am i really home?

En este momento, estoy sentando en el avion en Munich, esperando para despegar. Ahora, tengo mucho sueno porque sali de mi casa esta manana a las 4:300 y no me he dado cuento de que cuando yo aterrizo en nueve horas, estare en NYC. Es dificil comprender que 5 horas antes de ahora, estuve mirando la television en la sofa en la casa de mi senora en Espana, esperando el taxi, en diez horas, estare en mi casa en NY y en mas o menos 32 horas, estare en mi apartamento en Boston. No puedo creerlo que mi tiempo en Madrid y Espana ha terminado. No es una realidad. Me siento como estoy viajando a otro pais pero en mas o menos 3 o 4 dias, volvere a la casa y la comida de mi senora. Sin embargo, en 3 dias, estare en Boston, cocinando, estudiando y trabajando. No puedo poner mi experiencia en palabras pero tengo suerte porque muchas de las personas que leen mi blog han estudiando en otros paises o en este momento, estan estudiando en otros paises. (si alguien todavia leer esto, aunque no he escrito desde noviembre. Tratare de terminar mi blog - tengo apuntes jaja y he comenzado un entry desde la llegada de Jess a Madrid hasta mi segunda viaje a Barcelona)

Muchas personas me han preguntado sobre mis sentimientos sobre mi vuelta a los EEUU. Estoy contenta pero al mismo tiempo, no quiero irme de Espana. Me encantan a mi senora, a su familia, a las personas y la cultura de Espana. Yo se que me habria quedado en Espana pero siempre puedo volver despues de graduarme. No puedo asistir a BC otra vez...

Hay tantas cosas que quiero decir para compartir mi experiencia con vosotros pero como he dicho arriba, es dificil poner mis sentimientos en palabaras. Ademas, pienso que todos de vosotros habeis contribuido a mi tiempo en Espana en una manera o otra. Quiero decir muchisimas gracias a todos por vuestra amistad, consejos y apoyo y sin vosotros, mi experiencia no habria sido la misma.

os echo mucho de menos! mantenos contacto y se esteis en los EEUU, llamadme!

irlanda, dia de la accion de gracias y visitantes!

Okay… so yes, I was productive last Tuesday after I wrote my blog and I went and got a haircut – people tell me that they like it but I think that it’s too short. Oh well, it will grow back eventually. I didn’t teach English because the girls had religious ed. classes so I was free all day! Wednesday was a normal Wednesday – class all day but then we went to the Thyssen Museum with my culture class. It is an amazing museum – all the artwork that is in the museum belongs to the Thyssen family. Después del museo, Mateo y yo fuimos a Starbucks, donde hablamos y pasamos tiempo junto. Que cute! Viernes, fui a mi clase en la mañana, volví a mi casa donde comí el almuerzo, y después de mi clase de teatro, fui al aeropuerto para mi viaje a Irlanda. Pasé mucho tiempo en el aeropuerto, donde estudié para mi examen parcial de mi clase de cultura y civilización de España (todos los otros personas que están en mi clases estaban tomando el examen en aquel momento). Cuando volví en Dublín, tomé el autobús al centro de la ciudad, donde anduve por las calles para encontrar Chris. Fuimos al hostal y después comimos la cena. Nos quedamos en el área que se llama Temple Bar, donde hay un bar famoso con el mismo nombre. Cuando fuimos a Temple Bar, bebimos Guiness y escuchamos dos hombres que tocaban las guitarras – sin emabrgo, they played Kris Kros acoustic style. Fue muy interesante. Después de Temple Bar, caminamos a un otro bar, donde pasamos tiempo y hablamos sobre muchas cosas. Volvimos al hostal, dormimos, y nos levantamos a las 9.

Friday morning, instead of me going to Linguistics class, Chris and I ate breakfast (scones and coffee) and walked around Dublin – through Trinity College, some of the streets that were already decorated for Christmas (which we were against because it wasn’t Thanksgiving yet), and then the best part – we went to the Guinness factory! It was really cool seeing how the Guinness is made and all of the history behind it. We tasted their special edition beer and then drank our Guinness in the Gravity Bar – it had a beautiful view of the city. Afterwards, we went to the train station to buy our tickets to Galway, ate lunch, and then joined a group of about 50 – 75 other people that were pissed off because there was no more room on the train. Since we had about another 2 hours until the next train, we went to the bar and continued drinking – wow I love Ireland. Before going to the bar, we started talking to these 3 Irish men that were really upset because they were missing quality drinking hours in Galway. When we arrived in Galway, Chris and I went to his dorm, I met his roommates, and then we went out to dinner. After dinner, we went to a bar to listen to some music, where Chris had me taste Irish cider, and then we went back to his dorm to hang out and watch a movie with him roommates. It was really nice to just chill and relax with friends because it’s not something that we can really do in Madrid because of our living situations. By the end of the night, we were watching the OC and I’m really happy that Devin (one of Chris’ roommates) knew more about what was going on than I did.

