Last of the Eurotrips: Amsterdam

So from Saturday-Wednesday, I was in Amsterdam with 7 wonderful people.

Saturday: Arrived late, explored the area around our hostel, called it a night

Sunday:

-Explored the town a bit

-Went to the Van Gogh Museum..so so great

-Went to a comedy show...which compared themselves to Second City.. I wouldn't go that far, but it was still funny at times

-Had a great Italian dinner

-Wandered around a bit and enjoyed the scenes

Monday:

-Saw the Anne Frank House.. very moving, incredible to see in person..

-Wandered around a shopping district known as the "Nine Streets"

-Took it easy during the day because at night we...

-Went to the Red Light District .. that was quite the experience. I was a bit overwhelmed, but it was honestly interesting to see..pretty different than anything I have ever seen before

Anne Frank House

Tuesday:

-Went to a few floating markets (flower market, vintage market)

-Wandered around a bit

-Ate delicious waffles

-Went to another museum

-Had a great Greek dinner with lots of laughs

-Saw a great soul/jazz/blues/crazy band

Wednesday:

-Went out to breakfast where I lost part of my tooth!!!!

Kind of a really funny story: So in fourth grade, I dove into the shallow end at the Kenwood Swim Club (not a good idea..) and chipped off part of my front tooth. No big deal, I had it fixed up and all was great for about 10 years until.... I bit into a delicious toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, swallowed the bite, and something did not feel quite right... I suddenly realized I had no front tooth anymore! Apparently I bit into the bagel at just the right angle which cracked off the fake tooth piece, which I then ate..

-Made it to the airport, flew back to Barcelona...toothless..

Today after a final presentation (really great to present without a front tooth), I headed to a Spanish dentist.. I walked in without an appointment (the student affairs director of my student told me just to show up) and he patched up my tooth! I no longer have a snaggle tooth..thank goodness!

You're allowed to laugh.. it's quite funny

All in all, I REALLY loved Amsterdam. It's such a beautiful place...the canals are so picturesque, with such cute little townhouses/apartments lining them. The food was so good..pancakes, waffles, and any food from any country you could ever want. The people were so nice and friendly as well (everyone except the bikers..watch out, they'll run you over!!). I could not have asked for a better 7 people to be with. I give Amsterdam two thumbs up.

Amsterdam marked the end of my adventures outside of Barcelona.. I cannot believe in one week from TOMORROW I will be back in the United States. I'm at a point where, it's not that I really want to leave or that I'm not having a great time, it's just going to be very nice to be home and I'm excited about that. I'm looking forward to being with the family, my comfy bed, my dog Marley (not Tai Tai), seeing friends, working at Benchmark, and having some peace and quiet away from a big bustling city. There is so much I will miss about Barcelona though, but I still have a week left so I am going to enjoy it to the fullest!

Today marked my last day of classes for the semester! Tomorrow, I had my Spanish final followed by a class fiesta. I'm quite sad that class is over, I really loved it. My professora was so incredible and the students in the class were so great.. Next Tuesday I have my three other exams (Med. Environment, Med. Oceanography, and Sustainability) and then I am DONE! I fly back to JFK on Friday..where I will then spend the weekend in Connecticut with my mom's side of the family there, and head back to the Nati on Sunday.

Time to go study! Hope all is well with you.

Party Paleys hit up Europe!

Hello blog reader! I hope all is well with you and you had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I had a great Thanksgiving, minus being in America, the (tofu)turkey, mashed potatoes, etc.. but I was able to be with my family and be very thankful.

Saturday, November 21st, after a day trip to La Garrotxa--a "volcano park" which was very cool, I returned to Barcelona to meet my parents at their hotel!! It was so very wonderful to see them, I am so glad they made the trip over here. That night we walked around my neighborhood, Sarria, went out for a delicious dinner and caught up on life! My brother arrived on early Sunday morning. For the next three days, we did many touristy things and I showed them the city..we walked down Las Ramblas, went to the beach, went to a flea market, Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, the Gothic district, a cable car up to MontJuic...and so much more! We enjoyed paella, sangria, and lots of gelato many times throughout their visit.

