European Adventures

Bonjour!

2008-04-01T05:48:00.001-07:00

So, I know it's been a while since I've written on this thing, but I'm ready to write again, and that's all thanks to my awesome trip to Paris! I had a great time, and I'd like to share it with all of you, with excruciating details and pictures! =P

So it started off at the airport. We were very close to missing our flight cuz we were standing in the wrong line. Stupid, I know, but we made it! We thought we'd have to get our passport stamped, so we were in the line where passport control was, but apparently, you don't get your passport stamped for going from Spain to France (weird, huh?). So luckily, the lady at the Paris gate was like, "Transavia! PARIS ORLY!" (transavia being the flight company we were going to, and orly being the airport we were supposed to be landing in), so we rushed over to the lady, and we ended up being the last ones to board the plane. Sad, huh? But at least we made it. I actually kinda had the feeling there were a few people in the line we were in who didn't hear the announcement..I wonder if they made it...

So anyway, the flight was pleasant enough. It was relatively empty, so it was nice and spacey for Candice and me.

First shot of Paris from the plane. I swear we could see the Eiffel Tower. You can't see it in the picture cuz it's so blurry, but it's there =)

First picture of us! It took us a few tries and the people behind us shouted at us for the first picture (not here) and they were like, "NO FLASH!" but we took a few more shots anyway. I think that's why I look scared/surprised.

last minute on the plane, we decided that we should listen to some Beauty and the Beast songs cuz they have some french words..hahah we learned a lot of dessert names, i think..and "Sherie" ("..tie your *something* around your neck, SHERIE, and we provide the rest") =D

So we got lost getting to our hostel from the airport. The information they gave us wasn't too helpful. They had just told us that it was 5 minutes away from the airport, and so when we landed we asked information what would be the best way to get to our hostel and they gave us a bus number, but didn't tell us where to stop, so we got on the bus and we asked the bus driver (who didn't speak English) how to get to our hostel (we showed the address to all these people) and then he said he'd let us know where to get off. It ended up being the last stop of the bus and the bus driver was nice enough to sort of swerve off course to show us where we should go. We got off, walked up this stairway in the direction the bus driver had said, and then didn't know where to go next. So we thought, hm..let's just try to take a taxi. So we were actually at a train station, so there was a taxi driver in the parking lot of the train station, so we asked him how to get to our hostel and he drew us this really nice map to show us the way. he didn't speak English too well, either, but he got his point across. It was kinda fun trying to communicate with him, because with his gestures and whatnot, we would say an english word, and he'd be like, "YES!" hahaha and so we followed his directions, but apparently, I made a wrong turn somewhere cuz we ended up about, maybe 3/4 to a mile away from a bridge that we were supposed to cross. Luckily there was such a great landmark for us to follow. But I wasn't sure if there was more than one bridge, so I wanted to call the hostel and find out. I call them, turns out, they don't speak english all that well. First try, I say, "I'm trying to get to the hostel" really slowly so that maybe the girl could understand me, but all she said was "I don't know." and hung up on me. Well, we really needed to get to the hostel and couldn't really just figure things out on our own, so I called again, and the girl was avoiding my call! She didn't answer. Called again, she answered and this time I spoke really slowly with simple words. I said, "we're lost. How do we get to the hostel" and then she said "where are you?" and I tried to say the name of the street, but I have really bad pronunciation, and so either she couldn't understand me, or she didn't know where the street was so then she told me "reception is closed" and then I said "uh..does that mean we can't check in?" and then she said, "no, you can. Your key is on the desk." and so I was like, ok, so how do we get there? so I said to her "we're by the river" and then she said, "oh! first right after the bridge" and so I said "is there only one bridge?" and she said "yes." and so I said, "ok! thank you!" and so that was that. so we walked along the river to get to the bridge, and on our way, this car slowed down next to us and the driver said some things to us in french, but of course, we didn't understand, so it kinda freaked us out, so we walked closer to the river and farther from the street, but then there was this car parked by the river and the windows were all foggy...we were kinda like, "uhhh..don't wanna interrupt whatever's going on there..." we we tried to walk a far away from the car as possible, but we had to pass it, and as we were passing, the girl in the passenger seat of the car opened the car door and was like, "BITCH!" and it was just like, "ohhh, my gosh..we weren't even doing anything! that's really rude!" at that point, I was kinda like, "oh man, what they say about French people are true!" and like the girl kept shouting at us from the car as we walked farther away. I was kinda scared that the car would try to like, run us over or something! Luckily, it didn't, but after that, we walked up on the street again. So then we finally reached the bridge and this picture was taken as we were walking across the bridge.

So once we finally got the hostel, we see this car driving out of the parking lot, and when we get us to the door, the lights are off and the door is locked =T and we look inside, and you could see our key riiiight there on the desk....Soooo, we start to get a little pissed cuz it's like, dude, we just talked to the girl..ok, maybe like, 30 minutes before, but still, she knew we were coming, what the heck..you know? and then we were thinking, oh man, that car that we saw driving out was probably her! She saw us!! *shakes head* so then on the door, there were a bunch of numbers for other hotels nearby. and So i called all of them to try to find a place to sleep for the night. Only two of the hotels answered. The first one was full, and the second, the last number on the list, had vaccancies, and the guy I talked to was really nice. I told him we'd come over. So then there were also taxi numbers, so I called those, and only one answered and when they answered, i was like, "i need a taxi" and then he said "for when?" and i said, "uh..right now?" and he was like, "no, not right now. bye bye!" yea....it was kind of a difficult night. So I called the hotel again, and asked the guy if he could called a taxi for us. I was like, "we were supposed to stay at this other hotel, but there's no one there, and we can't get inside." and he said "really? That's so strange" and i said "iiii know!" so then the guy gave me another taxi number and then he told me to call him back after. I thought it was nice of him to want to make sure that we got it ok. So I called the number, went through this whooole process, and when it was about done, this guy walks up to the hotel (just some guy who was staying at the hotel, but coming in late) and he knew the code to get in, so he let us in. So I was on the phone with the taxi driver, and he was saying, "there're no taxi drivers who want to go out there, but.." and then I said, "oh..it's ok. we'll find another way" hahaha but then he seemed glad of it. so then I decided that I should call the other hotel back and tell them that we wouldn't going there anymore, since he was so nice to me. So I called, and I was like, "we got into our hotel, so we won't be needing yours anymore" (haha, I know that sounds kinda rude, but then I said:) "but thank you soo much for being so nice" and then he said "you're welcome! Have a good night!" he was a very nice french man. hahah, oh and by the way, at the beginning of all these conversations, I said, "parlez-vous anglais?" which means "do you speak english?" and so I got very good at saying it. But anywho, yes, we got into our hotel finally, and went to bed. (ok, so I know so far it doesn't sound like a great trip, but there're bound to be a few bumps along the way, right?)

So first full day of Paris! we woke up early, and went down to talk to the receptionist, who was actually there this time, and asked her about maps and whatnot. She wasn't that nice...but whatever. Went down to the train station and on the way, we passed by this little bakery and picked up breakfast. I got a croissant and another little pastry. it was reaaaaally good. I was really impressed with the croissant. Our hotel was actually about 30 minutes away from the city center, so we had to take a train (3.50 euros one way) and so we get our tickets (with a little difficulty) and then we were on our way! Once we got to Paris, our first destination was the Bastille. We decided that for that day, we would just walk around a certain area, and save money on metro trips! Great idea, by the way!

Us in front of the Bastille.

Another stop on our walk: Place de Vosges.

Park inside Place de Vosges

I got excited to be in paris and took pictures with random things. I wanted to go inside the fountain (there's no water in there) but I didn't want to get in trouble. I'm about to fall in this one. hahah

Me with a lamp post =)

Next we walked down to Hotel de Ville. This carousel was right in front of it.

Building next to Hotel de Ville

Us with Hotel de Ville

Hotel de Ville

Right across the river from Hotel de Ville is Notre Dame, so this is us crossing the river...

And there's Notre Dame

Right across the street from Notre Dame is a whole bunch of Creperies and souvenir shops. the shops were actually reasonably priced (some things were even cheaper than things at the shops of Spain!). We were getting tired so we took a little break at a little cafe and I got a hot chocolate and a cheese crepe..mmmm, it was so good!

Candice never tells me when we're going to do silly faces!

More of Notre Dame

cool, huh?

So this was my lunch. And since I had already eaten the crepe, I just got a soup, which I was glad of because the soup of pricey, as was everything else in the restaurant. But our waiter was pretty nice. I started out by saying, "parlez-vous anglais" and he said "a little, but you speak very good french!" HAHA that was was very nice of him =) and since the moulin rouge wasn't on the map, I asked him if he could point it out for us, and that was our next stop!

there it is! haha, i was really excited! On our way there, we had to take a metro, and while looking for the metro, we were on a street corner and i was looking on my map, and some random guy on a bike stops and asks us if we need help! That was really nice. He was like, "you speak english? where do you want to go?" and we were like, "oh, just any metro" and then he points us in the right direction, and then he chats to us for a little bit" he asks where we're from and then we tell him that we're studying abroad in Spain and he's like, "oh! I speak a little spanish" and then he talks to us in Spanish. It was really funny. He was really nice though.

we basically just took pictures and then left. But the metro ride there was free cuz the entrance gate was broken and didn't ask us for a ticket =D

And then we were off to the Lourve. It was free that day from 6pm-10, so that's the time we decided to go. It was the end of the day, and we were dead tired, but at least it was free =) I was still really pleased with it. It was really odd, cuz one of Candice's friends was in paris that weekend too, and out of no where, we hear someone shout out Candice's name while we were on an escalator at the Lourve, and it turns out to be Candice's friend! Is that crazy or what? She was RIGHT behind us too! And she hadn't seen Candice until we were halfway up the escalator, so it was pretty crazy.

We got to the Lourve about 2 hours before 6 cuz we thought there'd be a really long line, but that wasn't the case, so we had some time to kill. This picture was taken just before it started pouring rain...

So we went inside and had a little snack. The inside of the Lourve is like a little mall, which was pretty interesting. it even had a food court! And the prices were cheaper than the prices we'd been seeing at all the cafes we'd passed by, so we thought it was a good deal to take a break.

Crowd at the Lourve.

This is inside the Lourve

The Mona Lisa! Everyone says that it's so tiny, but it's not THAT small. I think maybe because i was expecting it be be tiny, I was pleasantly surprised at the size =)

I took a picture with it =)

So this is what all the fuss looks like. The Mona Lisa is in the middle of this room on a wall that's in the middle of the room, and it had a glass cover, and it's roped off at about a 7-8 feet radius. people are crowding all around it, but it wasn't too hard to get to the front to get a good look AND a good picture (as you can see from the pictures above this one). I was not disappointed by it at all.

