October 1st - Its Been a Month

Today it dawned on me that I have been abroad for exactly a month now. Wow, the time has flown by. It seems only yesterday that I arrived here full of anxiety and excitement. In dedication of this one month, I decided to list what I have done thus far. Lets see how this goes...

-LOVED living in my homestay, which has helped with

-opening my eyes/stomach to LOTS of new foods (which I will be making back in SD)

-increased my capability to speak Spanish TREMENDOUSLY. I seriously think I can be

fluent in December. I'm shootin for it.

-appreciating things, such as long warm showers, doing my own laundy, and other things I

took for granted back home.

-gaining mad skills at making my bed. Haven't done that in yearsssssss

-REALLY appreciating family values and staying close with family (example: typical dinner

lasts about 2 hours)

-Learned how to do grocery shopping over here

-Became addicted to gelato, paella, and sangria!

-Appreciate tapas for a light lunch, but realize they do not fill you up...even with sangria.

-Explored A LOT of Barcelona with A LOT left to check out

-Found out the awesomeness of a "Con Kit Kat" and "Cerveza" at McDonalds

-Had many UCSD reunions with Amy, Dan, Kenneth, and hope for at least 6 more before I leave

-Had some GREAT nights out at bars and clubs, but hands down, the local ones win in my book

-Learned a lot about myself and friends, both here and back home

-Found a SOLID group of people to kick it with. I'm looking forward to our upcoming memories.

-Experienced several "pick-pocketers" in action and am now very cautious with my belongings

-Been to the Beach and touched Mediterranean water (including a 2 hour boat ride!)

-Had that stereotypical night that lasted till 10am. Cannot forget that one!

-Got to see over 50 amazing pieces of graffiti art.

-Had an amazing weekend in Valenica and experienced living in a hostel for the first time

-Science Museum/Aquarium/Dolphin Show

-Had over 20 video chats and have managed to keep in touch people pretty well back home, so far.

-Had an unforgettable trip to Valencia and the South of France

-Dali Museum!

-Finally using a LEGIT camera to shoot over 500 pictures so far!

-Realized how hard it is to keep up with TV shows and music over here. I'm worried about my hip hop knowledge these next few months.

-Experienced Barcelona's INSANE 4 day festival (La Merce) with 5 story towers (made of people), giant statues, fire spraying and dancing, concerts, raves, parades, fireworks synched with music AND a color fountain show, etc. I will never forget this, ever.

-Come to love the famous man known as Gaudi over here.

-Went to a BARCA soccer game and realized I will never sit with more loyal sports fan, anywhere else.

-Engaged myself in Spanish culture and meeting several interesting people all along the way.

-Fell in love with Cultural Psychology and everything it entails.

-Signed up for a salsa class AND hip hop class. I absolutely love both and will continue them in SD.

Whew, that was a lot. Just goes to show that as much as I have done so far, there's still plenty more to see. I am on my way to ROME this weekend and have Portugal, Amsterdam, Madrid, Paris, Greece, and many others.

Thanks for reading this and keeping up to date with it. Hearing your opinions about all this definitely keeps me blogging. I'm off to finish packing for Rome, and have to finish some reading for Psych tomorrow. I think a little of A Tribe Called Quest may help.

Major blog updates when I return. I will have three weekends to discuss. PEACE!

Life Reflection

Today has been a surreal day for me. I have been feeling a mix of different emotions throughout the day. It´s unfortunate that it takes events, such as, to put your life in perspective.

Ben Wieler, another student in my program, passed away a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to meet him. I have heard nothing but good things about him, though. We all received an email about a week ago saying that he was hospitalized, so we all assumed it was something serious. They found out that he had a brain tumor and within three days, he had passed away. It´s just one of those surreal moments, because you are here in another country studying abroad and death is usually the last thing that comes to mind. Dealing with that sort of thing proves to be much more difficult abroad, given our circumstances. To think that he was just another student out to have an unforgettable four months is really tough for me. It could´ve been any of us. Even though I never met him, I feel as though I did. IES, my study abroad program, has handled the situation very well. They have kept us constantly updated and it was a topic that was discussed in the beginning of all five of my classes. Our afternoon classes were cancelled today, so that everyone had the opportunity to attend his service. It´s such a tragic event. Definitely has me in an odd state of mind. A day of reflection is the best way I can put it. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.


