Bummer

Went to the Holy Cross last night just to find out that they are OUT of tshirts!! Andrew finally got his 4th pinta but had to settle for a mug. It´s a pretty cool mug, but nothing like a shirt. Last week the bartender had asked Carroll for her number but failed to call her that night, so she was kinda bummed. I guess he recognizes me now since I´m technically a regular and asked me if she was coming.. I tried to explain to him in Spanish that she´d be back Thursday. He told me to give her kisses for him.. heheh. BUT now that they don´t have shirts anymore I dunno if we´re going back anytime soon.

If you haven´t heard already there was a major crash at the Madrid airport a few hours ago. Most Spainairds didn´t even know... Carroll´s dad called her and freaked out. Our group is a bit nervous about flying out next week now.. =/ Luckily none of us are flying SpainAir.

Got a new roommate from France today.. she´s 17 and she´s only here for two weeks. She barely speaks English, but speaks better Spanish than I do, so whatever I can manage in Spanish is the most we can converse. It was super quiet during lunch today.. because there are 3 of us, but we all speak different languages, and mininal Spanish. I´d try, but I´d just look like a fool.

Today´s cooking class was basically watching the lady make paella and sangria. We took turns throwing in fist fulls of rice and water.I thought were actually gonna cook, but she had most of it prepared already AND she used packaged mariscos specifically for paella. I can´t find that in the states!!

Time to go home for dinner... but I´m still full from the paella. Watching a Spanish movie later tonight starring Elijah Woods? No subtitles! =/

Yea, I´m bummed.

Holiday In Spain

Holiday in Spain-- a song by the Counting Crows. I am looking super forward to the Maroon 5/ Counting Crows/ Augustana concert in September!! First person who says yes to me gets a free ticket... enticed yet?

Next weds is La Tomatina Fiesta in Buñol, near Valencia. It happens only once a year in August and we´re freaking going! We have finals next week but I´m going to ask if I can reschedule one of them. My vocab prof is hooking me up with bus tickets to and from the site. It´s about 6 hours away. Oh before I go on, La Tomatina is a tomato throwing festival!

Check it out: http://www.latomatina.es/index.php?lang=english It can also be youtubed for some real action. I´m going to pay 79 euro to throw tomatoes. More updates about that after next Weds.

It´s been really quiet and lonesome in the house since Sarah left. I try not stay there and only go home for meals. I´m happy ISA has stuff planned for us this week -- tour of catedral and cooking classes! Also going to Granada and Sevilla this weekend. Yayy... last weekend in Spain!

I love sleep

Didn't sleep for almost 3 nights....
Started Weds night w/ Jess and Ben's birthdays overlapping. Went to the bar, got some chupitos and then headed over to camelot. I love clubbing here because not all the guys are as aggressive as they are in the states. We get to do our own thing and sing along with the music. However the occasional few do follow us after we leave. Anyway, tried looking for more chupitos but everything was closed at 4am so we found Leonardo's, the ONLY food place open in the early morning. I was completely fine when I got home but an hour into sleeping I got nauseous from the smell of smoke in my hair and threw up my burger. Mi madre was pissed in the morning cause she thought I came home drunk and threw up all over the place. Lectured me and gave me disappointing looks. Argh..

Thursday.. somehow made me it through my classes, thought not entirely awake. Got on an 11 hour journey on a bus for Barcelona without sleeping much because they have a law here that requires bus drivers to stop every 2.5 hours. We had the best luck of sitting right to the door and it was freeezing cold everytime he stopped. Got here around 645am and our friend had just gotten home. Found a flier for a "ciclotour" of Barcelona on bike. Got to see all of Antoni Gaudi's works.. the cathedral in progress is amazing! Construction began 135 years ago and they're trying to finish by 2036, the 100 year mark of his death. here's some info on the cathedral if anyone is interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia
I think it's pretty awesome.