So after the Mona Lisa, we decided that we wanted to see the Last Supper. We ask a worker, and we're like, "where's the Last Supper" and she says simply, "Milan" HAHAH Shows how much we know about art, huh? So then we ask about the Madonna and she points us down the hallway. So we go down the wall, and don't see anything called the Madonna. Now, keep in mind that we don't know what the Madonna looks like. All our information comes from the DaVinci code (ridiculous, I know, but it's true! haha) so at the end of the hall, we ask a guy worker, and he like, "what? there's nothing called the Madonna here.." but we know that the Madonna's in the Lourve, so we keep pushing it and so he asks us to write it down..so I write "la madona" (I didn't know if it was spelled with two n's or not) and then he looks at what I write and he's like, "OH!!! La Madonna! DUH!!!" hahaha, seriously, he said duh, or maybe the french version of it..hahha, but anyway, we points us in the direction that we came, sooo, we check the wall AGAIN, looking very carefully at the signs. Again, nothing called the Madonna, or even with the words Madonna in it! So again, we ask another worker, and this girl's a bit more specific and says after this, but before that. so we check in that section, and there's this crowd around a particular painting, so we're thinking that that has to be it, but still, we're not sure. So then I hear two girls talking in English, and one girl's like, "We had to redraw this in class" so I figured, these girls HAVE to know if this is the Madonna or not, especially if she had to draw it, so I go up to the girls, and I'm like, "This might be a stupid question, but is that the Madonna?" haha, yes, yes it was. So I took a picture and there it is =)

Statue. I thought this was the Venus de Milo, but it's not. man, I'm REALLY bad with art =X

Ancient Egypt portion of the lourve

tombs!

View from a window on the third floor of the lourve.

we tried to get a good picture. after 4 tries, this was the best one.

this was one of the works. I thought it was a real guy and I was wondering what he was looking at so closely! hahah, I think the artist was trying to make fun of people who look at art...

outside the lourve, eiffel tower in the background! =)

So we left the Lourve at about 8:30pm, and all the surrounding shops and stuff were closed! So we decided we would head back toward our hostel and look for dinner there. We hop onto a train and turns out that it's the WRONG train. The same train splits routes, and so we got onto the wrong route. We end up at the end of the line, and we're like, crap, what do we do? We ask a random guy, he doesn't speak english, so we point to the stop that we want, and he takes us to like, a little office where there are workers. At first, there's no one who speaks english, so the first guy that helped us, we was already leaving, but i guess he realized that no one spoke english, so he comes back and tells the people in french which stop we wanted. I thought that was super nice of him. And then they're trying to explain to us how to take the bus to where we want to go. But then a guy who does speak a little english comes out, and he tries to help us. he was really funny. I asked him if he had a pen so that I could write down everything, and he got really excited when someone found a pen, he was like, "good! very good!" and he was like, hopping around all over the place. he was funny. So then he tells us that we should take a train back to the center of paris, and take a different train back down to where we want to go. So he takes us to the train as he expains (cuz the train's about to leave) and he sends us off and is like, "good luck!" So he actually gave us a really good map, too (the other map we had didn't have all the stops listed, which is why were went all the way to the end of the line without knowing we were on the wrong train. So I look at the map, and I decide that we shouldn't go alll the way into town, just to the stop where the route splits, since it was only two stops away from where we wanted to be, and so if anything were to go wrong trainwise, we could just take a taxi or walk it, or something. So we get to that stop, and it's totally empty. We walk out, and wait about 15 minutes, no taxis stop by. We didn't have a number of a taxi company. So then we decide that we'll cross the street to get to a restaurant that was there and ask the workers there. The street was pretty big and kinda busy, well, not busy, but there was a flow of cars. so we were kinda hesitant in crossing. Candice and I were standing at the edge of the street, ready to run across, when I notice a guy standing in the station, so I kinda leave Candice hangin, and I'm like, "i'm gonna ask that guy" hahaha, so I start the conversation with the way I did the whole weekend ("Parlez-vous anglais?") and he says no. hhah, So I point to where we want to go, and he reads the schedule for us (cuz it was kinda confusing and we didn't know how to read it, but he did) and he says "do, twa, un, sect" hahaha, now Elaine has taught me very little of french, but I do know how to count! haha, so he was reading the time of the departure of the train for me and I understood! So then he was like, "un, b" that was the platform =) And he wasn't sure if I understood, so he took me to the platform. i thought that was super nice of him. So then at the platform, he was like, (and not so much in words, but in gestures) "ok, bye bye!" and he started walking back, but I started walking back with him cuz I had to go back to get Candice, and he was kinda like, "no, you stay here." hahaha, and I was trying to convey to him that I had to get candice, so I was like, "my friend" and I made like, motions to signal another person next to me..hahhaha it was difficult, but I think he got it cuz he was like, "ohhh." so yea, that was interesting, but fun at the same time. so finally, candice and I were on the right train and we got back to the hotel at about 1am, when we had started the whole trip at about 9pm..sad, huh? But it's ok. At least we asked the right people (that is, NICE people) where we should go =)

Day 2 was pretty much devoted to the Eiffel Tower.

So we decided that we were going to take the metro more the second day, and we found out that there was this day pass, called mobiles, and it's only 9 euros and you get unlimited rides for the day and it's totally worth it (it was worth it for us at least since we would've had to pay 7 euros already just to get to and from Paris city center from our hostel) but it we still saved money the first day by not getting it because we got all those free rides (score!). So then we took two metros to get to the Eiffel Tower and once we got there, I was pretty amazed with the view. I think the top of it isn't so impressive, but the base is. I don't know why. Maybe just cuz it's so big, but the four bases really look amazing. and being under it is pretty amazing. I know it sounds corny, but that's how I felt being under the Eiffel Tower. And so we walked over, and there were two or three different lines. I think it's cuz you could enter from any of the four bases. But one of the bases were closed, thus only 3 entrances. So then we sorta randomly got in a line, and we just happened to end up in the line that's the stair entrance. That's ok, though, cuz that's what we (at least, that's what I) wanted, cuz it's cheaper by like, 2 or 3 euros, which I know isn't much, but dude, anything saving is a saving. So then all throughout the waiting of the line, there was this asian group behind us and they were serious all up on our butts, dude. Well, like, you know, there were freaking tailgating us! I think they thought they could try to cut in front of us, but we didn't let them. So then we finally get to the front of the line, get our tickets and we were off!

Right under the Eiffel Tower

The Tower had just opened and there was already a crowd

and the journey begins..

There were a lot of steps. I was really sore by the time we reached the first floor. and we still had another few hundred steps to climb to get to the second floor, where we would then pay to take an elevator to the top (no choice between steps and elevator there). At the second floor, I had a problem. hahaa...I got my period. =X hahaha, I know that's embarrassing to post online, BUT I thought it was cool that I got my period on the Eiffel Tower =P Luckily I was prepared and LUCKILY there's a bathroom on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower (FYI, by the way, for future notice). I was worried cuz I was wondering how they were going to have a bathroom on the second floor..where does the...stuff...go? hahahah so yes, that was interesting. The second floor was really crowded. We took a break to get some snacks too. I got a cappachino, i think, some kind of coffee drink and we shared some french fries (we both had a craving, which was kind of weird, but they weren't expensive). and then we went into yet another line to get tickets to get onto the elevator, and then yet ANOTHER line to actually get ONTO the elevator. It was funny cuz there were a lot of British people there and they were like, *in british accent* "there are so many queues." And then Candice and I had a whole conversation about the word queue and I told her how I learned that word from Netflix..hahaha =D

Just before us, there was this little German family taking a picture like this, well, actually, the Mom and the older sister looked all serious, and then the littlest girl looked like this. I wanted to copy her. It was funny cuz the dad was trying to get the picture right, so the little girl was holding her pose like this for a while. hahaha

hello! see my reflection?

The very top of the tower. It's not THAT impressive, but it's an experience. It was very chilly too. And very crowded. I took a video of us going up. It's on the bottom. =D

So yes, after the whole going up the Eiffel Tower shebang, we went to the classic grassy area to take pictures! Although, they fence off the grass, so you can't actually sit in the grass...

jumping pictures!

We found a nice couple to take the picture for us. They were really nice and patient, especially since we wanted jumping pictures, but actually, we got this in one shot. Oh yes, we're good. =)

I really like this picture =D I set up the camera the way I wanted it, and had Candice hold it, and then I walked into the picture the way I wanted. hahaha, I'm so smart =P

Then we took a metro to the Arc de Triumphe. We didn't even cross the street to see it. Just took pictures from right where the metro lets you out. You can pay to go in and go to the top, but we're on a budget! =D

Then we headed over to Galleries Lafayette where we were supposed to meet up with Andrew, a friend who's also studying abroad in Granada and who happened to be in Paris at the same time, too, but it turned out that there are two Galleries Lafayettes. Bummer. So then he said that he was going to eat dinner at the Red Light District with the friend he was staying with. We thought, oh maybe we can meet up with him there, but when we tried asking workers where the Red Light District was, they had no idea what we were talking about, which I suppose isn't too surprising. I don't think French people would call it the red light district. Anywho, the lady we asked was really nice and suggested some other streets to look for restaurants. So we decided to head toward the Moulin Rouge to find a restaurant.

Moulin Rouge at night!

turns out, the area by the Moulin Rouge WAS the Red Light District. We thought so, but we weren't sure until the next day when we met Andrew at the airport and he told us. So yea, there were a bunch of sex shops and everything. But it was actually a really cool area.

We found this really cool restaurant called Le Cine. we decided we'd splurge a little since it was our last night in paris and since we didn't have dinner the night before. the dinner only cost 20 euros for each of us. that's like, 10 euros for each night, if we had dinner the night before, so I think it wasn't bad.

We shared an appetizer, a salad with duck and salmon. realllly good.

The main dish was steak with salad and french fries. yummy! I haven't had steak in so long. it was a nice change.

Then for dessert I got a French Cheese Platter and Candice got Creme Brulee. We shared the two so that we could get more variety and taste more things. the Creme Brulee was soooo good. The cheese was ok. There were three varieties, but I only liked the last one that I tried, and then I ended up dropping it. So very sad...

Then after dinner, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see it up in lights (since we had that all day metro pass anyway!) haha, so yea, it was actually a REALLY good idea to do that too, cuz it was sooo pretty!

And then it started sparkling for us!! I had no idea that it does that! Everyone was like, WHOAAAA. And got out their cameras. We were like, Quick! Take a picture! Cuz we didn't know how long it lasts for, but apparently, it does it every hour for 15 mins. haha, I'm surprised that no one ever mentioned that! I thought it was the coolest thing ever! [There's a video at the bottom, cuz it's hard to capture the sparkling in a picture]

While we were taking pictures, we met some Hawaiian girls who were just on vacation. It was pretty interesting because I thought they were from California at first, but once they said that they were from Hawaii, it was obvious. Interesting how that works, huh? But they were nice. They took this picture for us. =D

As we were walking back from the Eiffel Tower to the Metro station, Candice got really annoyed at the sketchy people trying to sell Eiffel Tower products, and so she said she was going to hiss at them. hahahaha, it was kinda funny. I video tapped it, but something went wrong, and I didn't get the whole thing. But what happened was Candice hissed at the guy, and he was kinda surprised, but I was walking behind Candice, so while she was ahead, I was walking by the guy, and I heard him hiss back! Hahaha, kinda funny, too bad I didn't catch it on tape, and Candice didn't hear him hiss back =T

And that sums up the trip! It was awesome. Thinking back on it, I think one of the things that made it really great were the people that we met along the way, the ones who were so nice to help us, so in a way, the getting lost and stuff made the trip better. But really, Paris is my favorite city of Europe right now. =D I wanna go back!

