FLAMENCO! OLE!

My second flamenco was SOO much better than the first (not that the first was bad)...but they were doing some really cool things, like this one senora twisted her body completely around BACKWARDS (kinda like the Exorcist girl), it was INSANE! Here is my recipe for getting a good flamenco dance. I think flamenco is a mixture of: stomp, the robot and riverdancing (Irish jig) when you´re really angry. It´s actually a good stress reliever, I´ve tried it! 1) Get really mad. You have to put on your mad face the WHOLE TIME! No smiling! 2) Throw your arms any which way you want and make them STIFF, except for your hands which move like snakes. 3)Now start making up your own rhythm and stomping slowly 4)Think of something that really REALLY pisses you off! (Bad grades, bad boyfriend, bad luck) 5) Stomp harder and as fast as you can moving your arms dramatically like the robot dance (except your hands) 6) Now pretend that there are flies all over you and hit your body in various places! While doing this scream: ´vale´ and ´ole´ 6) Okay stop hitting yourself before you have bruises, and start slowing down the rhythm 7) After you´re done releasing your anger, slow down the rhythm 8) Just take a deep breath, and just move your hands and realize that you´re at peace with the world 9) the END! GREAT flamenco dance! Remember the keys are INTENSE PASSION and ANGER!

Pancake Day!!

PANCAKE DAY! YES!! So at the beginning of our trip, Erin gave Nico this batch of blueberry pancake mix and maple syrup kit. This entire time, we have been craving pancakes and have been wondering what the heck she did with our gifts. So randomly one day the pancake mix (and my Mint, Chocolate Coffee, and Colorado tea) shows up in the kitchen and Nico says we can make it! QUE GUAY! We actually get to use the kitchen and cook! So we made a big plan to get up early and make them today at 9am. I felt like it was Christmas ... I was talking about pancakes all week and we both got up an hour earlier because we were too excited to make them. So first of all, Nico thinks the Chocolate Mint Coffee is chocolate, she didnt know it was coffee until she opened it. She didnt know what the heck the pancakes or syrup were because obviously she couldnt read English, OR BLUEBERRIES!!! There are no such thing as blueberries here, I couldnt even find the word in my Spanish dictionary, just berries (bayas). Anyway so we are all in the kitchen using olive oil for oil, brown eggs (their eggs have barcodes ON THE EGGS) and a wooden spoon for a spatula (Nico doesn't own a spatula). I never realized making pancakes is such an ART, until I saw Nico try! So Erin pours the batter and Nico jumps right in there trying to cook these pancakes. She starts whipping the fork around the batter so that it spills all over the pan. Then when the pancake starts to rise on the other side, she takes the wooden spoon and starts beating the pancake so it's flatter than a potato chip! I felt like she was hitting ME, by ruining our pancakes. I was like, no no necesitas dar golpes (No, you dont need to hit it). But I didnt want to be rude, until I saw our soggy pancakes! Then I was like LET ME DO IT! So then after that she tried to direct me to spill the batter everywhere with the fork, and I was like NO! YO PUEDO HACERLO, por favor! So yeah, it was hilarious, us fighting over the best way to make pancakes! Then Erin and I pour the syrup and start scarfing down these pancakes and Nico is like EWWW! Honey! I dont like honey! We were like: No, its different than honey, just try it! So she did, and hated it, but said she was glad for the experience! Oh well, more for Erin and I who ate them all! YUM! Now I have a stomachache...

Paris 4 - Stopped by the police

So then we drove from Paris France all the way to Salamanca Spain, through beautiful Southern France/Northern Spain through Pamplona Navarra (where Sanfermines take place in July which is the running of the bulls thru the streets). It is so gorgeous, more than Galicia, but not more than Santander. It was soo tranquilo, with a lazy river, grassy meadows and the famous Pyranees mountains and sheep bleating in the background. It cost a good 50 euro to go through all of the tollroads (we didnt know the freeroads) and at like 2 in the madrugada on our way from Madrid to Salamanca we got stopped by the Guardia Civil. They asked us for our residency cards and we showed them our pasaportes which they said were insufficient. Obviously we didnt have residency cards because we arent residents. So anyhow we were there for like 15 minutes talking to them as they wrote down all our info and checked the trunk. We found out today that there was another bomb in Madrid that blew up and killed a few policia, so they were being really strict. FInally we made it back to Salamanca at like 3 in the morning. Sorry to interrupt but these like 14 year old boys in this cybercafe are playing a LOUD videogame and are SOOO ANNOYING! They keep singing gypsy songs. I have to leave I cant even think they are so freaking loud!

Paris 3 - Notre Dame

That night I hung out with Daya at her hood in Saint Michele (which is cheaper Paris with tons of cool restaurants, a student's dream) and tried french crepes (like huge pancakes)with my FAV Nutella and bananas, made by Daya´s hot frenchman John Pierre (that really is his name)! We saw a movie in the making (Paris is just like LA) on our way to Daya´s hangout bar, and I got to have lemonade, which I really really missed, and a gyro! We kept missing our metro stop because we were so distracted talking, and once we had to leave the metro and catch another one cuz this french guy kept bugging us. We also saw this guy peeing off the very top of the balcony of this like 7 story building, who waved at us after he was done! I saw this like 5 story Louis Vuitton bag, and tons of crazy French styles, maybe weirder than the Spanish styles (both are stuck in the 80´s, maybe in 10 years they´ll get to the 90´s). The next day we all went down the River Seine (Poison River) on a boat for like 9 euro, and saw lots of famous Paris bridges which were beautiful and ANCIENT! We also saw Notre Dame Cathedral, which is not at all like it is in the Disney movie! I know I shouldn't base my facts off of a Disney movie, but I expected a lot more. The gargoyles were so tiny you could barely see them, and the Cathedral was big, but not THAT big, and the inside was okay, very grandiose. It had huge baroque chandeliers and organs, very interesting, but not that great. I honestly couldn't tell you why it was so famous, because the ones in Spain are much bigger, more interesting, more grandiose, more baroque and more detailed. I'm not playing favorites, Spain has them beat by a long-shot. The most interesting things about this cathedral are 1) the fact that it's so famous and 2) a statue had its head chopped off and was holding it in its own hands. And that's what I think about Notre Dame.

Paris 2 - Eiffel Tower

Paris is so different from Spain, the food (lots of sauces), the times (they go to bed early), money (it is so expensive), and the SMELL! OMG! I thought I was going to PUKE in the metro it was worse than the train to Portugal, I dont know HOW people ate there! BLECCH! Que ASCO! The metro was like another world, with entertainment, markets and people. To make spare change, people would go from compartment to compartment making french remixes of American rap songs complete with the saxophone and dancing- it had to be the funniest thing I've ever seen! There were little markets with coffee, verduras and fruits, and mini-souvenir shops. UNDERGROUND! So we saw the beautiful golden opera house, the gardens of Concorde and Tuileries, Napolean´s grave, the Arc de Triumph, the glass pyramid Louvre Museum, the Musee d Orsay, the rio Siene (which is supposedly so polluted that you would die of poison before drowning), the Egyptian obelisk, Champs Elysees (famous area that is like the Rodeo Drive of Paris), and por fin the Eiffel Tower. When I saw it from far away I was like, oh it's just like the one in Las Vegas, but no! This one was like 10 times bigger and ten times uglier! Why would you ever want to go up that thing? It was painted this ugly brown color, and it cost 10.40 euro to go to the very top. But supposedly it was beautiful at night, so we went during sunset up the first elevator to the second floor, and switched to the top elevator which took about a half hour to get there cuz of the long line and it was freezing and windy! So we finally made it to the top, which was great because you could see all of Paris. It had flags from tons of countries/cities and details of how far away in km the country was (LA was like 9105 km). Anyhow, there was grafitti from visitors all over the world on top, and we all wrote our own graffitti message and waited for the sun to go down. I'm thinking, this had better be good, because it's freezing and windy and I'm over it. Then, the sun goes down, tower lights up, and so does Paris, and it SPARKLES. It sparkles for like 10 minutes every hour! It is tan beautiful and everyone is quiet, watching in awe at the magic of it. How can this daylight eyesore turn into such a moonlight jewel? After that, it's not so cold and I can't really feel the wind. It reminds me of a Christmas tree, a giant Christmas tree that sparkles every night and reminds me that something ugly can always be made into something beautiful.

