La Vida Malagueña

Random things not long enough to make multiple posts for so here have a jubilee of photos.

So here’s random things I’ve been doing as my time in this amazing place has been coming to a close.

I dog-sat for an adorable little dog named Canela and her feline friend Tibbles. This obviously called for an insane number of photos, but I won’t bore you with all 80, don’t worry.

Meet Canela.

Meet Tibbles. He only has one eye :( But he is the sweetest cat ever and he meows just like my boo so it made me happy.

Canela and I had a beach photo shoot.

Their apartment has a SWEET view.

This was outside a bar but it made me smile. Love Málaga.

The other day, Julie and Lizet and I decided to walk into el centro and climb up Gibralfaro. It’s the mountain the Phoenicians founded the city around, fun fact. So you can see all around, it’s really pretty. There’s a castle at the top but it closed 10 minutes before we got there :( It’s quite a little hike up, but it was definitely worth the view. I’d already seen Alcazaba, which is the 11th century fortress, but Gibralfaro is separate and from the 14th century.

Anyway we took pictures on the walk and of the views, so enjoy.

Other than that, I’ve been going to the beach a lot… we had finals, but that conflicted with beach time. Fortunately school here is far less stressful than in the states (and yet I feel I learned just as much this year, if not more, with 1000% less stress!) so studying on the beach is totally doable. You can even order a piña colada delivered to your chaise lounge. Sweet deal.

Hey guys just studying lawlz.

The other I walked around the house and took pictures of everything, because I know that I’ll miss it. So now, os presento mis perritos españoles!

This is Candi. She’s obviously a chihuahua. She’s shy and it took a full semester for her to warm up to me.

This is Madi. She looks like she’s dying of boredom but she’s actually really energetic and the friendliest dog ever.

Hahahahah this is Nana. She is the sweetest. She’s the same kind of dog Obama has but she recently got a haircut.

And now I’m going to make a separate post for the goodbye party/last night out.

Semana Santa.

Since I refuse to accept that this is over and therefore I need to pack, I’m just going to update like crazy on the past monthish of my life, because well… I sucked at that. 

So Semana Santa, first things first. Málaga and Sevilla are evidently in some sort of competition over whose is better, and all the Malagueños say theirs is… I haven’t seen Sevilla’s so I can’t really comment.

Basically, Málaga has fantastic weather year-round more or less. Until Semana Santa. And then it just freaking rains every day. And I not mean drizzle. I mean thunder and being soaked to the bone and just grossness. So as you can imagine, that puts a damper (heh I didn’t even mean for that happen) on the activities. 

Semana Santa is the whole week before Easter (so yes this is very late) and every day there are different processions. Each procession has two tronos (thrones), which apparently is only called a trono in Málaga? But there’s one of Jesus and one of the Virgin. These tronos weigh several thousand pounds, and they’re carried on the shoulders of men from the particular church the trono belongs to. The guys usually carry about 20-30 kilos (~40-50 lbs) each, and the processions are SIX HOURS LONG. The go through all of the city, leaving from the church and then making their way back eventually. The churches have these massive doors that open for them.

The tronos are accompanied by nazarenos, and this is where I must make my disclaimer. The nazarenos are not in anyyyy way affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, although they highly resemble a colorful version. (The ones in white are just the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.) They have pointy hoods and you can’t see their faces and it’s just highly unsettling for someone from the US, I think.

They also have marching bands, so you can always tell when the trono is on its way because you hear it first.

So that’s the basics on Semana Santa, Google it or write in my ask box if you want to know anything else… Now just to warn you all I don’t remember exactly which processions we saw (there are like 10 a day, for a whole week). Rosa could probably recognize every single one based on my pictures but she’s not home so you’ll just have to wonder forever. 

This was the first night we went out. It rained off and on sort of, but this procession decided to go out anyway. (A LOT of them were cancelled because of rain.) We were in Plaza… Okay I don’t know if that plaza has a name not going to lie. But someone was on a balcony above us and they threw down rose petals, it was really pretty and now I have them pressed in a book. Anyway, above is the Jesus throne, and the next picture is the Virgin from the same procession.

Olivia and I were on a mission to see as many as we could, so we went every day despite the constant rain. The next day we were in el centro before the processions started and I took this picture of Alameda Principal. On that and on Calle Larios people buy seats to sit in and watch the processions, so this is all the empty seats.

We eventually did get to see a daytime procession. Which is good because the photos turn out WAY better, no? Again, don’t be alarmed, it was not the KKK.

