Cumple de 21 Anos!

Hola todos!

Well..it was my birthday.  and it was lovely.  Classes were chill, i didnt have hw, and Ryan, Jill, Luli and I went out for drinks at the Office.

Best day ever.

Also- i learned this from a spaniard in the Office (aka O'Connells) 

When you wanna say cheese in Spanish, like when you're taking a pic, you say Patatas!

LOVE IT!

Also, lola made me tortilla espanola and broccoli, LOVE IT!

Adios

21st Birthday weekend...Salamanca style- "Soviet Union will not be stopped by fatigue"

Epica was the word of the weekend.  Turning 21 someplace where the drinking age is 18 was mildly anticlimactic, but still really fun.  To start, Carnival started this weekend, and ends on Wed.  Its like halloween here, and everyone dresses up!  My 5 year old host sister, Claudia, was Wilma Flintstone.  Her mom had a really good time trying to explain that one to me, especially because all she said was 'the woman in white with the necklace".

Friday, Ryan, Jill and I continued our misadventures in Segovia, which is clearly the loveliest place I've been to in Spain.  We had a trifle bit of problems at the train station, and we ended up taking the bus because we couldn't find the 15 euro train tix that were online.  The bus ride wasn't too long, and the station was conveniently located down the street from the REALLY OLD Roman Aqueduct in the middle of the city.  It's huge, and oh so historical.  We climbed up the stairs to the top, and were able to look over across the top of it.  We did a bit more exploring up there, walking thru the Roman area, which was awesome.  We then schlepped our way to the famous Gothic cathedral, and went in there as well.  Then, we saw the oh so famous castle that's there - El Alcanzar.  The basement of the settlement is actually the remains of a roman temple.  Part of the castle was built by muslims, and then it was a medieval fortress, and then in burned down in the 1800's and was fully restored.  It was full of medieval tapestries, suits of armor, canons, flags, and all other assortment of harry-potter-castle-ish-wonderfuls.  We then climbed up the 152 spiral staircase to the Torre de Juan (which was only mildly better than the spiral staircase up to the Blarney stone...im really conquering that whole fear of heights), and got amazing views of the city and the castle, which was soooo cool.  We made our way down, went souvenir shopping, and embarked on our most epic quest...to find the Doner Kebap food joint.   let me tell you, we succeeded, and it was the best kebap i've ever had in spain...hands down.  

Friday night, I went back to Ryan's house instead of schlepping home, and we bought a bottle of wine, had pizza and wine, and had epic bonding time with our mothers via skype.  Mark and Pat had come down from London to visit us in Spain, and we took them to a chocolateria and then to our favourite Tapas Bar for Sangria, and around 1245, I called it a night, as I knew i was gonna get up balls early for my Sat birthday bash.  Oh, I almost forgot.  Ella visited the boys in London...and was apparently quite threatening.  I'm really glad to see the extra 4ooo$ i paid to go ol' CUA going to such a great cause...sending her to check up on students abroad (sarcasm anyone?)

