcassonne live in the New City. It was a really quaint little French town and I kind of felt bad that they took us there on 4th of July weekend because the town did not know what hit them when 80 "Dreamers" took over!
After the tour we ate a traditional French meal in the hotel, took a little napper and then got ready to take over for the 4th of July!! We hit up some traditional French bars and an Irish bar with everyone from our program. It was just really cool because since the town was so small we pretty much just overtook each bar. And it was nice to be to just talk to everyone and have room to walk around and not be packed into a club with a thousand other tourists like we are here in Barca. So after our mini bar crawl and a pit stop to play in one of the fountains we headed back to our hotel and made it to bed just before the sun came up!
Sunday, on the way back to Barca, we stopped in Figueres, Spain to see a Dali Museaum. It is called the Teatre-Museu Dali and is the world largest collection of Dali originals. Figueres was were Dali grew up and so many of the showcased works were from his own private collection. This was definitely my favorite tourist thing I've seen yet in Barcelona and the coolest museum I've ever been too! The building itself is a work of art...really look it up its so cool! Its all built to reflect the surrealism that's inside. Besides paintings there were unfinished pencil and pen drawings, 3-D sculptures and this living room furniture set that, when viewed from a certain spot in the room, looks like the face of Mae West. IT WAS SO AMAZING! I could have spent so much more time in there. I just wanted to stand in front of every single piece and just think about what could possibly have been going through Dali's mind at the time.....he must have been completely insane! Teatre-museu Dali was one of the things that I wanted to see the most in Spain and I was definitely not disappointed!
This short weekend trip to France was so amazing not only just for the sights that we saw but it was just a really good bonding experience for all of us. I finally feel like I have my 'crew' here all figured out and its really pretty amazing how well I feel like I know some of these people. Like I can say right now that there are a handful of people here that I feel I will keep in touch with the rest of my life. Like Margo is for sure coming to my wedding!
Now I finally get it. I finally understand why traveling abroad is such an important and fulfilling experience. You just have no choice but to put yourself out there, keep an open mind and embrace all these new friendships and relationships that come from it. I love it. And that is why, since France, I have been a lot worse about calling everyone back home and keeping in touch. I just don't ever want to be out of the moment and miss even a second of time with my friends and the city here. My time here is winding down and of course I miss everyone at home but for right now I feel like I just have to live each moment to its fullest. I will be home in just over a month!
Time needs to slow down..........
Four long hours later we arrived in Carcassonne, France and checked into our hotel for the night. All of my girls and I were all put on the same floor and Margo and I were put together, so it was bound to be a great weekend! We then took a guided tour of the "Old City" of Carcassonne, which is this old fortress and castle from the middle ages that is surrounded by two thick walls. I guess its like one of the only fortresses in Europe that still has both defensive walls still intact.
The tour was long and hot but the castle was really beautiful and it was huge! We took at least 100 pictures that I will eventually post on Facebook. (one of my friends here broke my camera at the castle during one of the photo shoots so I may start to be slacking on the pictures but I am trying to steal a bunch of memory cards from people) It was really really beautiful and at night it is all lit up and you can see in on top of the hill from anywhere in the "New City". All of the people that live in Carcassonne live in the New City. It was a really quaint little French town and I kind of felt bad that they took us there on 4th of July weekend because the town did not know what hit them when 80 "Dreamers" took over!
After the tour we ate a traditional French meal in the hotel, took a little napper and then got ready to take over for the 4th of July!! We hit up some traditional French bars and an Irish bar with everyone from our program. It was just really cool because since the town was so small we pretty much just overtook each bar. And it was nice to be to just talk to everyone and have room to walk around and not be packed into a club with a thousand other tourists like we are here in Barca. So after our mini bar crawl and a pit stop to play in one of the fountains we headed back to our hotel and made it to bed just before the sun came up!
Sunday, on the way back to Barca, we stopped in Figueres, Spain to see a Dali Museaum. It is called the Teatre-Museu Dali and is the world largest collection of Dali originals. Figueres was were Dali grew up and so many of the showcased works were from his own private collection. This was definitely my favorite tourist thing I've seen yet in Barcelona and the coolest museum I've ever been too! The building itself is a work of art...really look it up its so cool! Its all built to reflect the surrealism that's inside. Besides paintings there were unfinished pencil and pen drawings, 3-D sculptures and this living room furniture set that, when viewed from a certain spot in the room, looks like the face of Mae West. IT WAS SO AMAZING! I could have spent so much more time in there. I just wanted to stand in front of every single piece and just think about what could possibly have been going through Dali's mind at the time.....he must have been completely insane! Teatre-museu Dali was one of the things that I wanted to see the most in Spain and I was definitely not disappointed!