On a lighter note, I have a really exciting week ahead. I just picked up tickets for the Barcelona v. Dynamo Kiev game tonight. That will definitely be a memorable event. Then, I have my salsa and hip hop classes (yes, I decided to sign up) tomorrow night. Finally, a group of us head out to ROME on Thursday night and we will come back Sunday. I am incredibly grateful to have parents who have allowed me and helped me do this trip. I remember thinking back in January if this is really what I wanted to do. I had Teach for America as an idea, moving to New York, returning home, applying straight to grad school, etc.

There´s just so much out there and having the pressures of finding a job or applying to grad school can help you forget that at times. The value of life over here is just absolutely incredible. It shows in so many different ways. I definitely made the best choice and couldn´t think of a better plan after graduation. After Spain, I plan on traveling much more and exploring a lot of different countries. I am 22 years old and have the rest of my life ahead of me. Thanks Mom and Dad. Without you, this wouldn´t even be an option for me.

Much Love...

BARCA!!

Yes, I am still slacking on my updates. One of these nights that I stay in, I promise I
will do it. I'm off to a Irish Pub pretty soon, so tonight isn't going to be the night. Neither is tomorrow night, because I'm off to....

a BARCA game!! They are playing Dynamo Kiev and it is a champions game (which means it will definitely be crackin). We are in the talks of face paint and the works. Reminds me of Spirit Night back in

UCSD. I do feel official, because I got my jersey to rock tomorrow night.

It's gonna be an epic night. I appreciate the video chats/skype sessions, lately. In the last week, I got in about 10-13 of them, which is incredible. I love hearing from people back home. I never want to lose touch with any of you.

Talk to you all sooooon!

MAJOR UPDATE #3.5 - Hip Hop Class/"Lil JT"

SO, before I went out, I had to bring this up. After salsa class last night, the hip hop teacher came in to teach his first class. Since it was the first one, it was free. Pretty much, after being sweaty and disgusting, I was talked into staying for the hip hop class...

...and I freakin LOVED IT! I have never taken a dance class before, but if there was going to be one I would choose, of course it would be hip hop. So now I'm planning on taking salsa and hip hop back to back every Wednesday night. What a good workout.

The reason I had to mention this in my blog was because out of every possible song we could've learned choreography to in hip hop class, it was a Justin Timberlake song! ("Lovestoned / I Think She Knows") Yeah, I loved it and it was a pretty cool dance. I wish I could've videotaped it, because I think you would've gotten a kick out of it. Lil JT in action!! d:-)

Amy and I might re-do the dance and film it, so I can post it. Hip hop foreverrrr

MAJOR UPDATE #3 - THE BET

So, since this weekend has many festivities, I'm going to save the huge blog entries for another time. I'm just going to blog what I can right now. This is considered a major blog update, because of how much it affects my life...as ridiculous as it may sound! haha

I don't consider myself to have an addictive personality...except when it comes to food. I can get hooked on certain foods and eat them until I am absolutely sick of them. So, there's no reason why gelato is any different. I am absolutely obsessed with gelato and will have it almost every other day. I almost will always get Dulce de Leche, which is caramel brilliance in a cone. Two days ago, my friends made a bet with me that I couldn't go two weeks without it. Right away, I argued it and said that I could without a problem! Now the loser has to buy the winner a double scoop gelato cone. Not much of a bet, but it is clearly more about my pride here. My friend, Brad, was the one who initiated the bet, so if I lose, I have to buy him a cone and will probably get myself one at the same time. Double loss right there.

It's been about 48 hours and its getting really hard. My good friends have been very supportive with buying them and eating them in front of me the past two days. Its been hard, but I gotta keep it up. Otherwise, I'm going to have to start a gelato anonymous support group over here. Wish me luck!!




P.S. This weekend has been AMAZING so far. So much to say and talk about. It will come, I promise.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINA!!

