Dang, I can't believe I have not written in my blog in a month; time is going by SO fast! I definitely feel way more accustomed to the culture here and am starting to call this place home. Anytime we leave for a vacation or even just for the day, we miss Sevilla already. I have come to love and appreciate it to the greatest extent. It's starting to get really hot, it's supposed to be 76 this week I love it! I had my first botellon with Alexa the other day because it was so hot and we just had to live like the Spaniards do! So a botellon is where you bring bottles of tinto de verano (which is like sangria) and drink and hangout at the river. On Sundays people bring picnics and socialize in the park, which is what I did all day yesterday! It's so beautiful here and I'm so happy how much it feels like summer at the start of March. My spanish has gotten so much better mainly from meeting people at bars and clubs as well as ordering in restaurants. The bars are where I speak the most Spanish and realize how much I know! I discovered this a couple of weeks ago when Alexa and I went to Alfafa (plaza with popular bars), didn't know anyone, and met Italians who mainly spoke Spanish and Italian! Therefore, we basically had to speak spanish to them. I realized how fun it is to explore the language and test my skills (and I had a little more courage, hehe). I gained a lot more confidence from then on and always try to practice spanish when meeting spaniards, even if they can speak english. After all, isn't that what I'm here for?
Cadiz
Recently my entire apartment and I went to Cadiz for Carnival, which is the 3rd biggest Carnival in the world. We all got dressed up in crazy costumes with masks, feathers, spandex and vibrant makeup and boarded the bus with a ton of other CEA students. Cadiz is a town about 2 1/2 hours away on the beach. We didn't actually get to go to the beach because it is really dangerous at night there during the festival. So they drop us off in this foreign town at 1130 pm and tell us to meet back at the bus at 6 am. We looked around us and thought, "Oh dear lord what are we supposed to do now?" Hundreds of people were walking around aimlessly with their bottles and group costumes. We didn't realize people would be dressed up like Halloween so we felt silly, but we embraced it! Literally the whole night we drank our mixed drinks and walked around like crazy people. There were thousands of people everywhere drinking, wandering, playing music and yelling like a bird on crack. I have never been around so many people before so it was pretty overwhelming. We all wanted to go back at 2 but still have 4 hours so wandered some more! Not doing that again.....
yep, that pretty much sums it up
Amsterdam
So 2 weekends ago I had my first vacation all set up on my own; no exchange program, no parents, nothing. Five of my roommates and I had our first trip to Amsterdam and Brussels. And let me tell ya this was the most chaotic, stressful, amazing and down right terrifying time of my life. Cari, Belinda, Alexa and I arrived there first and as soon as we stepped out of the train station were already in love with the place. It was so different from anywhere else I have ever been. All the buildings were so quaint, tall, and narrow. There are canals everywhere with small bridges connecting the streets on either side. Everywhere was dark and dimly lit which gave it sort of a mysterious feel. All the people were amazingly tall and I felt so in place compared to Spain! Even the women were freakishly tall, white, and mostly blonde. The people were so beautiful and unique from anywhere I've been. Our first meal that night was a burger joint straight across from our hostel, which was amazing. And the dude who served us had dreadlocks, which made me feel more at home. We stayed in a hostel right there at the red light district. We obviously had to explore through there and it was really intense and kind of scary in a way. There are men everywhere crowding the streets and pearing through the windows. I really did not like it at all and felt uncomfortable walking in it. The streets are really dark with dimly lit red lights above the doors, which made it even more creepy and corrupted.
The next day Arielle and Marielle arrived and we did a lot of exploring and wandering into various coffeeshops. We had a free city tour through our hostel which I'm so glad I did because I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. It was sunny the day we did it so we got lucky because it was absolutely beautiful! All the buildings, the canals, bikes, everything was amazing. Our tour guide told us that 70% of the bikes in Amsterdam are in the canals from drunk Dutch people rolling them in! And there were still hundreds of thousands of bikes in the streets! Carazzzzzy. I felt bad for Arielle because she had been sick for a couple of weeks and got so sick in Amsterdam she had to go to the hospital! Poor little thing. We went to the Anne Frank house though and that was really emotional. Walking through it I couldn't help but tear up several times. I got to walk through the annex her entire family stayed in and her room. I saw the journal she wrote in, and I can't even describe the emotions I felt.
Later on we got to do a pub crawl with a huge group and explored another side of Amsterdam I hadn't seen yet, which I loved! We met some pretty cool people and had the time of our lives. At the end we went to this intense club that felt like a rave and was 23 euro to get in! But we didn't have to pay :). The day we left Amsterdam I got to go the the IAMSTERDAM sign which was cool cause it's all famous and stuff hehe. Oh ya and the food there is basically stoner heaven, so it's all pretty crappy. They are all about asian food though and we had amazing Thai! There are these little desserts called syrup waffels, which are specifically Dutch and SO good! It's 2 flattened out waffles with honey and caramel in the middle YUM! Don't worry mom I got some for you and Carissa. And next was on to Brussels!
The next day Arielle and Marielle arrived and we did a lot of exploring and wandering into various coffeeshops. We had a free city tour through our hostel which I'm so glad I did because I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. It was sunny the day we did it so we got lucky because it was absolutely beautiful! All the buildings, the canals, bikes, everything was amazing. Our tour guide told us that 70% of the bikes in Amsterdam are in the canals from drunk Dutch people rolling them in! And there were still hundreds of thousands of bikes in the streets! Carazzzzzy. I felt bad for Arielle because she had been sick for a couple of weeks and got so sick in Amsterdam she had to go to the hospital! Poor little thing. We went to the Anne Frank house though and that was really emotional. Walking through it I couldn't help but tear up several times. I got to walk through the annex her entire family stayed in and her room. I saw the journal she wrote in, and I can't even describe the emotions I felt.