I think the highlight was my family coming over for dinner with Maria. It went very well! Maria had spent the whole day preparing the house and the meal..which consisted of Tortilla Espanola (kind of an omelet, with onions and potatoes), Pan con Tomate (bread with olive oil and tomato, with cheese), and lots and lots of Jamon (ham). I was kind of nervous, seeing as a) she is crazy sometimes and b) she speaks no English..but there were no problems! My dad and brother speak some Spanish, and my mom can laugh, smile, and gesture just fine. We had great conversation and there were smiles all around. Maria loves guys, so she really enjoyed having my brother and dad in the house...fed them lots and lots of jamon. My dad really made her night when he left saying "Ciao Guapa!" ("bye beautiful!")..Maria is STILL talking about it.

On Wednesday, after Spanish class, we met up at their airport and rented a eurocar!! We then embarked on our journey to France! After a few struggles with the rental car (it took my dad about two hours to figure out how to put it in reverse!) and the GPS (which we named Rosa), we were on our way to Collioure, a small costal town that I had been to in my first month abroad. It's a beautiful, postcard town... it's dominated by tourism in the summer months, but empty during the rest of the year..so we basically had the place to ourselves. We wandered the streets and enjoyed the Mediterranean.

Thursday and part of Friday were spent in Avignon..an old walled city with the Palace of the Popes. It was a very neat town, with lots of history...and a Christmas market! We explored the town, checked out the palace and the Sur Le Pont de Avignon. We had an interesting drive back to Barcelona, listening to Taylor Swift (the only CD we had) with a broken GPS, so we had to rely on street signs and instinct to get us home. Luckily, only after one snag, we made it back to the airport and returned the car and all was well.

It was very sad to see the family leave on Saturday morning. It was a great visit..always good to see them during the holidays. It made me very thankful to be blessed with such wonderful family!

The big Christmas market in Barcelona started on Saturday, so my roommate and I went there during the afternoon and that night I saw the band Vetiver! I think it is kind of random they came to Barcelona, but I am not complaining. It was a great concert.

Next weekend: Amsterdam!

This marks the three week countdown.. in exactly three weeks from now I will be landing in the Cincinnati airport, immediately ready to go to Skyline and or Graeter's..

One Month Left...

Since Dublin, I have just been hanging out in Barcelona.

Last Tuesday, I went to an FC Barcelona game! They played a lower league team called Leonesa...which meant Barcelona won 5-0. It was great fun though, and very cool to see Camp Nou--the FC Barcelona Futbol Stadium. That place was huge. It would be wild to be there during a huge game.

Here is a video of one of the five goals...

Saturday, I went on a trip set up by IES to Montserrat. Montserrat is a town in the mountains about an hour North West of Barcelona by bus. It was absolutely beautiful. When we were driving there, it was very foggy, and then we passed through the layer of clouds once we got to the town! We were above them, it was very cool. In the morning, we took a tour of an art museum they had there, and then we saw a monastery and a cathedral. After that, we had some lunch and some friends and I took a tram up to the top of the mountain. The fog had cleared so we had some amazing views. There we hiked around a little bit and chatted on some rocks, while looking over Spain.

My family gets here this weekend!! I am very exited. We're going to hang out here in Barcelona for a few days, then we're renting a car and driving to some places in Southern France. I am really looking forward to it.

Work for my classes is finally starting to pick up..I have two ten paged papers due within the next month, as well as a big project and a couple presentations..should be fun?

After tomorrow, I only have one month left here in Barcelona! I really can't believe it..these past months have flown by.

That's all I got, I hope all is well with you, wherever you are!

"He's an Irish Monkey, He Likes His Potatoes"

This weekend I went to Dublin and loved every minute of it.

I met up with a great friend from Cincinnati named Lauren Dayton, who is studying abroad in Dijon, France. With Lauren were three girls from her program. Also, Lauren has a friend named Elliott from college who is studying abroad in Dublin. It was a great group of kids and we had a blast.