Happy birthday to my best friend foreverrr! From kindergarten to now, we have been through the ups and downs, but we are still close! Love you and miss you girl! Have a crackin 22nd! d:-)

MAJOR UPDATE #2 - Reflection on Culture

So, even though I thought I was going to hate the class after my first day, I LOVE my Cultural Psychology class (even if it is at 9am, which means I need to be up at 7:30am). It's a class about the different cultures and adapting to them, etc. With only about 12 people in the class, the teacher knows all of us by name and we get to have really great conversations. It makes me realize how much I just took things for granted back at home. For example, in Spain...

1. I didn't have a toilet seat cover for the first two weeks at my homestay. Luckily, that changed last week, but still, you can imagine the awkwardness until then.

2. Breakfast is a small meal, which consists of toast, marmalade, and OJ. That's it. Every day since I have been here. Lunch is the big meal of the day and dinner is (since its free!). I have been gaining weight though and I love it!

3. As dumb as this sounds, I have to make my bed every morning. I haven't done that since middle school or maybe even elementary school. It only takes a minute, though.

4. It takes me 25 mins to get to class via walking and the metro VERSUS rolling out of bed and being in class in 5-10 mins on-campus. I miss asia halllllll

5. Safety. You can never let your guard down while in Barcelona. The moment you do, someone will come up behind you and take your bag/backpack/purse. I've seen it happen 3 times already.

6. Portions of food are A LOT smaller. There is no such thing as a venti coffee (unless you seriously go to Starbucks). A cafe con leche is about 2 euros and its about the size of a kids meal drink.

7. Going to the grocery store is definitely different. Your usual brands probably aren't on the shelf and that means trying new things.

Going off that, I am happy to say my pickiness with food is almost gone completely. Yeah, there are definitely some things I will never eat, but for the most part, I am breaking barriers every night at the dinner table. From tomatoes to squash, I am broadening my food horizons every day...and I love it!

Back to culture though, I am happy to say that I now look at things a lot differently. One of the biggest key points from my reading this week was about making the effort to adjust to the new culture.

Development-and maintenance-of good interpersonal relations with hosts, marked by respect for people in the other culture, good collegial relations in the community, free time spent with those of the other culture, and sharing of personal information to others is CRUCIAL.

I couldn't agree more with this excerpt. At the end of the day, I always remember that I'm the guest here and need to show respect to others. I have heard about some of the stupid things some of the other people in our program have done at bars, clubs, and other places. Its reasons like these that make the Spaniards not too happy with Americans. I make an effort every day to meet someone new or strike up a conversation with someone. Overall, I have gotten a very good vibe from the locals here. Yeah, I have met my fair share of rude people, but those are anywhere you go. The best confidence booster was last week when someone pulled up next to me and asked for directions. Completely in Spanish...and I was able to direct them! That made me feel good not only because I was fluent enough to understand them and direct them, but the fact that they pulled over and ASSUMED I was a local. It made my week, no lie.

Adapting to culture here hasn't been hard at all. I'm not homesick nor do I think I will be in these next three months. Yeah, I DEFINITELY miss people from back home and SD for sure! As my roommate Josh put it, "We never really have a home. It's just something we are used to and are comfortable in. There is never a place you can really say you will live at forever." This was an interesting way of looking at it. I have always been keen on calling SD my second home, after my real home back in the bay. When I leave here in December, I can see myself calling this my third home. It's all just whatever is comfortable to you. I'm happy to finally be stepping out of my comfort zone and feeling confident while doing so.

MAJOR UPDATE #1 - VALENCIA (9/11-9/13)

Whats crackin everybody... Here is my first major update on my life recently over here. Two weekends ago (Sept. 11-13), a group of about 20 of us took a short, but amazing trip to the nearby city of Valencia. Here's how it all went down...

We boarded our train around 9am on Friday, after getting there at about 7:30am to get tickets. We were able to get a round trip booked for about 42 euros, which isn't bad at all. However, since it was so cheap, the entire train ride took about 5 hours (the real trip takes about 3 hours, maybe). We definitely entertained ourselves on the way though...