Hope everyone's doing well! I'll be home in 2 and a half months! =)

Madrid--otra vez, en serio [Madrid--again, seriously]

2007-12-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

There are more pictures on my facebook, but these are probably the best ones:

Random statue in the middle of some plaza...

I thought I framed the picture well =)

It's all about angles.

I think this is a government building. There are a lot of those..

I don't even know what this is...but it was around all the museums.

We saw Beauty and the Beast the musical! In spanish! It was sooo cool! A bit pricey, but actually, it wasn't too bad for a musical.

The stage. So pretty!

This was...el banco? Pienso que si...

Plaza Mayor.

Inside La Catedral that's right next to the Palacio Real

I think these window things are my favorite things in churches. The word escapes me at the moment...something with sun..windows...?

Palacio Real

At the top of the cathedral. I thought this statue was a little creepy. But I think it depicts something about the betrayal...

View from the top.

Street performers by Palacio Real

Looks like something from Star Wars.

In deep thought...haha, actually, I saw some dude sitting like this, and I was like, "I want a picture like that! hahah

Inside the gates of Palacio Real

La Catedral

Some guy was selling these waffles by Palacio Real, which was smart cuz there was a long line for getting into the Palacio Real. The guy was like, "Typical spanish food! I'm a typical Spanish guy, too!" haha

Some garden...I can't remember the name of it right now.

Random building.

El oso y la madrona [the bear and the strawberry tree]

aww, it's like being back at UCLA with the Bruin bear.
*tear*

Plaza Mayor at night.

The oldest running restaurant [according to the Guinness Book of World Records] called...

Sobrino de Botin

Very fancy place.

There were a bunch of Asians at the next table over...hahaha

Line for the Prado.

Presenting...Prado =)

really good street performer.

They had random people dressed up walking up and down the lines to get into the museum. I think it was to entertain the people as they waited. reminds me of Great America. haha

Front of the Prado.

Second Museum of the Day:

The Thyssen Bornemisza.

We thought this was the third museum we'd go to...

really nice, huh?

Turns out it was a bus station....hahahahah

A REALLY nice bus station

THIS was the real museum.

Reina Sofia Museum

random night shots.

I took this while Mary was calling to cancel her credit cards which were stolen along with her wallet....yes. I'll tell that story later.

Last picture before Mary was off to the airport and I off to Granada.

Well, actually, Mary left about 2 hours before I had to leave, so I decided to walk around =D

PAYACE!

I asked some random old lady to take this for me..."Puede sacar un foto para mi, por favor?"

Apparently, there's a traveling company named after me =)

that's right. Madrid Princess right here..hahaha

This park made me miss my bus. I didn't realize how far I had wandered...

They're not there at the moment, but there's supposed to be like, rowboats and stuff. I was there too early in the day.

Me at the bus station waiting for the next bus cuz I missed mine =T

Yep, so, Mary got robbed. We were on the Metro, it was crowded, and so everyone was all up on each other, and then apparently, a girl was really close to Mary, and she was covering Mary's purse with her jacket, and Mary said that she thought she felt something in her bag, and she was thinking, "Is she robbing me??" but she wasn't sure so she didn't want to make a scene, and so she moved away from the girl, and started checking her bag, but by the time she was sure that her wallet was gone, the girl had already gotten off. I didn't realize anything was happening cuz I was looking at a map...you'd think I would've been robbed, but I think my purse was harder to rob cuz it's shoulder bag that's really close to me, whereas Mary's was a bag that could pass for a duffle bag, so it hangs loose. But yea, we had to go to the police station and make a report, and all that. But we considered ourselves lucky cuz at least it was a girl, and we weren't like, held at gunpoint or anything. When we were at the police station, there was this lady was was totally sobbing. We think she got mugged. But yes. Mary took it very well. She was quite calm. And at least she still had her passport and whatnot.

So yes, Madrid was nice, but I didn't like it as much as Seville. I'm really glad we went to watch the musical. I think that made it worth it =D

mmk! On to London/Birmingham and the concert!

By the way, it's Chrismas Eve now, hahhaa. Merry Christmas Eve! =)

Estoy de vacaciones! [I'm on break!]

2007-12-20T11:35:00.000-08:00

Hola chicos/as! So I had my last day of class today and am officially on winter break! I have two weeks of absolutely nothing to do. Time to update my blog! Apologies for being skimpy with this thing. I've realized that the whole point of this was to tell of my adventures in Europe (hence the name), and when I actually have adventures to tell, I've neglected to do so. Therefore, I will write about Madrid, and I will write about everything else that I've done in the past couple of months! It may take me a while, but I'm gonna try to do it within the next couple of days since I'M ON BREAK! =)

Let the blogging begin.

Madrid

2007-12-05T05:06:00.000-08:00

I know, I haven't done a post on Madrid yet, but I don't think I will. Haha, it's been so long. You can look on my facebook for pictures. Although there were some stories from the city that I'd like to highlight:
- Watched Beauty and the Beast [La Bella y la Bestia], the musical. soooo cool!
- Went to the oldest running restaurant in the world (according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
- Went to three museums
- Mary got robbed on the Metro [but it wasn't bad, because at least she still had her passport and really important stuff.]

Yea, that was pretty much the highlights. It was a nice city and all, but I really liked Seville so much more. I don't think I'm used to the big city anymore. I like the small, quaint towns now =)

Sevilla--Que Bonita!

2007-11-14T03:43:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the delay. I've been meaning to get this done, but never actually got to it. If it helps, I've had it saved as a draft for weeks now. Anywho, yes, this post is dedicated to Mary and my trip to Seville (in Spanish, it's Sevilla, just like how Spain in Spanish is Espana--I used to wonder why some people called it Seville and others called it Sevilla, but now I get it =D). But yes, it was a short weekend in Seville, but it's such a beautiful city. I daresay I like it better than Granada! It's small, and yet quite full of people. In the mere two days that Mary and I were there, we got pretty accustomed to the streets, and were quite capable in finding our way around with just a few glances at the map to be sure of ourselves. Anywho, pictures first, stories later:

7am in Granada, waiting for the bus. Quite dark, huh?

La Giralda: Right next La Catedral. It's supposed to have the most beautiful view of the city at the top of the tower, but unfortunately for Mary and me, we could make the climb due to both the Cathedral and the Giralda being closed because of some festival. Stupid festival...

There was a store called Julia! But it was a store for old ladies....

First lunch in Seville. Mary's hiding behind the map.

Then she made me hide behind the breadsticks. I know, I look silly..

Mary's devouring that sucker.

ohhh my gosh. That tortellini was sooo good...I licked the plate clean. En serio.

Me with La Giralda. Although the lighting was definitely not good for this picture.

La Catedral! Amazing, huh? It's the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, the largest in Spain.

More of La Giralda.

We asked some dude who we overheard talking English to take this picture for us. I think he had said that he was from San Francisco.

A different angle of the cathedral

La Catedral y la Giralda and all its glory.

Entrance to the cathedral which we never got a chance to enter [I know, I'm bitter.]

Gates to the Real Alcazar, which is a castle.

Fancy, no?

Some kind of meeting room...I don't really know, we didn't take a listening tour for this one. =D

I thought it was funny how they put a picture to make up for their construction.

I think this is pretty. There were ducks in the water. DUCKS!

More of the castle.

Mary and I in one of the gardens. We were skilled and used timer on the camera in conjunction with a banister.

That's a carpet. On the wall. Crazy Spaniards. =P

More carpets on walls.

I tried doing this with a table and timer so that Mary could be in the picture as well, but the table kept showing up in the picture, so I gave up and let Mary take the picture.

Aerial view.

Fountain with--I think--Triton at the top.

Mary's hair looks dramatic.

We were having trouble taking this one ourselves, too, so we stopped a lady to help us. She took two, and they look exactly alike, except one is tilted a bit more than the other.

Arch!

"Act like the column!" --Mary

Welcome to my humble abode.

Yes! It's mine!

These pictures that we have of one on a higher landing, or whatever, took quite a bit of work. One had to walk all the way down, and then we'd have to switch places. But they make for nice pictures =)

There were many gardens in this place.

Stopping for a rest.

Gazebo. I want a gazebo. Gazebo's a funny word.

Mary was reluctant to take this picture. But I think it turned out cute =)

Banco de Espana of Seville. Banco's seem to be a big thing in Spain.

Not sure what this building is. I think I just took a picture of it in passing. But it looks ANCIENT.

Wannabe Mickey Mouse. I thought it was funny so I took a picture of it. Turns out, there's a bunch of these in Madrid too.

Our view from our hostel window at night.

Our hostel was hosting this event where they took us to two tapas bars and then to a free Flamenco show. This is at the first tapas bar. It was ok, but nothing can beat the free tapas of Granada =)

Next to the second tapas bar. Look! San JO, you KNOW! =)

And THIS if Flamenco. I'll try putting up the video of it so that you can see what it really looks like. It's soo intense.

Pretty cool pose, if I do say so myself.

Then they brought out the big guns--the FAN.

The lady looks pissed at me for taking this picture...I think it might've been rude to be taking pictures, but other people were doing it too, so meh.

Our hostel had a roof..thinger. haha, the word has escaped me at the moment..the point is we're on the roof in this picture.

I've seen so many of these in Spain.

Building.

Skills =)

You can't see, but just beyond that white building on the right is a bunch of construction. hahaha

Nice building, huh?

Same building as previous picture. It's part of the university now, but....

hahaha, used to be a tobacco [is that spelled right?] factory.

One of the millions of fountains I now I have pictures of.

Tried to get a picture with the fountain but instead..we got a car. =T

Mary thinks I take too many pictures of signs. But if I didn't, she wouldn't have this nice picture of her and the Sevilla sign =P

Yea, this was our random wandering day--as if you couldn't tell.

Plaza de Espana! [Annoyingly blocked by a bunch of white tents]

Some say that I took the building in the wrong light. I think it makes it artistic looking.

I'm a bit cut off, but it's ok because on Mary's camera, SHE'S a bit cut off.

Typical Plaza de Espana picture.

I feel like a princess. =)

Plaza de Espana is symmetric. One side is exactly like the other side.

This guy was singing, and then when we passed by, he stopped and he was like, "How." [Ok, I don't know if that's how you spell it.]