I am apologizing in advance for the bulleted list I am about to provide you. I feel like I would be repeating myself if I typed about each thing, because I would be writing ".....and it was great, and I loved it," so just assume that I thought everything was wonderful.

Friday:

-Landed in Dublin in the afternoon

-Toured the Guinness Factory

-Went to dinner at a great pub called O'Neills

-Had some cider and called it an early night

Saturday:

-Woke up early to go to the Dublin Zoo! I hold zoos to pretty high standards, seeing as Cincinnati's is pretty top notch, and I still enjoyed this zoo very much. We went right when it opened and it was a bit chilly, so we essentially had the place to ourselves. Going early was definitely a good choice because they had just fed the animals, so they were all very active. For example: we got to see tiger cubs romping with one another, we saw orangutans eating potatoes (very Irish), and got very up close and personal with a peacock.

-Saw the Wellington Monument

-Had lunch at a great restaurant

-Saw St. Patrick's Cathedral

-Explored St. Stephen's Green

-Walked around Merrion Square

-Went on a musical pub crawl, where we got to learn about Irish musical traditions, learn some songs, saw great performers, and laugh a lot.

Sunday:

-Went to a great brunch

-Saw the National Gallery

-Wandered the streets

-Went back to Barcelona

More things I liked about Dublin:

-Nice Irish people!! It was SUCH a change. The Catalan people are quite rude, cold, and snobby..so I really appreciated the Irish. Very friendly, always joking and laughing, very helpful, and a lot of Gingers!

-We had great weather. It rained every day, but only for maybe 15 minutes or so. For the most part, we had sunshine! Yes it was a little chilly, but I enjoyed the brisk temperatures.

-I just really liked the overall feel of the city. It definitely has hustle and bustle to it, but it's much more relaxed. It had an old feel to it with a big modern twist. I liked the open streets and the architecture

-I loved the amount of green grass all around the city

-I also liked the potatoes.........

So now I am back to life here in Barcelona. The weather has started to change a bit. It has been verrryyy windy here the past week, bringing in some cooler temperatures. Cooler being lower 60's (tough life, right?).

I came home to find that Maria was given an orange Canary as a gift from her veterinarian.... haha I didn't know that vets gave out presents, let alone birds. Maria already has a bird named Groc, and that has caused some major drama in her life. Groc was so great, and sang so much and was very chipper. About a month ago, she had the vet cut off a mandatory leg-band that domestic birds need to have..and well that caused quite the infection in poor Groc's leg...which then forced Groc's leg to be amputated!! Groc went into mourning and would no longer sing, and wouldn't leave his food dish area. Que triste. Well, every since the new bird, named Cay (pronounced: Ca-ay) joined the family, Groc has been back to his normal self! He is flittering around his cage, singing once again like he used to. Maria and I decided he was happy to have a friend, especially a friend with two legs. We also hope that Groc is not embarrassed by his lack of a leg. Drama in the bird world!! Anyways, that was something fun to come home to.

Not much going on this week in terms of classes (no surprise there). This weekend we were going to head to Prague, but plans fell through. I'm alright with that. I'm realizing I only have five and a half weeks left in Barcelona, so it will be nice to spend some more time here. I believe I will go on a day trip to a nearby town called Montserrat.

That's all I got, hope all is well!!

Past few weeks in Barcelona

Sorry for the lack of updates! Since Switzerland, I have stuck around in Barcelona and have kept pretty busy, so updating the blog kind of slipped my mind.

Let's see. I had three midterms the week after Switzerland.. Three in one week! Unheard of for a block plan student. Luckily these classes are not hard, so they were pretty easy. For example, my Mediterranean Oceanography midterm consisted of 20 multiple choice questions...and we knew the questions ahead of time. My other midterms had a little more to them, but weren't that challenging at all.

The weekend following midterms, I had two Oceanography field-trips, which I thought were pretty cool, most of the class did not. Friday we went to a small fishing town in Northern Spain called Palamos and we got to see all different types of fishing boats and gear and go to a fishing museum. Saturday we went to the Ebro River Delta and it was gorgeous. We saw different type of ecosystems that exist there and got to go a beautiful beach. We saw wild flamingos! I had never seen a flamingo in the wild before, so I was pretty pumped up about that. Unfortunately, the majority of kids on the trip were debbie downers, and instead of appreciating the experience, they just complained about wanting to go back to Barcelona the whole time.. very typical IES-Abroad students.