The first trono I saw in daylight.

Okay but seriously this was really creepy I won’t lie.

Another night procession. 

The Virgin that goes with the Jesus above.

The back of the Virgin. The men lift the tronos above their heads like this a few times and they were shouting something but the only thing I understood was “VIVA!!” 

This next one is Sepulcro, the only name I remember because we had a few Spanish friends who were carrying the trono!! It looked like a LOT of work. This procession was really pretty and sad, everyone was utterly silent except for the marching band which was playing Chopin’s funeral march. I have a video somewhere I might upload later.

Okay actually I know this one too, it’s called Piedad. It’s the only procession where Jesus and Mary are together on one trono.

I have millions more pictures obviously but they’d get a bit repetitive I’m sure. Despite the rain we got to see some really cool processions. I’m not religious at all but I can see why it’s so important to people who are. It’s definitely one of the more interesting/uniquely Spanish things we’ve seen this year I think!

• Question: Ok thanks, and yes I am american, but I am about to graduate this month with my IB diploma so it must be easier for me to go to a european university right? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Ohhh I think so yeah, with IB you should have an easier time :) Lucky you! I’m trying to figure all this same stuff out so I can do my masters in Spain and it’s so complicated ahh! Good luck though :)

I can’t believe I have less than 3 weeks left here…

I’m so not ready to leave!! Semana Santa is over (and the week after, oops). It was nice, but rained a lot, so lots of the processions got cancelled.

Tomorrow I’ll upload pictures of that.

Right now I don’t have any more trips or thrilling things planned, just final projects and papers and trying to enjoy the beach and all before I go back to the US.

I honestly just can’t believe how quickly the time has gone - I feel like I just got here last month! (At the same time though, I feel like I’ve been gone forever.)

I know I’ll be back for grad school (no matter what it takes!) so leaving Spain isn’t really permanent, and I’ll see my American friends at school in the fall (not my Spain once though, sadly)… so really the thing that’s the saddest is leaving my host family.

I’ve gotten so close to them and they’re just amazing. I honestly could not have been luckier. Rosa is the best host mom I could have asked for - she’s sweet and funny and a great cook and motherly without being overbearing and just an all around wonderful person. My host sisters are sooo nice and never laughed at my mistakes and taught me so much about Spanish culture and such, and I’ll miss them too (Maria’s going to Italy next year for Erasmus, which is pretty sweet). My host doggies are just adorable and sweet and the only thing that consoles me is that I’ll be returning to my cat. But I’ll miss Madi and Nana and Candi so much :( They honestly did make my day sometimes. Ugh seriously I just had the best host family ever and I hope I come back to visit (Rosa said I could!) and keep in touch with them, because they really did become like a family to me.

Ahh okay this is getting me sad and it’s really late (/early) so I’m going to bed. Tomorrow, lots of homework (it’s supposed to rain, boooooo) and uploading Semana Santa pictures, I promise!

• Question: Hey, what if I study abroad for one year and decide I want to stay another year? Would I have to transfer completely or can I just extend my stay during the summer with the office that handles all of this?
  
  And then If I'm there (let's say sophomore year) and instead of staying an extra year I just want to finish college there entirely. Would that be possible? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Wellll it depends on your school I would say. I know for my school it’s possible to study for 3 semesters, but I think most of those kids figure it out well in advance. And you have to plan your credits REALLY carefully. You would definitely have to extend your visa, which usually requires a trip back home I think. But if you want to stay another year on the same program you’re on anyway, the office you’re with should be able to at least help with that, I would think. Talk to your study abroad office, they’re really helpful!

  It is possible to transfer from an American university to a European one (although that’s assuming you’re American which maybe you aren’t haha) but it’s complicated… You would have to apply to the European university as a transfer student, and your credits might not all transfer. You’d also have to get your high school diploma/current college credits sort of “equalized” to the European system, although you can do that sometimes after being accepted. If there’s a particular school abroad you’re thinking of, check their website would be my advice. They usually have a section for international students on applying, and they’re pretty helpful in most cases!! They have stuff on getting American education stuff transferred into the European system, on getting a visa, etc. 

  I think it would be entirely possible, you just have to get through lots of paperwork but if it’s something you really want you shouldn’t let that stop you :) Good luck!

• Question: Whopper as "borderline religious experience" - ??? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Clearly you’ve never eaten a “hamburger” in Spain. They’re a tragedy, honestly.