This short weekend trip to France was so amazing not only just for the sights that we saw but it was just a really good bonding experience for all of us. I finally feel like I have my 'crew' here all figured out and its really pretty amazing how well I feel like I know some of these people. Like I can say right now that there are a handful of people here that I feel I will keep in touch with the rest of my life. Like Margo is for sure coming to my wedding!
Now I finally get it. I finally understand why traveling abroad is such an important and fulfilling experience. You just have no choice but to put yourself out there, keep an open mind and embrace all these new friendships and relationships that come from it. I love it. And that is why, since France, I have been a lot worse about calling everyone back home and keeping in touch. I just don't ever want to be out of the moment and miss even a second of time with my friends and the city here. My time here is winding down and of course I miss everyone at home but for right now I feel like I just have to live each moment to its fullest. I will be home in just over a month!
Time needs to slow down..........
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
4th of July in France
Alright well now that its Wednesday I am finally fully functioning after last weekend in France. (it was completely nuts) I have completely fallen in love with the people in my program, Barca and this lifestyle in general. Someone wise (Cait) once told me that it would probably take about a month to get over being homesick and to begin to really embrace life here. Well I got here on June 2 and by July 4th I was ready to never leave again!
Since the beginning life here has been non-stop..... go, go, go......and it picked up even more this past week slash weekend. Let's just say that when I go home I will have to hibernate for at least 8 months. I need to catch up on all the sleep that I am not getting here!
Last week we went to a MJ tribute party at this club called Shoko on Tuesday night. (It's a club right on the beach and its amazing) It was so much fun and I felt really lucky to have at least caught the 3:05 am bus home (believe me that's a feat to catch that one.....considering the club does not ever really shut down). So that was a great night of 4 hours of sleep before work on Thursday.
Thursday after work I met up with Jeff Poe who was in Barca doing his Eurotrip!! I was sooooo happy to see a friendly face over here. We had been trying to meet up for days but since neither of us had phones and he was staying at a hostel without WIFI....we were really having problems. I met him and his five friends at Agua, a delicious seaside seafood restaurant and we had a blast eating a 5 hour, 3 course meal just like the real Spaniards do! It was so much fun, we had some vino, traditional Spanish tapas like calamari, churizo, spicy potatoes and praws and then I had ahi tuna for my entree. Delic! Then we had after dinner drinks to top it all off. It was just so good seeing Jeff and meeting his friends....and speaking English....and eating a great meal....overlooking the sea.
Friday I finished up my last day of the work week so excited for the weekend!! We all (by all I mean all the Dreamers) went to a bar called Pippermint. It's kinda a tourist/American bar (which I love and have no problem with) and they serve really really really ridiculously big drinks! I mean we split a 13 liters mixed drink between 10 of us! It was a fantastic night spent with all the dreamers. I needed a change of scenery from the club scene. It was nice just being in a bar where I could actually talk to my friends and have room to move around! But we had to call it an early night because we were going to France at 9 am the next morning!!
Since the beginning life here has been non-stop..... go, go, go......and it picked up even more this past week slash weekend. Let's just say that when I go home I will have to hibernate for at least 8 months. I need to catch up on all the sleep that I am not getting here!
Last week we went to a MJ tribute party at this club called Shoko on Tuesday night. (It's a club right on the beach and its amazing) It was so much fun and I felt really lucky to have at least caught the 3:05 am bus home (believe me that's a feat to catch that one.....considering the club does not ever really shut down). So that was a great night of 4 hours of sleep before work on Thursday.
Thursday after work I met up with Jeff Poe who was in Barca doing his Eurotrip!! I was sooooo happy to see a friendly face over here. We had been trying to meet up for days but since neither of us had phones and he was staying at a hostel without WIFI....we were really having problems. I met him and his five friends at Agua, a delicious seaside seafood restaurant and we had a blast eating a 5 hour, 3 course meal just like the real Spaniards do! It was so much fun, we had some vino, traditional Spanish tapas like calamari, churizo, spicy potatoes and praws and then I had ahi tuna for my entree. Delic! Then we had after dinner drinks to top it all off. It was just so good seeing Jeff and meeting his friends....and speaking English....and eating a great meal....overlooking the sea.
Friday I finished up my last day of the work week so excited for the weekend!! We all (by all I mean all the Dreamers) went to a bar called Pippermint. It's kinda a tourist/American bar (which I love and have no problem with) and they serve really really really ridiculously big drinks! I mean we split a 13 liters mixed drink between 10 of us! It was a fantastic night spent with all the dreamers. I needed a change of scenery from the club scene. It was nice just being in a bar where I could actually talk to my friends and have room to move around! But we had to call it an early night because we were going to France at 9 am the next morning!!
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