On Thursday, the Colorado College invasion began! Friends that are studying abroad in various countries in Europe came to visit for Halloween and we had such a great time. Thursday we went to Funk Night at a dance hall/bar type place. Friday, after seeing some sights, we went to a big 25 person dinner by the water. Saturday, we got into the Halloween mood by watching the movie "The Orphan" which was SO weird, walked around a the El Born neighborhood and ate delicious Mexican food and then got ready for Halloween! I have to say, I am quite impressed with how the costumes turned out. I was worried because there was no ARC, or good thrift stores, that we know of in Spain...so everyone had to get creative. Some friends and I dressed as "Noah's Ark Singles Only Cruise," because we didn't have enough people to have two of each animal. I was a giraffe (or, jirafa in Spanish), my friends were a tiger, a wolf, a cow, a frog, and a rooster. We went to another large dinner dressed in our costumes which was quite fun. After that we went to an Irish Pub/Bar in which my Noah's Ark friends and I won the costume contest!! We won 250 Euros!! It was so much fun! Sunday, after laying in bed until about 4, I met up with a CC friend Becca and we walked around Gaudi's Parc Guell.

All in all, this weekend was so great, one of the best I think I've had in Barcelona thus far. It was so awesome to see all the CC kids.

On Friday, I leave for Dublin to meet up with Lauren Dayton, a good friend from Cincinnati!

Hope all is well with you!

Take me back to Switzerland!

I spent this weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland! It was SUCH a great time.

Thursday: I skipped my first class EVER in my college career. We left for the airport and were met with a nice three hour delay for our flight to Geneva from the airline EasyJet (not so easy if you ask me). After we finally arrived, we had a three hour train ride to Interlaken..a small town, North East of Geneva. We got to our hostel, Balmers, (also, my first time staying in a hostel) kind of late. We grabbed a quick dinner and hung out, then went to bed kind of early to prepare for the weekend!

Friday: We woke up early and explored the little town of Interlaken a bit. There is not much to it...but it was nice to get some fresh mountain air. Then Rachel, a girl from my program who goes to Connecticut College, and I went paragliding! With paragliding, you are essentially strapped into a more secure Crazy Creek (for those who know what a Crazy Creek is..) and are attached by a harness to an attractive paragliding guide. You start in a field on a mountain, and just "keep running until you feel like you're flying..." and that is honestly how it feels! Run run run and all of a sudden...lift off! And you are soaring through the Alps and looking out over beautiful Switzerland. Just sit back and enjoy the show! It was so peaceful just floating up with the birds. I loved it. After that, Rachel and I explored the town..poking around in shops and enjoying the Swiss culture. We waited for our other travel partners in crime, Gretchen and Henry, to come back from Bungee Jumping 450 feet off of a cable car over a lake (see Mom, aren't you glad I went paragliding?). Everyone survived in one piece and we went out to dinner at a quaint little Swiss restaurant. Went to bed early that night too.

Saturday: Woke up early to go Canyoning!! Here is a YouTube Link to canyoning, in case I do not explain it well enough. Here it goes. Basically, you repel down into this river canyon, and then adventure down the river! You get to jump off rocks, slide down waterfalls, climb through little cracks and crevices and do all sorts of fun stuff. It was SUCH a great time. We had signed up for the 8 hour "intense" canyon trip, but it was canceled due to SNOW in the canyon we were going to go to. Yes..it was quite cold. In the canyon we went to, it was 40 degrees and raining... and we were jumping around in glacial snow melt..pretty nippy. We were wearing two very thick wetsuits, a wetsuit jacket, a dry top, booties, and a helmet..but it was still chilly. That's maybe why I have a cold now..but anyways. Our canyoning experience was three hours long and it was so fun. Our guides were great, and the people in our group were great as well. What are the chances...in our group was a girl who went to Denver University...Colorado College's "rivals." After canyoning, we made desperate attempts to warm up, watching "The Green Mile" by a fire and then taking a nice nap. We had an authentic Swiss Cheese Fondue dinner...which consisted of a hell of a lot of cheese and a lot of bread. Afterwards, we went across the street from our hostel to this little bar/lounge place. We were the only people there and we were talking to the owner and she was from New York! She let us hang out on the nice leather couches and kick back and watch an American college football game. A little taste of home! I may or may not have fallen asleep mid game. We then returned to Balmers and, of course, went to bed early.