Saturday morning, while it was pouring rain, Chris and I decided to go to the Arann Islands. The boat ride was ridiculous – the waves were huge. I probably flew out of my seat 3 or 4 times, and there were a lot of people that were getting sea sick. When we arrived at the island, it was still pouring rain, and therefore, we couldn’t rent bikes. Instead, we took a van tour of the island with a crazy tour guide. He wasn’t crazy in a bad way… he was just a little out there. After biting a quick bite to eat during the tour, Chris and I decided to walk to the top of the mountain in the pouring rain. The walk was a little cold, a little wet, but absolutely gorgeous. When we got to the top, the cliff just ended and the view overlooked the ocean. If I were to try to describe this view, I would say that it is probably what people thought the world looked like when they thought it was flat – they just end. Earlier when we were on the boat, Chris cracked a joke about how I may fly off the mountain. Oh wait – it almost wasn’t a joke. After near death experience number 3 with Chris, he decided that we needed to leave. The tour continued, where we saw more of the island and then we had a much calmer ride back on the boat. When we got back to Dublin, we went to the supermarket to buy some food for dinner and then we went and picked up the “magic potion”, which is sold not only behind the counter, but below the counter as well. During dinner, we watched some TV – Simpsons, English Jackass – and started drinking. When the girls from upstairs came down, we started playing some Asshole and drinking the magic potion. It was so weird drinking heavily before 23 – 23:30 à we were pretty tipsy by about 22. The first bar was fun but we were all fidgety because of the buckfast. After about an hour or 2 at the first bar, we walked through the streets to try to get into a different club for free. We ended up at another bar and when that closed, we followed our drunchies to a doner kebab shop. We ate while sitting on a bridge, which was pretty cool, but when we were leaving, I completed busted my ass. It was pretty funny because when I fell, all the guys turned around and said “OMG – are you okay?” and there I was, laughing hysterically. When we went home, we watched a little more TV and then Chris and I went to go check the score of the BC game on his computer. At about 4 am, I was pretty exhausted so I climbed into bed while I had Chris update me practically every 2 minutes. The morning consisted of waking up at 7:30am, in which I was probably still drunk, saying good-bye to Chris, sleeping the entire train ride and sleeping practically the entire flight. By the time I got on the METRO in Madrid, I finally didn’t feel like absolute crap but I did miss my stop and have to take a longer route home. I ate some dinner and then went and studied with Mat in Starbucks.

Monday fue muy aburrido. Tomé mi examen en la mañana, asistí mis dos clases y fue a Starbucks con Mateo cuando él estudiaba. Después, la cena, la tele, y dormí. Cuando me levanté a martes, estaba lloviendo como en Irlanda. Hice algunos deberes, comí con Angelines, Blanca y Iñaki y miré los Simpsons. Era irónico porque miré el mismo episodio cuando estaba en Irlanda. En la tarde, fui a mi uni para hablar con mi intercambio y asistir un ensayo para mi clase de teatro. Leímos diferente obras y aprendimos un poco sobre como actuar.

Miércoles fue como cada miércoles. Tenía mis 4 clases y mis clases de ingles con las chicas. No quiero hablar sobre mis clases de ingles – no pasó muy bien. Para la cena, comí en nuestro pequeño restaurante favorito, se llama Café del Arte, con Mateo, Hannah, Shannon (la amiga de Hannah) y Michelle. Después de la cena, patiné en el Palacio de Hielo con Amy, John, Victor, Erin, el novio de Erin, Katie y Sam. Fue muy divertido!

Jueves, fui a mi uni, volví a mi casa para almuerzo, y volví a mi uni para mi otra clase. Después de clase, Mat, Michelle y yo nos sentamos y hablamos y usamos el ordenador. Antes de nuestra cena del día de la acción de gracias, hablé con mi tía, mi prima y mi abuela que estaba en Massachussets. Mateo y yo nos reunimos con Hannah y Michelle en la Puerta del Sol y fuimos al restaurante, se llama Cornocopia, para la cena con todos de los otros estudiantes de BC. Sin embargo, necesitamos llamar a Pilar porque estábamos perdidos. Después de la cena, llamé a mis padres y hablé con mis padres, una de mis otras tías, mi hermano y mi otra abuela. Our classy Thanksgiving dinner was followed by Don Simon en Plaza Santa Ana, dancing at a bar in Plaza Santa Ana and more dancing in Palacio Galaveria.

