Not too much is going on here, we have had a series of rainy days, so I have mostly been avoiding walking anywhere.  This past weekend I went on a 70 Km hike for 3 days but I didnt really like it and it started raining Sunday and I was shivering so a group of 8 girls took the city bus back home once we were near Alicante.

WHoops.

More soon!

B and Z’s Excellent Adventure

Hello friends and family,

            Bryn has been very busy this weekend and has given me the task of writing a blog post about my trip to Spain. I am very excited about this because I like to talk a lot and this is just as fun. I must warn everyone that hasn’t heard me tell a story before that I tend to go into a lot of detail. So let me take you through our day-by-day adventures through Spain.

Day 1 – I flew from New York to Madrid Thursday night the 19. I was a little worried about my flight, mainly who I was going to be sitting next to. I was more worried for them because I was so excited that day and I was ready to talk their ear off. I ended up sitting next to this African American guy named Al. He was about 30 years old and was going to visit his girlfriend also. He and I developed a newfound love of the movie The Secret Life of Bees. It ended up being an awesome flight and he was laughing really hard when we were walking to the baggage claim because he said I looked like I had butterflies taking over my body, which I did. I got my bag and went to go meet B, and when I saw her she started yelling at me to walk faster.  We had to wait in the airport for our flight to Alicante and we didn’t really know what to say because it all felt so unreal. We flew back to Alicante and had a meal at Aurora’s house. She made us paella with chicken and other stuff. I could hardly eat anything because I felt like I had eaten so much that day. I checked into my hostel for the first night and the whole room was pink. The curtains, walls, sheets, and comforter were all pink. It was disgusting. We met up with Aurora and Pedro for dinner that night at some restaurant that was one of their favorites. We ate snails, fried sardines, clams, shrimp, chicken, and some lima beans. I have never had a meal like this. I ate all of it and actually liked it. Neither of us had energy to go out so we called it a night after dinner.

Day 2 – We got up early Saturday so that we get on the boat to Tabarca. Tabarca is an island that is off the coast of Alicante. There is just a little town there with dirt roads and it kind of looks like Cuba.  The other half of the island is just grass and a couple old buildings. We were able to walk around the whole island in the time that we were there. The one building had cacti all around it so I was very excited to touch them. Aurora told us we had to eat Caldero(I think that’s what it was called). We found a restaurant that had it for a decent price so we went for it. It ended up being a four-course meal and the Caldero was these two giant fish that were just cooked with everything still in them. We just dove right in and it ended up being delicious. We went back to Alicante and we got ready to go out that night. I have been waiting to meet all of her friends since she talks about them all the time. We went to the barrio and had a couple drinks with her friends. Everyone seemed to have their visitors, Xenia’s boyfriend, Lauren’s brother, and someone’s parents were there. She showed me Carpe and I made her get me a Duff because it was designed straight from the Simpsons.

Day 3 - We got up early again to get on the train to Madrid. We ended up sitting face to face with this elderly Spanish couple and it was so awkward because there wasn’t a table between us and our legs were touching and they had all these bags. I don’t like staring at people that I can’t communicate with at all. Luckily we both fell right asleep. We met up with Andrea and Mike (my sister and her boyfriend) in the train station. They were supposed to go to Alicante but decided to stay at our hostel and hang out with us in Madrid. B and I went to the Real Madrid game after we checked into our hostel. Walking into the stadium was unlike anything I have seen before. It was HUGE! It holds 80,000 people and it was full. The game was a blast and I will never forget how fun of an experience it was. Thank you B for buying the tickets for us. We got back to the hostel and woke Andrea and Mike up so that we could go out. We walked around Madrid looking for somewhere to eat and we ran across this little sandwich place and ordered a sampler plate for all of us to split. We were still kind of hungry so we kept walking around and looked for some place that was crowded with locals. We found one and ordered a couple tapas and a bottle of wine. They were delicious.