Spent the rest of the day in the sun at the beach... a topless beach like they all are in spain or maybe europe in general? Anyway, I wanted to say that I've it at least once, so the three of us (girls) all did. Quite liberating and didn't feel weird at all! Spent the night at Opium, club right by the beach, the lounge area actually connects to the beach. Didn't have as great of a time because we sat there talking for a good while. I can't drink and breathe in smoke at the same time or else I get nauseous.. so I was got really bored. Things started picking up when we finally decided to dance and dance .. and dance... until the they kicked us out at 615 am. At that time Jess and Carroll were still drinking their 4th or 5th redbull/ vodka of the night. It was disasterous trying to take the metro with these drunkards. I'm just glad Carlo and Alberto (the Italianos) came with us so I had help taking care of them. FINALLY got to sleep at 930am... and now we're watching US kick Spain's butt in basketball. First time I have the chance to watch the olympics because they're always on while I'm in class during the weekday! Our friend recommended we not go out to bars because there probably wouldn't be many Americans there =P. I really want to watch the Kayak/ canoe starting Monday!

I finally changed my return flight and bought my one way ticket to Rome! Carlo is trying to find me a place to stay with his friends for the 4 nights I'm there. If not, the hostels don't see too bad, and everything seems to be centralized in one area within walking distance. Flying into NYC on the 3rd and going to explore the city on my own till Friday night when i meet up with Carroll and then heading over to Boston to visit Jon Hua! Checked SW tickets and there aren't any available to SFO so I'm thinking about flying to LAX instead and possibly driving the van home that weekend instead. I realized that as much as I love Spain, I shouldn't have come here to study. Four days a week in Salamanca gets kinda boring and we really don't have that much time to explore. I look forward to traveling to other places on the weekends and a few days in each place is more than enough. Miss everyone at home, can't wait to be back in 3 weeks.

One last thing, Congratulations to Karrie and Ben on their engagement! The one couple in our program who came together and are staying until the end of December. Ben proposed on his 21st birthday (2 days ago) at a gorgeous park with a cathedral in the background in Salamanca. Absolutely stoked for the couple =)!

My first F

I checked my grade last night for the my session A summer class and it said Final Grade: F. I freaked out and emailed my prof and couldn't sleep for a while. So turns out that it's a MISTAKE and I actually got a B. PHEW. that was a tough 24 hours to endure thinking my gpa had plummeted even more.

Reality about my weight gain struck me hard today. ISA planned a soccer game, Summer 3 vs. Summer 4 (i'm part of summer 4). Only one person on our team had ever played soccer for a real team while almost all the girls were experienced on the other. After one sprint down to the other side of the field and I was out of breath. After running back and forth for a while I was cramping on the side and limping because some guy kicked the back of my ankle, the one with tendonitis! So after that I volunteered to goalie.. bad idea. I kicked the ball directly to a girl on the other team and she kicked it right into the goal. I was so glad halftime came. Left early because I planned to go to dinner w/ my roomie and her friends.

So I had 2 mins to change when i got back and tried slipping on some jeans for the first time since I've been here. Took me a few mins along with some tugging at and they're still hugging my hips like no other. =/ I really hoped that walking so much would cancel out the amount of food I was inhaling, but nope! I guess I'll have to start doing some real aerobics and crunches in my room or somethiing. i'm too cheap to pay for gym membership.

Needless to pay the only reason I'm able to go online right now is because I'm at the bar again! Got my free shirt.. it's awesome! =D That means I've had 3/4 gallon of beer because my friend helped me w/ one. Hmm maybe that's where all the extra weight is coming from? So yea, I"m gonna have to try harder with the keeping in shape, especially since TI race is 2 weeks after i return! Can't let the SD down. Miss you guys by the way!

Studying at a bar

I just introduced my friend to The Holy Cross, the bar that gives free tshirt for 4 pints of beer! It's the most awesome place ever because they're open till 3 am, they have free wi-fi, and they have bumpin music! Free internet is a big deal around here because it's so hard to come by, and the times places are open till are very limited, especially on a Sunday night. We were planning on studying here, and i guess we'll start when our laptops die. Just got back from Portugal a few hours ago, not as great as expected. First night in Aveiro, did some shopping for the first time since I've been here and glad i waited because it's definitely a bit cheaper... except for English books. I paid 11.50 euro, almost 18 dollars for a regular book i could've paid 7.99 for, but i was desperate for something to read. Cool thing was the mall was open till 12am. Wanted to go to a concert afterward that we saw the band setting up for but I lost Carroll and ended going back to finish my book.

