A catch-up is in order...

Oh wow. So I totally suck. It's been a month since my last post-yikes! Well, a lot has happened since then. I guess I'll provide some highlights!

Barcelona: Last weekend, Kendra, Natalie, and I spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Barca. It was AWESOME! The first day was spent seeing all (okay not all, that would've taken 3 full days) of Gaudí's works in Barca. Casa Mila, La Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell. My favorite was the Sagrada Familia. Gaudí was so ahead of his time! One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was our lunch on Friday. We went to this Italian restaurant and had some AMAZING food. The best calzone I've ever eaten, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, and this dish of mushrooms wrapped in bacon. Seriously, it was some of the best food I've ever eaten. We also shared a pitcher of sangria, and it was all we needed to get a little silly :) After lunch we grabbed some gelato-- also mouthwatering!
Once we got back to our hostel room after the long day, we were greeted by two very good looking guys from California. Miles is studying in Italy, Josh outside of Paris, and they were also enjoying a weekend in Barca. They were really fun to talk to, and they definitely helped my first hostel experience become a great one :) That night we met up with Natalie's friend Becca who's studying in Barcelona and went to a bar and drank too much sangria. end of story. ;)
The next day we met up with our friend Angelina from our program, and her friend who lives in Barcelona. We went to Las Ramblas, a main street with a lot going on. My favorite part was definitely the market we visited. It had amaaazing chocolate stands and tons and tons of fresh fruit (I bought mango, strawberries, pineapple, raspberries, and kiwi). Then we went to the beach with our picnic! We lucked our hardcore with the weather, for sure! 70s and sunny the whole weekend! The beach was gorgeous and it was nice to get some sun.
Saturday night was... interesting... to say the least. First we went to 500 Chupitos (500 shots) where they literally have a wall full of 500 intriguing names of shots to choose from. We started off with a Boy Scout: the bartender lights the bar on fire, gives us marshmallows on sticks, we roast the marshmallows by setting fire to them and set out the fire by dunking them in the shot, take the shot, and then eat the marshmallow. Yum. Next was a Finding Nemo: A shot topped with a rather large dollop of whipped cream, in which an m&m is hidden inside somewhere. The goal is to find the m&m in the whipped cream and then take the shot before everyone else. Then there was the Pop Rocks shot: stick a handful of poprocks in your mouth, take a shot, swish around the poprocks, plug your ears and let the madness commence! Then I was the only one interested in the wasabi shot: lick a dollop of wasabi off your hand before taking a shot. I'm not kidding, it was delish. Kendra and I asked the bartender for a recommendation of another shot that involved fire so then came the Duende Verde (Green Goblin): you take the shot of green alcohol with a straw while it's still on fire! And last but most certainly not least came the Harry Potter shot: shotglasses topped with a slice of orange topped with a pile of sugar, all set on fire to make pretty colors, then you take the shot and eat the orange slice. absolutely delicious!
After 500 Chupitos we were going to go to Opium, a disco on the beach, but we heard it wasn't supposed to be "big" that night so we changed our destination to Elephant. mistake. BIG MISTAKE. Elephant turned out to be the Barca-Mom's idea of a crazy saturday night while still keeping it in the suburbs. It was definitely a cool idea for a club--lots of Buddha designs and an outside hookah bar with comfy booths underneath canopies--but the clientele was about 30 years too old. Still, we rocked it.

The Dirty South... of France

Two weeks later and I'm finally updating this thang about my Aix-en-Provence, France trip. Here are some revelations I had while I was there: 

• French is the most beautiful language I've ever heard. I'm taking it next semester so I can attempt to sound that sexy for at least a minute of my life. 
• French people are super nice, intelligent, and fun. (Obviously there are Frenchies that are not, but everyone I met gave me this impression.)
• It is my goal to meet and marry a Frenchman, have French babies, and raise my French babies in France so they can grow up well-educated and cultured and worldly. 
• French people know how to eat. and party. 
• I love France. Especially the dirty south of France. 

So I left super super early Thursday morning and got to the Marseille airport at 915 am where I was pleasantly surprised by the one and only Arnaud Allibert and his friend Sebastian. What a great welcoming party :) Thursday was a very cultural and fun day... I went to the open-air market with Arnaud and his grandmother (who is one of the cutest people I've ever met, by the way). The market was awesome-- all these spices and fruits and veggies and breads and cheeses and different kinds of soaps... and then there was an antique area with some really cool relics from WWII; Arnaud's grandmother showed us a ration book with stamps used for bread and other kinds of rations during WWII. 