Friday, I painfully woke up for my 10am, then came home and ate lunch with Angelines, Blanca and Miky, where we had an intense conversation about the school systems in Madrid and the US and their tuitions. After lunch, I met up with Dori, her mom, Hannah, Shannon and Shannon’s friend Sara in Retiro where they had rented rowboats. After rowboats, Shannon, Hannah, Sara and I went to go eat because the girls were hungry. Naturally, shopping followed where we all bought new outfits for the night – which may or may not have included hot pink leggings purchased from the kids section for 9 – 10 year olds. Later on in the night, I met up with Hannah, Shannon and Sara, where we had a nice little pre-game with Don and some Up the River – Down the River. So our nice, chill night in Chueca ended up being extremely hardcore. 2 clubs, tequila shots and lots of drinks later, the four of us stumbled into the hotel room and passed out hard.

Saturday morning I woke up and panicked because I thought I slept through my class – good thing it wasn’t even a week day. Hannah, Shannon and Sara went to some sort of flee market but I went home and had lunch with my señora, watched 2 Christmas movies and started studying for one of my mid terms. Saturday night, I met up with the girls after they are dinner and we went and hung out with Santiago, a bar-tending friend of Jess and Hannah. We went out thinking that it was going to be a calm night, but hmm… were we just a little wrong. 1 – Santiago kept giving us free drinks from the birthday party. 2 – We wanted to know what the score was to the BC game so we went to Dubliners, which included purchases of Long Island Iced Teas and buckets of beers. We started talking to this guy who was from NY who went to Miami and whose sister was from BC studying in Athens – weird. We ended up getting a table with them and just talking for the rest of the night. That was until we decided that we wanted food but Sprint was closed – Shannon was angry and stormed her way into the hotel room, followed by Sara waking Shannon up to go get churros. After churros, we made our way back to the hotel and once again, passed out in bed.

Sunday morning was an early wake up call to make sure Shannon made it to her flight on time. After we cleaned up the mess that was our hotel room, we took the metro to Hannah’s residencia and then took the metro to the airport. Sitting at the airport consisted of Hannah and Shannon waiting in line and Sara and I sitting, laughing hysterically at the events of the weekend. After Shannon checked in, we went to the golden arches of McDonald’s where I ordered my first McDonald’s in Spain. I hate to say this but it really hit the spot. Afterwards, Hannah and I took the metro home, I took a half hour power nap then had lunch with the family. I was even productive and started my play that I have to write for theatre. Mass and then just relaxing, watching tv… night!

cordoba y granada!

Finally – caught up! Pues, no quería salir en la noche de miércoles pero no me sentía bien pero Holly estaba aquí y quería verla. Por eso, fuimos a la Casa de la Cerveza con sus amigos y mis amigos y estaba muy divertido. Sin embargo, recibí una quemadura en mi hombre y lo dolía mucho. También, perdí mi móvil porque el se cayó de mi abrigo en el taxi. Lloré mucho jaja. Jueves, fui a mi clase, hablé con Pilar sobre mi móvil perdido, y llamamos el número de objetos perdidos. Encontramos nada. Volví a mi casa para la comida y después volví a la escuela para mi otra clase. No iba a salir en la noche porque necesitaba levantarme muy temprano para nuestra viaje a Cordoba y Granada pero asistí un botellón en Plaza de España con algunos de mis amigos y Holly y sus amigos. Cuando Holly y sus amigos salieron, Mat, Ryan y yo cantamos con algunos chicos españoles cuando Ryan también tocó la guitarra. Fue muy divertido. Cuando volví después del botellón, hablé con Jess por MSN y cuando Grey’s Anatomy terminó, la llamé por teléfono. Nuestra conversación duró más o menos 90 minutos. Depués hablé más con ella por el Internet porque no podía dormir. Cuando perdí mi conexión de Internet, me dormí más o menos 45 minutos cuando me levanté y fui a la Puerta de Alcala para nuestro viaje a Cordoba y Granada. Dormí mucho en el autobús.

Cuando llegamos en Cordoba, comimos y fuimos a la mezquita. Era muy grande y muy bonita. The Arabic artwork is absolutely amazing with all the details – I cannot believe they were able to do such amazing work without the technology that we have today. It was also interesting because in the first part of the mezquita, hay muchas columnas pero todos son diferentes porque durante la construcción de la mezquita, los árabes no tenían mucho dinero y por eso, usaban columnas de otros edificios en el área. Después de nuestro paseo, comí la cena con Mat y Katie en un restaurante de tapas muy delicioso y rico. Después, fuimos a un espectáculo de flamenco y era muy bonita. Si yo tuviera ritmo, querrían aprender como bailar el flamenco. Jaja. After flamenco, we went out with Pilar to a bar where we got a bucket of 20 beers for 20 euros – amazing! Haha