• Question: I love your blog! Its making me want to study abroad even more :D - madridiswhereiwanttobe
• Answer:

  Aww thanks :) You absolutely should! It’s the best :) 

  Sorry you probably left this ages ago!

Dance the night away… London to IBIZA. Minus the London part.

Well it’s officially Semana Santa here, meaning it’s also officially spring break… and what better way to start off the break than a weekend in Europe’s party capital, Ibiza? Okay, to be honest, we went off-season so not much was open, but it was still pretty awesome.

We got there Thursday and checked into our hostal… it was only 12 Euro a night, but it was honestly a legitimate hotel. Our room was cleaned every day, we had private rooms with private bathrooms, there was a restaurant downstairs… I’m not sure what made it not a hotel, to be honest.

Anyway, the first afternoon we just went to the beach. It was cold at first but definitely warm enough to swim, so I did. I missed swimming, I hadn’t since the Canaries at Christmas. That night we went out to dinner, the only night we did so. I got really gross pasta. We were going to go out, but everyone was exhausted so the executive decision was to stay in.

The next day we got up and ate breakfast and then took a bus to San Miguel, a town 15 miles away, on the other side of the island. It has caves that were supposed to be a “must-see” for Ibiza, so we decided to go. It’s sort of challenging to get to, actually, but we made it. We went for a walk along a path through the woods around the beach, and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The water was SO BLUE.

We walked up to where the caves are, meeting an adorable puppy on the way.

HOW CUTE IS SHE?? 

Anyway, here’s the view from the top of the hill, where you enter the caves.

The caves were a little overpriced if you ask me, but maybe I just wasn’t impressed because I’d already been to Nerja. The coolest part was this waterfall where they had added flashing colored lights and strobes and music, so it was like a rave in a waterfall! Except I got 0 cool pictures of that. I did get a cool video though, which I’ll post later.

They also had this room where they had added some… glow-y chemical… to the water, so it looked like pools or Kryptonite or something. So cool.

After that, we took the craziest cab ride of our lives back to the bus stop, and eventually made our way back to Sant Antoni, the town we were staying in. We took naps, ate dinner, and showered and then prepared for a night out in Ibiza. 

First we went to Mint, which was having its opening night that night. We met a really nice girl bartending who was from Canada, and she had helpful info for other places to go. Mint was a sunset lounge club, and realllllly classy. We got free champagne :)

Leaving Mint, we were headed for a bar called Kiltie’s but were intercepted by a bunch of French guys. Turns out they were a soccer team (no, sadly not a famous one) and they were there and having a private party at a club. So they invited us! That was pretty cool, we got in for free. And I got to speak some French :) The party wasn’t very full when we got there, so we decided to get stamped and come back later.

We went to Kiltie’s, pretended it was Lizet’s birthday… she got hit on by an 80 year old man. Like, actually 80. He told her. 

Drinks at Kiltie’s were REALLY EXPENSIVE, so we didn’t stay long. We ended up going back to Eden for the soccer party, and by the time we returned it was way more crowded. They were playing good music and it was fun! :) We stayed til about 5 I guess? And then walked home. Risa, Lizet, and I had a snack and went to sleep.

The next day we got up and went to the apartment where Tyler, Julie, and Reagan were staying. Kevin made us all French toast :) A little taste of home. (Or France?)

After that we went to the beach all afternoon. The water was colder though :( After the beach I bought postcards and we all went back to the apartment to shower and such, and then met up at the apartment later because Kevin and Jossie were cooking dinner. We watched the Madrid-Barça game while we ate, which made me happy obviously.

View of the sunset from the apartment :)

Yummmmmm.

After dinner Jossie and the guys went back to the hotel and the rest of us went out. I was tired but we eventually found a bar that had really good music and wasn’t creepy like places here can be. There were some really cute British guys (unfortunately they were all quite gay, so I don’t think I was their type at all) who danced with us for a bit.

Girls in the apartment before going out.

We got home… well I don’t know what time it was, but pretty late I think. We woke up the next day and showered and ate and such, and then it was time to get back to the airport.

At the airport, I ate a Whopper for the first time in Spain and it was actually a borderline religious experience. It was actually the perfect burger.

Barcelona - Gaudi, Dalí, Picasso, and lots of other weird things.

So I went to Barcelona with my RM jersey packed and ready to go, and ready for battle. In fact I only received one possible death threat (from a moving vehicle) and made lots of friends (there are a surprising number of Madridistas in Barcelona apparently). And I really, really liked the city. It’s absolutely beautiful, the weather was PERFECT, in the 80s (upper 20s) and sunny the whole time! 