Sunday: We got up relatively early and headed out on a hike in the alps. What views we saw! It was so gorgeous and so nice to be in the mountains and be in trees that are changing colors, and be around green grass, and all of that nature. I do like being in Barcelona don't get me wrong, but I am certainly missing the outdoor opportunities that Colorado has to offer. I am discovering I am not the biggest city person. After a few hours, we got all packed up and had our three hour train ride back to Geneva. I am so glad we got to ride the train during the day light! It was SO gorgeous...through the Alps and alongside lakes and little Swiss towns. Very ideal. We had minor struggles in the airport (Rachel may or may not have booked her flight home for MONDAY instead of Sunday, thus leading to a struggle at the EasyJet counter). Other than that, we all made it home in one piece.

I have done quite a bit of traveling in the past month and each of my trips have been so different! All great in their own different ways. This weekend will be the first weekend I will be in Barcelona in four weeks! I was expecting a nice relaxing weekend...until I found out about my Mediterranean Oceanography field trips! Friday, we have a field trip to a small fishing village from 4:30-8:30, and then on Saturday..we have a field trip to the Ebro Delta from 8:30 am (yeah! 8:30!!) until 8:00 pm. Eleven and a half hours of wild times with the Oceanography class. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to seeing more of Spain and to learn things via these trips, I just wish that a) I didn't have to be somewhere at 8:30 on a Saturday morning and b) I could nap on Friday afternoon. I'm just being honest here :)

I have heard a lot of "do you even go to class over there?" because I just write about all the fun adventures I go on, or times when Maria goes crazy. I do, in fact, go to class. I love my Spanish class--great professor, great kids in the class. I also love my Mediterranean Environment class because I think the professor is great and the subject is interesting. Mediterranean Oceanography has the potential to be good, but let's just say it hasn't reached its potential yet. Same goes for my Sustainability class. It's hard to be in a class where the students don't care...especially when it has to do with something that is my major (Environmental Policy). It's so different, coming from Colorado College where a topic like "sustainability" is on every students' mind, and they are relatively well informed..to come to a place like IES Barcelona, where these kids don't know very much at all and don't seem to really care. I am struggling with that quite a bit.

Life at the homestay is MUCH better than the last time I wrote. I think Maria was having a bad morning. By that afternoon, she was acting like nothing happened. I think she felt sorry for yelling, and for the following two dinners, she cooked Katie and I feasts. That was nice of her, I suppose. It took me a couple days to get over the fact that she kicked my bag across the room, but I have learned to treat her as the "crazy grandma." Come on, you know what I'm talking about. That Grandma who is slightly off the deep end, makes racially inappropriate comments in which everyone awkwardly tries to laugh off, doesn't always know what's going on a lot of the time, and sometimes freaks out and doesn't realize the impacts it has on other people. Just kind of say, "okay Grandma..." and move on with the day. It works out best for everyone.

That's all I have here to report. Hope everything is going well with you, stay healthy!

Please Mind the Gap

On Friday, I went to London!

I went to visit my good friend from Cincinnati, who was in the hospital after an accident. I'm not going to elaborate on the details, but my friend is doing incredibly well, given the circumstances. I am so proud of her for being so strong throughout this entire thing!