Saturday morning, we woke up early, ate breakfast and hopped on the bus for a ride to the olive oil factory. It was somewhat interesting, but the guy spoke really fast in a dialect that was hard to understand – our advisor even had some trouble. There, I bought some olive oil and then we got back on the bus for Granada. Granada was so different than Cordoba. Cordoba was very quiet, while Granada is a busy city. It was a nice difference, and even more amazing that these amazing Arabic works exist in the middle of this city. The first thing we did when we got there was eat lunch – doner kebab! – and then we had un paseo-visita por el Albaicín, un area lleno de edificios y casas árabes. Afterwards was amazing – Arabic baths and a massage. The baths were pretty much 6 different hot tubs and 1cold tub where we just say and relaxed for about 2 hours. Some people got a massage, which was just as amazing. After the baths, Hannah, Michelle, Katie, Mat and I did a little shopping where we ran into some kid from BC who is studying in Cordoba – small world. That night, we went out to tapas with Pilar and then ate some more doner kebab because we’re fat! J Esa noche, fuimos a un discoteca que se situa en una cueva. Era muy bonita, especialmente porque tiene una vista muy bonita de la Alhambra. Pasamos la noche allí, baliando y cantando, y volvimos al hotel para dormir.

Comimos un desayuno muy grande (jaja) y fuimos a la Capilla Real y la Alhambra. Both were breathtaking. We walked through the gardens, the different castles, saw all the beautiful artwork and learned a lot about the Arabic culture in Granada. After la Alhambra, we got on the bus to avoid traffic on our ride home because it was a puente. I slept a lot on the bus ride home, ate some dinner when I got home, and then went to bed because I was exhausted! Monday, oh how I love my Monday classes. In between classes, I went and got a new phone. After class, I came home, watched some TV, and Mat and I went to go get ice cream but the place was closed. I was really sad because I haven’t eaten it in a while! Oh well.

Last night, I did a lot of catching up with Caroline and Jess, which was nice! And today, I wrote two blog entries and ate lunch! Hopefully, I’ll get some work done and maybe get a haircut!

mis padresss!

10.31.07

So, i’ve pretty much started every blog off the same way – how much I am slacking with writing them. This will obviously not be as detailed because I am writing this about 2 weeks after the fact but hey – it’s better than nothing. Wednesday was a typical Wednesday – class all day. Oh! I bought my tickets to Ireland! Wednesday night, the few of us that were still in Madrid (aka those who had not left yet for their puente) went out to dinner and then to a bar. We’ve all came to one conclusion – Halloween should stay in America. It’s so weird to see people walking around in costumes when only a small population does it – plus, the costumes are a lot more original in the states.

En la mañana de jueves, fui al aeropuerto donde me reuní con mis padres! Fuimos a su hotel y caminamos por el Pardo pero no entramos porque este fin de semana, el Prado fue gratis y las colas fueron muy largas. Después del Prado, anduvimos por el Retiro, uno de mis lugares favoritos en Madrid, y no sentamos y hablamos. Tomamos el Metro a Sol, donde vimos la Puerta del Sol y Plaza Mayor. Mi mama compró muchas cosas en las tiendas pequeñas y mi padre quería matarla. En la tarde, mis padres y yo bebimos vino en Plaza Mayor. Después, volví a mi casa y un poco más tarde, nos reunimos otra vez para la cena.

Viernes, fuimos a Segovia, un viaje que me dio pena porque cuando estaba allá, tenía muchas memorias de mi viaje a España el último verano con Jessica. Sin embargo, a mis padres y yo nos gustaban el viaje, especialmente el catedral, la Alcazar, y las vistas! Cuando estábamos en Segovia, hice reservaciones en un restaurante por el móvil, una cosa que nunca había hecho. Volvimos a Madrid, comimos la cena y hablamos más.

Sábado, fuimos a Toledo, un viaje que no quería tomar porque había ido el último fin de semana. Sin embargo, mis padres habían oído que Toledo era un lugar que necesitaron ver y por eso, tuvimos que ir. Pasamos bien pero fue un día muy largo, lleno de caminando por las colinas con los rodillos malos de mi padre. Mis padres sobrevivieron y esa noche, comimos en el restaurante mexicana favorita de mis amigos y yo. Durante el día, muchos de mis amigos volvieron de sus viajes y por eso, salí con ellos después de la cena con mis padres. Sin embargo, antes de ese, Mateo vino a la Plaza Santa Ana y bebió una cerveza con mis padres y yo. Afterwards, Mat and I met up with the others and went out for a little – I think we ended up at Dreams despite our hate for it – haha. After Dreams, a few of us went to Joy, but then Greg lost his friends and couldn’t call them so we all left and called it a night.