Paris 1 - Raw Food

AAAHHH!! Guess where I am???????????? Bonjour, cuz I am in Paris right now baby! Can you believe this!!? Me either! I am too excited to go to sleep, and this hotel guy said we could use the internet for free so yeay! I cannot understant ANYTHING that people are saying AT ALL! Isnt it great?
NEVER eat French food unless you know what it is (ie french fries)!! On Wednesday, we flew to Paris and went to the train to go to the metro from the airport. I didnt understand A THING! Good thing my friend spoke French because I wouldnt have known anything. First of all, you have to find your correct bus from the airport to the metro train, get on the right train going to Paris, then the right metro. It's sooo confusing because it has a million different metro lines, and not all of them can be used if you get a day pass. Paris is carisimo!!! OMIGOSH let me tell you it is 8 euro just to go one way on the metro from the airport. So we found a hotel (2 stars but whatever) in the expensive Mouton Duvernet neighborhood which is Southern Paris for 20 euro per night per person, which is sooooo cheap, it's not even funny. I still cant believe we found that one AND it had free internet! Que suerte! This hotel was a lawsuit waiting to happen, you had to really be careful not to fall down the stairs when you stepped out of the bathroom, but the main thing was we werent in northern Paris or the redlight district (Moulin Rouge) which is muy dangerous. So that night we went out to eat down the famous Charles de Gaulle street because nothing was open except there. We were hungry around Spanish meal time like 10pm, and these Parisians were already getting ready for bed! So we found this restaurant called le Petite Vienne, which sounded like more our price range and not like 25 euro per plate!! So it sounded like pasta-ish food to me...WRONG! First of all the majority of things were fish, and second of all we ordered the steak tartare with frites and ensalada. Doesnt it sound like steak with tartar sauce fries and salad? Pues no! Let me tell you about steak tartare. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever SEEN! So we were really hungry right waiting for our delicious steak when out comes this red blob and potatoes in a sauce and salad. The red blob was our STEAK! EW, it was raw raw ground beef and had a quivering RAW egg on top! We were like oh HELL no what happened to our steak!? We're SO hungry....but there is no way I'm eating raw steak and raw egg unless I was on the verge of death. So we asked them to take it back and cook it (I dont know what took so long to prepare if the cook didnt even have to cook the meat, just blend it in a blender), and they got sooooo pissed! They probably spit in our food. So here we were, stuck in this little cafe surrounded by a group of karate world champions from Tunisia (we talked to someof them- DAYA met us there and told us what was going on) who were staring at us and laughing when we saw our food! After that I was like umm, no french food for me thanks, Ill stick to what I know, maybe even McDonalds if I have to. And that was our first night in Paris!

Valencia 5 - Pesada

So finally we made it back and we were starving so we chose a restaurant really far from the hotel by the beach. GUESS WHO FOUND US!? FREAKING PESADA and she wanted to eat with us NOOOOO! She happened to choose our restaurant out of all the restaurants she could have went to that were so much closer! AH que mala suerte! So then we went back to the feo hotel where I found a disgusting hair on my pillow, and had to get up at 9am where we went to another no-nametown I HAVE NO IDEA WHY! We were like vale ok today will be great because yeay, she doesnt have a microphone because she broke it remember?! WRONG! She was soooo perky and was like, oh I have a sorpresa! New Microphono! ARGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!Pesada went out and bought a new microphone! So we endured her talking for another 3 hours about the Naranjos AGAIN! and then after that we went to a town called Cuenca where we saw hanging casas...nothing much. She talked for another few hours and blasted yet another movie that NOBODY but the first three rows wanted to hear! They were the brown-nosers, saying ohhhmija please can we watch this...oh youre so bonita...blah blah blah! By the time we got to Salamanca, I had a migraine, and she started talking about Salamanca, and everyone was FROM SALAMANCA, we ALREADY KNOW! She tried to be our LIFE GUIDE I swear...we only hired her for Valencia, and she never really talked about Valencia except for los naranjos! I will NEVER EVER get a guided trip again thanks to Pesada! We left the bus and everyone asked for a complaint form, that was not in the first three rows of the bus. So a bus full of Spaniards were also pissed besides us few Americans, so I was NOT exagerrating.

Valencia 4 - Stop the Bus

Then we drove to this other town for an hour, STILL nothing to do, stayed there for an hour and drove back for another 3 hours to our hotel called...did you guess: Los Naranjos (Pesada´s favorite word) Does this trip make any sense??! A couple of my friends were so fed up with her they took a train home after the first day, and about 3 other spanish families left. On the way back, I told her I had to use the bathroom, an EMERGENCY, Pesada told me to wait half an hour. I had to go soo bad that it was coming out of my eyes. Three other people had to go too and she refused to stop. So finally my friend yelled, SHE IS GOINGTO PEE IN THE SEAT STOP THE BUS! So we ran out of the bus on the middle of the highway, dodging cars to a parking lot. She wanted us to pee behind a car! I was seriously thinking about it because I had to go SO bad, but the girls said no and ran back across the highway, dodging cars, to a gas station which didnt have bathrooms, of course! Then we went to a store that had bathrooms, I couldn't even run, I had to go so bad I was walking and holding my pants away from my stomache. Then the bus left us and we had to walk down the highway, until it came back and run across the dangerous street, it was una LOCURA! We went through all this trouble when she could have just stopped for FIVE MINUTES for us t ogo! AH freaking PESADA, I cant stand her!

Valencia 3 - Lost for hours

So finally people started leaving so we could move, we ran to the bus, got there late and made our guide mad! But whatever she was wrong cuz the Crema was at ONE am not 12 am! HELLO aren't you Spanish, don't you know about Spanish time? She was like, you are very malaeducada and we dont do that in Spain blah blah blah you held up the bus...But that wasnt even the worst part of the night....We didnt get to out hotel until FOUR HOURS LATER!!! Yeah the bus driver got lost and we were driving around wondering where we were going, soo tired and he kept stopping at random gas stations to ask for directions. Then he would stop to ask random people in the street...that should have been the first clue that our hotel was a piece of crap and was basically a hostel! It was in the small no-name town in the middle of nowhere, who knows how many hours away from Valencia! When I signed up for this trip, it said that we would be in a ´centrally located hotel´...whatever mentirosos! So we went to bed at 6am and the lady said we had to get up at 9am to eat breakfast and go to another city! So after 3 hours of sleep, (I couldnt even take out my contacts because it needs 4 hours to clean)we ate and drove to the next town called...who knows because there was absolutely nothing to do there for FOUR hours! Ask me why we had to get up and see this small no-name town, I have no idea...we just sat at the port. I am not kidding when I say there was nothing to do, because when we got there everything was closed for siesta, except the travel agency who asked why we came there in the first place because when we had to leave THAT´s when everything finally opened from siesta. So we drove there hearing the guide (Ill call her Pesada) Pesada talk about the naranjoson the right and the left. I counted how many times she said the word naranjo (orange tree fields) FIFTEEN TIMES! An that's only when I started counting. She just LOVED the sound of her own voice, because obviously if people woke up they would see tons of orange trees. Everyone in the bus was tired and trying to sleep, but she would scream MIRA into the mic and wake everyone up to see fields of...oranges. YOU HAVE to be kidding me! Can someone please tape her mouth shut and throw her in the orange fields? When Pesada was done, she left the mic on and the sounds of the bus itself would rumble through the bus, SO freaking annoying ARGG! I was so tired, I just wanted to sleep without her talking! Pesada talked so much in that mic that she BROKE it and we didnt have a mic after that! YEAY!