We flew AirEuropa - had to be at the airport at 7 AM! Ouch. So we got there pretty early, took cabs to the hotel and checked in. Then it was time for our tour of the city. This is the Plaza de Catalunya, which is fulllll of pigeons.

From there were went to La Boquería, which is a HUGE market with every good you can think of. I took lots of pictures because it was really pretty.

They had some delicious zumos (juices)…

Lots of chuches (gummies)…

And for anyone who didn’t know before, these are chirimoyas (xirimoyas in Cataluña).

We had some free time to explore the market and then we went down La Rambla and toured the Gothic neighborhood and such… None of my pictures from that are particularly spectacular. I have to say, La Rambla wasn’t quite what I’d imagined… I guess I expected something more like Calle Larios here in Málaga but it’s not at all. It’s pretty though, with lots of trees. 

We had free time in the afternoon, so some of us decided to look for the promised BAGEL STORE in Barcelona. We tracked down the address and to our utter devastation it wasn’t even a bagel store!! It was an apartment! I’ve never been so disappointed in my life. We ended up getting pasta from this cool little stand. Then Rebecca wanted to check out some cable car thing so we trekked approximately 5 million miles across the city to this park (turns out it was Montjuic but we didn’t know that at the time) only to find out the cable car was 15 Euro… Rebecca and Olivia went and the rest of us walked back. My feet were dying at the point. 

Some kids from Dickinson’s Bologna program were there when we got back, which was fun. Eventually, Dasha and Katherine and I decided to get SUSHI for dinner, so we had another adventure of tracking a place down. In the end we didn’t find the best sushi ever but it was a welcome change from Spanish food, that’s for sure. 

Friday, we did an architectural tour by bus with a woman who had the most annoying speech habit in the WORLD… she added an “ah” sound before words. And now just like once every few minutes. EVERY OTHER WORD. I wanted to stab myself by the end - I couldn’t even listen to what she said because I was so distracted by it. Anyway. The first thing we saw was the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s famous still-unfinished church.

As you can see by the cranes. The outside was cool and it the famous image, but personally I thought the inside was a loooot more beautiful.

Only the windows in the front are stained glass now, but they’re going to make them all stained glass eventually and I think it will really be the prettiest thing in the world. I’ve been to every church in Europe (or at least it feels that way sometimes) and to be honest I’m a bit jaded… but this one really did impress me.

The back side of the church.

After Sagrada Familia, we went to Parc Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi. It was supposed to be a residential area, but no one wanted to live in what was the outskirts of the city at the time, so they ended up just making it a public park. It’s got really interesting architecture, like anything Gaudi.

Our tour continued to the port, and I’m sure the lady said lots of ah-interesting ah-things, but I was so tired that I slept the whole way from Parc Guell, so I have no idea what she could have said.

We had some free time after lunch but we didn’t do anything really, because we were at lunch for 2 hours or something ridiculous(-ly Spanish) like that. So then at 6 we went to see this apartment building designed by, you guessed it, Gaudi. They had an elevator but no one decided to inform us of that, so 4738892 stairs later I wanted to freaking DIE, but we had arrived at the top. It had a crazy roof with a big courtyard in the middle.

Inside, you can visit an apartment furnished like they were back in the day. They’re huge, each apartment is a floor by itself. And the one we visited had the most judgmental statue on the planet.

That night we got food from the supermarket for dinner and just hung out by the hotel pool. The next day we had to get up early to go to the Dalí museum in Figueres, which is a 2 hour train ride away and honestly I have no idea why the museum is there because it’s just about the ONLY thing there. It was surreal (go figure) and crowded and hard to navigate because the building was more about being artsy than being functional for traffic flow. We trekked all over town for ice cream after.

I slept the train ride back to Barcelona, except for when I listened to the game. When we got back, a few people accompanied me to La Rambla so that I could look for the guy dressed as a Barcelona gladiator and get a picture with him in my Real Madrid jersey. I succeeded! He glared at me a first and I thought he was going to stab me or something, but he turned out to be really nice and blew me a kiss and everything. Look at that tolerance you guys!! 

That night we got sushi again, this time from a much better place that was a buffet. I was determined to get my 15 Euro worth of food, so I ate so much I could have died. I went out later for a bit, but came home semi-early because we had to be up early for a Picasso museum tour (Spain is big on Picasso museums). 