And then Arnaud bought me a stick to chew on. Not kidding. It was a licorice stick so it was pretty tasty, don't worry (except for the occasional bark bits that lodged themselves in between my teeth).

After the market I went to lunch with Arnaud and his grandmother and then his other set of grandparents. We ate at this cute little Italian place and I ordered the 4-cheese pizza (oh and I ordered in French) -- one plate of pure cheesy goodness, I tell you. It had bleu, goat, mozzarella, and some other cheese and it was AWESOME. Arnaud ordered beef tartare and I tried it-- SO GOOD. For those of you who don't know what beef tartare is, it's raw beef and you put some different sauces and spices on it and it is absolutely delightful. 
After lunch Arnaud took me to Les Deux Garcons, which is a cafe that was around in the 1790s and was where the French revolutionaries would hang out and write and discuss all their revolutionary thoughts. It really is the place to be. What you do is just sit outside and sip your espresso (I tried it without any milk or sugar and actually enjoyed it!) and smoke your cigarette (if you're French) and just watch the world go by. It was so fun just people watching with Arnaud-- he's so funny! We'd be watching a group of French fashionistas walk by and he would take on a hoity-toity french accent and say things like "Oh it's just so haaard being this beautiful." One time while we were sitting and sipping our espresso a crazy drunk woman came by and danced for us. too funny. 
After experiencing Les Deux Garcons, Arnaud showed me around Aix. He took me to the city hall, the museum, the cathedral, and a TON of fountains. He was the perfect tour guide! Seriously though, what an intelligent and fun Frenchman. 

Thursday night I met Arnaud's parents-- Dominique and Patrick were wonderful hosts! We had dinner with them and Arnaud's grandmother (who was also staying for the weekend). After dinner Arnaud and I just hung out and Arnaud's friend Sebastian came over and we had fun watching some Summer Heights High episodes, which is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen-- I highly recommend it! 
Friday was chill-- Arnaud and I spent more time at Les Deux Garcons and then he took me to a lookout above the little town of Venelle where the view is gorgeous! 

Friday night was SO MUCH FUN. We went to the club, DiViNO (some of you may have heard the Justice song titled DVNO-- Justice first performed at this fun little club). I met a lot of Arnaud's friends who were all SO nice and welcoming and really fun to dance with. 

Saturday: a very chill day. Really enjoyed just hanging out with Arnaud, catching him up on Jersey Shore (I was definitely corrupting his classy french ass!) and he showed me the hilarity of Summer Heights High (seriously one of the funniest shows I've ever seen). 
Sunday morning was bright and early because we drove Arnaud's grandmother back to her little town in the French Alps, Grenoble. Arnaud and I really were hoping to ski but unfortunately the weather did not permit us to do so, but instead we ate and slept. Not kidding. Arnaud's grandmother made amazing French food for us and we literally ate and slept all day. Well, we went into town for a little bit after lunch to see the cathedral and the museums, which were cool, but otherwise the entire day we ate and slept. Fine by me! 

Arnaud's Grandmother's cute cozy house

Monday we enjoyed a little more time with Arnaud's grandmother, and of course another delicious meal, and then Arnaud and I drove back to Aix. We took the longer, more scenic way back to Aix, and it was gorgeous! Lots of snow-covered trees and mountains! 

The rest of Sunday we just hung out more and made delicious crepes... 
and then Monday I went back home to Sevilla (wait, so weird to say that...). Such a great long weekend, thanks Arnaud! :) 

The ABC's of Granada: Alhambra, Baclava, and Caves

Oh wow it really has been too long. But in reality I really have been too busy! So much has happened in the past 2 weeks (I seriously can't believe it has already been 2 weeks and now it's already MARCH!). One of the highlights: our program had a group excursion to Granada, a city in the south of Spain known for La Alhambra, a Moorish palace that has some of the most amazing architecture I've ever seen.
So I know this is somewhat lazy, but I think I'll just list out my favorite parts about Granada because I have so much catching up to do in my life right now.

• After dropping off our luggage at our hotel in Granada (which was super legit, by the way), my friends Natalie, Leann, Catherine, and I set off on foot to explore the city.  Leann, Natalie, and I were really lucky to have Catherine with us because she lived in Granada a few summers ago and knows the city pretty well (not to mention Catherine pretty damn cool and fun, anyways). So first we walked along the main street and stopped to share a bottle of wine at a cafe with a view of La Alhambra. After some great people watching and conversation, we set off once again to find Catherine's old school. 