Valencia 2 - City Lit on Fire

Actually the experience going into Valencia was SO cool though because as soon as we arrived, the air was smoky, and people were running from all directions, debris raining all over the place, and random explosions BOOM! So loud that it would shake the entire bus...I felt like I was in Bosnia. So we get out of the bus and started exploring, I saw the craziest things. A castle and huge displays of the falleras (cardboard constructions) before they would be lit by the Reina de las Fallas (Queen). A girl is chosen to be Reina and light all the fallas from all of these girls in huge elaborate dresses that have to be thousands of dollars. The actual fallera constructions themselves are supposed to represent social ills that are cured once you light them on fire, and supposed to be good luck for the crop season. I saw one falla with a figure of their own president on it! There was tons of music and crazy people that would light a firecrackerand throw it at your feet or just throw it on the ground and walk away.You never knew if one was going to fly up and whiz by your face, or explode near your feet. I kept my glasses on the whole time to protect my eyes because there was debris and cardboard falling from the sky. It was hard to breathe. So finally when the biggest explosions started there was soo many people inthe crowd, I couldn't even turn around. Pesada (Annoyance) said be back by 1:30, and the crowd was so dense, we left at 12am, got stuck in it and had to stay in awkward positions for an hour! I was facing opposite of the actual fallas, but I couldnt really turn around. AWFUL! People were fainting, but we couldnt move and the ambulances and firetrucks couldnt get through. These explosions were right by buildings, and I am so surprised that the buildings themselves didnt catch on fire! I looked around in wonder staring up at the sky, where firecrackers exploded and blown-up condoms floated around, I felt a hand on my purse. I felt a hand trying to steal my stuff, and my purse was halfway open, so I SLAPPED the hand hard and pulled my purse towards me. This littlelady kept looking at me I KNOW ITS HER, and when I would look back, she looked away, but I couldnt move away from her dangit!

Valencia 1 - Las Fallas

Have you ever seen an 8 year old smoking, then light a blackcat firecracker and throw it at you?! Only in Spain, and it´s called Las Fallas! I went to Valencia to see las fallas, this fiesta where people basically light their entire city on fire. For an ENTIRE YEAR they make elaborate painted paper-mache figures that are taller than buildings , and then in one night, grab some fireworks and some matches and set them all on fire!! Que GUAY! A pyromaniac´s dream, verdad! So we left at 5am on Friday morning to Valencia by bus with a tour guide who would not stop talking from five IN THE MORNING until about 1 pm! She was SOOOO PESADA, I just wantedto hit her! She would junior-high-school OVEREXAGGERATE her words like, oh I am SUPER-emocianante....and grande-grande-grande...and super- super-pequenin. How would you feel if someone was SUPER-emocianante at 5am? Then, as if her talking wasnt enough, she decided that at 8am, when people were still trying to sleep, to put on a movie, on FULL BLAST! The altavoz could not be any louder, and in fact, it was SO loud she broke it, so after the movie was over, when she would talk, the speakers would go on and off. Ok, imagine your car speakers doing this, then imagine this happening on a loudspeker for hours on a bus that you can't escape! All the way over there, she talked about La Crema de Las Fallas (which is the biggest and best Falla) which was supposed to happen at 12 am (translation: 1 in Spanish time). She repeated it about 10 times. When she spoke, she put the microphone directly on her lips, so that everything was muffled. So when we didnt understand, it wasnt because we didnt know the language, it was because she didnt know how to use a microphone. I endured this lady for a good 8 hours until we arrived in Valencia. THEN they didnt let us go to the hotel to freshen up and drop off our bags, NO! We had to carry our bags with us from 1 pm til 1:30 am in the madrugada! That is insane, about 10 hours of carrying bags! Apparently our hotel was an hour away and she didnt want to go all the way over there because she said that we would miss everything if we did. WRONG! There was nothing to do until about 10pm, except eat!

Madrid Bombing 2

Well, after that we went back to Plaza Atocha to eat and find a hospital to give blood; however the hospitals didn´t want my blood. Everyone in Madrid practically had donated blood and they didn´t need anymore sangre. So then we followed the huge mass of people to see the manifestaciones, and people were lined up on the sides of the streets of Madrid with policia and guardia civil, helicopters and camera crews running around everywhere in the rain. Those particular streets in Madrid are HUGE, I can´t believe that they blocked off roads the size of a highway for this procession. So we waited in the rain for about an hour...well worth seeing the procession of the Prince of Spain, the President, all of the major political leaders all walking TOGETHER in the SAME STREET! They have guts...I was so surprised they would walk in the open like that when it would be so easy to plant a bomb in that crowd and kill practically everyone in Madrid. Over 2 million people in Madrid and millions in every other city in Spain joined together chanting: No mas muertes de personas inocentes!! Mira, nuestros manos, nosotros no matamos!! ETA NO, ETA NO! HIJOS DE PUTAS! HIJOS DE PUTAS! (clap, clap)The streets were so full, that we were all scared that it was going to be a stampede. You couldnt see anything past the see of people chanting and crying. After the Big Wigs passed, all the crowd jumped over the fences and joined the procession down the street. After being swept away by the sea of people, we tried to go about 10 feet to a Metro to get to the bus station on the other side of the masssive crowd, it took half an hour. We thought that we were going to miss our bus. All public transportation was free; all buses, metros everything for people to move around freely, so that was nice. There were policia guarding the entrances to metros because if not people for sure would have been falling down the stairs in a stampede. We couldn´t control where we went, we were pushed along with everyone else: thank God it was towards the Metro. So we got out of there! Then on the way home, we got stopped by the Guardia Civil who asked for everyone´s pasaportes. Oh crap! I NEVER take my passport when traveling through Spain because I´m afraid of being pickpocketed. So por supuesto when he asked me I didn´t have it. And my driver´s license didn´t work for him. He asked why I didn´t have it and I said: Porque no necesito (Because I don't need it). I didn´t mean to sound rude, but I didn´t know what else to say, I really don't need it as long as I stay in Spain. He heard my accent and said: Oh you´re American, ok it doesn't matter. Being American here is like having a Visa Gold Card, no wonder everyone hates us. Anyhow, my senora Nico said that I was SOOO lucky and he was really nice apparently, because he could have made me go to the police station and wait for a long time until everything checked out and it would have been a big mess. They were so surprised that he didn´t! I made it back to Salamanca at 2:30 in the morning.