Saturday, I woke up like a half hour before i had to be on the metro, rushed to get ready, and only after i was down in the metro did i realize that i didnt have my train tix to segovia, so i ran back to get them.  Then, bc i was on the wrong metro car, Kevin and i almost missed eachother at Congosto, but luckily, i shouted and he heard me, and then we were off the the Chamartin train station to meet up with everyone else.  Some epic details later, Kevin, Ryan, Jill and I got on the 11am train to Salamanca, and Katie was gonna meet up with us later.  Salamanca was soo pretty; while there was not too much to do, we throughly explored the city, ate Kebaps for lunch and dinner, saw cathedrals, got ice cream, drank boxed wine by the river, and the piece de resistance, Jill and I got changed for the night in a kebap place's bano, complete with doing make up and hair...now that was funny.  While we were waiting for Katie, we stopped at Delicatessan and Cafe to get some of their famous Sangria, which was uber awesome.  Then we got Katie...after being lost for a bit ;), and went back to Plaza Mayor to look for Jacko's Cocktail bar, which is famous for its 1 liter for 5 euros of your choice cocktail.  We found it, and i realized it was a Michael Jackson themed bar!  We all got different liter cocktails, and Jill and I shared the "Thriller" which ended up sneaking up on me ;).  Then, Katie and I shared my first 'almost legal in the US' cosmo (another liter of course), and we made friends with some americans to VA and Michigan, a really cute guy from Scotland, and some dutch girls.  Then, oh then, did Kevin decide that he was buying me a shot of Absinthe.  At the time, I figured, oh what the hell, one only turns 21 once.  So, me kevin, ryan and katie all took a shot.  It tasted mildly disgusting, but boy oh boy, did that shit pack a punch.  Soon after that incident, we left to go to an irish bar for carbombs, which i did not partake in, as i was still realing from the first 3 hours we spent at Jackos.  We stayed here till about 3ish, watching drunk spaniards dance, chatting, and in katie and jill's case doing car bombs (which they had quite a time of explaining in spanish to the bartender :)).  Then, we somehow ended up at another irish bar, Molly Malone, for more beer and talk of how the Soviet Union will not be stopped by (insert anything you want here).  This was the catchphrase of the night, and came out of drunk Kevin's (or as i call him Sean Connery) mouth alot, always in a russian accent of course.  Natasha also made an appearance as well.  At around 5, we got kebaps again, and then made our way to the train station...where we were homeless for about 55 minutes bc the security guard told us the station didnt open till 7am.  So, we all huddled for warmth, shared ridic stories, and contemplated our crazy night.  Probs one of the finest 7am adventures in drinking and epicness since i've been here.  Also, more importantly, i remember mostly everything from the night, did not get sick at all, and didnt spill anything on my red silk dress, which were my goals upon starting the night of epic drinking at 8pm.   Im quite proud.  I snoozed on the train ride back to madrid, and then had the best commute back to La Gavia, explaining to Kevin just how ridic drunk kevin had been the night before.  Here's a snippet:  Kevin: "Well I don't remember the second bar...i think i ordered a bottle of something."  Me:"No kevin, you had 2 pints, and you kept shouting 'the great soviet union will not be stopped by closing times', and im pretty sure we almost got kicked out."  "Oh shit...what else happened?  Should I go pray or something?"  All in all, it was a night to remember, and tomorrow, or better, in a half hour, i technically turn 21, which is sooo weird.  I think lola is gonna make me something i actually like, and not fish, for dinner tomorrow, and i'll probs have a glass of wine to celebrate the event.  Great weekend, and a big hand to all of us for managing 9 hours of straight drinking!  Thanks guys, y'all rock!  

Hasta Luegoooooooo

Granada (It's ok, It's Flexhold)

Hola TODOS!

Well, its been DIAS since my last entry, and I've been pretty darn busy. Hmm...where to begin.  Well, school i guess is schoool.  My classes are pretty cool, however I forgot that i had to like work tho, so that's really starting to get to me.  Wed night, I found myself with the grupo at our fav haunt- 100 Cervecerias, the 1 euro bar.  Thurs I stayed in, to prepare for the big weekend in Granada...however that didn't go over so well, as I stayed up muy tarde packing and such.  Friday began the epica granada adventure.  I'll leave everyone with this; ERASMUS (international student org) SUCKS AT PLANNING TRIPS AND AT GENERAL COMPETENCY.  

Friday:

The bus ride there was great, except for when we realized that instead of the hotel we were supposedly staying at, we were actually in a HOSTEL (and an icky one at that) and we ended up being in a room a 7 (we all knew each other, THANK GOD), and our other group members were in the 10 person room and in another hostel (because they didnt think to book the same one? idiotas).  However, all was not lost, because we made friends with 3 really cool Italians, 2 of whom only spoke spanish and italian (and boy were their accents hysterical).  Friday, when we got there, and after we realized the full horrificness of our hostel crisis, we did a psuedo walking tour around the city (passing by all the impt things, like Ferdinand and Isabella's graves, with the briefest of intros, like 'here's an impt monument, now lets go'), but we did get a good feel for the city, which was lucky, considering what was soon to come.   However, we did see a bunch of pretty churches, and had our first real encounter with the Gitanos (gypsies) who accost you with Rosemary and curse you when u walk past. Creepy.  My friend katie actually got grabbed and shit. Crazy. 