That tour was pretty quick, so it kind of sucked we had to get up early for it because then we had free time until 5! We were all too tired to walk any further and the beach was really far from the hotel, so we ended up just tanning by the hotel pool until it was time to go to the airport.

And that, my friends, is a summary of my Barcelona trip.

So if you’re wondering why I never update this.

It’s not because I died. It’s just that I’ve been here for a few months now, and so my life is kind of a routine, you know? I haven’t been on any trips since Paris, and I didn’t think people would be interested in reading my daily routine, well, daily.

But in case you’re absolutely dying of curiosity and want to know what I’ve been doing with my life, my routine is pretty much:

• Internship twice a week, where I usually translate but occasionally visit schools.
• Class three days a week… no explanation needed here.
• On weekends lately it’s been nice enough for the beach during the day, and we go out at night.
• I go to Aguacate to watch soccer games a lot, I guess.

So like, I actually really enjoy all this and my life is really fun. It’s just not really anything worth blogging about, you know? But this is just to assure you all that I’m alive.

I go home in less than 6 weeks so I’m really trying to make the most of my time here. 

This weekend we’ll be in Barcelona, and the weekend after that a few of us are going to Ibiza. And then it’s Semana Santa so I’m sure things in Malaga will be really exciting. After that… well. After that it’s like the last 3 weeks here.

Hard to believe a year abroad goes as fast as it does. I feel like I got here last week sometimes, and other times it feels like this place is such a home that I’ve been here for years.

PARIS. It only took me 400 years to get around to this post.

I actually wrote this entire freaking post in Wordpad, because my stupid post got deleted TWICEEEEEEEE and I am just not in the mood for that again. But anyway, the Paris post. After forever. I’m so bad at updating this with my travels, oops.

So Paris. Okay. Grisha and I almost missed our flight because of missing the 8:30 airport train, having to check in, the meanest security woman in Málaga, and just general crap. In addition, I was fighting the flu, so being in a hurry was absolutely no fun. But we got there on time and eventually made it to Paris. We then journey through CDG, which if you didn’t know is approximately 800 miles long, and the train station was at the other end. So 6 hours later we made it there, and got on the train after a few mishaps with trying to purchase (over-priced) tickets.

We got off at our stop, which was coincidentally also the sketchiest corner in Paris. The station itself was sketchy and it only got worse once we got outside to see that the corner (which was also the corner our hostel was on) was just FULL of people, and it seriously must have been every man in Montmartre. And they stayed there allllll day long. Trying to hit on girls, selling knockoff perfume, or muttering “Hashish hashish hashish” in your ear when you walked by.

Then there was the actual hostel. Sketchy. The 1 Euro breakfast we were promised was a dixie cup of instant coffee and a grocery store croissant, so we skipped that. Then there were no towels, so we had to brave the Sketchiest Corner in Paris once again to buy 3 Euro towels from a nice man who told us about his son studying in Kathmandu… these turned out to be the least absorbent towels ever, and were approximately Barbie-sized. This just added to the lovely experience of a COLD shower with absolutely no pressure, it just spat water on you except for one super-soaker stream. Our 4 person room, which smelled like something had died in it several weeks ago, had been made a 5 person room with a cot. The people were loud and we couldn’t sleep. The Wi-Fi was available in a 2 foot radius in the hallway. Worst hostel ever, really. 

We left the hostel to explore. We saw Moulin Rouge, which is one of my favorite movies so that was exciting.

Then we went to Subway for lunch, which in Europe is reallllly overpriced but still delicious. After that we were walking back to the hostel through Montmartre, which has a red-light district you would not believe, when we stumbled across the Erotic Museum. Such an educational experience is obviously invaluable, so we went in. To our surprise, the museum contained SIX FLOORS of stuff ranging from ancient Egyptian penis statues to 1990s porno mags. Truly a fascinating place. Grisha and I, being two mature college students, spent the entire time cracking up, but what was truly awkward were the adult couples who were there and obviously entirely serious in wanting to see the museum. Perverts.

We went back to the hostel and made plans to meet Lily, who’s studying in Paris, for dinner, and then we headed downtown. We were going to go up the Eiffel Tower but the line was eternal, so we just took pictures outside. Then we went and met Lily at the metro station (it was SO good to see her) and then went out fordinner - crepes, of course. (I ate SO many crepes omg, they were amazing though.) After dinner, we went back to the hostel since I wasn’t feeling good, and Lily went out. I slept for like 10 hours that night and woke up feeling GREAT, actually. So that was good.