Day 4 – Andrea and Mike left for Alicante early in the morning so B and I spent the day sightseeing in Madrid. We first went to the Palacio Real and we got tickets for really cheap because we were students. I wish we could have taken pictures because the rooms were so elegant. The king even has a room for his dressing ceremony. Our next stop was Parque de Buen Retiro (Good leisure park). Apparently row boating on this pond was a big deal. She kept telling me how she has dreamed of doing it her whole life. I am glad your dreams came true. This is also when we realized I am a better photographer than she is. We saw this guy who didn’t know how to row his boat, so we laughed at him the whole time.  Unfortunately we didn’t walk to the other side of the park so we missed a couple buildings that are supposed to be amazing. Eventually we just started wandering around Madrid and walking towards things that looked cool from a distance. We saw Plaza Mayor and the Royal Cathedral. There were so many statues of random chicks and dudes according to Bryn. You know like the virgin Mary and Pope John Paul II. We took the train back to Alicante that night and I slept the whole way but some couple was talking real loud so B couldn’t sleep. We didn’t do much that night after going back to Aurora’s.

Day 5 - We met up with Andrea and Mike and went and ate some churros. They were pretty good I must admit. Andrea and Bryn were wearing practically the same thing, these long dresses with sweaters. We took the tram to a little town called Campello I think. We just walked up and down the beach the whole day and out onto some rocks that extended out into the ocean, which I found very fascinating. My grandpa would have loved to see them. B let me have the camera for this time and I took like twenty pictures.  We sat down at this little restaurant at the end of the beach and had some tapas. The best were the bacon wrapped dates that cost 1 euro apiece but were so worth it. We got back to Alicante and B and I went to Auroras for a little bit while Andrea and Mike hiked the castle. We met them at Austin that night and had a few rounds with some guacamole.  The guac was very spicy but delicious. We went to a couple different bars with them and just sat and talked about tons of stuff. My sister and Bryn are probably my two favorite people in the world to hang out with so this was my favorite night of the week.

Day 6 – Bryn and I started off the day with a hike up the castle. It was so amazing seeing the whole city from so high up. We tried to take the elevator down but you had to pay money so we could only go down like ten feet and we walked the rest. We went down and walked along the beach for a while. Then we walked back toward Aurora’s and stopped by McDonald’s so I could see what it looked like and I got some weird Canadian burger. We stopped by a vendor and bought a couple flags to bring home. Aurora made us lunch and it was amazing. She made a Spanish tortilla and then another soup dish that is specific to Alicante. We were able to communicate a lot better with what Spanish I had learned in the week.  We then went to Armando’s class where it was apparent that Bryn is the best in her class at understanding Spanish. We walked around the city and found some cool shops to kill time before we went to dinner. We then went out to a pizzeria for dinner. It was hard to come to the reality that the week was over. We went back and I packed up all my stuff and we just sat in her room and talked for the last hour we had together. Finally we made our way to the bus station in which I need to start a whole new section for the bus ride.

Departure – It was hard to say goodbye but I finally boarded the bus and found my seat. As soon as I sat down some guys were asking to see my ticket. We had the same seat number. It turns out that even my amazing girlfriend has some mind slips sometimes. My ticket was for February 26, not March. She knew something was wrong so I tried to get off and tell her but the bus driver made me get back on. I found an empty seat and figured I would be fine. We picked some people up and 3:00 in the morning in some random city and the bus started filling up. Finally it was discovered that I had a bad ticket so everyone was yelling at me and I had no idea what was going to happen, especially because I don’t speak any Spanish. I was getting kicked off the bus and thought I was going to be stranded forever. The bus driver was nice and got me a ticket for another bus. I had to ride in a fold down seat next to the bus driver to get to that bus though. So I got on the bus and when I got to Madrid realized that this bus didn’t go to the airport. Luckily I was an expert at Madrid’s metro system so I made it to the airport after some tram rides. I flew to New York and during my layover I met a lady who went to law school with Barack Obama. I figured all my liberal friends and family, especially Bryn would be really excited about that.