Later on we got to do a pub crawl with a huge group and explored another side of Amsterdam I hadn't seen yet, which I loved! We met some pretty cool people and had the time of our lives. At the end we went to this intense club that felt like a rave and was 23 euro to get in! But we didn't have to pay :). The day we left Amsterdam I got to go the the IAMSTERDAM sign which was cool cause it's all famous and stuff hehe. Oh ya and the food there is basically stoner heaven, so it's all pretty crappy. They are all about asian food though and we had amazing Thai! There are these little desserts called syrup waffels, which are specifically Dutch and SO good! It's 2 flattened out waffles with honey and caramel in the middle YUM! Don't worry mom I got some for you and Carissa. And next was on to Brussels!
2nd day-sunny!
Brussels
This was a good break from the chaotic life of the Dutch! I loved the feel of Brussels; waffles, chocolate, and the best beer ever! I usually hate beer, but I've been trying to like it since I've been in Europe. And Brussels is the first place where I actually enjoyed drinking it. The first beer I had was a cherry Belgian beer and it was so good-yummy! We went to this reccomended bar that had "beer specialists." We walked in and a man comes up to us asking what type of beer we feel like having. We all said strong, but fruity, so out he comes with a platter of 4 different types of beer. I loved mine, it was for sure fruity (cause I could actually drink it) but it was still pretty alcoholic. These dudes are actually specialists because the bar is voted 10th best in the world!
We saw a lot of sites while we were in Brussels, which made me feel very accomplished. We had started the morning going to the best local breakfast joint and got our first Belgian waffles. Mine was a waffle with powdered sugar, bananas, and chocolate sauce! I died. We wandered the city, toured a cathedral, saw our first waffle truck, and saw the Mannekin Pis (that's literally what it's called.) It was pretty small and insignificant but it was at the street with all the waffle and chocolate shops, which was my favorite part; food. The waffles we had there were even better; greasy, sugary and delish. We toured a chocolate museum which was cool because I learned the development of it over the centuries as well as got a bunch of free samples! And I learned what is in each type of chocolate. They eat a lot of kebabs there too, so we went to kebab street and got some falafel kebabs for lunch.
That night we went to the most famous bar there, Delirium. There are about 4 of them all on the same street, which apparently has the best beer. It was cool because we hungout with the Irish and Cuban people from our hostel. Hostels are way more fun than I thought they would be. I met so many people all over the world on this entire trip, it was a nice break from just being around Americans and Spaniards. As soon as we arrived in Seville though from Brussels, we were so happy and ecstatic. I never thought I would miss it so much, but we did. We were especially grateful after being gone for so long.
We saw a lot of sites while we were in Brussels, which made me feel very accomplished. We had started the morning going to the best local breakfast joint and got our first Belgian waffles. Mine was a waffle with powdered sugar, bananas, and chocolate sauce! I died. We wandered the city, toured a cathedral, saw our first waffle truck, and saw the Mannekin Pis (that's literally what it's called.) It was pretty small and insignificant but it was at the street with all the waffle and chocolate shops, which was my favorite part; food. The waffles we had there were even better; greasy, sugary and delish. We toured a chocolate museum which was cool because I learned the development of it over the centuries as well as got a bunch of free samples! And I learned what is in each type of chocolate. They eat a lot of kebabs there too, so we went to kebab street and got some falafel kebabs for lunch.
That night we went to the most famous bar there, Delirium. There are about 4 of them all on the same street, which apparently has the best beer. It was cool because we hungout with the Irish and Cuban people from our hostel. Hostels are way more fun than I thought they would be. I met so many people all over the world on this entire trip, it was a nice break from just being around Americans and Spaniards. As soon as we arrived in Seville though from Brussels, we were so happy and ecstatic. I never thought I would miss it so much, but we did. We were especially grateful after being gone for so long.
mannekin pis....cool
So this weekend we did a day trip to Gibraltar with our program which was pretty cool. Gibraltar is this British colony in the south about 15 miles from Africa. You can actually see Africa from the point overlooking the sea. It's where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet and is absolutely beautiful! It was raining, which was ok because I am just too blessed with lovely weather en Espana ahora. We took a tour on a tiny, broken down bus that lead us through the mountain and caves. Our first stop there were monkeys everywhere! These dudes had a mind of their own; jumping from car to car, stealing people's food, jumping on their heads. I loved them. We were told not to touch them or else they would bite us and we would have to get a shot, so I got scared to get too close. When we were with them, one kid was messing with them and getting a little too crazy when one of the babies bit him and he got 3 punctures in his hand-ouch. We explored these underground caves also which were interesting to see. My favorite part were the monkeys though, even though we didn't get to hangout long enough to get to know one another. The town was really cute with a ton of British flags and food! I got the infamous English breakfast, I've been missing breakfast being in Spain (hint hint mom).
look guys it's AFRICA!
chillin with a monkey...no big deal
the british have arrived
Sorry I have written so much people, I promise next time I won't take so long to write another blog! This weekend I am here in Sevilla and then next week I go to Morrocco! AHHH I'm actually going to Africa! Who would have ever known? Not me. Time is flying by like crazy, which is actually making me kind of sad. In 2 1/2 weeks I already go to London, Wales to visit Nain and Taid, and then Dublin! WHAT?! Weekend after that is Portugal, then Rome weekend after and then by the time I get back it's already May! Dat shit cray. Sorry family, but this is a saying we have repeated non-stop here. I had to say it.