Madrid Bombing

Okay don´t get mad at me, but yesterday, the day after the bombings, I went to Madrid. (I took a bus) I was so upset at the thought of all that happening at the EXACT SAME place where I had been last week (and where I always go to travel), that I decided to go give blood, take it all in, see the trains and join in the manifestaciones against terrorism. After all, wouldn´t Spain be safest now with tons of security? (or so I thought until I got there). We bought tickets that evening for Madrid and the lady thought we were locas. She was like, don´t you watch the news?! But anyhow, when we got to Madrid, it was eerie, like the twilight zone, because as soon as we entered the city, the streets were lined with people just staring, standing outside of shops and homes. We came in at the moment of silence, so everyone watched as we came into Madrid. There were Spanish flags hung everywhere with black ribbons from windows and balconies. We got off the bus and went to Atocha, one of the Train Stations, walked right in up to the trains and looked around. NOBODY stopped us or asked for identification. So much for Spanish securidad. Anyhow, so on the way out my friend walked right into this bar that moves up and down to let cars out of the parking lot and it missed her face and hit her shoulders. So we started laughing and I asked her if she´s ok, and this lady heard us speaking English. So she wanted to know why we were there and then we told her and apparently she was a periodista for the Irish Times. So yeah we got interviewed and are somewhere in the Irish Times newspaper. We told her basically that we hoped it wasn´t Al Qaeda because the Spaniards already have animosity towards Americans and this will make it worse. They are already mad that our presidents are best friends and that Spain took part in a war that like 80% of the population were completely against. Anyhow, so after that we took a bus to the other train station.




I can´t believe what I saw. Workers washing blood off the walls, part of the train so twisted and broken with a huge hole in the middle, as if Godzilla took a bite out of it. Cameras flashing everywhere in people´s faces as they´re trying to mourn and blood splattered in the walls of the train. The train station was ruined, with debris everywhere, bricks everywhere. There were broken glass shards on the calles where bricks had flown over the wall, a good 30 feet away to hit the cars in the parking lot. On the roof of the train station was mud mixed with debris and one single white rose that someone had thrown.

Train Explosion - I'm OK!

Hola amigos,

I just wanted to let you all know that I am fine, just really shaken up. Thanks for all the e-mails and concern. The scary part is, I was at that exact train station last week, Madrid Atocha Station, but we decided to take the bus instead. I ALWAYS go there as a jumping point to travel around Spain, it´s only about 2 hours away.

You can never escape terrorism. It´s everywhere. Over 170 people killed and over 500 wounded, on Madrid´s train network by the ETA. ETA is this terrorist group in Spain that is constantly planting bombs everywhere because they want a region of Spain to be its own country (like a rogue state, as if Alaska wanted to be it´s own country). This is huge, Madrid is the CAPITAL OF SPAIN, and only 2 hours away from me!The ETA is happy, I´m sure; they have been trying to get Madrid for a long time. This is their 9-11. How sad! Why do people do the things they do? Pues, por supuesto, everyone is at the Plaza Mayor, and all university classes are cancelled for two days. The Plaza Mayor is filled with people mourning and outraged, demanding justice from those "cobardes asesinos" cowardly murderers. Some of the kids in this program are stuck in Madrid, there is no transportation anywhere, and thank God NONE of them took the train, only the bus!

You just never know in life, and this has taught me to be thankful for everything and always live as if it was my last day here. The Spaniards are more used to this kind of thing though, since ETA terrorist attacks have been happening here for over 30 years. Today are the Spanish elections, I hope nothing happens. Anyhow, here is my new cell phone number (since my other got lost in that 8-story club in Madrid):
011-34-675-367-329
Con carino,
Cassandra

Portugal 3 - Portugal vs Spain

I never realized how skinny Spanish people are until I went to Portugal, they are normal there, and Portuguese men are so much hotter. Well anyhow, so I saw the Castelo de Sao Jorge, surrounded by the Alfama (medieval district full of crazy maze streets), the Ponte Vasco de Goma (the longest suspension bridge in Europe), the Torre de Belem (a watchtower castle the sits on the water), many beautiful praças (plazas) and the ancient elevadors that run up the sides of hills (people take instead of walking up the steep hills or stairs), after all Lisbon is the City of Seven Hills. I also got offered drugs by a random Portuguese man in the Plaza, saw rats scuttling along the rocks on the beach, and a self cleaning port-a-potty that was, of course, extremely clean (Why can't we have that in the States?), got hissed at (guys hiss to get your attention instead of saying hi or whistling) which is actually really annoying, but okay whatever it a cultural thing (people do it all the time in Spain too). So I ate another box of cereal(yummy), with some 39 cent leche(milk) (kinda sketchy, but what can you do?), and now I carry a little Multicentrum bottle full of Cola Cao (chocolate drink) for whenever I travel... yes I have somewhat adapted to that Spanish tradition for my coffee. I also had my new addiction of melocoton juice with uva(peach and grape...it sounds weird, but it is really good!), and Nutella with everything (banana, orange, bread, cereal you name it, and I can eat it with Nutella). I hope you have discovered the joys of Nutella, cuz yes it is in the US! Portugal is another world, so cultural and interesting, I probably understood about 80% of what people were saying, depending on how they spoke, so yeay me and yeay for anyone who speaks Spanish because you can understand the Portuguese! I even took a survey at the train station in Portuguese!

Portugal 2 - I got robbed

Despite the fact that I got robbed by this little oompa loompa fado-singer lady in Portugal, I still really liked her. She was the perfect little carterista(robber): amiable, old, cute, and very VERY short. So when I told her I wanted to buy her fado CD, she was talking to us for a good half hour, during which she hugged me, then slipped her hands into my bolsillas. HA! Good thing I only had postcards LOSER, oh well, maybe she really needed them. By the way, fado is this really beautiful, deep and sad singing in Portugal, that is very parecido to the blues in America (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzaIK8fGVg). She was an outstanding singer! After she robbed me, she told us to be very careful outside at night because there are lots of carteristas. It's too funny to even think about the irony of it all. Speaking of robbery, be careful when you eat the bread baskets put in front of you in Spain or Portugal because they end up costing you a FORTUNE and they're NOT FREE! I call THAT robbery. So after that we left the restaurant, in a barrio of mazes in the dark to find our hotel with tons of other people. Kinda dangerous, but eh, I didnt have a purse or anything valuable, and the one girl I did see with a purse had it wound around her neck, so she would have to get choked before someone took it. That winding neighborhood was filled with the haunting melancoly of fado, so pretty, so tempting; inviting us to turn down dark, dangerous alleyways to hear it better, like other stupid tourists who get robbed. I love Portugal!