We realized quite quickly that none of the ppl who planned our trip knew where they were going or what they were doing. No one. at all. it was in a word- asinine.

However, i dont wanna give anyone the wrong idea. I loved Granada and had a shit ton of fun :)...it was just a tad disorganized.  For the rest of Friday, we had some free time to explore more, and we ate at this AMAZING Arab Restaurant called Kasbah.  It was the most amazing thing i've ever eaten abroad.  Tucked into one of the narrow side streets in the Arab quarter of the city, its a rather hole in the wall place, but its BEAUTIFULLY decorated on the inside.  I ordered Pastella de Pollo, which was like a pastry thing filled with chicken, almonds, and onions with cinnamon on top.  Even our sangria had cinnamon in it!  However, since i was so hungey, i ordered a kebap too ;).  Then, we went on this nighttime tour of the old Muslim neighborhoods, in which our busdriver, Pepe, drove us halfway up the Mountain (oh i totes forgot to mention that Granada- yea in like IN in mts, however, there were a shit ton of palm trees, talk about confusion lol) and then we schlepped through really old streets to get a really awesome view of La Alhambra at night. Beautiful. Then, we went to an authentic flamenco show, by real gitanos, in what Ryan called "The Flamenco Speakeasy" because it was like a white washed stone room that was super long and like built into the side of a mt.  We got free sangria at that too, which made my life.  After that, the buses dropped us off in the middle of the city, we all walked to a bar, stayed for a bit, and then tried to find our way home.  However, one the of trip leaders, who supposedly knew the way, was actually really lost, so Ryan and I took charge and navigated us halfway across the city back to our hostel, which may i remind u all was in an ALLEY.  When we got back, he pulled me aside and thanked me for getting us home.  My response: I'm from NY, it's what I do. 

Saturday:

We went to La Alambra pretty early, and it was SO awesome.  About the only thing on the trip that was well planned, probs bc some really awesome Arab woman was our guide and she really knew her stuff.  Check out the pics when i put them up. It's literally like paradise up there.  However, we got left at the famous fountains near the end of the tour, and were yelled at bc apparently it was our fault.  Stupid Erasmus.  After that, we WALKED back to the city, down a cobble stoned path that was hundreds of years old (aka worn) and down hill (and those of u who were in Rome know how well i do on cobblestones).  After that, we broke apart again, went back to Kasbah, bought wine for the night and food for the next day, and proceeded back to the hostel for our wine party.  Two bottles later, we were all really happy, Ryan had given EVERYONE a makeover, Jilly did my hair, and we met the italians for an amazing night.  The first discoteca we went to was Teatro, which was really awesome, and mommy found herself a hot spaniard...and after a few dances promptly dropped him...mommy knows best ;).  Then we went to this club, Mae West, which we had VIP passes for, so we took a glass elevator up to the top, and got 2 free drinks...so when 430 in the am rolled around, we all decided to peace.  Me katie and Sara really had to pee, so we left first.  It was on this walk back that i realized that heels on cobblestone even streets SUCKED. Sara peed in an alley, and we ended up back home.  My poor feet.  Mommy (clearly my new nickname) waited up for Jilly to come home, bc she didnt have a key. and then we all spelt for 4 hours. because check out was 1030am. ugh.

Sunday:

Wine gives me headaches, but last night was totes worth it.  Best Valentines day to date. however, everything was closed bc it was sun, and our bus back wasnt till 4pm.  So we sat on a bench in front of Corte Ingles for an hour, bought bread and pastries at the bakery down the street, and returned to our bench.  Really funny.  We then went souvenir shopping in the Arab district, where i bought my name written in Arabic on pretty paper on the street for a euro fifty. The guy was really nice, and we chatted for a while about Marrakech, where he was from.  Then, after running into some of our friends from Cali, we went back to the hostel, check emails, and went to the plaza to wait for the bus, which was an hour late.  Also, the ride back was horrific, and i swore we were offroading. But whateves.  To end an even longer way, when i got home at 11pm, my host mom was still gone and left me no food, so i had 2 frozen spring rolls, vanilla pudding, and a kinder sorpresa huevo and called it a night.  

