Weekend

 This weekend we decided to stay in Madrid. On thursday night we had our first club experience in Madrid, and it was NUTS. these people know how to party. Somehow before we even went out there was a party in our room with a bunch of the residence in Baradas. It was really fun, some kid was doing magic tricks and everyone was hanging out and having a good time. After we went to this club "Fun" with everyone and ended up waiting in line forever before we got in. These stupid girls from Baradas pulled us our of line because they said they could get us in faster, which they could not because they are stupid girls, so me and andria and this other girl liz decided to go home because we were so mad. As soon as we got back to the residence Ryan called us and somehow got us to get out of bed and come back to the club, so we get dressed again and go back to the club at 3am, only in Madrid. It was wicked fun we danced the entire time and everyone was ridiculous.

The next day Tommy, kristen, Liz and I decided to go venturing around. We ended up going to this palace that was gorgeous and really cool.  We also went out for Churros and chocolate where I proceeded to drink an entire mug of chocolate. I'm not talking hot chocolate, I'm talking CHOCOLATE. it was SOOO goood.
Later on that night we went to Chester another club which wasn't as good as the night before but it was still fun. EXCEPT the fact that someone stole my camera, which I am very upset about.

Yesterday, we hung around went out for coffee during the day then we had a nice little family dinner at some restaurant in Sol. It was yummy, we ate outside by the heat lamps and enjoyed the night life of Sol as people walked by. We didn't do much last night besides hang around then go to Ryan's to hang out for a while as well. Overall it was a pretty good weekend. I have class all day tomorrow but it's basically like a friday because I don't have class on tuesday. I am really enjoying Spain and I do really like it.
 We are going to Lisbon next weekend! and we have a lot more planning to do in terms of trips.

Miss my family though<3

Wednesday -

Yesterday was a long day of class. 10:45-9. I am so tired all the time it's not even funny. Coffee makes me feel like I am on crack and barely helps me stay awake during the day. All it does is keep me up at night. After class yesterday I came back to baradas had some dinner then starting pregaming in our room with Tommy, Kristen and our two friends from belgium. After hanging out for a while we made our way to Dubliners in Sol an Irish pub where we met up with Steph C and all of her room mates. We had a fun night and I ended up staying up til 730am. Don't know how. Don't know why. but it happened.
Today I've done nothing basically, a little homework, a little p90x and a lot of staring at the wall.
I am hungry. What else is new? Not much to say right now. Will update with stories later.

Tuesday

Yesterday was another low key day. I woke up around 1030 then hung around baradas until about 3 when Tommy, Peter and I decided to venture out and do some exploring. We discovered this cool area a few blocks away from our residence with a bunch of different stores and bars which was pretty cool.  Later on Tommy and I walked to this little park and hung out there creepily watching this old man blow big bubbles for little spanish asian children. We hung out drank wine and ate crackers for the rest of the night.

I just got to school and I have class from 1045 til 9pm with a 3 hour break in the middle. It´s going to be a long day but at 9pm my weekend begins. It´s so weird only having classes two days a week. Everyday feels like the weekend here.

Since I´ve been here I have been addicted to chocolate. It´s literally a problem. that´s all i want to eat. I´d rather eat chocolate than regular food. Maybe it´s because it´s the only thing that acutally tastes the same as it does at home? Who knows.

Venting..Sorry.

None of my effing clothes fit me right now. My pants are so baggy it's not even funny. All my hard work to get what I like to call a "bum" the past few years are completely down the drain. My jeans are so big I look like a 12 year old, butch girl who is trying to dress like a boy. I don't understand why this is happening. I haven't even worked out. Even my leggings are falling off of me. Like I just don't get it. Why can't my boobs shrink instead? I liked my tight little bum. I'm gunna start squatting until I can't feel my legs once I muster up some energy.

I have no school tomorrow but I don't feel good so I refuse to leave the room. Andria and I are looking up flights and booking trips that we want to go on. We really really really wanna go visit Auschwitz. We both love World War II.