And then this is how the conversation between Mary and me went as we walked past:

Me: hahaha, that's funny, he just stopped to say hi to us.
Mary: How do you know he said hi?
Me: Don't you know that kids joke? It's like, one kid goes 'I bet I can make you say hi' and the other kid is like, 'How?' and the first kid goes 'I just did.'
Mary: That seems politically incorrect.

Anyone else heard the joke before?

They had these really pretty tile pictures of each city in Spain [well, I don't know if it's all of the cities, but there were quite a few, and I don't think it was just the major cities].
I wanted a picture with all the cities that I've been/want to go to.

Barcelona

Yay, Granada!

Madrid.

I think this one was Seville's, but the pretty picture like the other cities was just a hole in the wall...

Torre de Oro
[I just realized that I always get Torre (Tower) and Toro (Bull) confused...]

Me and Torre de Oro

The river that cuts through the city.

The Torre de Oro is now a Naval Museum. We got audio guides, and man was it corny. They tried to make it as a love story where the narrator is a guy who's walking by the tower and he sees "the most beautiful girl he's ever seen" and he talks to her and they get into this really nerdy conversation about the tower. Yea. I didn't listen to the whole thing...
BUT this tiny boat on this map is cute =)

There were a lot of stairs to get up the tower.

We were just on that bridge.

dun DUN DUN

You can see the cathedral from the tower. But then again, you could see the cathedral from anywhere in the city. It was actually the way Mary and I navigated around the city: "Where's the tall pointy thing?"

I thought that round thing was the Plaza de Toros. But it wasn't.

More views from the tower.

Mary was at the highest point of the Tower. I was at the second highest point.

My turn to get a picture from the highest point.

Long line. Take a picture!

There we go.

Restaurant recommended by my guidebook. Good food. AWESOME dessert.

Plaza de Toros.

There weren't any shows, but they make you pay for a tour if you want to go in to see the Plaza, so we just walked around it...=D

Aww, Los Angeles!

Next few pictures are from the Alameda de Hercules, which is a street full of various little restaurants, cafes, bars, etc.

There were various sculptures on this street. Reminded me of the sculpture garden at UCLA, except not so abstract.

Think round.

Zoom out.

Entrance.

It got dark as we were there and while we were eating dinner at...

DIABLITO. hahaha, it was actually pretty good food for a good price. I got Nachos [YES, NACHOS!], and they were actually spicy, which is hard to find in Spain.

Spanish cities at night are BEAUTIFUL.

La Catedral accentuated by the moon and various strategic lights.

Flamenco Videos, as promised =) [Apologies for them being on the side, but sometimes I do turn it so that it's on the right direction =D]

hmm..I guess I told the stores as I showed the pictures..hahha, ok, hope you enjoyed it! Next post: Madrid!

[Oh, since it'll probably be a while before I get the Madrid post up, I have a few updates:

- I got stung by a BEE the other day!!!
- Going to see Dashboard Confessional and Maroon 5 in Birmingham next weekend!
- Had a Thanksgiving dinner with the other EAP kids. HUGE turkey. Pictures to come later.
- Winter Break coming up, although I doubt I'll be traveling much because I'm not made of money.

Hope everyone is doing well! I miss everyone! =)

The US Dollar

2007-11-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

So. Yesterday I checked, and 1 Euro was equvalent to 1.45 dollars. Today I check and 1 Euro is now 1.47 dollars!!! I'm going to go broke being here. I'm contemplating taking lots of money out now so that I don't lose anymore money than I have to. Ohhh, so sad. When I first got here, 1 Euro = 1.36 dollars. It's now so much more!!! And I usually take out money in increments of 100, so that really means that it costs me an extra 10 dollars to take out 100 euros since when I first came. Oh, that's so depressing.

Granada--La Alhambra

2007-11-07T03:08:00.001-08:00

This group of pictures is from when I went to the Alhambra with Mary. I think I will be going to the Alhambra a lot, depending on how many people visit me. For sure one more time when Harriet comes to visit, and that will make it my third time there! However, it is a very big castle, and I must admit, Mary and I went to a few parts of the castle that I didn't go to the first time, so that's encouraging. So yes, Mary arrived in Madrid at about 10:30pm on Thursday night, then took a red-eye bus to Granada, and she reached me at about 7am Friday morning. So I picked her up at la estacion de autobuses (the bus station), which was walkable distance, but I decided to wait for the first city bus of the day to take me there because a few days before, I got an email from the coordinator of the EAP program and she said that one of the EAP student's roommate got stabbed on a Friday morning at 7am (which was the exact time and day that I was to go meet Mary). Scary, huh?? So I was quite paranoid at the time. So I made Mary wait a half hour more. But I think it's reasonable. hahaha Don't worry. I didn't get stabbed. Claro [Clearly]. So yes, on to the pictures!

Mary made fun of my for wanting to take pictures with signs, but I think that they complete the album =)

Highest point of the Alhambra.

View from one of the towers.

I might've had a picture of this from the last time I went to the Alhambra. I don't remember. But it's pretty, no?

I believe that is the Cathedral. You can see it from the Alhambra!

Pretty!

I thought this was very artistic.

I'm a fountain! =P [haha, I think it's funny how you can see Mary's shadow...]

There were many times throughout the week where we had to ask someone to take our picture for us...

Pomegranate! I learned that Granada means pomegranate. Which means...I must buy a pomegranate before I leave...

Me on one tower with a background of the other tower...

View of the city.

A labyrinth. Mary was quite found of it. Although, it wasn't much of a labyrinth since the walls were only about 2 feet tall.

I think this was a prison. They closed it off, but just climbing into that part scared me.

Mary and I with the Sierra Nevada. Although. It might be a different mountain range...haha, the guy who took this for us took SOOOO long! I actually started cracking up at the end because he was taking so long! hahaha

The Alhambra. From a point few people know about. I only know about it because my monitor took us there. Oh yes. I know secret places in Granada =)

Mary and I with the Alhambra

I like how the water perfectly reflects the building.

We forgot flash =X

This picture reminds me of first year, when we took pictures of our teams for Junior SceneIt and Mary took up the whole photo for team Sunshine! hahahaha

So, the pictures are a bit out of order, but when we got our tickets for the Alhambra, it turned out that we had to wait about 3 or 4 hours before we could enter, so we walked around the castle. The next few pictures are on the outer limits of the castle. =)

Mary's first picture in Granada.

I thought this was pretty. =)

Look how happy Mary is to be in Granada.

But the cobblestone steps are perilous. Seriously. I don't know why people talk about cobblestone steps in the stories. They're really quite impractical if you stop to think about it!

So that was our Friday. We walked A LOT. First it was just because the Alhambra is so big, but then after we explored the Alhambra, we were in search of this restaurant that my monitor had showed me. He said that it was definitely a place that you had to eat at, so I thought, yay, I can bring Mary there. But as it would turn out, when we finally did find the restaurant, it was closed until 8pm, and the neighborhood it was in is supposed to be pretty dangerous to be wandering around at night, so we went in search of another restaurant. We decided to go to one suggested by the guidebook that I had. However, it was about 7pm, and to our dismay, we discovered that most of the kitchens don't open until 8:30ish. So we went wandering, looking for any restaurant that might be open, but when we finally found one, it was 8:30 anyway, so we decided to head back to the restaurant suggested by the guidebook. Yes. Mary saw much of Granada her first day here. hahaha

Oh yea. Before we went to the Alhambra, when we had that extra 3 hours before we could enter, we decided to go get tapas for lunch. So I never really realized it before, but man, tapas in Granada is GREAT. Tapas is basically like...an appetizer, I suppose. The translation for "tapa" in Spanish is "top," so I suppose you could say a tapa is like a topper. Anywho, in Granda, you can get free tapas with a drink. And really, tapas are quite fulfilling. So the first tapa we got was fried calamari (nice, huh?) and then the second tapa we got was some kind of shishkobob meat thinger. It was pretty good. Had a taste of curry, which usually I don't like too much, but it was good. Anywho, two drinks, two tapas, a bit over 3 euros for each of us. Nice, no? Come to Granada, and I shall take you out for free tapas! =) [Actually, while we were in search of stuff to do in Madrid, we stumbled across a list of the top ten things to do in Spain and "Get free tapas in Granada" was number one. Oh yes. Now you know how we roll. 8)]

After Friday, we left for Seville early Saturday morning. The next post will have pictures and stories of that trip. But after the weekend, we returned to Granada so that I could go to school. During those three days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; There was a holiday Thursday, and I usually don't have class on Fridays, so we went to Madrid Thursday morning), we did quite a few things. Monday was a pretty chill day. We were supposed to go watch a Flamenco show, but...you know, I'm drawing a blank here. I can't remember for the life of me what the heck we did that night. =X Anywho, Tuesday, I only had one class, and Mary came along with me. And then after class, I took her up to the Albaicin and the Sacramonte. She really liked it up there. The view is quite pretty. And then while we were walking, we ran into some dude who was like, "Hey! Come and look at my cave!" I would've been super suspicious, but my roommate had told me around the time when we first moved in that she met some dude who invited her to his cave, so I figured he might've been the same guy. hahah, turns out the cave was a restaurant, so we got to see the cave, but we didn't get anything at his restaurant. It's ok. Then we asked him if we knew where we could see a good flamenco show, and he said right next door. and then he called someone, and he was like, "yes, they have a show tonight. They usually charge 25 euros, but you tell them that Agustino sent you, and they'll let you in for 20." hahaha, that was pretty funny, but it was a load of crap. We've been researching and most places let you in for 20 usually. hahah, anywho, walking back to my apartment, we ran into a friend of mine from the EAP program [his name is Issac]. I introduced him to Mary and told him that she was visiting me for the week. He said that we had to go eat tapas at this one bar called "Nuestro Bar" He said he'd want to come, too, but I called him the next night and he couldn't make it. Anywho, the bar turned out to be reaaaallly good. They had HUGE servings. I'm really glad he told us about it. I think I'll be going there more often....=P So yea, Wednesday, Mary wandered around Granada by herself while I was in class, and then we went for Tapas, and then we got ready for Halloween.
So we decided we would be Greek Goddesses and go to a club, and party there. Well, the first half worked out. Mary has the pictures, so you should go bug her for them, although, I would like them as well =) But the club we went to ended up being really...empty. We got there around 12ish, and there were maybe 10 people there. AND Mary and I were the only ones dressed up. Yea. it was pretty bad. But a few hours later, around 2am, there were more people and, more importantly, more dressed up people. Before they came though, Mary and I were just dancing on the dance floor by ourselves. I felt pretty silly, but it was fun at the same time. I figured, meh. I don't know anyone here. And then other people started dancing, so Mary kept saying, "see! We started it!" hahah, that was pretty funny. Around 3am, we headed home cuz we had to be up at 5am to catch our 7am bus.

And I shall have to continue with Seville in the next post!

He vuelto! [I have returned!]

