leavin on a jet plane

Well, I would update this blog with the things that have gone on in my life since I got back from Barcelona, but there isn't really all that much to say. I have been pretty boring. I just go to school and come home and do some work and eat with my madre (who I like a lot more... when I can understand her) and go to sleep. Although... hmm... let's see. I have a quiz in an hour which I am unprepared for. But I will be fine. The teacher loves me. Aaaand... I am going to Munich this weekend and I get to see Drew and Josh and a bunch of other Wake kids. Oktoberfest. Woo hoo. Seeing as I absolutely love beer, I can't wait. Who can spot the sarcasm? Well, that is really about it for Valencia right now. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories once I get back. So, don't you worry. Highlight of the week thus far: talking to my mom on the phone last night for 30 minutes... which I honestly think cost $45. Mom... I know you are reading this... figure out Skype. That is all.

barthe.

So, it has clearly been a while. Nothing too exciting happened Thursday. We went to a club called La Indiana, which may have some sophisticated meaning here in Spain, but really just means The Indiana to us. Nothing to really write home about. I mean, nice club, but it really should be since normal cover charge is 15 euros. I mean, come on. So, we were there until about 4:30 in the morning. We went home because our train left at 11AM on Friday morning. It was a struggle and a half getting out of bed at 9:15. Ugh. But, we got there on time and Cary and I had a table all to ourselves on the train. We actually sat next to these two American girls, so I am sure the people on the train were annoyed by the English conversation throughout the ride. If you were wondering, the train is much better than the bus and I never want to ride a bus again. But I have to this weekend. Go figure. Well, we got to Barcelona uneventfully and walked to our hostel, which was about 20 minutes from the train station. It was nice. We had our own room and our own bathroom. We settled in and took some naps. Cary and I went to look for food and accidentally found a mall, so we looked through there for a while. When we got back to the room, we started getting ready and it may have been the funniest time I have experienced in a long, long time. We laughed so hard that I got hiccups. I don't know if those things are related, but I got them nonetheless, and I had them for 6 hours. I was seriously contemplating going to the hospital. I don't want to be one of those people who have them for years. So, we met Megan Douglas and Christina Harris for dinner, which was freakin phenomenal. They are amazing, and we ate at an awesme restaurant. That night, we walked around for hours looking for something to do, only to end up returning to the crowded plaza where we started the night. At least we got to watch this really drunk girl make an idiot out of herself for an hour. The next morning, we got up and went out to go sight-see... which we kinda did. We literally just walked around for about 8 hours, looking at whatever we came across. We saw two really cool cathedrals and a lot of stores. We met Evan and Corinne and Tyler Gately in front of this Gaudi house. I think that's how you spell it, but I'm not taking the time to look it up. They were really cool houses, but while we were there, we got some incredible news. Tyler knows the owner of David Beckham's bar in Barcelona, and he got us on the VIP list. So, we all went shopping and bought something for the night. Well, I didn't. But I went shopping with everyone. We went back, got ready, (met our new roommates from India and Belgium... wasn't a big fan) and then made an AMAZING salad. Cary and I went to the grocery store to buy everything, but it was so hard. Nothing was in English or Spanish, because they speak Catalan there, which is a language I detest with every bone in my body. Just speak Spanish. ugh. But, we made the salads and went to the bar. There were some unnamed complications throughout the night, but they will not be revealed in order to protect those involved. Let's just say... wet clothing... clogged up sink... 8 people in a 6 person hostel room. Yeah, that sounds about right. The next day, we saw the Sagrada Familia, which is an incredible cathedral, and then shopped a little. We then went home. On the train ride home, this man missed his stop and was really angry and yelling and we thought it was a terrorist. But he was American. So no worries.

for now.

new blog soon. but in the meantime... new pictures are up from valencia, madrid, and barcelona.

day after day.