In summation, epic trip.  My bday is monday, and i'm like whooooooa.  This weekend, im going to Segovia and Salamanca to celebrate.  And i got word that the skanky and fran are funding my flight to Paris as a 21st bday prez. SO EXCITED.

Hasta Luegoooooooo

There's a Man Floating in Atocha Station!

Hola Todos!

Well..where to begin.   We'll start with Sunday.  Jillian and I went to El Rastro, which is a GIANT outdoor market place, where we bought pashminas and jewelry.  Then, we went to the oldest Chocolateria in Madrid...bc Samantha Brown went there, and had AMAZING chocolate. Then, we walked to the Prado, which was an adventure in itself.  We stumbled upon amazing parks and fountains along the way, remarking 'why the hell have we not been here before' the entire way.  We waited till 5pm with the rest of the cheapos to get in the Prado for free, and began our museum experience.  Same old same old- saw a shit ton of really old famous artwork, my personal fav being Las Medinas.  Then we parted ways and I headed home.

On mon, my first class doesn't start till 2:30, so I slept in till 12.  However, when I got to school, I was informed that ETA (Basque Terrorist Group) had placed a car bomb in Madrid, that when off (where my program director lives; she and her hubby heard it, and its slightly near my barrio) while I was still snoozing.  Of course, Skanky was REAL happy about that one. 

I started classes: my Superior Lengua class is small and I heart my profa.  I'm taking Espanol para Uso Professional, which is awesome too.  However, the award for fav class goes to Historia de Espana, with my prof Eduardo. BALLER.

Today, another epic adventure.  I had class at 12 (ugh earlllyyy).  It's a HUGE fricking class, but its a mesh of hist and culture, and we're going to Franco's Grave nx month, so I'm pretty excited.  Then, we had a 3 hour break...had comida, and did tarea.  My lit class wins the most boring reward, but i mean whateves.  

The real adventures started after school.  We we all get off the train at Atocha, and are walking to the metro entrance, and what do we see...A MAN FLOATING IN MID AIR.  He was holding a wall and even tho ppl were walking under him, i was HIGHLY skeptical.  But i mean seriously, what a sight to stumble upon.  Of course, no one had a camera, but not like i'd forget that easily.  Then, we headed to Sol bc i needed to visit a Barclays.  However, we ended up passing a giant protest (basque country elections are next month; hence the coche bomba).  We didn't find a used book store we were looking for, but we went to Jilly's barrio and walked around and found Folders, which is like a baby Office Max.  Then we parted ways to go home.  

So I'm on the metro, and I get to my transfer, and I stupidly get on the car PACKED with a shit ton of ppl.  So this guy, mildly old and way sketch is standing by the door, and when the train moves, the couple behind him are bumping into him.  So what happens?  Well the sketch mofo starts screaming at the guy in the couple, calling him a slew of palebrotas and saying shit like "yo mamas a ho".  So they're like getting up in each other's grills, so me and about everyone else on the car all get off at the nx stop and make a mad dash to another car...in which no one can sit bc there's white powder on all of the seats.  I swear, if that ends up being anthrax or something, I'm literally gonna kill someone lol.  Now im home, eating FISH soup...(i dont think Lola understands that I HATE fish), and trying to find my lit readings online so i dont have to buy the books.

Hope tomo is a bit less hectic. 

Adios! Besitos!

7am misadventures

Well All,

It seems that epic is my life story.  I really don't know how I end up in these situations, but i wholeheartedly blame Sean Connery. 