2007-11-05T08:53:00.001-08:00

It's been a long week filled with many traveling adventures. I have 400+ pictures to show, but my camera battery is currently dead, so I shall get to that soon enough. In the meantime, just wanted to say that I'm back! How come no one is commenting on my blog? ohhh, so sad =( hahaha Hopefully some pictures will stir up some reactions, but those shall have to wait =) Next trip is not on stone yet, but it should be for the first weekend of December. Looking forward to it! (Especially because it includes Dashboard Confessional! Ahhh!)

Una amiga, por fin! [A friend, finally!]

2007-10-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Mary is here visiting me this week. We just came back from a weekend of Sevilla, I have three days of school, and then we're off to Madrid for her last weekend here. It's been grand. We just came back from dinner and chatting at a tea house. It was quite nice. I feel like I've explored Granada more in the past 3 days than in my entire 2 months here! I have plenty of pictures and stories to go along with them, but that shall have to wait until after Madrid. Only downside to all this traveling is that I feel quite exhausted. I fear I may be getting sick! Oh well. I shall carry on! =)

And a good day to you all!

PS I didn't know before, but apparently, Spain does Daylight Savings, too, so until America does it, I am only 8 hours ahead now =D

Fotos para vosotros! [Pictures for you!]

2007-10-19T14:04:00.001-07:00

Hola! So I finally loaded my pictures into my laptop, after like, a month! =X Lo siento. Better late than never, though!

Los Cahorros--A crazy nature hike

That old man was our Oral Comprehension Professor, as well as our guide for the day. Prior to the hike, people thought that the hike couldn't be too intensive, considering that this guy (Senor Madrid) was going to be our guide. Let me just say, for such a little man, he's got quite the stamina.

The famous bridge that I had talked about before the trip. Madrid called it the Golden Gate Bridge, but that's not what it's called.

Pretty cool. We had quite an adventure on this trip. We had to walk through narrow pathways, sometimes even having to sit and scoot to get through some parts. It was crazy.

That's me--in case you've forgotten what I look like =P--with a very naturist background

The ants here are muchisimo fatty

Pretty.

The strenuous path.

The killer hill! I thought I was gonna die going up--AND DOWN--this stupid thing.

All to reach that point. So we hiked up the virtually 90 degree hill to stand on that point. And then we walked back down.

Even in nature, there's graffiti. I thought that was kinda funny.

La Alhambra

Need I say more?

We started at the gardens. They were pretty. Lots of fountains. I like fountains.

Me gusta mucho =)

Cool place within the Alhambra. Didn't completely understand the guide, so I can't tell you what this place is, nor what it was for. Lo siento.

These are the steps that I slipped and fell on. Seriously. I fell. It was quite embarrassing. And the tour guide lady was like, "oh, yes. Be careful. The steps are slippery" AFTER I fell. Thanks, Lady.

There were fishies in the pound! Just like a Japanese garden

I believe this is a famous shot. All the postcards have a picture like this on it. I like how the water reflects the building.

Looks like the Great Wall--The Great Wall of Granada =P

La Catedral

There are always gypsy ladies standing in front of the Cathedral trying to sucker you into getting your fortune read, in which case, you would have to pay them. They try to pass you a rosemary and then they'll grab your hand to read your fortune. I keep my hands in my pockets and my eye diverted whenever I pass them. If you get suckered into it and you refuse to pay, they curse you.

I actually thought it was very beautiful inside the cathedral.

I found it funny that instead of having real candle, they had little lights, like Christmas tree lights, on imitation candles, and you put a coin into the machine to get a candle "lit"

La Casa-Museo Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca. A famous writer. This was his house, now turned into museum. I'm taking a class on him right now, but the trip, at the time, was definitely the most boring trip I've been on in Granda. BUT, it's supposedly one of those must-go-to tourist places, so we were forced to go...
That door, however, leads to a little theater. I thought that was cool.

Artistic, no?

There was a room filled with all these artworks. It was the most interesting part of the trip.

This is a mosaic. I thought it was very cool.

Pretty flower! =)

And that's pretty much it. I've been watching a lot of shows in Spanish, and listening to the Spanish radio. I feel like my Spanish has gotten loads better in the mere 2 days that I've been watching the shows and listening to the radio. It's quite exciting. But we shall see once I go to class on Monday. I also got a voice recorder, so hopefully I'll be able to understand more of what's going on and then review the recording to completely get the picture.

I went to La Policia on Wednesday for the second phase of extending my visa. I was kinda of scared because I didn't go with anyone, and the first time I went, I pretty much had the people that I went with translate everything. But it actually went very smoothly. I just have to return once more time in a month, and I'll be set for the year! I'm pretty excited to get that done and over with. And once I get my "tarjeta de estudiante" I can travel freely! Excited for that, too. Gonna starting purchasing stuff for my Dashboard concert plans =DDD

I bought an eggplant today, and I've realized that eggplants are a very cute vegetable. hahaha, I know that sounds weird, but they are! I also bought half of a melon!!! I love melon! Mmm! Mmm!

Mary's coming to visit me next weekend for the week, and we're heading off to Seville and Madrid. I think I've said this already. But I'm excited for it! It'll be my first time really traveling! We're staying in a hostel and everything! Not sure what we're gonna do, but for the time that she's in Granada, we're gonna go to the Alhambra, and go to a Flamenco show. In Madrid or Seville, we want to see a Bull Fight! Pretty excited to do real SPAIN stuff! I'll take pictures and share! =)

Hasta luego!

A New Day

2007-10-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I need to start writing better posts [haha, apologies for the "weaksauce" of past posts]. It's really not that I don't have time to do them, I just have nothing to talk about, really. I don't do much here (which I know, I really should), but it's quite difficult, considering 1) I don't have any friends and 2) I'm scared. haha, I know how lame that sounds, but it's true. BUT. I'm trying to change that.
So living with the roommates have been quite antisocial on my part. I tend to stay in my room. I think I'm scared of my roommates? hahaha...well, really, I'm just scared of the Spaniard because she's very intimidating. And it was actually after this one incident. She kinda yelled at me. Well, not really, but I think she thought I was an idiot. No need to go into details, but it had to do with a microwave and a lack of plugs. But anywho, I might've blown it out of proportion, but I was scared of her after that. It's gotten better now, though. I say "Hola" whenever I see her, but nothing much past that. I don't really mind, though. I just want to get out more, and that is the plan.
So I was looking at my calendar and I have at least one 4 day weekend every month till I get out of school (sweet, huh?), so I'm planning on making trips at least once a month. This month, Mary is coming to visit me in Spain, so we're going to Seville one weekend, and Madrid the next weekend. So that's TWO trips in one month (makes up for last month, I suppose..)
Beginning of December, I'm planning to go to a Dashboard Confessional concert with someone I met in the EAP Program. The concert is in Birmingham (or Luxembourg, we haven't decided which one we're going to go to), so that's trip number two.
Then there's Winter Break and I'm am thinking of going to MANY countries in that time. =D I haven't planned it exactly, don't even know who I'm going with, but I'll figure it out. AND I WILL GO. If anything, I'll go alone. I can be a lone traveler. Might even make things more interesting....=P
Then for the 4 day weekend after the winter break, I'm thinking I'll go to Portugal....just cuz it's nearby, and I probably shouldn't go far when I only have 4 days.
Then for Spring Break, I want to go to France and Budapest to visit Jayme and Mary! I'm actually not sure if those two are very far apart, but I'll have a whole 10 days to do the trip, so that'll probably work well...
THEN. That's all I've got. HAHAHA Well, it'll come to me as it comes closer. But the prospect of future trips have brightened my days. I must admit, I've been pretty sad these days. It's just that school is so hard (oh, I'll write about that after), I haven't met anyone I feel close to, and I can't communicate with anyone. It definitely hasn't been the study abroad experience I was imagining. Before I came, I thought I was so ready to meet new people and all that stuff. But when I got here, I found that I sorta isolated myself. I know, it's horrible, but since I've done that, I've kind of gotten used to it. But I'm going to try really hard to change. The other day, in class, I started up a mini conversation with a random dude in class. Ok, granted, it was because I needed to ask what happened in the previous class, but I asked him where he was from and stuff after all the class stuff, so I thought that was pretty sociable...hahahha
Anywho, school is SOOOO hard! I understand maybe.....10 percent of what the teachers say. I can't even take notes because even if I do understand, once I try to write it down, I realize that I can't remember what he said. I think I get the overall meaning, but I try to be nit-picky, and I want to write down the exact phrase. Like, I can tell you right now that in my Literature class, he talked about man being a servant, or something like that, it's some theory with feudalism vs another -ism, but I couldn't take any notes on that because I couldn't put it into Spanish words (I try to take notes in Spanish). And then in my Econ (I mean, EX-Econ class---I dropped it), the professor made us make little name tags to put on our desk SO THAT HE COULD CALL ON US! Oh my gosh, it was so scary. He called on me once, but I didn't know what he said. I thought I heard him say "Estas de acuerdo?" which means "do you agree?" and so I said very slowly, "...Si?" Then he looked at me funny and moved on. Ohhh man, that was bad. And then the next day, the second day of class, we had a quiz! I didn't even know a quiz was going on, but I looked around and realized that everyone was writing and being quiet. And I was sitting in the front (to try to show that I didn't get scared away the first day of sitting in the front) and so he was looking at me, and I think he thought I was cheating. Ohhhh, horrible. I didn't even know what the question was.
So yes. School is hard. I mean, I know that I'm still adjusting, and it'll get easier eventually, but I'm just waiting for that to happen. My sister told me that the first three months are the worse, so hopefully by the end of November, I'll be writing much happier posts.
In the meantime, I've been watching a lot of shows online, reading Harry Potter in Spanish (which, by the way, is going pretty well. I read out loud to myself, and I don't look up words. I just guess because I know the story. For example, I learned that the word "cicatriz" means scar). Yes. It was definitely a good idea to start reading HP in Spanish. I'm planning on watching shows in Spanish soon. I just figured out how to find shows online in Spanish, so I'm gonna try watching things I've seen a billion times, like Friends. I would watch Alias, or something like that, but I think those words might be a bit more on the difficult side...
I'm also trying to be on top of my homework and whatnot. I have quite a bit of reading to do, which I actually don't mind. I wish all my classes assigned readings, because then I could prepare for the lecture and have a better idea of what's going on. But I take a really long time to do the readings. First I go through it in Spanish, reading it in Spanish, and circling the words I don't know. Then I look up the words and write them down, and then I go through the reading again and translate. Then I look for key points and whatnot. It's a very long process.
I'm planning on going shopping this weekend. I want a jacket and a purse.
My credit card got temporarily blocked. I'm so pissed about that because I called them before I left and told them that I would be out of the country. Freakin WaMu....