Ok, so days are just starting to blend together here. I feel like all that goes on is: wake up, go to class, sit in the library, go to more class, go home, do homework, maybe go run, maybe go to the internet cafe (and I am using that term very lightly, as I will explain later), do homework, maybe go get sangria, go to sleep. Every. Freaking. Day. Yesterday, I thought the monotony was literally going to rot my brain. I can't watch TV because it's in the living room, I don't have the internet at my house, I can't invite people over or go to their houses, and the only places to go sit and hang out are at restaurants where you either have to order food or something to drink. I swear, if I look at one more jar of sangria, I am going to take it and bash it over the head of whoever the jerk was that created the social norms in this country. Maybe I am being a little intolerant of the culture here. But my liver is intolerant of the massive amounts of alcohol that people regularly consume here. And the cigarette thing. I mean, honestly, kids. I am at the point where I feel inclined to snatch lit cigarettes from peoples mouths and put them out on their shoulder. I am incredibly tired of inhaling someone else's nastiness. I hate that the bus drivers just get off the bus to smoke for 10 minutes. You would get shot for that in the States. But apparently, we have to give people time to kill themselves slowly every day. Ugh. Some of you may have heard that internet cafes are the thing in Europe. Well, clearly, I can't speak for all of Europe, but they do not EXIST in Valencia. In fact, the closest thing is called a "locutorio" which is nothing more than a smelly room where people come and mix their body odors with their cigarette smoke for the entire place to smell and use community computers, not laptops. I haaaaaate it. I want Starbucks. With couches. And wireless. And well-bathed people. Who do not smoke. Today, my madre forgot to make me lunch. That just made me so happy. I did a little dance of joy in the kitchen knowing that I would have to pay roughly 7 or 8 dollars for mediocre fast food. Yaaaaaaay! President Bush, if you are reading this, please send Air Force One my way. That would be greatly appreciated.

madrid.

I went to Madrid this weekend. Clearly. Let's start from Friday afternoon. Evan and I show up at the bus station confused and screaming American tourist. Our Croakies and North Face packs didn't help one bit. The man behind the counter told us to go to space number 22 and wait. We had a little confusion about which bus was actually ours. We walked from 22 to 1 back to 20, where we finally got on the bus. I immediately recognized that I possess an inherent distaste for traveling in close proximity with 50 people, some of whom are unbathed, who I do not know and with whom I cannot readily communicate. But, I sucked it up and took a nap. We stopped halfway at this roadside place. I got Doritos. When we got to Madrid, we met Josh at the bus stop. However, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to find him. In America, and especially in Wake Forest, you can see that Euro style anywhere. But in the capital of Spain, we were worried he would blend right into the sea of manpris and tight AX tshirts. Thankfully, we found him, Diesel scarf and all. Oh Josh. We then headed for the Metro, where we obviously caused an American scene trying to buy tickets and figure out which stop to use. Luckily, we found our way and went to our hostel. That night was uneventful. I went home early from the bars cause I had a stomach ache, which wasn't too painful since I don't particularly enjoy bars. I was awakened at 4:30 in the morning because the hostel had double-booked the beds where the girls were supposed to stay and we were forced to improvise. After me yelling at Evan a good bit and getting angry at drunk loud American girls (unnamed), I slept on the floor in my sleeping bag, vowing to myself that I would never sleep in another hostel. The next morning, we got our money back and moved... to a new hostel. You can only imagine my excitement. We toured the city a little that day, and went to an apartment where a bunch of Wake kids live that night. It was fun getting to hang out with Wake kids in the middle of Europe. After that, we went to this massive club called Kapital. Seven stories. American hip-hop. I was thoroughly happy about it. We stayed there (and I danced with Blair! yaaaaay.) until 4:30 AM. It was freakin amazing. Then, we went home. And slept. The next day... I don't really remember. Walking around. Eating. Then, at 3, we took the bus home. I hate buses and the man behind me smelled... miserably. Ugh. But, the weekend was overall pretty good. Now back to school. Which I am sick of. And, for future reference, I will just pay 20 extra euros a night and stay in a hotel. Where I have my own room. Alone. Not with crazy foreigners who aren't weirded out by walking around naked or not showering. So there.

out tonight.