Portugal 1 - Sleeping with a Crazy Lady

I was stuck in this hot stuffy, SMELLY little box on a train ride from Madrid to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, for SIX HOURS! They were the worst 6 hours of my life; I really thought that I would suffocate. It was so claustrophic, and I'm not claustrophobic. Seriously, I don't know why my Mom made me take a bunch of deodorant, because honestly I'm not the one that needs it. The rumor is true that people just don't freaking USE IT!!! I should give away free samples! During the train ride, the conductor asked for our passports. My friend couldn't find hers fast enough for the conductor, so he looks at mine and he's like, oh you're both American, well I don't have to see it then. So EVERYONE in the compartment got mad...I heard three words that can't be a good combination in any situation: Americans, ricas(rich), and Bush. I finally started understanding more and they were talking about why they had to show their ID if they were Portuguese citizens and blah blah blah. Portuguese is easy to understand if you REALLY listen and understand Spanish: like adios is adeush, and buenos dias is bom dia, estacion is estaçao and thank you is obrigadu. Throughout the evening, my seatmate Crazy Portuguese Lady (Ill call her La Loca) kept staring at this Spanish girl and my friend, who would look away and pretend not to see her. It was really creepy, because her blank eyes were the faded blue of a lifeless doll. Finally, the Spanish girl got mad and told her to stop staring. La Loca would jump up at every stop and scream at the top of her lungs SANTA CRUZ!! IS THIS SANTA CRUZ (in Portuguese) ! QUE LOCA! Then she would fall down on the chair in fits and start crying and praying. She finally scared the Spanish girl so much, that she ran out of the compartment. So as the evening turned to night, the lights were turned off and I was in the pitch dark with the crazy lady by me (having a EuroTrip moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiyRqniBJg)). I was stiffly sitting up and trying to cover all parts of my bags with my legs and hands discreetly. Little by little she siddled up to me; I wanted her yeasty bread dough body off of me. Finally, she was half laying on top of me, while I was crouching in the very corner of the compartment squished against the window. I could feel her every breath that perhaps only feigned sleep, and she kept putting her elbow on my leg. I kept breathing in slowly, trying to get oxygen and repeat to myself: Stop being American, stop being American: after all people naturally smell, and here in Europe, only Americans get uptight if you touch them or if you smell. Then, my mind kept reeling and I thought that she lay on me on purpose just so she could get close and rob me. I finally devised a plan to get her off me. When the train hit a bump, I raised my elbow and jabbed her in the lungs...but tried to make it look like the train did it. She made an oomph noise and finally got off of me. How awful, I just punched the Pillsbury Dough Boy. So needless to say, I didn't sleep at all. When we got to Lisboa (Lisbon) thank God, we caught the Metro downstairs and looked for our hostal in the mazes that the Portuguese call streets. Cheap overnight train rides to Portugal are overrated.

I stole a coat

AY YAY YAY! I cant believe that I am wearing someone elses abrigo(coat)! You know that black coat I have (that Chris really likes, haha) well I was at a discoteca yesterday and my coat was way up high with a million other coats hanging off the lights, right!? Well, I was leaving and I had this guy hand me my coat and scarf, I was really tired, it was like 6 in the morning and I just put on my coat and we went home and to sleep. Today, I woke up and put on my jacket and realized that something wasnt quite right. I was missing the belt in the back and on the sleeves...I looked in the pockets and there were two bright red gloves! Whaaa?? I was wearing someone else's coat EW! And someone out there in Salamanca has mine!!! I went back to the bar to do a coat exchange but there weren't any coats left, so I gave my cell number away just in case. So now I HAVE to wear it because its freezing here and I dont know what else I can do?? At least I can get it dry cleaned. Well anyway back to Carnaval, I guess there were over 2 million people at that huge party in Santa Cruz! Also,when we left we missed this huge procession, where everyone wears black,and its really somber, and the people bury this dead fish.. a sardine tobe exact. Suposedly it represents the death of the fiesta! I wish I could have seen it, I would have been mourning too!
Wanna hear something really funny? So at the discotecas, when a song like "It's raining men, Hallelujah, its raining men."(you know that 70s-ish diva song) comes on THE SPANISH MEN SING AND DANCE TO IT in little groups!!!! I am not kidding! Even to all the Britney Spears or Beyonce pop songs, they dance to it in a little circle of GUYS together moving their hips! I almost cannot believe my eyes, all of the American girls are cracking up, and the American guys (you can totally tell because they refuse to sing or dance to it) are like HELL NO! I don't care if I am in Spain, I am not dancing or singing to that song!

Gym Woes

I joined a gym right, and I have been going for the past week and a half (before I got REALLY sick), to EVERY dance class it offers: Danza del Vientre (Bellydancing), Sevillanas (lots of clapping hard to explain), Caribenos (like salsa, cumbia), Salon (like tango, pasodoble), and lastly Flamenco. Why not take advantage right?! So on Monday, the flamenco teacher (I can´t stand her, and she ignores me; I think because I am not from Spain) wants me to wait for her after class to ask the manager if I´ve paid or not, since she didn´t believe me...so I wait, and wait...and wait! Then, I decide I am not waiting anymore and leave. So then I went to her class on Wed again and she was out for revenge. She totally ignored me, and danced with every student except me, but eh I don´t care, as long as I learn. So then she wants me to wait for her again, and I do, because she hurries, and we talk to the head guy, and he tells her I paid...so I´m in the ha-ha-I-told-you-so-mode right...then we come to find out that I am supposed to be taking only ONE dance class with the gym, and you have to pay separately if you want more! OMG it was sooo embarrassing in front of all of these people in the front office! So the flamenco teacher was like, well tell me what happens tomorrow and flounced out! The head guy told me I have to pick ONE dance class that I want, and I am definitely NOT choosing hers. Oh well at least I got almost two weeks of free dance lessons! Yay me! After that, I went to a bar and had a manzanita (hot apple tea) to tranquilo down with my favorite Portuguese bartender.

Carnaval II

CARNAVAL! Last night we walked down the beach to this HUGE festival with neon mask-shaped lights in the center of the streets, booming live Spanish music, and thousands of people dressed up in these costumes, old and young dancing everywhere in the streets! There were kids as young as 5, and as old as 80 at 3 or 4 am STILL dancing! I have never seen such detailed costumes, they HAVE to rent them or something, because the ones for Halloween in the USA SUCK compared to these professional costumes! WOW! These girls walk around all glittery pushing these huge plastic dresses that they drag around three times my size with peacock feathers and fruit spilling everywhere. They are like live Barbie Dolls complete with a background that they haul with them. There is constant live music, every kind of Spanish music, Salsa, Ola, Samba, Merengue, Cumbia EVERYTHING, and down another huge Plaza is Reggae and down another huge Plaza is hip hop/spanish! So I put on my huge feather mask (bright purple with a peacock feather), my neon purple/pink peluca (wig) with feathers, and my Hawaiian skirt thing and joined the throng (I just threw it together, I didn't know what I was trying to be.) In the reggae section, there were so many people, I literally thought that I was going to be crushed. I couldn´t MOVE, and if someone moved their elbow, something of mine would have to move to compensate for it. It was the first time I´ve been scared that if I fell, I would get trampled! Good thing there are policemen everywhere. There are also people laying out on the streets just making out, or just dancing and cheering at the top of their lungs at 5 in the morning!! We got up at NOON the next day to go tan at the ocean, and there were STILL people walking around in the same costumes they were in the night before partying!!!! THAT is stamina! It´s not EVEN carnaval yet, but Tenerife parties straight for 15 DAYS BEFORE CARNAVAL! Carnaval is on Tuesday tomorrow! Hasta luego!

Carnaval!