My trip to Spain was an amazing experience. I was very sad to leave but looking back on it I was so lucky to be able to visit Bryn. I am a little less worried about her because she is a very smart girl and she is in really good hands with Aurora. I hope my post wasn’t too boring, it was hard to not write pages and pages about how much fun we had together. I can’t wait for Bryn to come home, but I hope she enjoys the rest of her trip.

-Zeiter

 

Also, he wanted me to add that I’ll be making a snapfish album so you can print off pics (even thought I don’t know how!) It wont let me upload images right now, but check back soon!

Bryn

Hi all!  We just got off the train from Madrid..it was amaaaazing! Much better than the trips to the airport I have had thus far.  We did a ton of great stuff including taking out rowboats in the Parque de Buen Retiro.  The weather there today was excellent and we hope for a good day tomorrow in Alicante.  The Real Madrid game was unlike anything we have either ever done.  I have been watching Z's spending but I let him buy a little soccer gear (Even though he already got a RM jersey from me as a gift!)

Anyway, we are having a great time!  Talk to you soon.

B and Z

ps Z would also like me to inform everyone that his spanish vocabulary has tripled or quadrupled...his mind is REALLY open to learning Spanish...yeah it surprised me too.  When he got here one of his three words he knew was "Donde?" which means "Where?" so thats pretty much all he has been saying in every situation.  I'll just talk and talk and he will go, "Donde?"...hahaha!

Z finally crossed the big puddle to EUROPE!  We are finally back in ALicante and just enjoyed some paella prepared by Aurora.  Here is picture, but for now, we are busy busy busy and have to go!  We love you! yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! :)

INTERNET!

Hola Amigos!

Life here has been pretty boring the last few days but with a few great surprises.  I spent the weekend running and going to the beach, which was awesome!  Sat and Sun were the first two days it was hot enough to wear a swimsuit.  I was (not) excited for that...but oh well, I braved it anyway.  It was really fun.  Then Friday and Sat I went out at night but not really anything big.  Lauren has a friend in town so I spent a bunch of time over there.  Then today (Monday) I woke up then the Argentinean guy came to put in.......DRUMROLL..........The INTERNET!!  In MY house!  Yipppeeeeee!  So now I can write little blog posts whenever I want!  Buenas noticias, eh?

T - 3 days for Mike's arrival in Madrid! Hasta pronto!

Beatriz's band

It seems I have also found Beatriz's band.

 http://www.myspace.com/deisuoni

http://www.myspace.com/thegraveyachtclub

Guys! This is REALLY cool.

I found Jose Carlos' band on Myspae and watched the video, scroll down and watch the Devil's Dance video, Jose Carlos is the one wearing the hat with the short hair, his girlfriend Paulina is the one lady singing although she is not actually in the band (its just guys) but cool! and the music is great too!  You get to see him in real life!

Bolognia

Bolognia to me sounds like a food, but REALLY it is a plan that the European Union has for all the European Universities so that they will all be valued the same to make the educational system the same in all the countries.  So ever since we got here there have been signs up ALL over the Univ contra (against) bolognia, and today they hare having their second class strike, so there are no real university classes, but since I am taking classes mostly with foregin kids anyway, I still have class.  There have been people camping (with tents, cooking, living) in the university buildings since we got here in protest.  Now they are camping on the lawns now that it is getting warmer, but its still cold!  And so today they are having their second big protest and are striking school today.  The problem is as a foreigner its hard for me to really understand what Bolognia is..but all I understand about it is it would make a bachelors degree (or equivalent here) basically invalid and you would have to get a masters to count for anything, thus delaying graduation and making the school system 5 or 6 years.  I probably would be against it too, if it affected me.

I've been hearing about all these world tragedies like the shooting in Alabama and the school shooting in Germany and so I've been talking with Aurora and with Armando a lot about violence.  Today Armando and I had a 25 min conversation about drug trade and how it causes all the violence in Mexico and all these countries...great talk.  

Then last night Aurora and I talked for awhile about violence in schools and things and how the world is basically crazy, and I just kept saying "da miedo,?eh?" which means "it makes you scared, huh?" she responded of course with a Sí, sí.