Let's see. Yesterday was a relatively normal day. I had to be at the school for forever because I had classes all throughout the day. I went home after school and just sat around doing a little homework and going to the locutorio, where the man behind the counter now knows me. However, I left early because the smoke was hurting my eyes. I wish people in this stupid country would stop blowing cancer my way. I went home and waited on my madre to come home. As I waited, I went to the kitchen to see what was on the stove. When I opened the various pots, I prayed that it was leftovers from a lunch I had missed. However, I learned that I would not be so lucky when my madre returned and took the nastiness to the dining room table. We had this paste stuff as the main meal. It was literally a yellow substance with a texture somewhere in between water and mashed potatoes. However, I like water and mashed potatoes. I did NOT like mystery paste. In fact, I took about two bites and just put my spoon down. Then we had these deep-fried things that were really gross. I have realized this is a hit-or-miss kinda deal with the food at my madre's. So after dinner, I changed clothes and headed over to Evan's, where me and him and Corinne caught the bus to the school, where everyone was meeting. At a bear near the schoo, we witnessed about a 10 minute verbal altercation between an old, dirty, fat, possibly homeless man, and a 20 year old kinda cute Spanish girl. We didn't understand anything, but we kept telling her to throw a chair at him. I mean, it was really entertaining... in a sick way. Don't judge us. Then, we hung out for a long time, walked around finding other bars. We went to this one bar, but it was super-full and I had to pee. So, I went in a parking lot because there was nothing else open for literally like a mile in every direction. It was awesome. Then we went to this other bar. Gross. Smoke. Bad music. Smelly people. So we left. And that's all.

seriously?

Ok, so yesterday was DEFINITELY the craziest day I have had since I arrived in this country. Of course, it was all Evan's fault. We had to run errands, a task that I thought would be accomplished promptly and effeciently. Of course, that was not the case. I went to the telephone place to get more money on my phone and we figured out that the reason that the money didn't go through was that I didn't even know my phone number. I had given the wrong phone number to the lady and to everyone I met. Cool, right? Evan met me there and we went along. Well, we started off by trying to find a gym. On the way, we pass a restaurant and there is a teenage boy running through the tables really quickly. The waiter and the customers yelled at him and made him stop and as they did a big pigeon flew away. He yelled back and his friend on a bicycle holds up his hand and shows that he is grasping a different pigeon. He yells, "¡Para comer!" (For eating!) and they run away. Evan and I just kind of stared for a second while the people at the restaurant carried on as normal... clearly. Well, we found the gym, and let's just say that it's not exactly what I would choose. At all. After the gym, we decided to buy train tickets for the trip to Madrid this weekend and also the weekend we are going to Oktoberfest. We get to the station, start trying to buy tickets, and discover that the trains are full for this weekend and the train schedule does not work with out plane schedule for the other weekend. Clearly, I begin freaking out at this point. We ask the lady what we can do, so she tells us to go to the bus station. Evan thinks this is a good idea. But I look out the door and see that it is pouring rain. I don't have my rain jacket with me, due to the fact that my madre swore to me up and down that morning that it wouldn't rain. So, I whine enough to keep us in the train station for another hour seeing if there is a way we can buy the bus tickets without going outside or going to the bus station. Clearly, there wasn't. So, Evan just tells me to suck it up and we head out. I am wearing flip-flops and am incredibly grossed out that the water in the streets is touching my feet, sure that it contains feces and STD's. Evan, obviously, had no idea where we were going, so we ended up walking through Chinatown. As if being in Spain isn't culture shock enough, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by only Asians in the middle of Spain. Awkward. We got out of Chinatown and then into a really sketchy area. As we walked past a strip club named "5 Soles" (5 Suns), an incredibly unattractive woman whistled at us from the front door. So... we made out with her. Aaaaahahaha. I kid. We looked at our shoes and kept walking. We finally found the bus stop to get taken to the bus station, and we waited in the little shelter thing while some unbathed men smoked cigarettes next to us. Needless to say, I was furious. When our bus finally arrived, this crazy woman with a huge umbrella jumped right in front of me to get on. Obviously, she didn't have her bus pass out, so she stood in the doorway to the bus, closed her umbrella, and searched for her bus pass. I literally had to stand in the rain glaring at her for a full minute while Evan laughed. Then, as she started to get on the bus, she fell. We think she was drunk. And she had bright orange hair. It was awesome. So, we crack up almost the whole way to the bus station. On the way, we begin talking to this Spanish girl who tells us she will help us get our tickets. She spent the next 30 minutes talking to the guy behind the counter, and even got us into a booked bus. Awesome. We got her number and plan on going out with her at some point. Then, Casey and Corrinne met us and drama ensued as they made everything crazy for about 30 minutes. But, we went to a bar and had some tapas and Agua de Valencia, which essentially is a mimosa. That calmed everyone down... and made us all a little giggly. So, after that was over, we decided that we all needed to go home and finish up our homework. So, we get on the bus, and true to form, Casey is speaking in incredibly loud English. As soon as she gets off the bus, Evan turns to the lady next to us and says, "Ella es un problema un publico." (She is a problem in public.) The lady just stares at him in utter disgust and then looks away. I know that look so well because I give it to people all the time. When she did that, I absolutely LOST IT. Evan turns to me and I just bust out laughing and I laugh so hard that I start doing my laugh that sounds like a donkey. Evan and I are both laughing to the point of tears, and it lasts until we get off the bus. We think that laughing loudly in that woman's face served her for serving Evan. So there. I went to the locutorio for a minute, went home, talked with my madre about American Idol, read, and went to bed. All in all... amazing day.