You will not believe where I am right now!! In Las Islas Canarias in the Island Tenerife for Carnaval!! Yeay I feel like singing Celia Cruz, La vida es un carnaval! Well here it is! (Carnaval is a national holiday...no one knows why but oh well yay no school... it´s like a Spanish Mardi Gras). So first I left on Friday to Madrid at 6am, got there at 9 dumped our stuff off at a hostal and ran to the big red tourist buses with no roofs! We´re listening to the headphones shivering outside on top of this bus, when it starts to hail. We were being pelted, the seats were wet, and it was freezing, but we were gonna enjoy it, damnit! We hopped on and off those buses for hours getting a feel for Madrid! So after that, we go back to get ready for the Latin American costume parties everywhere in Plazas, but they were all cancelled because of the rain! The only thing still going was a huge free concert in the Plaza Mayor! So we walked past all of the costumed people to the hostal and decided to turn in early to get ready for Tenerife, or so I thought. But then I get this phone call at 3 in the morning, and some of my friends were at the club and it stopped raining yeay! So I went across the street to meet them at this club Kapital. I don´t know what I´m doing, as usual, so I follow these spanish girls and walk right past the bouncer into the club. I look to my left and there´s this huge line of people and a sign that says 15 euros! There´s a guy behind me that was checking his name on the guest list, I guess he was with the girls! I got in for free! WHOO HOO! So I ran in to the dance floor before anyone noticed. OMIGOSH, let me just tell you I give this club Best Club I´ve Ever Been To Award! This club is huge, with 7 floors, stadium style, so you could sort of see other floors with balcony dancers and big moving light shows on the walls and ceiling: 1st floor was techno-house-trance-pop, 2nd floor: American & Spanish pop-80´s, 3rd floor: Salsa ish, 4th floor: Lounge/bar, 5th floor: Balcony Hip hop/R&B, 6th floor: Huge Cafe/Bar with chairs and fountains, 7th floor: Movie theater (closed). So I was dancing and then all of a sudden I look and and this humongous like 20 feet wide column of fog/dry ice sprays me in the face like a big fire extinguisher, so quickly I almost stop breathing. OMG, it was like beam-me-up-scotty, I LOVED IT, so different than the fog I´m used to at clubs, it was very cold and soothing. Then the fog rolled over the crowd like clouds, I´ve never seen anything like it! That club was so full of surprises...all of a sudden confetti would randomly spray everywhere at the crowd. QUE GUAY! Then all of a sudden the music stopped and this guy started playing the saxophone on one of the balconies, and everyone started clapping. It was SO RANDOM, like one of those whats-wrong-with-this-picture type things. Then the music started again...whoa. So I got home, took a shower, slept for like a minute, then went on my first ride ever on a subway, the Metro! I was so excited! We flew to Tenerife in a couple of hours, after getting a full course meal and unlimited drinks on the airplane. We checked into the hotel and headed out to the beach, which was ... black! These beaches in the north are volcanic sand, and when the waves hit the beach it sounds different. The hand-size volcanic rocks hit each other... you know what!? It sounds just like that cereal Rice Crispies...you know Snap, Crackle, Pop. If you don´t know what it sounds like, go out and buy some and listen to that cereal! Then imagine it BOOMING! It was my first time in the Atlantic! Speaking of cereal, I am sooo happy to be making my own food, and I have been eating CEREAL! OMG I ate an entire box of Special K Frutas Rojas in one day!

Galicia - Free stripper

So last weekend we left early in the morning and went to fill up the gas tank. We had NO CLUE what kind of fuel we were supposed to use, but good thing that this is España and there are gas attendants to figure that out for you, cuz our car ended up using diesel. I have never used diesel fuel in my life and I never would have figured that one out, pero bueno. We drove for 6 hours through these beautiful purple mountains majesty (you know that song My Country Tis of Thee), covered in purple flowers, and other mountains in gold flowers. It was so gorgeous! We took the free roads (you have to cuidate because lots are toll roads) to Santiago de Compostela, a ciudad that is known for its Catedral.The peregrinos are people who walk the Camino de Santiago over 900 km all the way across Spain from France with their seashell hats and sticks to this tiny city. Some people have been known to walk on their knees! So I did my own Camino de Santiago and walked one meter right up the steps to the Cathedral. This Cathedral was huge and I think the mass was in Latin. They speak differently in Galicia (with an accent called gallego), and sometimes it was hard to understand, like instead of ayuntamiento it would be axuntamiento, niñas would be ninas, etc. So when we went to the hotel that night, the room with windows across from us were see -through blurry with no curtains. I saw a blurry shape turning from different colors to skin color! This guy started getting naked in FRONT of the windows, doing a little show. So then all of a sudden the lights turned off, and I dont know what happened, but he turned them back on and opened the window. And thats when we closed our curtains! He probably would have walked on the roof to our window naked! It was crazy! But anyhow, we went to buy souvenirs and there were tiendas with religious objects, sex objects and witchcraft all in the SAME STORE! Only in SPAIN!

I miss milk...

OMG I really REALLY want a bowl of cereal and cold 1% milk and french toast. Ummm beautiful, beautiful cereal and lovely milk, which I could eat all day, morning, noon and night! No one eats cereal here...or drinks cold milk...or knows about french toast. On another note...can someone please explain to me, how it is possible that milk can stay out all day, and no one refrigerates it ... and yet it is still good?? Why don´t we have that in the US, so much easier! At first I was a little leery about trying it (and still am) ... but it seems okay ... just tastes a little funny. Why are eggs okay to sit on the shelf all day SIN REFRIGERATION? I don´t think I will ever understand....or lose my intense milk cravings!

Sick AGAIN!

So I´ve been really sick right, and someone told me it would be a good idea to take codeine (Can you believe it comes over the counter in pill form?). I am not really ever sick and I never take pills, so I have no clue, so I take it, and then I hear it´s bad so after about two weeks, I stop. I read to find out what is the big deal with codeine, and I learn that it´s a painkiller (used for after-surgery), extremely strong, and derived from opium, and 10% of it is transformed into morpheine in the body! AH! No wonder I was so happy when I was sick! Then all this week I have been really sick, and feeling like blecch (I probably had withdrawal symptoms), and I started taking another medicine. I was so sick on Thursday, and cold I was shaking in class and wearing other people´s coats and scarves. I was NOT about to leave the class because you are only allowed three absences in the semester and I want to save my absences for traveling right? No wrong, because the professor saw me and made me go home. DARNIT! I am bitter, I could have went to Barcelona or France this weekend, but my body just doesn´t want to cooperate with me. So I wasted another weekend willing my body to hurry up and heal.

Spanish Alcohol

I´ve decided that everyone here is an alcoholic! It’s in their blood. Every cafe, every bar, every restaurant has alcohol! Let me explain, so today I had coffee called a cubanito, from a little cafe to wake me up before clase. It was SO GOOD! It tasted like rich chocolate, coffee and a mysterious something else…maybe alcohol? But no way, I couldn’t believe it. So while I was drinking it, I noticed I was getting hot and I felt kind of whoozy. So after I drank most of it, I looked up at themenu and noticed the coffee said it had ¨leche, cafe, chocolate con cao, ron¨. I was like what the heck is ron???? So I asked the guy ¨ Que es ron?¨ and he showed me a bottle of freaking BACARDI! OMG!! I drank before I went to class at 9 in the morning! So I was really happy today in class and of course got most of the answers wrong. But I guess that’s perfect for today because en clase, Cultural de Espana (Spanish Culture) we talked about the importance of bars and alcohol in Spain!! So I learned all about Sangria, Calimocho, Cubatas, Whiskey and Chupitos and how to make them! My profesora even handed out instrucciones: Para Usar un Bar! Can you believe that? I have to say it was the most interesting class I´ve ever been to!
About the food situation...I have really lucked out!! Spanish food is really good, the only thing I don’t really like is paella (rice, seafood, tomatoes, eggs, a big mixture of things). And I´ve noticed when they cook American food like hamburguesas, it ALWAYS has a wonderful Spanish twist to it. For example, their ketchup tastes different, or they NEVER trim the fat off of meat, and ALWAYS use tons of aceite (olive oil) and the water never has ice in it. I am glad that Nico is a very good cook. I only say this because some of the kids tells me horror stories of their Senoras cooking them stuff like boiled eggs soaked in ketchup, or watery potato soup made of powdered fake potatoes, or of food that tastes like smoke, since EVERYONE and their madre smokes here, or super hard pan (bread). This certain madre makes her American kid eat every single thing she cooks, or she gets really mad and says, ¨Yo comi todo, you have to too!¨ But if your madre makes food that doesn´t sit well with you, at least there´s TAPAS. It IS possible for students to survive on tapas, which are the little snacks that los bares (bars) serve for free with your drinks. So here´s the legend: I guess way back in the day, the moscas used to fly around and land in the cervezas of the people in the bar. So the bartenders would cover the beer with a plate and stop (tapa) the flies from going into the drinks. However, it looked kindof ugly so the bartenders would put little bocadillas (snacks) on top of the plate, so it would look pretty! Then it evolved into tapas which can be anything from fish to fruit to Spanish tortillas to empanadas; really anything! Such a good idea!