Sunday morning, I woke up, went to Church and stopped at the bakery on the way home to pick up baked goods for lunch with my señora and my parents. Not only were the pastries amazing, but I found what I have been looking for my entire time in Spain – chocolate – banana chupa chups! It was amazing! Then I met up with my parents and took them to my house, where we ate lunch and they met my señora. I was a little nervous because I had to play translator the entire time but my señora whipped out some English that I didn’t know she had and it was a very enjoyable lunch. After lunch, we walked some more, I believe ended up in the Plaza Mayor and then we went hope to nap. Antes de la cena, corrí por el Retiro hasta de la Plaza de Santa Ana, donde se situaba el hotel de mis padres, me duché, y después, fuimos a la cena. Después, caminamos al hotel y hablamos un poco. Estaba un poco triste porque en la mañana, mis padres se fueran. Sin embargo, pasamos muy bien y los veré en más o menos dos meses. Nos dijimos “adios” y después, fui a Dubliners y O’Connell’s con mis amigos, donde miramos futbol americana antes de ir un club.

Lunes, fui a mi primera clase pero mi profesora estaba enferma. Fui al despacho de BC, escribí e-mails, y pasé tiempo con algunos de mis amigos. A las 16, fui a mi clase y creo que me quedé en mi casa esa noche pero no estoy seguro. Martes, Holly y sus amigos llegaron en Madrid pero tenía mis clases de ingles y necesitaba escribir un ensayo y por eso, no podía verla a martes. Sin embargo, hablé con ella y we decided to hang out tomorrow! Yay!

toledooo

29.10.07

Thursday started off as a typical day… mi primer clase (la profesora estaba enferma y por eso, no tenía clase), almuerzo en la casa en mis 2 clases, y otro viaje a Ciudad Universitaria para mi ultima clase. Después de clase, Mateo y yo fuimos a un restaurante, bebimos una cerveza, y hablamos sobre decisiones importantes de la vida (important life decisions). A las 18, mi amigo, se llama Chris, llegó al aeropuerto. Estaba muy emocionada porque no le había visto a Chris en más de 11 meses. En la noche, Chris, Mateo y yo fuimos al restaurante mexicano, se llama La Mordida, donde comemos mucho. CRAZY COINCIDENCE! When the three of us were walking to one of the metro entrances at Goya, I saw some girl on the phone who looked extremely familiar. It was Mamiko – one of Jess’ friends who stayed with us first semestre lsat year. Después de la cena, nos reunimos con otros chicos para un botellón en la Plaza de España. Let’s just say that Don kicked everyone’s ass that night – well, he kicked at least mine, Mat’s and Chris’. Muchos de los chicos querían mirar el partido de los Red Sox y por eso, caminamos a Dubliners, donde pasamos mucho tiempo, hasta 4 o 5 en la mañana. Al viernes, no fui a mi clase porque me levanté a las 10 (el tiempo en que mi clase comience) y porque mi profesora estaba enferma los dos días anteriores y piense que ella iba a estar enferma otra vez. También, mi señora me dijo que no debía ir a mi clase este viernes porque no era justo. Estaba de acuerdo con ella pero, por supuesto, mi profesora no estaba enferma. Oh well…

Primero, Chris y yo fuimos a la oficina de ApelCom porque mi móvil no funcionaba y caminamos por la Plaza de España, el Palacio Real y comemos almuerzo muy cerca de mi casa. Fuimos al Prado, anduvimos el Paseo de Prado y vimos la Plaza de Colon. Por supuesto, fuimos al Retiro y nos sentamos enfrente del lago. Afterwards, Chris went back to his hostel and I went back to my house to take a nap because we were exhausted from the night before. After our nap, we met up again in Sol, walked through the Plaza Mayor and went to dinner. We were going to go to a party on Friday night to support the 3^rd year med students en la Universidad Autonoma, pero estabamos cansados y queríamos dormir porque en la mañana, we were leaving for our day trip to Toledo. We caught the Metro home and had an amazing night of sleep.

Saturday morning, I met up with Chris at the Retiro, where we were catching the bus to Toledo. After a short nap, we arrived in Toledo and had an amazing day. The weather was gorgeous – not too hot, not too warm. We saw a beautiful panoramic view of Toledo, the Plaza de Zocodober, el Museo de Santa Cruz, el Catedral, El Entierro del Conde Orgaz en la Iglesia de Santo Tomé, la Sinagoga del Tránsito, Santa María la Blanca, San Juan de los Reyes y finalmente, el Puente de San Martín. When I was in Toledo, Ross called and invited me over for Maria’s paella with his, Maria, Sandra and Paul. I was so sad when I had to turn down the invite because I love Maria’s paella. Sin embargo, si no hubiera estado en Toledo, habría estado en Barcelona con la otra hija de Ross. When we got home from the trip, a bunch of us walked to “our” ice cream place, which probably has some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted – except for the gelato in Italy. Ice cream was followed by a walk to the supermarket down the street to pick up our good friend Don, and then home for a nap and a shower. I then met up with Chris, got something to eat, had serious life chats, and then we walked to the palace where festivities began for Katie’s birthday. After some bonding time with Don, we walked to Sol, where we tried to get into Joy but these guys snuck in on our name. Therefore, we ended up in Dreams… like always, we went to Sprint after Dreams and then we walked to Dubliners to catch some sports. After walking Chris back to his hostel, Hannah and I caught a cab home.