Spent almost 8 hours at the beach on Saturday and even though I reapplied every hour I forgot to apply at the bikini line. It hurts to sit. =( Got dressed up for dinner at this pretty awesome place where we got the "tourist menu" The night sucked cause we couldn't find the club where our waiter had suggested. spent an hour or so walking around with EVERYONE staring at us and guys following us. It finally got too scary and we went back to the hotel.

I haven't planned out the last two weeks of my trip yet and I don't know if I want to travel anymore! It's gonna cost us 96 euro to go to barcelona via train this weekend, almost $200. think about how much i would have to spend just to get from paris to rome to amsterdam to ireland, to london... yea it's financially not possible for me. i'm gonna try to either change my flight to come home early or pick 2 places to stay for one week at a time. still gonna cost me a bundle to pay for hostel/ meals. any suggestions??

half way through my pint and kinda buzzed already. better get to the studying before i don't remember what i read. my madre said my spanish got worse since i left for the weekend. not my fault that they speak portugese/ english in portugal!

Meeting under the clock

Finally in Salamanca! My "mom" is more of a grandma because she already has 3 grandkids. We can't communicate too well but it works out. Let me just say that they should not even call breakfast a meal here. It's a tiny little muffin or crackers with a cup of coffee. (The coffee is delicious here btw.) Lunch isn't until 3pm and that's the largest meal of the day. Dinner at 930 when the sun sets. The program totally spoiled us with the hotel meals when we got here, what with the unlimited jamons and eggs.

Today was the first day of class.. 845-240pm, it's like high school all over again. The first 3 hours of grammar and vocab was fun and bearable. There are only 12-15 students in each class and most of mine were either from the US or from Japan. One of them was SEVENTY years old and spoke better Spanish than the rest of us Americans. By the time 1pm rolled around we were super tired and hungry and bolted when it was time to go. We all go home for lunch and then siesta! (siesta = nap) My mom wouldn't let me out of the house after lunch the first day here because it was too hot.

Haven't gone out much yet because we've all been trying to settle in still. Going out for the first time tonight with my roommate, Sarah, to a bar that gives away free tshirts if you drink 4 beers. I'm getting that tshirt. OH! so not many of us have cell phones here and it's really hard to contact someone after you part. We all meet at the Plaza Mayor under the clock at a certain time (in the picture above.) Absolutely gorgeous at night!! I walked around by myself last night around 1130ish and there were groups congregating in circles in the center, all speaking different languages.

Still trying to plan out my last two weeks in Europe, but transportation is extremely expensive.. I might have to cut down the number of places I can hit. Heading to Aveira, Portugal with ISA this weekend. It's supposed to be beachtown, much cheaper than Espana, and we get tons of free time..yayy

happy birthday bro

the only reason i got online today was to say happy 17th birthday to my brother.. but he´s not even online!!

the weather is super humid .. which makes me super duper tired. i somehow woke up with my retainer in my hand. i think my mouth got too dry during the night? went to museo del prado today. learned a bit about the officials artists for the kings from the 18th century. only caught parts of it thought because the guide did a spanglish tour. same deal with the royal palace. i´ll post pictures once i get to use my own computer. didn´t want to wait in line at the restaurant and i figure buying something will cost as much to use this computer for an hour.

headed back to the hotel afterward and took a 3 hour nap... unintentionally. then i was gonna go buy some stamps to mail my postcards, but caught some people in the program and we decided to go to the largest park in spain.. i forget what its called. the other students keep asking me " so do you have BLANK in california?" taking the metro was an experience for them.. and they asked if i had ever run through a corn maze. didn´t even know those exist. oh yea, brought out my pocky and hello panda to snack on and they had never heard of those either, but they liked it. i hope they don´t think i´m a fob.

didn´t get a chance to buy the stamps because they are only available at tabasco stores, which are only open from 9-2p and 5-9pm. many of the stores are like that.. so if u miss it, you gotta wait!! maybe tomorrow...