This gave me a first hand look at National Health Care..and I don't really know how I feel about it. In theory, absolutely wonderful. In practice...not so wonderful. My friend was in a room with four other people, all very colorful characters, to say the least. To spare the gruesome details, just imagine one woman with a bedpan....and quite vocal gastrointestinal problems, another woman with a tube coming out of her brain that was leaking into a cup that she was carrying around, another man with a short robe and no underpants telling everyone to "F*** Off!" and another man who seemed to have nothing wrong with him, he just refused to leave the hospital, and had anywhere from 3-7 family members visiting him at once. The food was subpar, the equipment they were using seemed a little dated, and it just wasn't a very healthy environment. We were able to be in the Private Insurance Sector for a day or two and that was a world of difference! Private room complete with nice bathroom, a balcony overlooking the city of London, food served on a silver platter, Wifi internet connection, a TV, fancy equipment, and more. I don't know enough about the existing health care system, or what Obama has planned, so I don't want to make any rash statements...but let's just say that Obama has his work cut out for him.

I did get to meet up with another good friend from Cincinnati, Scott Simon! Scott moved to England after graduating from college and he was able to meet me in London for an afternoon. We went on quite a tourist adventure. We started at Piccadilly Circus, then to Trafalgar Square, then to Westminster Abbey, then Parliament, then Big Ben, then to the London Eye (which was extremely overpriced), then to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (the original burned down, but still cool), then Tower bridge, a quick stop in a pub for some Cider, then to Buckingham Palace, and then a walk through a park back to the Underground Station, when I went back to the hospital!

I really really enjoyed London. The pace is a little more laid back than Barcelona. The streets are more open and there is more green everywhere. I do love practicing Spanish, but it was a relief to be in an English speaking country for a weekend. English accents are really great.

Right now, I am hiding from Maria. This morning was a verrryyyy bad morning in our apartment. Katie and I overslept, woke up at 8:15, and needed to leave for class at 8:30! So we were rushing around the apartment trying to get ready and the following things occured:

1. This is the morning of all mornings Maria makes us toast, puts out croissants, AND watermelon with lots of seeds. Very nice gesture! However, we did not have time to eat it all and Maria didn't understand why. She was all upset when we rushed through what breakfast we could eat and took the rest to go.

2. It was really windy, and the wind kept coming through the open window of our bedroom and slamming the door...very loud. Normally, we would close the door when we left the bedroom, but we were rushing around, running in and out of the room getting things and brushing teeth and all that stuff, so we kept forgetting to close the door. Maria kept yelling at us to close the door, but we (mainly I) just kept forgetting.

3. The final straw! After one big slam, Maria came storming into the room to shut the window. My bed/"side" of the room is in front of the window. I hadn't unpacked from London yet (because I was planning on doing it in the morning...but we overslept so obviously I didn't have time). Since I was in a rush, I had just put things on the ground and it was messy, but I thought she would understand. Well, nope. She barged into the room, and to get to the window she had to step around my bag...but instead, she started kicking my bag and yelling at me in Spanish. She kept saying "ME ENFADA MUCHO!" Which means "This angers me a lot!" And then going off about how I can't keep things on the ground and I was messy and lazy and all this sort of stuff. I was trying to explain to her it was just because I was late, but she wouldn't even listen and would say "NO!" and continue to yell at me. Quite intense. Not the way I wanted to start my day, that is for sure. Katie and I met up after class to return back to the apartment... Maria ignored us when we came in, and when Katie left she said "Adios Maria!" and Maria ignored her.

So, yeah. I need to wash my dishes, but Maria is in the kitchen and I really don't want to have to face her. I understand she's dramatic and she'll probably forget about what happened this morning by tonight and act like nothing is wrong, but still I am shaken up and upset about it! There is NO need for her to scream at me, or kick my belongings. I haven't been yelled at like that since middle school and it's ridiculous. When Maria is not being crazy, she is so great and awesome and nice and caring and everything else a host mom should be....but then she goes off like she did this morning and it's hard to handle. I hope it gets better.

Thursday I head to Interlaken, Switzerland to spend some time in the Alps! I am VERY excited. I am in need of some mountains in my life. I heard news back from Colorado College and there was a BEAR on campus! It was just hanging out in a tree on our quad. How wild is that?

That's all I have for you now. Blog reader, I hope that you are not getting yelled at because the wind is slamming your doors!