Once we got there, it was only about 2pm so we still had the entire day to explore the city. It was such a cool city. There was definitely a difference being there versus Barcelona, because we got more of a small city feel (instead of the huge touristy city that Barcelona can be, at times). Weall stayed at this hostel that was ONLY 15 EUROS EACH NIGHT! Trust, it definitely

sounded sketchy when we signed up, but being

poor college students abroad who want to travel, what other choices do you have? The movie Hostel was all I thought about walking up tothe place. In the end, it ended up being such a cool experience! We were all in different rooms and besides two of the girls from our group, I stayed with two other girls from Madrid and an 18 year old from Australia. I give this girl props, because she told me she was traveling by herself for the next four months before returning back home to apply to college. I was

definitely not in that state of mind as an 18-year old.

Two things Valencia is well-known for: their paella and their infamous agua de valencia. It's this drink that mixes Cava (Spanish champagne), orange juice, and usually whatever else they want to throw in there. It's kinda like a mimosa, which I absolutely love. We had both of these for lunch and then decided to go to the store to cook up some things for the night....which meant Bradand I getting a loaf of bread and frozen pizza. Those + 2 huge

bottles of sangria + 1 huge

jug of

water = 9 euros. Legit.

After that, we all were feeling preeeeeety good and decided to do this pub crawl of the town, since we had no idea where to go anyways. 3 pubs and a club with a drink at each one for 10 euros. Not bad. It was an awesome night, but unfortunately, none of us were able to make it to the club at the end of the night. hahah

a

Then, we woke up around 11am the next day and decided to be productive. We ventured off to the Science museum and the Aquarium. Both places looked AMAZING from the outside (for all you UCSD homies, Geisel has nothing on the design of these buildings). The museum was really cool and we didn't even end up exploring all of it. The aquarium was also a lot of fun, including th

e hour long dolphin show. I'm not gonna lie. After seeing the

dolphin show, I contemplated working with animals for the rest of the day. Just watching the dolphins and seeing how intelligent they are, I got

inspired to check that out. Maybe I can be some sort of a animal psychologist? Hmm, yeah we'll see about that. (haha) By the time 5pm rolled around, we were ready for a siesta before dinner for sure!

OH YEAH, a little side story about the dolphin show. So, we got pretty good seats in front of the show, but we were right by this ramp that was made only for the trainers to use to get to the dolphins quickly. Of course, there were tons of little kids running down the ramp with stressful parents running after them.

THEN, there was this one particular little boy. He was constantly

running down the ramp, getting picked up by his parents, and then doing it all over again. After the third time, my friends Dimitra, Krith, and Kyra decide to call to him and tell him to stay with his parents. Save the parents another jog! This angel turns around and stares down the three and yelled a very loud "NO!" and gave them this cute face. We were laughing hysterically for about ten minutes. Definitely one of the best pictures of the weekend. I'm glad I was able to get it...

After another night of cooking in the kitchen, we started to hang out in front of the hostel and "pre-party" there. A lot of the other people in the hostel were chilling outside too, so we wanted to join them. There were people from Germany, Poland, Italy,

Britain, Spain, Portugal, etc. I am always a fan of being a foreigner with other foreigners! Sooooo, we got outside around 11pm to head out and didn't end up leaving till about 1am. After the night before, we didn't end up staying out too late. Also, since we had a cheap train ride back and weren't exactly sure if we had a 10am or 5pm departure, we decided a long night out wasn't necessary (since that can happen any night back in Barcelona).

Turns out we didn't need to head to the train station till 5pm, so we went out to the beach to lounge around for awhile and have some GELATO!

Anyways, after the beach, we headed straight to the train station and embarked on our 5 hour train ride back to Barcelona. This weekend proved something real cool that I have been noticing lately. I have always thought of myself as an easy-going person and making new friends is a skill I have been lucky to have been blessed with. After these three weeks, I don't think I have ever bonded with a group so quickly. Well, given two years of RAing and three years of OLing, that's a tough statement to make. Regardless, I feel incredibly close to "our crew" and am happy that we roll together wherever we go. It's only been three weeks. PLENTY of more adventures to embark on!

Next update: Carolyn's bday and our weekend trip to Girona and the border of France!

P.S. If you want to see ALL of my pictures from Valencia, use this link. They start at picture #34.

P.S.S.

I love you all and miss you too!!!