Also- Just thought I'd share that I am getting way to used to having a maid who cleans my room, fixes my bed, and does my laundry everyday. They don't do it on the weekends and I came home saturday and was literally pissed that my bed wasn't made. Who am I? God forbid I take two seconds out of my day to make my bed. I mean I do it EVERYDAY at home and at school. But here it's just out of the question. Might as well call me the Princess of Spain. I hope Rose knows what she's getting into when I get home for the Summer. I'm going to need her to clean my room and fix my bed.

The internet here sucks, I've been trying to put up my pictures since I got here but it REFUSES to load. SO ANNOYING.

Weekend

Overall this weekend was a success. On saturday we went to Toledo for the day where we walked around and enjoyed all the little shops, got lunch, and also went to a  museum with a bunch of cool different things like armour, sword and stuff like that. Toledo was beautiful, quiet and a lot different than Madrid. After taking the bullet train back we came home rested then went out for the night with friends new and old.

Sunday morning I woke up and was not feeling so well, but Ryan and I made our way to El Rastro the largest flea market in all of Europe. There was a lot of different stuff and so many people. I'm pretty sure we didn't even get to see all of it.  After a few hours I took the metro back where I proceeded to lay in bed all day. I went to bed around 10 after falling asleep watching The Sound Of Music and woke up this morning and made my way to class.

Classes today were okay although they dragged on. I had a coffee and I was off the walls. The coffee here is insanely strong, it makes me feel like I totally different person, but I need it because I feel so tired all the time. Today I walked back and fourth from school which takes 40 minutes. I was so hungry all day and there is honestly nothing here I want to snack on. It's so annoying. I also can't believe I haven't worked out. I need to tomorrow.
I want watermelon so bad.  I can't even think straight I'm so hungry and irritable.

blehhhh

Yesterday was a more relaxed day, we slept/hung around until about 230 then Tommy and I ventured to go for a run down at the park by school. We ended up going by school for a while then finally running after an hour or so.

Later on in the night we went over to ryan's and had a few drinks then went to the bar across the street. Andria and I went home around 1am because we were both tired. I'm a little homesick right now and starting to miss America. I miss TV and all my shows. I can't watch anything on my laptop because the internets so slow. I've already watched The Town about 10 times, beauty and the beast 5, glee many times, and the lion king twice. I never realized how many shows I watch. At school I literally sit on my bed watching  shows all the time. I cannot do that there. I might go crazy. Between that and not having my crackberry by  my side I literally might go insane.  I keep reaching to my phone to call my mother also, which clearly I cannot do. It's so irritating. I also miss BSC so much. I want to work out but I have no motivation in this dungeon room and I also feel like I am robbing a meal from myself by burning calories seeeing as we barely eat.

Today we went exploring down at the park Retiro. It is a gianormous place with lots of different things to see. One of the coolest things they have there is a statue of a falling angel that is the only statue in the world that represents the devil and hell. We walked around for a while then got a merienda at a cafe nearby. We also walked down Gran Via and went to NikeTown.


We've been hanging out in the room for a while now and I personally don't feel like doing anything tonight. Tomorrow we are taking the Bullet Train to Toledo for the day to do some more exploring.

I think things will start getting better once we are really into the swing of things, I just keep telling myself its still early and everything is going to change. life throws you curve balls. That's all I Know.

How I am a functioning human being is beyond me right now.

Yesterday was the first day of class, I ended up changing my schedule and switching out of spanish culture class and into a public relations class so now all my classes are on monday and wednesday, this could be a very a good thing or a very bad thing.  My first class doesn't start til 10:45 but since Andria's class is at 8:30am and she is notorious for sleeping through many alarms I elected to wake up and workout to start my day. Around 10, Joe and I experimented walking to school which took roughly 40 minutes. I walked this route twice yesterday. It just makes me laugh because no one  at home would EVER walk 40 minutes to school once a day forget about TWICE.

My first class of the day is BIO which I honestly was completely dreading because lets face it I am not a science girl and its environmental biology and I don't particularly care for animals. I had heard terrible things about the professor who was teaching the class and I was expecting the worst out of this course. But lucky for me something went my way. Apparently the professor who was suppose to be teaching the course is "sick" for the semester and now this younger guy who wants to have "fun" and convince us how great biology is by making the class more interesting is teaching the course. I nearly jumped out of my seat I was so excited. The professor seems really nice and he was pretty entertaining. I thought it was amusing how he would say "Jellow Stone" instead of Yellow Stone national park with his spanish accent.