To begin, Friday was a bit calmer than our haphazard trip on Thurs.  We got pizza in the little italy of Madrid, and ate outside the Palacio Real.  Nice life.  Then, we headed to a cafe, met Ryan, and went to Corte Ingles to buy cheap wine for our byob black and white party.  Sweet life.

However, when i schlepped home at 5pm, I realized that the Teatro de Madrid is at the end of line 9, a good hour and 15min metro ride across the city, so i quickly showered, ate a few crackers and some cold pasta, and met Kevin at 630 to metro to Flamenco dancing. 

Ryan broke out a wine juice box which we all passed around, and then we had cupcakes for Jsmith's bday, and then we headed to the show.  However, we ended up being a bit late, and for Act 1 we couldnt make it to our front row seats.  When intermission came around, we moved down tho, so it was chillin.  I loved the dancing.  It was really beautiful.  It's amazing how similar and yet how different spanish culture is from latin american culture.  Yes, this is a dorky history major moment. 

After the show is when the night began.  After finding the metro, we headed to Principe Pio to go to our party.  However, we pit stopped at a Burger King because everyone was hungry. After that, we headed to the fiesta.  However, we got a little lost, but sooner than later we found it.  The party WAS HOPPING.  I had a small cup of Sangria, and chatted it up with the girls and this HOTTIE named Marcos.  All i gotta say is the he was impressed with my spanish skills and that i hope i see him again ;).  However, party got busted around 2amish, so we found ourselves going to catch the Buho (owl) bus into the city center.  On the way to the bus, we ran into Marcos again, who was going home.  I consider it divine providence lol.  Ridic.  While waiting for the bus, i broke out the bottle of red wine that was still in my bag, and the phrase 'mama drinks' was born.  We then got to Sol, and headed to Chueca to hit up a gay bar/club with Edu and his 3 friends.  I managed to get in for free, which ROCKED (thanks Edu).  We danced the night away to ABBA, Grease, Britney, and bad spanish pop from the 90's.  Katie and i killed the rest of the wine en el bano, and when 6am rolled around, i caught the 1st metro home.  It was a really fun/epic night, but after getting home at 7am, I've made the executive decision that it shall happen no more lol.  Tonight i think we be a night in, to upload picks and get back on my feet lol.  Typical.

Hasta Manana!

So, Avila is apparently in the Mountains...

Good evening all!

Yesterday was yet another night of Wed tradition- the 1euro bar near Opera metro.  Boy i love that place.  1 euro sangria never tasted so good.  Again, we met up with Rachel and her friends, and chillaxed...that is until 2 guys got into a fight, right next to our table.  My friend Kate and I managed to step out of the way, and both guys were thrown out.  Apparently, according to the guy we made friends with from NJ(who lived on the same street in Dublin, Parnell, where my hostel was), they were fighting over 2 beers...honestly, as I told the Spaniard next to me, I would have just given them 2 euros for another 2 beers!  However, after the bar closed, one guy came up to us and apologized for starting the fight and freaking us out..how nice!

Today was yet another epic day in the life and times of Jeannie.  AKA hot mess.  Well, I got up pretty balls early to hike to school to pay for my Granada Trip next weekend with the international student group I joined.  Then, on my way out, I took a quick look at the language list and saw that I was placed in the Superior level of Spanish...1 full level underneath bilingual, which made me super happy, considering I thought I failed the test lol.  

After that, Jill, Ryan and I decided to try our luck and make it to Avila, which is about 1.5 hours outside Madrid. So began our misadventure.  However, by the grace of God, we managed to catch a bus 15mins before it left, and we were on our way.  Then, all the sudden, we were surrounded by white, snowcapped mountains...Apparently the city is like in the mountains.  Poor Ryan was a little miffed, because he was wearing his light jacket, but we made do. It was super nice because not only was the landscape beautiful, but it was SUNNY!  Honestly, I havent seen the sun for days, madrid's been like covered in clouds.  I loved Avila, it was small and quaint and surrounded by this awesome wall called las murallas.  We visited the convent where St. Theresa of Avila lived and prayed, walked around, saw the walls, and took some amazing pics.  I also got some kick ass chocolate made in the area, called Chocolate de la piedra, and its texture is that of ground up rocks, but it tastes like nesquick, so i'm ok with it lol.  We stepped into a cervercaria to get out of the cold, and then failed in our attempt to find McDonalds, which Ryan was craving.  The sign said it was 3 mins away by bus, but when we asked a man on the street, after having walked for 10mins and happening upon the bus station, he said it was another 15mins away.   We caught the 8pm bus home, and as we were driving away, near the main highway, we saw the McDonalds.  Priceless. 