no fear.

Ok, so let me start out by saying that I don't think I am scared of my madre anymore. And here is why: I saw her wearing normal clothes today. Usually, she is always wearing either a dress that could pass as a nightgown or a big, ill-fitting muu-muu. And today, she was wearing a pant-suit kind of thing and had her hair done and looked nice. I was just so impressed. And... with that feeling of being impressed came a lack of any fear. It was the best feeling in the world. But it was slightly counteracted by the curcumstances. I say this because I was awakened twice this morning before my alarm. The first time, the annoying buzz thing that lets people into the building went off at like 7:45. It was the daughter. And of course, she had her precious little baby in tow. Now, let me say that I actually like the child between the hours of 11AM and 11PM. Anytime before or after that, the unceasing cries coming from my madre's room make me want to pull a Van Gogh so I don't have to bear it anymore. So, of course, the baby cries for the next hour and a half, preventing me from truly getting any more sleep. But, at 9, the cleaning lady shows up. I wanted to put a freakin DO NOT DISTURB sign on my door, but she just chatted away into her little Blackberry earpiece in a rapid form of the Spanish language that I can't even BEGIN to try and understand at 9 in the morning. So, I finally just gave in and pulled myself out of bed. I walked to the shower, only to awkwardly pass the cleaning lady in my underwear. Cool. Oh, and I didn't go out last night because the lady at the freakin phone store didn't actually put the 50 Euros that I gave her onto my phone, so I have no minutes to call anyone. So, being really cool, I sat in my room reading a Spanish version of The Hobbitt, and waiting for someone to call me. But apparently by 11 PM, everyone was too drunk to call. And Evan was asleep. Now, I have to go get money on my phone, buy train tickets to Madrid, and find a gym. And then do homework. But, I am in Spain, so... yeah. Oh, and freakin iTunes Music Store isn't working right now and I think I am going to scream in the middle of the library if it doesn't show me the new freakin music for the week soon. That's all.

all i need.