Friday, we wandered around quite a bit. First we went to Sacre Coeur, which is very pretty and rather crowded. 

Then we walked from there to the center of town, which isn’t as far as you’d think looking at the map. Along the way, we saw the Opera Garnier, which is where the Phantom of the Opera takes place, another of my favorite movies.

From there, we went to the Louvre, which we didn’t actually go into but we walked around the outside and everything.

From there we walked up to the Place de la Concorde, to the Champs Elysses. There, we saw Sephora, which for some reason was having this amazing moment where all the employees were in front dancing to Rihanna’s S&M. Great moment I tell you. After that we went to the Arc de Triomphe, where we randomly ran into a guy who used to go to Dickinson, weirdly enough. Small world.

We went back to the hostel and planned to take a 30 minute power nap that somehow became 4 hours long, so we woke up at almost 9 and were slightly as a loss. We decided to go see Notre Dame, because the guidebook said it’s better at night when the crowds are smaller. It took a while to find, believe it or not, but it was beautiful.

On our way back to the center of town, we ran across this rollerblading show or something, just a bunch of guys in the street but they were SO GOOD, it was amazing. We stayed and watched a bit and then moved on. We basically just walked around, but my knee (the one I fractured in October) hurts when I walk too much so by that point I was in a lot of pain, and we eventually went back.

The next day, we went to Versailles. First we saw Invalides, which Napoleon built I think? I’m not sure. It’s pretty though.

Then we took 4 years to find the train station. We got to Versailles and it was REALLY crowded, it being a Saturday afternoon, but still absolutely beautiful. The day had started really nice, but it started to rain while we were there… boo. 4 billion photos later, we went back to Paris.

We had to climb the Eiffel Tower that night, since it was our last night there, so we waited in the reallllllly long line (I can’t imagine what it’s line in the summer) to go up in the elevator. At the second level, you have to switch elevators and wait again, but this time you’re up pretty high already and the wind and the rain were just awful and I didn’t have my coat (since the day started off hot) so I was kind of miserable. Eventually we made it to the top, where the wind and cold are worse, so we snapped our pictures and then made the journey down (another line to wait in). 

We met up with Lily again for dinner, this time for falafel. It was really delicious and the guy was so nice, and then we got dessert crepes, mmmm. 

We said bye to Lily, which was sad because she’s amazing and was a totally awesome roommate last year, and then we went back to the hostel to pack and go to bed, because we had to be up at like 4 to get to the airport. 

We had some moments of panic with the airport train and not being able to get tickets, and then this man came out of nowhere and gave us tickets, but he would only speak French and at 4:30 AM my French isn’t at its best, so we weren’t sure what was going on and I was really worried we’d never make it out of the train station at the airport, but we did. We made it to the flight on-time and proceeded to sleep the entire way home.

Since Paris, I haven’t gone anywhere really. I’ve had my internship (we visited another school) and gone to bars to watch soccer games (always a good time) and wore my jersey out one night, which I’ve been saying I’d do all year but hadn’t - my theory worked, I did indeed make lots of new amigos. Yesterday I hung out with the familia. OH AND WE’VE BEEN GOING TO THE BEACH. In bikinis. Be jealous. I have a tan! I might go after lunch, but today is a little chillier/windier, so I’m not sure yet.

Anyway, that’s my life at the moment. Hard to believe we only have 8 weeks left here… the time is going by WAY too fast. There are definitely things I’m excited to get home for: seeing my family, my cat, and my friends… eating foods I missed like sushi, crabcakes, bagels, mac and cheese… not having to take the freaking 11 bus everywhere I go. But mostly I’ll just miss things, like my host family and dogs, hearing Spanish every day, going to the beach, how easy school is, watching soccer games in bars… I’m ready to go back, but I don’t think I’m ready to go back forever :( It honestly does feel like I just got here, and at the same time like I’ve always been here… my first morning being lost on the 11 and not having a cell phone and not knowing where anything in the city was feels sooo far away now in terms of how I’ve changed, but like it was last week in terms of how fresh the memory seems.

CARNAVAL in Cadiz… Lo que pasa en Cadiz se queda en Cadiz.

Figuring out how to get to Carnaval was really stressful, but eventually I found out there was a spot in the car that Dasha, Kim, Carly, and Jack were taking with some Spanish amigos, and Dasha said I could go with them. We left Saturday morning, took the train to Torremuelle, and there we first encountered our 9 person party/kidnapper van.