Ok. I suppose that's all. Got to get back to reading. Hope you enjoyed this post =)

Metas por el ano [Goals for the Year]

2007-10-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

I should've done this at the beginning, but I've become very motivated over this past weekend, so here we go:

1) LEARN SPANISH. <--haha, not just a goal, but a necessity!
2) Get at least 3 A's in my classes
3) Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Spanish (already on Chapter 3 =D)
4) Read Da Vinci Code in Spanish (that one's a bit tougher...)
5) Travel at least once a month
6) Stay healthy
7) Learn to cook (maybe)
8) Make at least two GOOD friends
9) Stay on top of my schoolwork
10) Don't become an alcoholic. [hahahaha, sounds like a weird goal, but it's something I fear...hahaha, Europe is DEFINITELY a drinking continent, and I would not like to be influenced...]

That is all for now. Wish me luck! =)

Yeeks....

2007-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

So I start school tomorrow...I'm a bit scared =X I'm really worried about the Spanish that's going to be going on....I was just thinking today, "oh my gosh..how am I gonna know what the homework is, when it's due, where I get my books, what books I'm supposed to get, what chapters I'm supposed to read..." oy...I just hope they write down all the important information, but I heard that you even have to buy the syllabus... I guess we'll see how it goes, but I've got quite a full day tomorrow...I start at 8:30 and then class for 1.5 hours, and then I was planning on sitting in on this one class that I'm going to be taking second semester, but I'm rethinking that now. If I don't go to that, I'll have a 5 hour break and then pretty much back to back classes till 9:30, except for an hour break. I'm not really looking forward to that. I might drop the 8:30 am class. As of right now, I'm not sure what it would count toward anyway. I don't know, we shall see.

Anywho, so my week off has been pretty uneventful. I went clubbing for the first time in Spain. It started out fun, but as the night progressed, everyone just got more and more drunk and more and more aggressive. It was not cool. Some guy tried to grab my butt when I didn't want to dance with him, but I had a bunch of stuff in my pockets like my camera and stuff, so I don't think he really got anything, haha. I would've taken pictures, but I didn't really see an opportunity, so I've got nothing for ya. I was surprised because about 90 percent of the songs were English songs, all the popular ones, you know. I was even more surprised because I went with my German roommate and she actually knew the lyrics way better than I did. Apparently, the club I went to was the most "hopping" place in the city, Granada 10, but I thought it was just ok. Maybe all the other ones are worse. It probably would've been fun if I'd gone with people I felt comfortable around. Everyone was smoking inside, so I didn't particularly like that either. When I got back, I smelled disgusting. I've left my clothes to air out so that it won't smell like smoke anymore, and it's been about 4 or 5 days, the smell's still there. ewwwwww.

Other than that, I haven't done much. Went shopping a couple of times, but just for useful things like lightbulbs (the one in my room exploded. yes. EXPLODED), and school supplies. I also bought a little lamp for 2 euros. I was impressed with the price, too.

I've been watching a lot of stuff online. I saw Sydney White, Good Luck Chuck, the season premieres of Heroes, The Office, Grey's Anatomy, and I've been watching Avatar, an anime show on Nickelodeon (but it's really good, so I highly suggest it =D).

I don't hang out with my roommates too much, but we eat together sometimes. I'm not completely comfortable around them yet, but I'm sure it'll happen eventually. I just wish I could understand Spanish better. I do think that it's improved, but it's still not up to par. I would like to be able to understand completely, not just get the jist of things, cuz most of the time, I miss something pretty important.

It's starting to get cold here, but I can't wait for that to happen because I want to wear the beanie that Elaine got me. I hear it gets REALLY cold, so we shall see. At least I have heating in my apartment.

mmk, well. I'm getting tired. haha, until next time!

Piso nuevo! [New apartment!]

2007-09-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hola! I'm all settled into my new apartment. Just made my first real dinner here, although I've been here three days. It's pretty nice here. I'm not too chatty with my roommates because, well, there's a bit of a language barrier there, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. My room is pretty sweet. I'm liking it much more now that I have my laptop up and running (the night before I moved to my new apartment, my converter broke! so I couldn't turn on my laptop, thus had no access to internet, thus making me a very sad girl. I did nothing for two days. The first day I came, it was raining, so I stayed inside, second day, I went allll over town trying to find a new converter...no success...third day [today], I walked about 10 minutes away from my apartment, found a nifty little chinese store, and ba-bam! there was the converter I had traveled so far, only to find it ten minutes away...it was quite sad. But I was quite happy to finally be able to go online again! Seriously. I just sat here when I didn't have anything to do. I tried reading a little in spanish, but I don't have a spanish dictionary, so when I didn't know a word, I couldn't look it up). Anywho, enough with my converter story, my room is pretty sweet. It's much bigger than my dorm over the summer. There's even an extra bed that slides out from under my bed, so if anyone comes to visit (*WINK WINK*), I've got a place ready for you. =)
So the night that I moved out, they had this little good-bye dinner thing, but it was more like a cocktail party. It was pretty cool! I wanna have a cocktail party when I come home. I didn't dress up cuz I didn't know it was going to be like that, but it would've been fun to dress up. I don't have many friends from the program, but everyone just seemed so chatty with everyone. It was just a time like, mingle and whatnot. If you ask me, that would've been good to start with. But anyway, yes. it was very fun. The food was really fancy. A lot of raw stuff. But it was good, nonetheless. (my cocktail party will have cheap stuff..hahahah, you know, cheese, crackers, and all the fixings...=P) They even had the little waiters walking around with the drinks, and you just take it off the tray, and when you're done, you put it back on the tray. It was a pretty cool experience. I wish I had brought a camera with me to the event, but it was from 9:30-12ish, and I didn't want to be walking back to my apartment with a camera in my pocket...luckily, when i was time to go, I walked with this one guy who was my neighbor in the dorms, and he offered to walk me to my apartment, so that was very nice of him, and I didn't have to worry about being raped, kidnapped, or mugged.
Finals were the day before that (sorry, I'm going out of order). They actually weren't that bad. There were a lot of papers, but I kinda BSed those...I'm not sure what my final grade will be, but I only made the class worth 3.5 units, so I don't think it'll be too much of a downer on my GPA if I happen to do poorly. But I don't think I could do worse than a C. The finals were too bad. One of them was a grammar test (so fill in the blank with the correctly conjugated word), another was listen to a reading and summarize it, another was respond to two questions (kinda like essay questions, I suppose), and the last one..the one I was most worried about...was the easiest!!! I missed..probably half of those classes...and I'm pretty sure I got an A on that final...hahhaa, it was the literature class and he had questions where you had to like, name the author, or the title of a book, or the year, and we could use the notes he had given us, and allll the answers were right there, in the notes. Word for word pretty much. You just had to find it. Man oh man. I'm taking a class with that teacher again during the school year, and I really hope he teaches like that in the school year, too...=P
Oh yea, I found out my address. Please send me care packages =)
Nuestra Señora de la Salud N3 4°B
18014 Granada
Spain

So I have this next week off to do as I please. Lots of the other students are traveling, but I'm not too sure I'm ready for that yet. I had a pretty bad flight experience coming here. I don't want to be in the airports again so soon. I'll wait till Christmas vacation =)

Nothing much else to report. I wish I had more pictures, but I'm kinda lazy to put them into my computer right now. I'll do it next time. Anywho, hope all is well in the states!

Hasta luego!

2007-09-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

this is really random, but I miss my long hair...

2007-09-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to worry about not having an apartment for the year =X

The place I liked got taken. And then I called two more places and those were taken too. Man oh man. I hope I don't get screwed over....

On a brighter note, only my right eye is a little puffy now. I think I'm healing =)

Lo siento....

2007-09-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

Apologies! It's been pretty hecktic around here; been searching for an apartment, going on field trips, going to class, doing my homework, studying for finals, looking for classes, and to top it off, I got hives today. =T So yes, much has been going on, but I don't think I'll write about it all right now. I'll just sum it up.

So they've taken us on quite a few trips since the last time I wrote. We went on this hardcore hiking trip, we went to the Alhambra (this really famous castle), we went to the Cathedral, and we went to this museum, but it was really the house of a writer, Frederico Garcia Lorca (heard of him? I think he wrote plays...I'm going to take a class on him this year, so I'll have a better idea of who he is by the end of the year).

Apartment hunting is being a pain in the butt. I found a place that I liked yesterday, but I have an appointment to look at one more place on Monday, so I want to see that one first before I decide. I have less than a week, but I'm not too worried yet. The place that I kinda like has three girls living in it. I only met two, but they seem pretty nice. And it has a really nice balcony/terrace. My room would be kinda small, but that's only to be expected. It had internet potential, so that's a plus, and so it would cost a little under 200 euro a month, which isn't bad. We'll see, though.

So yes. I have hives. It's quite annoying. I woke up yesterday from a nap and my eyes were swollen. It went down after a little while, but I woke up this morning and they were more swollen and as the day progressed, I got more rashes all over my body. sooooo irritating. I thought the bug bites sucked, but this is just ridiculous. I'm not even sure what caused it. I ate seafood on Thursday, but that was like, 2 days ago. Elaine says that it happens like that sometimes. Hopefully it's gone by tomorrow. I'm just glad it happened during the weekend and not during the week when I have class. Otherwise, I don't think I'd go to class...

I think that's all for now. I'll try to make a more thorough update next time, and I'll try to update more frequently. Hasta luego!

Oops.

2007-08-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I bought sparkling mineral water instead of regular water. Dang Spanish words! I think I will just let it get flat...=)

So I've gone to the supermarket two days in a row and both times, while walking back, I've sweated buckets! Someone told me that I got skinnier. Blame it on the hot weather. On the bright side, I bought materials for quesadillas! YAY MEXICAN FOOD! =)

I'm currently looking up what classes to take this year. We have to decide all the class for the whole year before the year even starts! It looks like mostly Spanish Literature, economics, and history classes for me...but perhaps I can squeeze in an art class..?

I also bought my first newspaper today (it was a homework assignment). First thing I did wrong was I was looking for the newspaper stands that they have in America. The nifty ones where you just put in your coins and voila! Open the door and you can grab one, two, whatever amount of newspapers to fill your heart's content. As it would happen, everything that I went up to turned out to be a mailbox (they're green here...). Then I figured they don't have mechanical newspaper stands here..they've got the old school stands where there's a guy standing in the middle of a huge box with a bunch of different magazines and newspapers surrounding him, along with a couple of different types of candy. So I had to walk a couple of blocks to figure this out, but it was a good learning experience, nonetheless. So I go up to the stand and I pick up what I want, and I ask the guy, "Cuantos cuesta?" [translation: how much does it cost] and he tells me 1 euro, which I was quite proud because not only was I able to communicate with the Spaniard, but I was also able to understand him =) Yay me!

The end.

Tantas Visitas! [So many trips!]