So, things are getting better. I actually had a semi-good conversation with my madre last night. But I also found out that she doesn't like soccer. I was like, umm, isn't that kinda mandatory for you? Not to stereotype or anything. I mean, it's just true. I have met all Spaniards. I know. Sunday was a bit of a bore. I slept all day and then hung out with Evan for a little while and then... I did homework. I was like, dang, I am such an accomplished international traveler. I am sitting in tiny little room in the middle of Valencia... reading. So, that was a sad feeling. But, I found this song that really lifte my spirits, "All I Need" by Bethany Dillon. Look it up. Good one. We are trying to find a gym here in town, but it feels like everything is a million miles away from my house. I could run to the gym, but let's be honest, that's just overkill. If I can't get there without much effort, is it really worth it? Oh irony, I call thee friend. Well, let me review some of the things that are currently angering me about this country:
1. one big ice cube when you order a drink... and only if you ask for it.
2. no AC
3. everyone smokes... gross
4. no dryers
5. no convenient DRY CLEANERS!!!
6. tap water tastes vile
7. uglier women than I imagined
I will continue this later, but also know that I am happy about lots of things. That is just boring though. Haha. More tomorrow!

la playa.

So, Friday classes were miserable because they lasted for 6 hours. Yes, six. I literally thought my head was going to explode. By the end of the day, I could not understand what any of my teachers were saying. In my Film and Literature class, I fell asleep and woke up when I began to drool. Good one, huh? Friday night was amazing. We went to this bar called Radio City, where we all got a free glass of sangria. We hung out there for about an hour, then tried to go to this club. Evan led us in a massive circle for roughly 45 minutes while various DrunkFace McGees talked to me about the most ridiculous things ever. When we finally found the club, it had a cover charge of 15 euros, which is about 25 American dollars. I wanted to laugh in the bouncer's face. I was like, Sir, you MUST be kidding me. So, we left there and went to this bar next to our school. The DJ played whatever music we wanted. Let's just say that I definitely brought sexy back. No big deal. On Saturday, we went to the beach and hung out there for about 4 hours. The picture above is of me. Shout out to Lauren for letting me borrow her Chi O shirt. There will be pictures with that shirt taken throughout Europe. Haha. Well, I am not in a particularly funny mood, so I'm just gonna peace out. More tomorrow.

another day.

Well, yesterday was certainly interesting. We had our first day of class. I did not eat at home because I had class. I had conversation, which looks like it is going to be really easy. After classes, Evan and I walked around and I took some pictures, which I will post soon. We walked to the center of the city, which is freakin amazing. There is a bull fighting ring and a lot of crazy old buildings. Casey and Corinne met us there, and we walked around for forever. Casey was intent on finding a bag, so we went in nearly every store in town, only to have her walk out with a look of disgust on her face. We finally went in this huge department store and she bought a Tommy Hilfiger bag. There are so many things that I want to say to that, but I won't. We went to this awesome tapas bar after that and sat outside, eating tapas and drinking sangria and agua de Valencia. After that, I went home and that is where the humor lies. My madre met someone for dinner, so she left me dinner at home. It was a fish. With scales. And bones. I was like, I'm done with this. So, I took it into the kitchen and tried to dispose of it. However, the quarter-inch of greases sitting on the plate prevented me from doing so easily. I began with trying to wrap the meal in paper towels, which promptly busted and spilled everything everywhere. Then, I took a plastic bag and tried to pour it in there, but a lot just ended up spilling on the floor and getting greasiness everywhere. A half-roll of paper towels later, I finally got everything cleaned up and started heading out to throw it away in the trash can on the street. However, just as I approached the door, I heard my madre coming in. I started walking back to my room and yelled, "Hola." I ended up sleeping with the plastic bag of nast sitting in my window. Awesome. It's the weekend. Yay.

continuation.