Sunday morning, Chris sent me an SMS at about 8 am in the morning because we had turned the clocks back the night before. When my phone went off, I wanted to kill him! However, I ignored the SMS y cuando me levanté a las 10, nos reunimos y fuimos al Café del Arte, donde comemos desayuno antes de ir al misa. Después de la misa, Chris recogió su bolsa y fuimos a la Plaza Mayor durante el día. Chris left for the airport and I went home, where I was extremely unproductive. I slept from about 18 – 20, awoke to my señora shaking me at 20 to eat dinner, and then fell asleep again until 22 when I relocated to my bed and went to sleep for the night.

Monday morning, I was extremely awake, which was nice for a change. However, it was one of those days – in psych, we had a guest speaker who was hard to understand, I finally met up with my intercambio but he spoke to me in English almost the entire time, and then I had my 3-hour class, which is always a pain. Monday night, Mat called to check up on me since I hadn’t seen him in almost 2 days and we bonded over our bad moods. About an hour later, he called and told me to get dressed because we were going out. At 22, we met up but it was an hour earlier than we were meeting with the girls – therefore, we went to VIPS and ate like fat asses! It was great! Then, at 23:15, we met up with Hannah and took the metro to Plaza de España, where we just hung out with Danny, Michelle, Katie and her boyfriend… but we can’t forget Don.

Tuesday morning, I woke up and went to Complu to buy my tickets to Ireland. However, when I double-checked the dates, me di cuenta que el día que iba a salir es el mismo día del examen parcial de mi clase de cultura y civilización. Sin embargo, mañana hablaré con Ana y la pediré si puedo tomar el examen más temprano en el día. After this disappointment, I wrote a few e-mails and then came home for lunch. I read some culture, watched the free episode of Run’s House that I had downloaded off iTunes, and then I taught English. The girls were okay today. When I came home, I finished reading, watched Metro to Metro with my señora and then ate dinner. Ahora, estoy aquí, escribiendo mi “blog”. Estoy emocionada porque mis padres vienen a Madrid en jueves!

una semana en Madrid!

I absolutely love Tuesdays! No class, walking around the city, running some errands… and teaching English in an hour – the one thing I’m not excited for!

However – After contemplating on Wednesday, I ended up not going out. I think I fell asleep on my couch, while watching TV – that’s what I normally do. Thursday, I went to my first class, came home for lunch and then went back to school for my second class. Después de mi clase, tuvimos una cita con Pilar y nuestros intercambios, estudiantes españoles que quieren hablar con nosotros. Sin embargo, mi intercambio nunca vino. Después de la cita de intercambios, tuvimos una conferencia sobre las diferencias en la cultura entre España y los Estados Unidos. En la noche, tuvimos un botellón muy grande en la Plaza de España para el cumpleaños de Chris, un chico de BC. Fuimos un bar y miramos el partido de béisbol de los Red Sox y comimos churros (John, su amigo, Dori y yo). Volví a mi casa y hablé con Jess hasta 4:45-5 en la mañana. No fue una cosa muy buena porque me levanté a las 8:30 porque tenía clase a las 10.

After class on Friday, I wrote some e-mails in the office, met my intercambio and then drank a beer with John and Greg in the cafeteria at school – worked wonders for the hangover. Then I went home, dropped of my computer and then met up with DAN for lunch with some of his friends. After lunch, Dan and I went to Plaza de España, which I had actually never seen in the daylight – it was beautiful. Then we met up with Amy, Dori and two others to take a tour of the Palacio Real. After the Palace, Dori, Dan and I went and got a bite to eat near Atocha, and then we went to Reina Sofia, an art museum, with John, his friend Bobby, and Sam. Friday night led us to another botellón en la Plaza de España, followed by a typical good time in Dreams. Somehow I managed to get two free drinks… After that, Hannah and I caught the night bus home!