It really could not have looked sketchier. Kim and Dasha’s friend Cesar drove. 

So then we picked up Cesar’s friends David and Jesus, and his sister Maria. And then we were off to Cadiz! We listened to music and I actually didn’t sleep, surprisingly. We got to Cadiz and drove around a while looking for parking until we ended up just parking in a garage. Then we all put on our costumes/make-up/wigs/hair dye/whatever else we had, and set off. Carly, Jack, Kim, and I went to find food first of all, and then we all stood by the water and talked and hung out. Cadiz is really pretty… at first it felt kind of like any US beach town, but once we hit the historic part it seemed Spanish again.

Eventually the fiesta moved to the plaza by the cathedral… which is kind of unholy, if you ask me. We met up with the rest of the Dickinson kids who were there :)

Me, Julie, Olivia… Julie and I were both aliens. (I eventually lost my antennae but oh well. Pink hair was fun!)

Spanish amigos! David, Jesus, and Cesar. (THEY ARE ALL MADRIDISTAS BY THE WAY. And thus good people. I told Marta I met some guys who were fans of Madrid, and she just said “Like everyone should be.”)

We met some uh, male nurses.

We also ran into Christie, a Dickinson alum, and her boyfriend Rodrigo. They were snuggies (Labatamanta in Spanish, apparently!)

Risa, Rebecca, Carly, Cesar, me.

I met these guys and somehow discovered they were Culés, so I made them take a picture with me to prove we can all be friends.

Me, Carly, Arianna. Arianna goes to Dickinson, too, but she’s studying in Sevilla this semester.

Jack, Julie, Carly, Arianna, Arianna’s friend.

Qué coñazo de gente, no?

And basically we hung out there til around 5 AM, when we headed back to the van. I passed out for the ride back. We got back to Málaga around 10 AM I think, and I slept for a few hours. And then today at my internship, Daniel told me I looked like I had been partying hard… sweeeet haha.

I’m feeling sicker than before, but it was totally worth it!

PARIS THURSDAY. Can’t wait!!

VIENNA.

All right so Vienna. First off, it’s beautiful, even in the freeeeeezing cold winter, and I’d recommend it to a friend for sure. 

I took the train there, it’s about an hour from Bratislava. I ended up in a car with like 7 Slovakian guys who were playing loud music, and only at the very end did they seem to realize I existed and talk to me. Obviously I speak no Slovak, so then we had a language guessing game until they got to English. Basically all they could say was “OBAMA!!!!” which is cool and all because I love the man, but it’s not like when I met people in England I started yelling “QUEEN ELIZABETH!!!” and I certainly don’t yell “JUAN CARLOSSS!!!” in Spain. Or ZAPATERO, but that’s mostly because lots of people hate him. Anyway, I digress.

I got off the train and proceeded to have no idea where I was, because the train station wasn’t actually on the map. So I eventually wandered over to Belvedere Palace, which was very pretty. The gardens would have been nice in the summer, I’m sure.

Gates at Belvedere.

The palace itself.

From there I wandered downtown, which is pretty much how I spent the entire rest of the afternoon. In summary of Vienna: I wandered, I got lost, I wandered some more, I consulted my horrible map and continued to be lost, I wandered, I got directions from nice Austrians, I wandered.

I don’t know what this memorial is for because I can’t read Russian OR German, but something to do with Russians or Germans or both, I presume.

Opera House, which I didn’t realize was the opera house until much later. They aren’t big on signs, and they’re even less big on signs in English.

St. Stephen’s. 

St. Stephen’s.

Stephen’s Dome.

Spanish Riding School, which was very hard to find despite being massive. It’s not hard to find, in fact, but the map was that hard to read.

Statue and pretty building in the background.

Museum Quarter.

Parliament.

I don’t know what this building was, never did figure it out. But they had a really intense ice rink out front.

Votivkirche.

Schönbrunn Palace, which I actually paid to take a tour of (something I rarely do). No photos inside though… LAME.

Neptune’s Fountain in the gardens at Schönbrunn.

After Schönbrunn I took the subway back to the main part of town, visited the Opera House again, realized I had been there already, got hit on by an Italian whose name was actually Mario, purchased sushi, got horrifically lost trying to find the train station, and finally got on the train back to Slovakia. 

So all in all, I successfully navigated a foreign city where I don’t speak the language ALL BY MYSELF. Navigated may be a stretch considering how much time I spent lost, but I did manage to get back safely on time, so I’ll consider it a success. I have a million more pictures on Facebook, because I took an obnoxious number.