Leann and I with La Alhambra in the background

• We stumbled upon this garden-y place and took some goofy pictures. Definitely our most tourist-y moment of the day :)

• After finding Catherine's old school and apartment, we decided to scale the mountain in search of caves and the cave-dwellers. Well, we found them! And we also found a lesbian rock band jammin out on the mountain. that was cool. and when we got to the top. oh my god. the view. So goigeous. Snow-capped mountains, green meadows, old ruins, horses grazing, Spaniards picnicking. Absolute perfection. 

• One of my favorite parts of the trip was when we found the "arab street" with all these arabic restaurants and pastry shops and tea/hookah joints. Baclava in Granada can really give any baclava I've tried in Turkiye a run for its money (except Babanne's of course :). I even bought extra to bring back to Señora Ana, my host mom. 

• So going out in Granada was rrrrullll fun. We pre-gamed in the hotel, then bar-hopped a little, then ended up at Camboria, which is a discoteca in a cave. Literally, a cave discoteca. It was pretty fun, the only downside was that it was basically ALL americanos and american music. They played some unexpected stuff, both good and AWFUL-- (i'm still a little emotionally scarred from the nickelback song they played, during which I was forced to stop dancing and sit in protest).

Natalie, Leann, Catherine, and I being all cozy before we head out for the night! 

ME! in a cave discoteca!

Samantha and I at Camboria! 

• The next morning was a little rough-- we had to meet in the lobby at 945 to leave for our visit to the Alhambra. The only good part of waking up that early was the breakfast at the hotel. HOLY SHIZA. Lox, tomatoes, croissants, eggs-- anything and everything you could want, all super fresh and delicious. 

• Best for last: La Alhambra. Anyone who can appreciate architecture should visit La Alhambra once in his or her lifetime. Wow. It was seriously my most favorite architectural visit thus far. I prefer to show pictures rather than attempt a description that does not do it justice. 

As you can see, it was a beautiful and fun trip to Granada! 

Jungle Fevah in España

Hola Todos!
Look at this! I'm getting better-- only 2 days since my last post! Well it's sunday morning (okay, afternoon) and I just woke up because last night Leann, Natalie, and I stayed out dancing until 6 am. We went to one of the discos in our 'hood, Abril. Abril is super fun, with really good music (Snoop mash-ups, and random Eminem thrown in between great house music-- love it!). Last night was just a night of pure fun dancing. There is nothing I love more than dancing the night away in a disco. And last night just turned out to be that. One other thing I love: tall-ass basketball players dancing and towering over all the other little european men in the club. Yup. Last night there was an international basketball team at Abril and everyone in the club knew about it-- because everyone in the club, regardless of where you were, could see these guys just breakin it down. Too funny. I asked one of the guys where they were from and I thought it sounded like he said Warsaw but Griffin said he said Paris. So we're not entirely sure, but either way, it was fun watching them (and later dancing with them) all night. One of them really caught me eye (i had a bout of jungle fever last night) and we ended up dancing together and he definitely had some moves in that  7ft body of his. But to be honest, bball player was fun and all, but mostly it was such a damn good time dancing with my girls + Griffin. I love those guys!

Before the club was a good time, too! Carole and I met up for some tapas and then I took her to La Carbonería for some flamencooo. There was a show with a guitar player, a singer, and a dancer-- and wow, were they good. The house was packed, too, from people all over the world. Man, do I love that place because it will always be my first memory from Sevilla.

Well I'm going to try and be a productive member of society now. For my creative writing class I have to go on a walk and take notes about what I see so we can write about it later... so hasta luego, amigos!

"Did You See That Giddy?"

Wow... so much for keeping up with the blog. But it's been a busy week, what can I say? Last week we finished our orientation at the center and took our grammar exam AND we've been procrastinating/working on our final essays about Spanish culture. AND we started classes at the University of Sevilla this week! I will *hopefully* be taking 5 of these classes: History of Film, History of International Relations, the Anthropology of Social Marginalization, and the Anthropology of Environment and Territory... and my potential class at the law school, the International Protection of Human Rights starts monday so we'll see about that one. We also have to take a class at the center and I chose creative writing and I think I'm really going to like it! If all goes as planned, I'll be done with classes by 4 everyday and not have class on Fridays. That way I can hopefully get a job teaching kids english and travel without feeling guilty about missing Friday classes.