Ok. So, the first night was mildly awkward. But, we all showed up at the school (SPU) at 10:30 on Tuesday for our orientation. It was incredibly cold and hard to hear, but we sat through a few hours of being told what to do and what not to do in Valencia and in the school. If we are inside the walls of the school, we cannot speak English, or we will be in trouble. It's pretty interesting. That afternoon, me and some other people from the program walked all over town trying to find our way around. It worked pretty well until we started following other people from the program. They failed to tell us that they were, in fact, planning on being icredibly touristy, speaking loudly in English, and taking 20 million pictures that just screamed, "I am American. Hate me!" I really just don't enjoy running around in large groups of people and just showing off the fact that we are incredibly out of place. But, we eventually got back to school for more orientation after being led at least 2 miles out of our way. And it was hot outside. But, because I have a heart of gold, I never complained once. Ok I just laughed out loud in the library here when I wrote that. Clearly, I complained. Frequently. But, so did the other people with me, so I didn't feel as bad. In fact, I didn't feel bad at all. Weird. That night, I didn't go out because having people stare condescendingly in my direction while smoking a nasty cig because we have just taken a picture of us standing in a bar 7 different times with 7 different cameras as though we do not possess access to the internet to send the pictures to everyone else is not my favorite thing in the world. The next day, we have a proficiency exam at 9:30 Am. It sucked. But whatever. Thennn... we went to the beach. It was beautiful. We drank sangrias. We were stared at by creepy men in speedos. Aaaaaand... beaches are topless. So we saw women walking around who could play hacky sack with themselves. No more explanation is needed. Use your imagination. If you don't know, ask your mom. Umm... more later. Evan is staring over my shoulder because he forgot his computer and needs to use mine to check his email every 5 minutes. And, I happen to be incredibly nice and charitable, so I am letting him. Gold stars for me.

españa

Holy freakin crap. I am sitting in the school in the middle of Valencia, Spain. I feel like I have been here foreeeeeeeeeever, but it has only been about 4 days. Well, there have been some good and some bad things. My trip to New York with my dad was incredible. We stayed at this beautiful hotel and just got to hang out. We went to see a musical (Hairspray) which we both really liked. I was kinda worried though, becuase when we got on the plane to fly to NYC, my father spilled an entire glass of ice water into our seats. I didn't know if God was trying to tell me something. But, apparently not. I'm not gonna lie, when my dad dropped me off that the airport, I was fighting back some SERIOUS tears. But, I had to get over that soon cause I was meeting people and didn't want to be "that kid." There are some really cool people on the trip. I got to know that because we spent 5 hours in the airport, 8 hours on the plane, and 4 hours on the bus from Madrid to Valencia. (Dear God, if You are reading my blog today, thank You for Tylenol PM. Amen.) When we got to Valencia, all of our madres were waiting at the futbol stadium to pick us up. There were cute little madres waving and smiling, so happy to see their new children. My madre, however, was standing angrily off to the side. I walked over to her and the first thing she said to me was, "I thought you were going to be a girl." At that moment, I should have just walked away and spared both of us the trouble, but I just smiled and said, "Lo siento." We went home and she helped me get stuff in my room and then was like, "I have to go get my hair done." I was like, "Um, ok. Peace out, madre." At that point, I went and wandered around a Spanish city attempting to find Evan's house for roughly 45 minutes. Clearly, I was freaking out. I finally broke down and went into a travel agency thinking that they would speak a BIT of English. Obviously not. So, I finally waited outside what I thought was Evan's building and started asking people for help. One lady finally showed me what button to push, and I called up to his room and he let me come in. I almost laid on the floor and cried out of sheer joy to see someone I knew. We hung out with some people that night and went out to a bar called the Heineken Bar. I have realized since being here that I do not like bars. I just don't. But, I don't really have an option. Ok, I have class in 10 minutes, so I will end this post. But, after class, I will post what has happened since that first night. Awesome. I miss America. And Cookout. That is all.