2007-08-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hola otra vez! =)

It's been quite busy since the intensive language program started. We have class Monday through Thursday from 9 to 2, although, there's an hour of "individual study" (which is really just go to your room and sleep time) and a 20 minute break. When they say "intensive," they're not kidding. It's five different classes, three a day, and we get credit for it back at the UC, but it's only 3-6 units (we get to choose how many credits we want). It's like taking 5 classes for the value of 1! But the classes are crazy, in my opinion, simply because I can't understand half of what the teachers are saying. We have Grammar, Oral, Reading Comprehension, Literature, and History classes. I like the first three because the teachers are pretty good, and we actually get to talk in those classes, and for me, it's easier to understand the students than the teachers =X I did like the first history class, but that's probably because the teacher talked really slowly and we spent most of the time going around the class and introducing ourselves. The second class she talked slowly, too, but I just couldn't keep up....maybe because I fell asleep...=X And the Literature class. Let's just not speak of it. HAHA Seriously, that teacher talks waaaay too fast and I don't even know if he's talking about Literature. I can't tell..I've heard other kids say that the first class, he talked about wanting to talk about things that we're interested in, and the second class was about power? I don't know. But he seriously talks throughout the whole class. It's really unbearable....=T
But besides class, they've been taking us on many trips! It's really quite tiring and I don't know how they expect us to do our homework. I had to do mine the morning it was due =X But in all fairness, I did it during the "individual study" time (because my individual study time is the first class of the day!) But anywho, they let us venture out into town again with our Monitores and that day was so very long. I wasn't back until 11 at night! AND our monitor left us! So my group ate dinner together, which was very cool bonding time, and then we walked back to La Residencia. But still. It was so very late when we got back. But I got a cell phone! Call me if you ever get a calling card! =P Actually, don't call me. It costs me minutes, too =P
A couple of nights ago, I went wandering with a couple of people just to take pictures of the city. It was quite interesting. I'll tell stories with the pictures =)

This is where I live. Actually. This is like. the Front Desk of where I live. I actually live to the left of this picture...=D

This is a monastery that's right next to La Residencia. The picture may not look like it, but it looks REALLY old.

Entrance to Monastery. I didn't go in, though. They were about to close.

Universidad de Granada! My school! It's actually spread out everywhere throughout the city, so when I find an apartment, I'll have to look for one that's close to my "facultad" which is like, the "school of ____" But I might take classes in different facultades so that might be a problem...

There are lots of fountains spread out throughout the city. [fountains in Spanish is "fuentes"]. They're pretty nice. I like fountains =)

Some building. I don't know what. But I thought it looked nice =) A lot of the buildings look ancient. It's pretty cool.

The gate to some building...

Advertisements...in Spanish! hahaha

Billboard for Evan Almighty hahahha, but they call it "Sigo como dios." they called the first one "Como dios." Funny, huh?

I think this is an apartment building....

Some street...I thought it looked artistic

I thought this door was cute. Not American-like at all.

This is how their street signs look. They're not very noticeable. Seriously. If I were driving around here..I'd get soooo lost.

Graffiti is a huge part of the city. There's graffiti everywhere, and most of it looks really nice. They say that people consider it more art than graffiti. Apparently, there's some dude who got a hired in America because of his graffiti work in Granada. Wow.

I even saw a Yoda graffiti, but I didn't take a picture of it.

After exploring and taking pictures, I went out with a lot of people from the EAP program for Tapas. It's this thing that they do A LOT here. I actually don't enjoy it all that much. They go to like, a restaurant/cafe, and order drinks and stuff and you get free "Tapas" (which is really just appetizers), but they're not really free because people say that it's included in the fee for the drink. I usually just get water or soda. I got one alcoholic drink once. It's called Tinto de verano. Apparently it's soda with a bit of red wine, I believe. People order it all the time here, apparently. It tastes alright, but I really don't want to become an alcoholic so that one time was enough for me =) But yea, that was an interesting experience because the people I sat with were all telling like, drunk/drug stories. They were funny and all, but of course I had none to tell, so I just sat there laughing most of the night. But I do that anyway.

Yesterday, the main organizers of the EAP group in Granada too us to two supposedly important neighborhoods (or, in Spanish, "barrios") of Granada: The Albaicin and the Sacromonte. I took many many pictures, but...I've realized I'm not too interested in the history of the city =X hahaha, well, let's just say the walk was way too long and hilly with lots of rocks that made the walk very unstable. But here are pictures anyway =)

I think this is the outside of the neighborhood. Pretty nice.

Didn't think it was possible, but these are steps worse than Covel steps (these really awkward steps that are next to a building called Covel Commons in UCLA for those of you not familiar with the campus =D). These steps were not only awkward (meaning, they are too long to take it one foot step at a time, and yet, too short to take it two foot steps at a time), but they are also uneven because they're made of paved rocks that didn't quite get evened out AND they slant!

What a wonderful phrase.

I think the person guiding us was saying something about this area being a theatre...but I could be wrong..anywho, this was in the Albaicin

I believe this is the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Pretty view. Looks like a castle.

The Study Center Coordinator (her name's Natalia; she's super nice) made me take this picture to show my parents. hahahah, but I think I'll make it my facebook picture, too =P Me in Spain!

Nice to know that Punk is not dead. even in Granada.

There were a lot of stray cats. Here's a whole litter.
[by the way, I just learned that there are a BUNCH of ways to say a group of cats/kittens: lowder of cats, clutter of cats, glaring of cats, pounce of cats, dout of cats, nuisance of cats, kendle of cats, kindle of cats, or destruction of cats! I looked this up, of course]

We went to a garden. It had a fountain. I like fountains =)

Me with some people that I met. Left to right: Elise (Berkeley), Ashley (Santa Barbara), Me.

This is an ice cream shop. I know this because the sign says "Heladeria" and that means Ice Cream shop. hahaha, my Spanish is improving already =P

This is the beginning of the neighborhood, and they call it.....

Calle Puerta Nueva! [Translation: New Door Street]

This is what their police cars look like. WEIRD! hahah

Very pretty view. Very long walk.

Very cool looking building amongst the city.

Granada =)

Other than that, the week's officially over for me. We have a meeting tomorrow, that's supposed to take two hours, and then Saturday's free, and then we're going to go to some place that's very nature-y. hahaha I didn't know how to put that correctly...Anyway, it's supposed to be a 5 hour long trip, YEEKS! But I saw some pictures, and there's this HUGE bridge:

that's not me, of course, but Next time I'll have a picture with me on it =)

I went to the market today all by myself and I was very proud that I knew the way to and back =D

That's pretty much it. Hasta luego!

PS. I had Paella and Flan today for lunch. Me gustan mucho =)

Primera vez en Granada! [Translation: First time in Granada!]

2007-08-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first full day in Granada, and they had a bunch of things for us to do:
- Test to see what level we should be in for our Intensive Language Program
- Orientation
- Trip into the city
- Botellón

So I got up and got ready and everything, and you people should know, I'm always late to everything, so I was determined not to be late for the test, which was at 10 in the morning in the building right next to where I live. But, I still left the room at about 2 minutes till 10 =T But on my way out, about three doors down my room, I passed a door that was open and I saw a girl, and she called to me, so I turned back, and she was like, "I JUST got in. Are we supposed to be doing something?" And I told her about the test, and so she asked if she could come with me, and I said sure, and she is the first person that I met. Her name is Candice. But yes. we went to the test and everyone was sitting already with the test on their desk. It was kinda scary. hahah, but oh well. Anyway, the guy who proctored the test spoke spanish to us, and I wasn't really ready for that much spanish already, so I just barely caught on to what he was saying. The test was just the guy reading a passage and then we're supposed to write what he says, or as much as we can remember in our own words. I think I did horribly, but I just looked to see what group I'm in and I'm in group B, and there's a group A and C. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm guessing that I'm right in the middle level? *shrug* Anywho, after the test, we had about 45 minutes before the orientation, so I went outside, and I saw the guy from UCLA and started talking to him for a bit. And then we decided that we should mingle with the others, hahha, so we walked over to the rest of the group, and met some more people. I don't remember all their names, but everyone seems pretty nice so far. I'm really impressed by how much spanish everyone knows. I'm so behind! but oh well. I'll learn =) So then we went to the orientation and the first lady who spoke spoke in English, and I was thinking, yes, they're going easy on us. But then the next two people who talked spoke Spanish, and I was like, Dang it! I got the jist of things, but I was still confused on a few things. It's ok, though. I just ask people on things I think are important. And then they introduced us to our "monitores" which are our like, mentors, I suppose. But anyway, we met up with them, and mine was called Ignacio, but he said we could call him nacho. hahahah He was pretty nice. I understood most of what he said. Then they let us go to our rooms to put down the fatty manual that they had given us at the orientation, and when I went to my room, I was already turning pink from the sun! So I put on some sunblock and then we were on our way to town! The buildings in the city are really cool. Everything looks so ancient and there are like, Monastaries and stuff that look sooooooo old, but really cool. There's actually a monastary right next to La Residencia (where I live). I'll take a picture of it the next time I go outside. But yea, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the town cuz I didn't want to look like a total tourist. Next time, though, I shall take pictures and you can see the city I live in! =) But yea, there was soooooo much walking yesterday! And it was soo hot and humid! Although, towards the end of the day, it got REALLY windy. Quite strange. Anyway, they took us EVERYWHERE. We went to the supermarket, and then we went somewhere to eat. And everyone ordered alcohol! I was thinking, geez..it's 2 in the afternoon! I just ordered water...=) And then we walked some more to a mall where people got cell phones. I decided against getting a cell phone cuz it seemed kinda expensive, but I'm rethinking that now. I just might go to get one, simply because it helps with the social life. How are people suppose to contact me? So yes. I'm still contemplating that, though. After the mall, we went back to the supermarket cuz they had just shown us where it was. This time we went in to buy groceries. It was weird cuz the first place everyone went to was the alcohol aisle. I was like, "uhh...I don't need anything in this aisle..." hahaha so I got Cereal, milk and yogurt, all for less than 3 euros! I thought it was a pretty good price. The milk here is kinda weird. It was refrigerated! It comes in boxes. Apparently, they process it, or something. But it's cheap. It was about 60 euro cents. I think that's like, one US dollar. Something like that. Less, maybe. Anyway, finally, we made the trek back to La Residencia, and it was uphill, so that kinda sucked! I thought I was done with Hills cuz UCLA is soooo hilly, but I think these hills might be worse =T Oh well. Once we got back, it was about 4 in the afternoon, I think? something like that. So I slept cuz I was tired from walking and cuz that's about 7 in the morning California time. I don't think I've adjusted yet. So yes. When they left us, they said to meet again at 11:15pm. I got confused, and I asked someone what they wanted to do so late in the night, and the girl told me about the Botellón. It's supposedly a very important part of the social life in Granada. What they do is kids from around 16-24 years old gather in the streets to drink, and then they go bar hopping until like, 7 in the morning =X I decided to skip the event....hahahaha, I don't know my limit yet, and I really don't want to find out around a bunch of strangers....maybe next time =) But I worried that if everyone went and I was the only one who didn't everyone would bond and it would be harder to meet people, but I found out this morning that I wasn't the only one who didn't go, so that's good =)
So yea, sorry, no pictures from that day, but I've got pictures of my room ready for you!