SLOVAKIA.

So I suck at updating this lately, but I’ve been busy! Slovakia. Ookay. It was a 3.5 hour flight over, and once we landed I texted Josh that I had arrived. It was wayyy colder outside than Spain had been, which was a little bit of a shock but also kind of refreshing. We went back to Josh and Dana’s condo, and that night we just caught up and played with the kids, and Dana made dinner :)

The next day we walked around Bratislava a bit, but it was freezing and Josh has 2 young kids so being outside for too long was kind of a challenge. I did get to see some cool things though, and I learned about Slovakia, which I have to say I knew pretty much nothing about before this trip.

This is the plague memorial in Bratislava. The kids are Cheyenne and Chance, Josh’s adorable kids :)

I forget who this guy was, but he has a leprechaun on his shoulder and a snail at his feet…

This is a famous Slovakian writer, if I remember correctly, and his statue is significantly larger than that of their first president.

The national theater.

Interesting statue of a man crawling out of the sidewalk. The kids were never looking at the camera at the same time.

I forget what this building if, of course, but that spot to the left of the window is a cannonball that got stuck there! Kind of cool.

Guards at the president’s house/palace.

Presidential residence, and Cheyenne.

This is at the castle. The horse is a little… detailed.

Bratislava Castle. You can see Austria from up there. We went back to the house after the castle, and the kids took a nap. Josh and I wandered downtown in Senec a bit, and I tried Kofala, which is a soda you can only get in Czechoslovakia. It tastes kind of like… fruity Dr. Pepper. It’s good. That night we went out to dinner.

Friday I went to Vienna, which I’ll make a separate post about in a few minutes, just for length’s sake. Saturday we went to Devin, which is this old castle ruin on a hill.

Devin Castle.

It was so cold that people were skating on this pond! The river had ice in it too. Brrr.

This is a memorial from the old border, which was apparently really strictly patrolled. It listed all the numbers of people who died there and how. And those are bulletholes. Pretty sad. Now, obviously, the borders are open because of the EU.

After Devin we went to get BAGELS. I hadn’t had a bagel since leaving the US, and as someone who has a bagel daily for breakfast at home, I’ve been have some real withdrawal. So it was pretty much my stomach’s highlight of the trip.

Look at it. Beautiful.

Sunday I had to leave, but in the morning we went to this Siberian tiger reserve that randomly happens to be in Slovakia… unexpected. They have 24 tigers and 3 lions, and they’re all in these enclosures that look like someone made them in their backyard and really don’t make you confident that you won’t become someone’s lunch. But it was really cool to be so close to the animals. The lady that worked there/gave us our tour went into the lion’s cage and pet him and everything, and then fed tigers out of her hand!! I want her job.

This is the father lion. Mufasa. He’s so photogenic, no?

Feeding a tiger, no big deal.

Me, Cheyenne, and a freaking tiger.

They are my favorite animal.

We went back to the house and I said goodbye to the kids, which was sad. (Apparently the next day, Chance told Josh he wanted to show me a new toy and looked at the room where I had been sleeping… so heartbreakingly adorable!) And then Josh drove me to the airport, and we waited a bit and then I boarded. Embarrassed myself by interjecting in a conversation with a bunch of Spanish guys who were talking about soccer and whether Madrid was 7 points behind Barcelona or not, and they looked at me like I had 3 heads when I was like “Oh they tied last night against Deportivo!” Excuse me for liking sports.

I got back to Málaga and it was Carnaval, so the streets were blockaded and I ended up waiting ages for the bus to come. Eventually I got home and went to sleep. Aaaand now for my Vienna entry. And then Carnaval. Gosh my life is so thrilling.

• Question: Pues vivo en Benalmadena, y aqui, estoy en Pennsylvania :)
  Me alegra mucho que te guste tanto Espana!! La verdad es que yo lo echo mucho de menos :) Has pensado en irte a vivir alli? - ladylunatic
• Answer:

  Ah no me digas! Yo asisto a una universidad en Pennsylvania! Y durante el secundario pasé 3 semanas en Benalmádena, en Arroyo de la Miel. No puedo imaginar como has dejado Españana jaja. Síííí, de verdad quiero mucho vivir aquí, pero tengo que encontrar algun trabajo o algo… Quiero regresar para hacer mi masters :) Por qué decidiste ir a los EEUU para estudiar?