Saturday morning I was woken up by a phone call from Dan, which was a good thing because I had to prepare myself for big family lunch! I actually enjoyed big family lunch this time – no entendí todo pero no estaba completamente perdida. Después, dormí en el sofá, decidí comer la cena con Mat, John y su amigo. Mat y yo compramos Don Simon para la noche. Sin embargo, John y su amigo no estuvieron listos cuando Mat y yo queríamos comer y por eso, Mat y yo comemos con Michelle, Hannah y Jess en un café que nos encanta. Fuimos a la Plaza Mayor, Mat, Hannah, John, su amigo, Michelle, Jess y yo, bebemos un poco, y después, fuimos a Dubliners porque muchas personas querían mirar el partido de béisbol de los Red Sox. Antes de ir Dubliners, Mat y yo nos reunimos con Dan y él fue con nosotros. Después, dormí.

Sunday morning – once again, woken up by a phone call from Dan. Comí almuerzo con Angelines, y después, caminé en el parque Retiro con Dan y Amy antes del viaje de Dan a Alicante. Caminamos a Atocha y después, Amy y yo nos reunimos con Hannah y Jess y después fui a la residencia de Hannah y Jess. I went home for a little and then I went and ate ice cream with John, his friend, Dori and Victor. Then, I went out for a little with John, his friend and Sam.

Monday was class! Yay! Nothing too exciting happened – I was supposed to meet with my intercambio but he cancelled on me. I came home after my class, which ended at 8, ate some dinner and started watching the old James Bond with my señora. After finishing the movie, I played Sudoku and Solitaire with Jess online! Tuesday, I didn’t have class but I was very productive. I woke up around 11, went to the bank, the post office, took a walk to the Puerta de Alcala, ate some lunch, read for my classes, taught English and then went shopping with Michelle and Katie. Naturally, I was “sucked into” eating ice cream, and then Angelines and I looked at photos together.

Here I am Wednesday morning – First I took the Metro the wrong way, then I practically ran to class to find it cancelled. Awesome! So now I’m just sitting around, catching up on some e-mails until my next class!

barcelonaa!

17.octubre.2007

Once again, I have been slacking with these blog posts – it has been over a week since my last post. When I left you last week, I was supposed to teach English classes to these two little girls. However, my class got out late, I had to buy a book, and by the time I got to the Metro, I was going to be late so my senora’s daughter called the mother of the girl and decided that we would just start next week (aka today!). Wednesday night, a bunch of us went out to a club, decided that it wasn’t that much fun that night and we went our separate ways. A few of us went to a different bar and ordered HUGE glasses of sangria and mojitos. A little bit tipsy, less that 8 euros spent and a Metro ride home… a good night.

Thursday I had two classes – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. After my first class, I came home for lunch, watched some Gilmore Girls, packed for Barcelona, and then went back to UCM. After my theatre class, a bunch of us sat in the office, using the internet, talking and watching YouTube videos – something that we all agreed would not happen if we were at BC. Después, volví a mi casa, hablé con mi señora sobre mi día y mi viaje, comí y miré la tele hasta 22 cuando salí para la estación de autobuses. Me senté con Teddy, un amigo de BC, en el autobús y hablamos mucho antes de dormir. El viaje duró siete horas – ¡sin embargo, cuando paramos, una chica se fue y quedaron 5 asientos libres en la parte de atras el autobús! Por eso, dormí muy bien durante la segunda parte del viaje.

Llegamos a Barcelona a las 6:30 y Dori y yo esperamos en la estación porque Albert todavía estaba trabajando. When Albert arrived at the station, I was so happy! Not only was tt nice to see him again, but he had churros! Haha After “hellos”, the three of us ate churros while we walked to the bus stop. We went back to Albert’s, napped, and then our day of tourism began! Primero, fuimos al Hospital de la. Sta. Creu i Sant Pau. It is probably the most beautiful hospital a person could ever see. Afterwards, we walked down Avenida Gaudí to the Sagrada Familia – a beautiful work still in progress, started by Gaudí. It was absolutely amazing – it’s hard to believe that something this big and this beautiful is being built in the middle of the city. After la Sagrada Familia, the three of us hopped on the Metro to Passeig/Paseo de Grácia, which is full of beautiful buildings, many done by Gaudí and many other talented architects. We first walked past La Pedrera – an apartment building, designed and built by Gaudí, that does not have any straight walls. Every wall in the house is curved. After walking a little more, we saw another house built by Gaudí – Casa Battló. Once again, absolutely beautiful and full of color – it gives off the impression that you are underwater. La Casa Batlló está en la manzana de la discordia porque muchos arquitecos modernistas construyeron casas ahí. By this time, we were absolutely starving – as usual – so the three of us went and ate at La Vaca Paca – it was an amazing buffet. At some point during the day, I can’t exactly place it, but we went to la Catedral de Barcelona and Dori and I went to the top and took gorgeous pictures of Barcelona. Every view I have seen from the top of a church in Europe has been absolutely astonishing. Después de la Catedral, Dori, Albert y yo anduvimos por las Ramblas – Dori tomó una foto con Edward Scissor Hands (Eduardo Manos Tijeras) y nos sentamos en una fuente en Plaza Real. When we encountered a fountain (se llama La Font de Canaletes), we tried to drink out of it because there is the belief that if you drink from the fountain, you will return to Barcelona. However, no water came out of the fountain… Después, nos reunimos con Beto – otro chico que estudiaba en BC el año pasado. Fuimos a un bar, donde hay arboles y se parece como un bosque (se llama El Bosc de les Fades). Era muy bonito. Caminamos hasta Estatua de Colón, los chicos tomaron fotos en los leones, y después fuimos a la Estación de Francia y a la universidad de Albert y Beto (se llama Universitat Pompeu Fabra). A las 8, volvimos a la casa de Albert, dormimos un poco, y a las 10, nos levantamos y comemos mucho pizza! Albert went to work, while Dori, Beto and I got ready to go out. First, the three of us went to a bar across the street to meet up with some of Albert’s friends and have a few drinks. Then, we went to the club where Albert works (La discoteca Up & Down) – It was a good time, drinking and dancing all night. When Albert got off work at around 6:30am, we walked to the Metro with one of Albert’s friend, Carles, and tried to get churros near Albert’s house. However, it wasn’t going to open for another 30 minutes so we went home to sleep instead.