Tomorrow shall be a day of rest, flamanco dancing, and a Black and White BYOB cocktail party at one of Rachel's friends houses.  YES.

Hasta Luego Amigos!

Ay Dios Mio, Tanta Lluvia

Hola all,

Well not much as changed since the last post...I've still yet to start classes...that doesnt happen till my birthday week lol...and i'm still finished by May 15!  Yes!  Nonetheless,  I'm hoping to go to Granada next weekend, and this weekend I hope to do a few day trips to some of the cities outside of Madrid.

BIG NEWS:  I tried FISH last night..and not just a bite...i ATE it.  However, i didn't really like it, but now i can say i did it.  :).  So typical. 

Its been COLD and rainy since sunday, after the epic snowfall, so thats been ick.  There are about 200 american students in my Uni here, half of them from like CA.  Also, theres a girl from my high school here, at the same uni!  How typical..It just goes to show you how global Long Island really it.  

Also, my program director here knows about the 4am incident involving the park bench, but shes being really chill about it...I was slighly mortified thought.  I think we're going out tonight to our fav 1 euro bar, which should be fab.  Other than that, this week has been the usual orientation shit....presentations, info sessions, and getting ID cards for everything.  Seriously, the people in Spain LOVE id cards.  It's a little ridic.  The classes here that i plan on taking are so darn interesting, so i'm actually pretty excited to start those. 

Hasta Luegooooo

Snow in Madrid

Hola!!!

Ok so; life has bit pretty epic here.  Yesterday, I slept in for a bit, and then Jillie came over and we planned our huge european adventures.  I'm pretty excited...even tho i'm gonna be real poor after i return...whateves ;).  Then we went to the GIANT mall by my house, bc my roommate, Patricia (she's totes a spanish baller) works at Zara.  I ended up buying a shirt for 3.95 euros, which aint that bad :).  Then, i got home, ate dinner, and met Ryan, Katie, Christy, Katie, and Jill at La Latina for a night of Spanish vino fun.  We met Katie's hottie friend Edu and one of his friends, and i ended up getting pretty happy after 2.5 glasses of lovely spanish wine.  Love it eternally.  I caught the last metro home, and was back by 2:30am...an early night by madrid standards.

Today, I woke up balls early with the intent of going to El Rastro, which is a giant outdoor marketplace that takes place every sunday...however, it was raining outside.  But we decided that rain wasn't gonna stop us, so i peaced outta my house at 10am, and was on the metro.  However, 45 mins later when i arrived at Estrecho Metro stop...I realized the rain had turned to SNOW.  EPIC snowfall in madrid...and it was balls freezing.  So, i waited for Kara, and we attemped to find a Barclays bank while waiting for our friend Sara.  However, we got epically lost and the in only Barclays we found, the ATM was out of service.  So we stopped and had coffee in a cafe and bitched about the weather and bipartisanship...typical. 

Then, we headed to Corte Ingles to ask for directions, and eventually found our way to another cafe for lunch, which we split bc it was so expensive, and watched the epic Australian Open tennis match (which the Spaniard won), so that was pretty cool.  I had no idea that in europe, Tennis is the SHIT.

Then i went home, did some epic facebooking, and we just booked our hostel for Sevilla during Semana Santa.  It was literally crazy.  We're all split up bc we couldn't find any rooms together.  Literally, every last place is BOOKED solid, bc the famous Semana Santa celebration and the Feria de Abril celebration fall on the same weekend. EPICA.

Tomo i start school..with a test.  UGH.

Hasta Luego!