The door to my room leading out to the hallway

My closet, refrigerator, and microwave.

My bed. I put a towel over the stinky pillow so that it doesn't smell anymore.

My bathroom

My desk

My window

The screen goes up, and that's my view: a wall.

People who walk by can see into my window...so I ten to keep the blinds closed...

That's the view looking down.

View to the left.

View to the right. Look! some buildings! Don't know what they are though....=D

Until next time, ¡Adios!

Plane after plane after plane after plane....then a taxi.

2007-08-25T15:17:00.001-07:00

I've finally got time to update, so here we go! Let's start with the adventure that brought me here...

So, the original plan was fly from SFO to London, wait two hours, and then fly to Madrid and spend the night at a hotel that I had already booked and then fly out to Granada the next morning and make it to the check-in place by 3pm, which was what they said was the latest we should arrive here. What actually happened was I got to SFO with Mom, Dad, and Elaine and they helped my get some Euros and waited a bit for my flight because I had probably 2 hours or so. Before they left me a huge group of French teenagers came into the airport, and so my mom told me to get through security now before I had to wait behind the huge group. So I left my family and went through security. It was so sad. Won't see my family for a year! =(
So as it turned out, those French people were on the same flight as me and it has made me realize that I don't like French people very much. Not only were there French people who came into the dining hall during the summer and they were VERY rude, but the people on the plane were just...not pleasant. It's probably just because they were all very young and immature, but I did not care for them at all. I sat next to one of the girls and she laid down to sleep during the flight (it was a 10 hour and 10 minute flight) and so her feet kept touching me! I was sooo grossed out! So when she was asleep...I PUSHED her legs away from me! hahahah, I know, not the most proper thing to do, but seriously. I don't like feet touching me. Especially gross, stinky, French feet....

Leaving America. *tear*

That's me! =)

I thought the dinner they served was so cute! It had this beef stew sort of thing, a salad, a chocolate cheesecake sort of thing, a bun with butter, and piece of candy, and a water bottle.

So for the first half of the flight, I was watching movies. I saw Meet the Robinsons and Fever Pitch. Both were very cute movies. They even had Shrek the Third and Spiderman 3! I would've watched it, but I wanted to take advantage of watching movies I hadn't seen yet. So after those two, I got pretty sleepy. It was probably 9pm or so by then, and there was still 6 hours to go. So I decided to go to sleep. [fyi: that's when the French girl started touching me with her feet, so the sleep wasn't that pleasant]. So I tried sleeping for about 4 hours, or so. And then I decided to watch Friends! [they had TV shows as an option for something to watch, too!] and it was the episode where Monica and Chandler meet the person who would decide if they are suitable parents so that they could adopt a child. It was also the one where Rachael is afraid of the swings and Ross takes her to the park to show her that swings aren't dangerous, and he ends up getting hurt. HILARIOUS =) Friends is always funny. So by the time I finished that episode, we were in London!

Hello, London! [It was very overcast, even raining a little]

Heathrow--London Airport

Me at the London Airport =)

So here's where things went ALL wrong! So remember, I was supposed to only have to wait 2 hours in London and be off to Madrid. We landed in London about 11am London time (which is about 3am in California) and so I was dead tired already. So then by 1pm London time they had us boarding, and so we all got into the plane. Then the captain decides that there's something wrong with the plane, so we drive over to where there are technicians and we have to wait for them to board the plane and check out what might be wrong. Then two hours later, they decide that the plane cannot be flown and they tell us that we will be moved to another plane, but that they still had to work out the logistics in how they would transport not just the passengers, but also the cabin members to the new plane. So an hour later, they put us into buses and make us go through security again, and then we wait for about half an hour for to board the new plane. BUT some dude comes out and he says that the flight has been CANCELED! I sorta freaked out, but then I figured that the airline had to fix this or they'd have a BUNCH of very unsatisfied customers. [it was Bristish Airways, by the way.] So then one of the workers was like, "If you follow me, I'll show you where to go to get your luggage and then where to go to get new flights." So we were all following in a huge group, and then suddenly, it was like, "Hey. Who are we following?" HAHA and everyone stopped, and some people were even like, "Is there a worker who's leading us somewhere?" And then we all saw an information desk, so we all gathered around that. Keep in mind, it's like, over a hundred of us....so then they told us where to go, and in order to get your luggage, you have to get your passport checked, and so there was a HUGE line for that. And for a while, I was even in the wrong line (because they separate the lines by what kind of passport you have...I was in the EU passport line....so then I got into the right line, and that line was waaay longer than the EU line, so I was sorta pissed about that. But then while I was in the line, at first I was behind this old couple, and somehow they got in front of me, so that I was inbetween the old couple and two asian ladies. Then the two Asian ladies seemed to be trying to get in front of me, too, but I was already pretty peeved, so I gave them dirty looks and wouldn't let them get in front of me =D And then I passed this dude (because the line snaked along, so the guy was ahead of me, but we passed each other because of the shape of the line) and I thought "HEY! Isn't that the other guy from UCLA who's going to Granada?" And I thought he showed signs of recognition, too, but I wasn't sure so I didn't want to make a butt of myself and ask him. So I just moved on. Finally, I got my luggage, and then we had to wait in ANOTHER line to get new flights. And since there were more than 100 people who needed new flights, this line was quite long as well =T But while in line, I noticed that on the floor above us, there were like, SNIPERS! Literally, guys all suit up with bullet-proof vests and everything holding sniper guns and watching over the people in the airport. It was kinda scary, but I guess they've got super high security over there because of the recent terrorist attacks. Also in line, I met a girl and she said she was going to Granada as well, but only for half a year. I also found out from her that the guy I thought was the guy from UCLA WAS the guy from UCLA. So that was good to know. So anyway, the airline was actually really nice. They booked us all new flights (mine was at 7:35 in the morning the next day, but it pushed my flight from Madrid to Granada back, so then I would be late to the 3pm meeting that I was supposed to make in Granada. I was a bit worried about that, but then I thought, eh. What can I do? I'd only be like, 3 hours late. I suppose that's not too bad. The only thing I was really worried about was that everyone would meet each other already and then it would be really hard to meet people because everyone would already know each other! That was my only worry at the moment. hahaha
So since my flight wasn't till the morning, they booked me in a hotel (a really nice one, too, with complementary dinner and breakfast), and that was pretty exciting. I looked on the door of my room and it said that it would've cost 209 pounds, which is like, $400! I was like, SCORE! =P So then I took a shower (it felt good to finally be clean!) and the shower was really weird. It had a seat right in the middle of the shower, so I guess British people sit when they shower. But I didn't want to sit because who know how many other dirty butts have sat there...And also, they had these red cords that hung down in the bathroom, and I was curious as to what it did. I thought it like, turned on a fan or something....so I pulled it. Suddenly a red light started blinking and I was like, CRAP! So I called the front desk and I asked them what the red line does and what I should do because I "accidentally" pulled it. HAHAH The guy (who, by the way, had a French accent, and reminded me very much so of Michelle from Gilmore Girls) said "Oh, I have never heard of that before. Let me transfer you to Maintenance. " So he did that, and the lady there told me that it means there's an emergency, and I said "oh. there's no emergency. How do you cancel it?" and she said she would cancel it for me. Whew! Close call! =P Then I went to dinner and it was buffet style, so I ate as much as I thought I should, though the food was not that great. It was a pretty fancy place, though. They had a good mango cake =D

My bed at the hotel.

My room at the Hotel.

So I had told my family that I'd have an email out to them by Thursday morning for them (which would be Thursday night for me) because I SHOULD have been in my hotel in Madrid by then and that hotel was supposed to have free WiFi internet. But it was already like, 8pm London time (12pm California time) and at THIS hotel, the internet wasn't free, but I figured it was worth it, since the room was free. But for some reason it didn't work, so I tried asking the front desk and everything, but they said they would call me back, and they never did. [FYI: the hotel was called The Renaissance (pronounced Reh-neigh-sance by the British), so if you're ever in London, I don't highly suggest that hotel as it is both expensive and does not include complimentary internet...]. So then I went to bed, and I kept waking up every couple of hours, both because it was hot and because I was worried I wouldn't wake up in time for my morning flight. For some reason, I woke up at 2 am and thought that I should get ready so then I got up and went to the bathroom and then I thought about it and realized that I didn't need to be up for another 3 hours! So I went back to sleep.
In the morning, I skipped breakfast so that I could get to the airport early. Ended up having 2 extra hours. I was starving by the time we got on the plane. It's a good thing they gave us a "light breakfast," which consisted of an egg and bacon sandwich and a small smoothie.
Finally in Madrid around 12pm Madrid time, I had about 3 and a half hours to kill before my flight to Granada, so I wandered around, and I noticed that there were various "WiFi Hot Spots." I thought, finally! Free internet! As it turned out, the internet cost money, but I didn't care. I needed to email people. So I paid for that internet and I finally wrote emails to my family and whatnot as well as an email to the study center in Granada telling them that I would be late.

While waiting for my final plane, I got really hungry, so I went to the McDonald's there and ordered in SPANISH! I was so proud of myself..hahah I ordered "Patatas fritas y una hamberguesa" which translates to french fries and a hamburger =D

Madrid Airport

"Telefonos"! Everything was in Spanish. =D

Finally, I was on my way to Granada, and once we landed, it was about 5pm Granada time and it was soooo hot. In Madrid, it was pretty cold, kinda rainy, too...so then it was quite a change. So I got my luggage....and then called the study center to tell them that I had just landed. They told me to get to La Residencia (where I would be staying) and then the pay phone got cut off. HAHA so sad. I was like, Nooooooo. So I got a taxi. I asked the lady at the tourist booth what the best way to get there would be and she said two buses which would only cost 3 euros, whereas a taxi would cost 30. But I thought, "eh...I have all this luggage, and it's my first time, I don't want to get lost...I'll take a taxi." So after watching how other people hail a taxi, I followed suit and finally got to my destination.

The lady who checked me in only spoke Spanish and I didn't know that, so I thought she was just testing me. I found out later that she didn't speak Spanish. And so she showed me to my room and told me all this stuff that I got the jist of but only fully understood it when I read the paper she gave me. My room, as it would turn out, is my own! With my own bathroom, too! I was really excited to see that. AND they provided a refrigerator and a microwave for us! Pretty sweet! =)

I was dead tired, so I pretty much crashed the moment I got to the room. It was about 6pm and that's about 9am California time. I hadn't had a good night's rest in like, three days. But when I laid down, I noticed that my pillow smelled like BO. ughh. so I didn't use the pillow. But yes. My room is quite nice. I'll put up pictures later =)

Hellloooooo Europe!

2007-08-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hola! I just wanted to open up this new blog and introduce it to you all so that you can see what I'm up to in the following year, without me having to email each and every one of you! Please, feel free to comment with abundance! But yes, I have arrived in Granada, Spain, after a very long trip. I will tell more later, for I'm quite tired and am in need of much rest.

Keep checking for updates! =D