We get a lot more international news here than we do in the states but we still get a lot of news from the states, maybe the US and their ethnocentricity could work on that.  Apparenty this is the fourth school shooting in Germany in the last few years. :(

Barceloooooooooooona!

I spent the last weekend in Barcelona with 7 girlfriends.  We stayed at a hostel calle Kabul backpackers hostel, the same as the one Leah stayed in the weekend before.  I dont think we really liked it as well as Leah did, so our stay there was a bit bittersweet.  When we arrived, we were separated by room from our other friends, so we had three girls in an 8 person room with 5 35-year-old men because there was no age limit at the hostel, i think they were from germany or portugal..I was suffering trying to understand their language. SO anyway, we felt very uncomfortable and one even snored through the night.  The first night we didnt get in off our train until about midnight so we just ended up going to bed.  The second day, Friday, we went to the Sagrada Familia, the huge cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi that is still to this day not finished and there are cranes and modern-day construction workers all over it, still working out Gaudi's plans (he is long dead)  It was very very cool, but we didnt go in at the advice of our director, Armando, who said it wasnt worth the money.  So we spent a few minutes looking at it and walking all around it then we left.  My friend Drew then told me yesterday that going inside the Sagrada Familia was the coolest thing he saw in Barcelona.  Figures, eh?

After that we saw some more of Gaudi's work at Parc Güell, a park he designed.  It has this huge amazing terrace that overlooks the city and these two fairy-tale houses he built.  They look like something out of Hansel and Gretel and are even called the Hansel and Gretel houses.  

After that we walked around the city, went to the Central Market and I bought some caramelos (candies) then I got a coffee at Dunkin Coffee, like DUnkin Donuts, assuming there was the one place I may actually have been able to find realy American coffee.  So I got what wasnt a feature on the menu, because I knew It probably wasnt popular, the Dunkin Original Coffee.  Which still ended up being expresso with milk.  I am giving up my search for my coffee.  It just DOES NOT exist.  Not even at Starbucks, which I have been to twice since I've been here.  When I see one I just run to it. That night we got new annoying French roommates, who talked all the time at the same level whether the three of us were sleeping or not.

That night we went out with an organized club excursion with our hostel.  We went to a club called Catwalk, and it was huge and the beat from the music made my heart bounce before I even entered.  The thing was, since we are in Spain and were with other people from our hostel, we didnt go to the club until 2AM.  So we slept until about 12:30 then we got up then got ready and went.  Normal going out hours for Spaniards that can actually handle that schedule (I never make it past 4am) is about 12 or 1am until 6am.  I dont know how they do it.  Anyway the club was fun but really loud and although we got in free, drinks were about 10 eurp or like 13 dollars, so we said definitely not and didnt drink.  We just danced. It was two huge levels, and on the bottom they played club trance sort of music but then on the next level they played what I would consider normal club music in the US, rap and popular rock/pop.  We went to the second floor where we felt more at home.  On the first floor, they had these two people dancing on these platforms and I swear the people looked like they were straight out of a Sims party (the computer game!) The girl was wearing this leopard print outfit and was just dancing so weird and then there was a guy who was wearing a suit and sunglasses and he was just dancing so funny we couldnt help but laugh.  

The next day we went to the Picasso museum, which was very very cool.  We saw a bunch of his first sketches, of hands and people and things that one practices in art school, so that was very cool, and well put together.  The only thing was with the "economic crisis" here all the ticket prices for everything where we went was at least 3 or 4 euro more than our guidebooks said, which was annoying.  I swear, money just fell from my hands in Barcelona...a very expensive city.  After that we ate gelato which was incredible and then I took a funny picture with all these Asians dressed up as Barcelona soccer players (my new facebook profile picture!)  It was great.  And they all gave the peace sign, too!