Snake Hose

Have you ever had just one of those days? Like today, I woke up and I was really congested and coughing, and my roommate´s alarm went off 3 times and Gordo is chewing in my ear and AH! It gets worse! Then I go into the bathroom and turn on the water to take a shower and (the shower head is one of those ones that is connected to the end of this long hose) I guess Nico had cleaned the bathroom and wrapped the hose around the faucet, so when I turned it on, the thing sprays me in the face and starts whipping around like a snake, soaking ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, and hitting me! In movies, when I would see that happen, I always thought that it was so STUPID and it couldn´t really happen, but I´m here to tell you that YES, IT CAN HAPPEN! The hose fights dirty, whipping and hitting you, making it hard to turn the water off so that you can't kill its one moment of freedom. Honestly, it really hurts. So now everything is SOAKED in the bathroom, I hope Nico doesn´t get mad!And now I have class, and I am leaving to Andalucia tomorrow for a week, but I am really sick! I hope that it goes away soon!

Churtemosque

NOW I am in Sevilla, which is in the Andalucian province in the South of Spain for our week-long trip! Too bad its raining and I am super sick! Everytime I breathe, my lungs ache, I am so tired of breathing! Okay, but anyhow I went out last night (hey when am I ever gonna be in Sevilla again?!) and we were walking down the street and see a beautiful terraza! You look through the black wrought-iron gates and there are plants everywhere and cute little apartments. SO one of my friends decides that it would be fun to take a picture there. She trespasses through the gate which as open and shuts it. Yeah, so it clicks shut and locks by itself. LOL! She was stuck in there, it was like a big birdcage! HAHA, I was laughing so hard I almost had an asthma attack! So we rang all of doorbells (buttons for apartments on the outside of the gate), but no one was home. Then this 90 year old lady walk out and we ask if she can open the gate, and she says ¨NO!¨ and slams her door shut! SO then we were starting to get worried and think about calling the guardia civil (policia) or something to get her out. SO then she starts knocking on doors and FINALLY someone tells her where the secret buzzer is to get out of there! SO FUNNY! She was in there for a good half hour! HAHA! So after Sevilla, we made a pitstop in Cordoba and saw a really famous a churtemosque or in spanish iglestemesquita...now if you´´re wondering what exactly THAT is actually it´´s church, temple and mosque all in one. This churtesmosque was beautiful, it had koran inscriptions on the wall, with a catholic altar and crucifixes...inside of a jewish neighborhood next to a jewish temple...how crazy is that!? I guess they all used to live together happily, and then fought to take over each other. WOW! But anyways so that was nice...one of the billions of beautiful churches here in Spain! I am so uncultured for saying this right now, but I think I am really tired of visiting cathedrals! Í never expected THAT to happen...( I know I know i´m awful, but how would you feel if you saw every cathedral ever made in your state every day for a week?) By the way, guess what! I made up the word churtesmosque... (and iglestemesquita)...could you tell??

Morocco III: I am a piece of bologna

I´m walking around and then I realize I´m upstairs alone with about 5 salesman all attacking, BUY! BUY! BUY! My friend saves me and says ´NO SHE DOESN¨T WANT IT!¨ (they only listen to guys), and Thug tour guide gets all mad at him and asks why my friend didn´t let me buy! So then after all of the salesmen get pissed off cuz we students don´t give them commission that they want (Thug tour guide was yelling at us to buy)! (By the way I have a picture of the Creep, owner of the rug store and me)Then next we go to a farmacy, and the owner is giving us a presentation of all of these different types of weeds/herbs and their uses. It was interesting and cheaper and many people bought stuff, like me! (fyi: Face cream, wood eyeliner...also a snake bracelet and a huge gypsy necklace) Anyhow, so we plow back through the narrow, dirty streets, me clinging to my friend, when we realize that we are alone (people were ahead or behind) and there are a ton of salesmen surrounding us shouting for us to buy their: Morrocan spoons, T-shirts, mirrors, dolls and other RANDOM paraphernalia! Buy this time, I wasn´t even looking I was hiding my face and closing my eyes. They were screaming at me ¨ OPEN YOUR EYES! LOOK! LOOK AT THIS LOVELY SPOON!¨ I was like ´no I dont want a spoon!´ THEN we finally caught up and these damn persistant vendors like flies to honey followed us all the way back to our buses and one was screaming at me, ¨what is your lowest price?¨ I was like ¨one euro for a spoon¨ He got soo mad at me and yelled, ¨YOU ARE A PIECE OF BOLOGNA!¨ HAHAH! Can you believe that!? He was so creative, I was almost proud, I stress the ALMOST! Then we loaded into the autobus and drove on out of there...we all looked at each other half dazed and confused! PHEW! And then, as we enter the ferry there are MORE freaking vendors selling things! I wanted to buy something that says Morroco, so I buy a key chain for two euro...however, I ONLY have a ten. So this man cons me out of my change by making me wait until my ferry almost leaves, so that I finally buy a Moroccan drum out of desperation to make him give me at least SOME change and stop already! Never buy anything from a street vendor unless you have EXACT CHANGE! AY! But overall it was a wicked cool (Erin´s slang from the east coast) experience, and I would totally do it again, even though we all got jipped by Thug tour guide, and Hottie knew it!

Morocco II: I am worth 3,000 camels

I had gotten decked out in my best gypsy costume with the scarves and everything because I wanted to kind of fit in! NO, I was so wrong! First of all picture me wearing this bright pink scarf on my head, when all the Moroccan women were wearing tans and grays. (We heard that if your hair is beautiful, they quickly cut it off while you´re walking by and sell it, so we were all trying to hide or minimize our hair) All of us Americans (about 25) were bunched in a group, with two bodyguards and two tour guides, Hottie and Thug leading. As soon as we stepped out of the bus we made SUCH a commotion! Everyone was staring, and the women were SO mean to me, ONLY ME! They were hissing at me, and glaring at me! OMG! I thought they would be all over my other friend who has beautiful goldlocks hair, or other girls but NO! Only me! (I think they thought that I was Arabic or something and not wearing the right attire, because the street vendors came up to me and kept asking are you arabic? are you arabic?) All of a sudden we were barraged with street vendors coming up to us and screaming in our faces TEN EURO, YOU BUY, YOU BUY! (In english). So we were rushed out of the streets into this elegant store that was like the Neiman Marcus of Morocco. They had mint tea all set up for us and these really good pastries and had a fashion show of rugs ( I didn´t think that was possible, but it happened) About 10 guys would come out of the backroom like models with huge rolls of rugs, walk down the freaking CATWALK and roll out beautiful rugs while this guy would talk about the quality of each! HAHA! They were trying to sell us college students these 2,000 euro rugs! RUGS, HA, yeah freakin right! After the fashion show, they turned into street vendors. ´´YOU BUY YOU BUY THIS, You are beautiful and for this I give it to you for special deal, shhh, only 300 euros´´. WHATEVER! Then the owner comes out and sees me taking a picture and says ´´Are you arabic?´´ and I´m like no, and he keeps following me around the store. I don´t know if he´s joking or not but he says to my friend with the Goldilocks hair, ´Two thousand camels for you. ´He looks at me and says ´you look arabic, three thousand camels for you!´ I just laugh it off and go look around, cuz I´ve never heard that one before! Then he asks me to look at a special collection he has and it´s just me and him in the corner right? So he looks around all secretively and hugs me really close and says ´Look at me, look into my eyes! You can have any of these rugs, all of these rugs, if you will stay here with me forever.´ I look at him like HELL NO! And he says ´no, no don´t answer now, look around and consider it.´ So then he comes around TWO MORE TIMES, and tries to hug me again and I´m looking away for someone to help me, and he keeps saying ´look into my eyes´! So finally I go far away into a corner, where his salesmen keep harrassing me and saying, ´COME COME, I have special offer for you back here.¨ (TRYING to take me to the backroom where I´m sure the owner was waiting like a spider, the Creep!) Finally the Creep says, "I know where you are in Spain. I will come to visit you soon. I have business in Salamanca! Do not turn away from me!" I clung onto one of my guy friends and would NOT leave him for anything.