At around 13:30, the four of us woke up and went out to lunch with some of Albert’s friends for his birthday at El Flamant. Dori and I ate paella and some sort of chicken salad – they were both really good. Después del almuerzo, Albert, Dori, Carles y yo pasamos por el barrio de la Barcelonesa, la playa de la Barceloneta, el Paseo Maritimo, comemos helado (crema catalana) en Farggi y La Vila Oimpica. Después fuimos a la Plaza Espanta y Fonts de Montjuic, donde hay espectáculos de música, luces y agua. ¡Que bonita! Volvimos a la casa, donde Albert durmió y Dori y yo comemos toda la comida en la cocina. J Albert se fue a trabajar y Dori y yo decidimos a quedarnos en casa y tuvimos “girl talk”. Tarde, Beto vino a la casa y él habló con nosotras y después, dormimos. Fue una noche muy tranquilla.

El domingo, nuestro día último, Albert, Dori y yo comemos al Pizzería la Piazzenza. No recuerdo todo de que comemos, ensaladas, pizza, calzone y crema catalana, pero fueron muy rica. Fuimos al parque Guell. El es muy, muy bonita. En el parque, hay la casa donde Gaudí vivió cuando él estaba construyendo el parque y muchas de sus obras con muchos colores. Otra vez, ¡que bonita! No puedo describir el parque porque no hay palabras que pueden capturar la belleza. Conocí una chica a Bar Ara Vinc, se llama Andrea, que asiste la misma universidad de Albert, que va a estudiar en BC el próximo semestre. Es posible que ella vaya a ser mi compañera de piso. A las ocho, los tres volvimos a la casa de Albert, donde Dori y yo conocimos los padres de Albert y vimos fotos de “skydiving” y la ultima fiesta en la casa de Albert en BC. A las 21:45, nos fuimos la casa para la estación de autobuses (se llama Estació del Nord), dijimos “adiós”, y comenzamos nuestro viaje a Madrid. ¡Que triste! Sin embargo, pase un tiempo muy divertido en Barcelona y pienso que voy a volver a Barcelona otra vez, antes de regresar a los Estados Unidos.

Monday = hell! We arrived at the bus station in Madrid at about 6, took the Metro home, unpacked, ate breakfast and went to class at 8:30. Afterwards, I had class at 11:30, 14, and 16. Good thing the only classes I ended up keeping in my schedule were the 11:30 and 16. I finally came home, spoke with my senora about my trip to Barcelona, ate dinner, got ice cream with the boys, and went to bed. Tuesday I was supposed to visit the 8:30 class again but I turned off my alarm and went back to bed. I woke up around 10, ate breakfast, and went to school to use the internet since I do not have class on Tuesdays! Tuesday afternoon, Dori and I went shopping at Alcampo, and Tuesday night, I went out to dinner with some of the girls – Michelle, Hannah, Katie and Jess.

Wednesday (Today) was a full day of class – 4 classes and then I had to teach English to two 8-year-old girls. They both seem very nice – I can tell that one of them is going to cause many problems. Ella escribió cartas pequeñas sobre mí y trató de darlas a su amiga debajo de la mesa. Oh well – it’s some money (something that is disappearing very fast!) As I sit and write this, I’m contemplating going out… we’ll see what happens!