Then we came back on the train and there were these ex-band members that were two ladies and they were talking at an extremely high level the whole time so sleep was impossible.  Not to generalize, but there are many Spanish people who talk unnecessarily loudly.  Plus she never sat down the whole 5 hours, she just sood in the aisle talking with these guys across the aisle.  Really ridiculous.  Then her friend was very drugged out and didn't open her eyes fully the entire trip, she had at least 20 piercings on her face alone and huge black ifngernails and 50 bracelets on each wrist and 50 necklaces. Wild girl.

I'm really into this Spanish singer called Chambao, she sings really soothing songs in Spanish and they all have really cool, liberal lyrics as Z would say.  Then i am also listening to one called Búika, who is kind of combination of a little bit flamenco and Spanish but she is African, hard to explain but the sound is very cool. You have to be in the right mood to listen to her though.

Auroras son and daughter both have bands, and I got the website for one (its on myspace, but the name of the band is the Grave Yacht Club, and their CD is called Get Drunk! which I thought was funny.  I will get the name of Bea's band later.

9 days 'til Z gets here!  Its basically all I can think about.  Miss you all. Xoxo

Also look at Kelsey's blog, I'm all over it. :)

Howdy partners.

Here are some pictures from the Enterramiento de la Sardina last week, a fiesta here in Alicante where they burn a giant Sardine with things written on it.  They looove burning stuff here.  I'm headed to Barcelona today, so more about my trip come Tuesday, probably.

 

 Burning the sardine, me with cross dressed widows, aurora with her friends (the cross dressed widows) and the sardine, pre-burning.

When it rains, it pours...

HOLA!  Today has been a long day! I'm at the Univ for the second time today..thats four 40-min bus rides and 2.15 euros worth of bus rides! I came back to sign up for my Mizzou classes for next semester! i cant believe i already have to do that.  But I was lucky and got in the ones I wanted.  On the way here, for some reason I was in a good mood and I was listening to Lil Bow Wow reminding me of my past..I know, embarrassing, but whatever.  So I was on the bus rapping. HAHA!  Then I was chewing gum and I was popping it, then with my music up so loud I couldnt hear myself popping, then my music got quiet for a second and my mouth accidentally made a noise kind of like, well...gas, if you will, and everyone looked at me and I started laughing out loud. It was great. Sometimes its nice not knowing ANYONE around you...

Sorry I haven't written in so long..I heard Kelsey's mom was wondering where I have been! :) I have been without Internet since Thursday, because I havent been at the Univ since then.

I cant really remember what I did Friday and Saturday other than that I went out for Churros Friday with Xenia, Kelsey, and Lauren, then Saturday I helped Lauren move to her new apartment, then she had a breakdown about grocery shopping so I had to go back (a 40 min walk!) and take her to a simpler grocery store.  luckily I have shopped before here and Aurora takes me so I made her buy a lot of he products I know well.

Sunday I went with Aurora to her daughters house, but before, her friends were over after they had gone to have a beer (granted this was 2pm) so then we had some coffee and I talked to them, they are almost as crazy as all of my moms friends when they get together.  I had a dream the other night about my mom's best friend Donna, that she owned a bar here in Spain.  I have been dreaming like crazy here!  Every morning I wake up and just think, "What!???" None of them really make sense, save a few.  Anyway so then on Sunday night I got to play with Marina for about 3 hours and have tea and a croissant with Juan Carlos, Ana, and Aurora.  It was fun.  I got to watch Ana and Juan Carlos' wedding video, Marina loves to watch it.  She always asks why she is not there :)  She is so cute and SO intelligent for her age, 2 1/2.

Yesterday I ma

de fried chicken for comida..Aurora loved it.  We ate the leftovers today along with an amazing easy soup Aurora made.  I'm hoping to employ all her easy extremely healthy recipes next year in my apartment.  Today it is raining really hard so all I want to do is be at home, but I had to come here!  I'm gonna go home and read.  Kelsey wants me to go out because there is some Austrian in town or something... Whatever!  I promise I'll write more!

This is a picture of Aurora's daughter, Beatriz, and me.  I think we look more alike than Leigh and I do!  

Dont worry Leigh, she wont replace you!

Love you all!