Morocco I - Bellydancing

You will NOT believe what happened to me today!!! I went to Africa and got a marriage proposal for rugs and 3,000 camels! Ok so it all began when I woke up this morning at 5am (ew) to take this hour and a half hour busride, with the hottest tour guide (or en espanol, ¨como un tren¨)I´ve seen yet to Morocco! Oh yeah by the way I am in Costa Del Sol (I am getting much better with this fantastic SOL and PLAYA!) OMG! Then we take a ferry ride into Morocco, which is a total dreamworld...I felt like I was entering fairyland it was SO beautiful. When the waves hit the sand, the water mists everywhere making a thousand rainbows with each wave (this doesn´t happen in Cali)! And then I saw how poor it was there was trash and all of the buildings looked a little...dilapidated (except for the governors of course..his was lavish). Anyway, all of the women were wearing scarves over their heads and Arabic signs were everywhere, and at every street were fully decked out bodyguards with huge guns. We met our really shady other tourguide who spoke Arabic, who I just KNOW was some kind of Morroccan thug (which was confirmed later by Hottie tour guide who said he was a thief) who proceeded to take us on our tour. He was soo evil! He said that if Spanish me got sick of their wives, they could go to Morroco and get a women, but that she would be second class. (I was like ew you´re third class, just for saying that). Then he said that the belly dancer that we would see was short and fat (I can´t believe he was so non-chalant about it). We drove through this gorgeous country at top speed, and as we passed by the sights the Thug tour guide would call out the names. We found out later, the reason for this was he was in a hurry to get us to the bazaars so that we could buy lots of things (cuz he got commission). We step out of the bus and all of these people are outside dressed in these crazy African outfits smiling, oh-so-happy to see us, banging drums and cymbals. There were camels standing there perfectly waiting for us to ride. WOW! I felt like a reina! Then after we all took turns riding camels, we went inside this huge white tent, where they had prepared a Moroccan lunch for us. We sit down to eat cous-cous, lamb, some kind of stew and arabic drinks. In the background, these guys were playing music and serenading us, then they brought out a belly dancer. She was NOT short and fat, she was gorgeous! (She probably rejected his @$$, and he´s still upset about it) She did a dance, really provocative, which is kind of amazing considering all of the women are so conservative. Then she took one of the guys and started undressing him! Then she put a skirt on him, put a bra with two oranges on his chest and made him shake it and dance with her! HAHA! It was great! After that we went to the Moroccan bazaars, which was the craziest part!

Super-Gordo

BACK TO GORDO! He is the most annoying (bicho) bug I have ever heard!! I think the acetone made him morph into Super-Gordo now, because he is crunching the wood louder than ever! I am SURE Erin and I will wake up one day and she won¢¥t have a bed anymore! Okay so we told our senora about the bicho in the wood and she wasn¢¥t happy...then she told us that while she was cleaning our room, she heard him as well....and so we were like "yes... and?" (so what are you going to do about it?) but NOTHING happened! Then Cristina said it might be electricity! ELECTRICITY?!? You HAVE to be KIDDING me, in the wood, no way! So our next trabajo (job) today will be to buy bug spray and drench the wood in it. I just hope he doesn¢¥t come out, because I am SCARED TO DEATH of bichos, especially Super-bichos like Gordo...after all if he can eat through wood, then he can DEFINITELY eat through skin.

Gordo the Bug

Okay so Erin and I have another roommate that we call Gordo. Gordo is a termite (we think) that lives inside the wood in Erin´s bed, right near her head. This termite´s name is Gordo because it constantly EATS!! I have been silent for a week on this subject, but Gordo is SO ANNOYING!!!!!! I hear him constantly chomping, it sounds like moraccas, constant chewing; he just can´t get enough of that wood. We haven´t said anything to Nico or Cristina because 1) We don´t want to be rude and 2) We don´t know how to say it in Spanish. So last night, we turned off the light and he just wouldn´t shutup! I turned the light back on and told Erin, ¨That´s it, Gordo has to go! I can´t sleep! ¨ Then we tried to figure out where the little sucker was exactly and started pounding on the wood which didn´t bug Gordo one bit. He kept on happily chomping the wood. So we took out the most acidic thing we could find: Erin´s bottle of nail polish remover, and poured it all over the bed frame....then we lit a match, JK! We poured acetone in all the holes we could find, and then SILENCE. We thought Gordo had finally died. But lo and behold I woke up to the sound of moraccas this morning, and Gordo was having his breakfast. I just don´t know how to kill him, but 'I want him dead, I want his family dead and I want his house burned to the ground!'

110 volts versus 220 volts

I brought a curling iron because my hair is out of control! Before I left the US, I also bought a converter which changes the shape of the plug becasue obviously I can´t just plug in my curling iron. (The plugs here are really weird, they are long and pointy) But I wasn´t really sure about the difference between a converter and transformer or if mine was also a transformer. So after much prompting from my roommate, I decided to just plug it in and see what happened. BIG MISTAKE!!! The whole thing started smoking within 5 seconds. I was like OMIGOSH I am going to burn down their house! So I quickly unplugged the thing which was super hot and I learned that converters and transformers are not the same thing. So later I went into this tienda that said ¨electricidad¨ and decided to ask her about the voltage situation. So I learned that 1) the US has 110 voltage and 2) Spain has 220 VOLTAGE!! SO Spain has double our voltage! I am so stupid I can´t believe I just plugged it in! I am lucky that it didn´t blow up right then. Anyhow I bought the transformer it was only like 13 euros. I was very wary about plugging in my curling iron because I was afraid I might have internally fried it. But I plugged in all of the parts very slowly and watched for any sign of smoke and then....BOOOOM! It BLEW UP! J/K! Wouldn´t it have been terrible if it would have!¿ But it didn´t! Thank GOD! It just makes a funny whirring noise now and I have to be very careful!

Spain - Day 1

Buenos Dias! I arrived in Spain after a whirlwind trip through London. I can’t believe my Senora, Nico and her daughter, Cristina, are here picking me up already. They greeted me with a classic Spanish kiss on the cheek. Instead of the warm and inviting feeling I was anticipating, it felt cold. We barely touched cheeks, as if we didn’t want to. I watched the other Senoras do the same thing to their American students. I don’t care what anyone says, an American hug is much friendlier than a Spanish kiss. We caught a taxi and went directly home. I didn’t understand really anything they were saying. How can this be, I’ve studied Spanish for years? They were speaking way too fast. As we go up the elevator to the 5th story, I am wondering, how would I ever survive this alone? Thank God I am getting a roommate; I hope she’s cool. We eat our lunch in almost silence and I go to my room. This is so awkward. I don’t know about this place; it is nothing like the friendly Latin American culture I expected it to be. I wanna go back to London.