But anyways the classes seem like they're going to be más o menos hard and fun. Hard because everything's in Spanish and fun because I'll have a chance to meet some more Sevillanos.... even though it will pose more of a challenge than I expected because there are so many foreigners in my classes! I mean I was expecting a handful of study abroad kids in every class but, damn, not half the class! My history of film class seems to be the best with probably 6 or 7 study abroad-ers and then 20-ish native Sevillanos. I am looking forward to my law class because I think there's supposed to be fewer foreigners in the law school.

Speaking of foreigners we met some Sevillanos last weekend! (I realize that that doesn't make much sense.) They were super nice and they taught us some spanish slang. For instance, the title of this post was inspired by what they taught us. A giddy is a foreigner, usually an american, and right after we were taught the word we ended up being called giddies on our way to the club. so i wonder how often we were being called that before and just never noticed because we thought people were talking about how happy we were. The other word they taught us was "lote," which directly translates to rum and coke, but more generally means getting drunk with liquor and then going to party (at least that's what I got from it). The guys we met invited us to lote and then go to Buddha (a disco here) with them this weekend.

One more thing about last weekend: We watched the Super Bowl in Spain! We found a bar called Flarrehty's that was having a super bowl fiesta where you could pay a $12 cover and watch the game while having a full buffet of chips & guacamole, wings, hot dogs, and french fries, and then 2 drink tickets (I drank lots of heineken). AMURICA. So basically the whole game my friends and I sat on the bar (all the other seats in the house were taken, but we ended up getting the best seats in the house) and explained the game of American football to our cute Irish bartender, Peter. He cheered on the Packers with Kendra and I, mainly because he decided Aaron Rodgers looked like more of a legit quarterback than Ben Roethlisberger, which is totally true. Kendra, Leann, and I ended up staying until the end of the game, which was about 430 our time, when we had to get up at 830 for class the next day. But it was all worth it when towards the end of the game some crazy beautiful dutchmen came up to us and needed some explanations of this weird american game. oh yeah, and the Packers won. great night.

hmmm what else. well as I'm writing this I am about to go to bed but i had to update my blog first because I think bailey and some other people are about to kill me. So here I am. but anyways. I just got back from a salsa club. Oh boy. I was a fan... Salsa dancing is soooo sexyyyy! and So fun! Natalie and I really had no idea what we were doing so we just twirled each other around and shook our hips a lot and once in a while we would shimmy at each other. I'm sure I looked like a fool but it felt super fun so I was all for it! And we (Catherine, Natalie, Leann, and I) definitely had a "Sex in the City moment" when Catherine told us about her "I wonder if people have sex they way that they dance" theory. It was quite a conversation. Before that we were in the 'hood Alameda at our favorite bar there called 84. Cool people, reasonably priced drinks, feel-good music... overall great time! And I had my friend Carole with me who is visiting for the weekend! (For those of you who haven't met Carole, she is a super cool Parisian girl who stayed at my house a lot last summer while she was doing an internship at Gill Industries.) Anyways, Carole got here earlier today and I showed her around Sevilla a little bit but tomorrow we'll do some more tourist-y stuff so I better get to bed so I can be on top of my game.
Buenas noches, mis amores!

Amurrica=McDonald's

Don't worry, I don't actually think that all the US has to offer is a BigMac and some delicious fried potatoes and maybe a vanilla shake or oreo mcflurry... but if one is abroad, attempting to live like a native, at times it can get a little exhausting pretending to not miss good ol American food. So that is why some of my friends in the Michigan-Cornell-Penn program and I made the pact that if we could last through the month of January without eating American food (which apparently doesn't include Starbucks), then we would have a lunchdate at McDonald's on February 1st. Well February 1st turned out to be a delicious day, mis amigos. One McPollo, some french fries, and an oreo mcflurry later, and I am now ready to face another month of purely spanish food (though I would kill for some hummus and raw veggies right about now... and one of my mom's amazing salads... and maybe some sushi, too). Don't get me wrong-- Señora Ana is a great cook and I like Spanish food-- but sometimes when you're used to having certain yummy things every day (fresh, raw veggies/hummus) it can hurt a little bit to go a long time without it. And it's not like I was used to MickeyD's, either. In fact, before today it had probably been over 6 months since my last trip to the place. But, American food is American food, and when you're in the mood for American food, it turns out that McDonald's will get the job done.

How do you feel about murses?

Ayy, I keep letting the days go by without updating but I'm going to try and be more diligent about it.. anyyywhoo- here goes the last week in a blog post. 

Besides being sick one day (my stomach has not been too thrilled about the decrease in veggies and the increase in meat/sweets/olive oil) and having to miss an excursion, it has been a pretty awesome week. 

Excursions in the mornings, classes in the afternoons, and trying to get everything ready for when classes start next week is leaving me a pretty busy person, but hey, I'm not complaining. Thursday night we got to go to the symphony here in Seville, and it was amazing! There was a viola-cello player who could play the shit out of that ancient instrument... he had some pretty great hair too. Friday we woke up bright and early for an excursion to a nearby town(1.5 hour bus ride) called Cadiz. Cadiz is basically a cute little beach town with a lot of history. We visited a cathedral and also a cámara oscura at the top of a tower overlooking the city. It was awesome! During our free time we ate lunch for Samantha's birthday (really good sangria and paella con mariscos!) and then had some photo shoots down by the seaside. I definitely plan on returning to Cadiz once it gets warmer because it is absolutely beautiful! 

the cathedral in Cadiz

View of the city

Lovin the sun and sea :)

We returned to Seville at around 730 Friday evening and Kendra and I took a much-needed siesta to prepare ourselves for the night out for Samantha's birthday. We decided it was about time to have a night out in our barrio (neighborhood) of Viapol/Nervion, so we planned our night around that idea. We started the night at a couple bars in a shopping center above the supermarket just down the street from our apartments. The crowd was a little older so at around 1am we were ready to leave for another bar just down the street, O'Neill's (yeah, I know--it sounds super Spanish). We thought O'Neill's would have a younger crowd because it is right across the street from the law school of the University of Seville, but we were wrong on that assumption-- though I did meet a couple of students and they were super nice and curious about the program and what we're planning to do during our time in Spain. After O'Neill's we headed to the "chill bar/lounge/club," Siddharta, which was fun while it lasted, but we decided we needed louder music and a crazier club feel, so we headed for our final destination: Abril, one of the main discotecas here in Seville, and probably the biggest one in our neighborhood. 

Abril was perfect: house music (with a little musica americana mixed in) and lots and lots of europeans who know how to dance. I found one who I could've sworn resembled David Beckham in the craziest way but apparently I was a little optimistic on that one. Regardless, in my mind I was giving Posh Spice a run for her money. Later we found our friends from Discover Seville, a company for study abroad students that hooks them up with trips and stuff like that. Remember Luis? Well he's one of those guys, as well as Benny and some other really fun and good looking Spaniards and great dancers. Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise anymore that we didn't leave the club until 6:30 am. Dios mio, I might be getting used to this lifestyle a little too quickly-- I didn't realize how natural it would be for me to dance until the wee hours of the am... but we'll see how easily things come to me when I start taking classes at the Uni next week. 

Saturday was a day of rest for Kendra and I (we didn't wake up until 3pm) and then an evening of shopping for Catherine, Leann, Natalie, and I. We made our first trip to the centro comercial in Nervion to experience the rebajas (the huge sales that take place during the month of January here in Spain). My one regret I have so far is that I did NOT pack enough clothes. I thought I was being a minimalist for the first time in my life-- but let me tell you, there comes a point when you run out and being a minimalist SUCKS.... but I guess this has given me the justification to buy some things for myself, which I have definitely taken the liberty of doing. 

Shopping was fun, and then after dinner we were ready for another night out in Seville. The majority of us were not up to another night of dancing (good guess, I was not one of them), so we hit the bars. First we headed to this hipster-ish area called Alameda, where we found a bar called 84 that was HOPPIN. Leann and I were lovin the music and just people watching. One guy that I was liking the looks of was having a good time watching us watch him and I was getting a kick out of it. He was definitely very european-looking... he was even wearing a man-purse. Later on Leann asked me how I felt about "murses" and I wasn't sure how to respond. After some conversations with other people in the program we came to the consensus that murses are very metro/European and therefore it is just fine to be into a guy wearing a murse. Even before we came to that consensus it didn't stop me from responding to Murse-Man's "ciao" with a look over the shoulder and a wink as Leann and I walked out of the bar. Leann is definitely becoming my tutor as far as learning to be more forward here in España, and I'm taking mental notes as she tells us girls to "mira y aprenda" (watch and learn). We ended Saturday night at Calle Alfalfa, but were quite disappointed to learn that the bars actually close here! We were definitely expecting them to stay open later than 3am but on our ride home our cab driver informed us that if we want to stay out later than 330, we need to be at a disco (fine by me). 

Today was a little more productive for us-- We woke up before 1 and got to Starbucks to put in some hours on our essays for the end of our Culture Pre-Seminar. And now I really need to get to work on finishing my selection of classes for when the University term starts... 

hasta luego, mis amores!