After that class I ventured my way back for my 3 hour break to eat at the residence, then walked back a few hours later for accounting class. Accounting this semester is going to be brutal, I just know it. After accounting I have public relations which I think is going to be a very interesting class and I'm excited to take. Then finally from 7:30-9 I have spanish but it was cancelled due to a death in the family of my professor.

After dinner and getting ready we pregamed a little at residence with our 1.50euro bottles of wine then headed to "orange" this club down the street from where we live. It was free drinks from 11:30-12:30 so we stayed there for a while then ventured our way back to another bar across the street from where we live for mojitos. We are so random..After coming back to the room and chatting I finally went to bed at 5:30am, so what I would like to know is why am I wide awake at 9am? Why does spain not have food? Why hasn't the lady done my laundry yet? Why is this room a thousand degrees?

Today I have to figure a bunch of stuff out and go venture around. We'll probably go out again tonight since I heard wednesday and thursday are big days en Espana.

I don't even know what day it is.

Today we woke up and took the metro to school for a little more orientation stuff. We spent some time at the school and got our books for the semester which is pretty great because we don't have to pay for them and they are brand new.  After that John, Andria & I made our way back to Baradas (our residence) for lunch which was good for once. We had this pasta, meat and this tomato sauce on top. It was pretty good, but then again anything we eat tastes good because we literally starve all day long.

After lunch John and I went back to school to go tour CEU University of San Pablo where we learned of all the cool things we can do there. They offer a lot of fun stuff, sports, exercise classes, cultural events, volunteering,   wine tasting classes, dance class and a bunch of other stuff. We're planning on taking salsa classes and wine tasting. Later on after hanging out at Suffolk for a little Tommy and I thought it would be a good idea to figure out how to walk home from school. It took us a while but we finally figured it out. It should probably only be a half an hour walk when you know where you are going so I plan on walking to class and taking the metro home from now on.

When we got back to the dorm I went down and hung out in the little cafe/hang out area where lots of the other students who live in the building hang out. I started talking to a couple different European students practicing Spanish. I think living here is going to be a good experience. There are people from ALL AROUND THE WORLD living in this one building. I met a boy from Belgium, lots of people from Spain and who knows where else all the other people are from.  I've been nervous to speak spanish a little because it is kind of intimidating when everyone speaks so fast but I think once school starts up again and I get back into the swing of things it will be easier for me to talk back.

I finally worked out today for the first time in like 8 days, and we all know that is rare for me. I can't believe I even lasted that long, but I feel a lot better now. I want to join a gym here but it is literally 270 euro for 4 months which is ridiculous. I might just have to stick with my p90x and body weight exercises.

I have a full day of classes tomorrow starting at 10:45 ending at 9pm. It's going to be a long day especially because I know that I won't be eating much but it will just take some getting used to. I can't wait to see who is in my classes and how the professors are here. It's going to be a real reality slap when homework starts piling up and the fact that I am here to study and not on vacation kicks in.

But ta ta for now. Sorry Boston has so much snow, I won't rub it in and tell you how nice out it always is here...

Back to Madrid

For our last night in Sevilla we went to a nice restaurant where we waited about 3 hours to eat. It was nice but the food could not even compare to the food we had for Lunch earlier. After dinner we went to a "texan" bar near the Cathedral to watch the pats. We called it a night early around 2 to go to bed.

Today, we treked back to Madrid. We had to walk from the Hotel to the Train station which was ridiculous because i had my 85lb luggage and a backpack. I was literally dying.

I finally unpacked today and the room is  feeling a lot better than it was the first couple of days. I actually have clothes and belongings and more people moved into the building.

Tonight me and Tommy walked over to Ryan's apartment which is about a five minute walk from the dorm. That of course turned into quite the adventure. We walked all the way to apartment "21" which we thought he lived in, got buzzed in then walked around a dark apartment building come to find out it wasn't Ryan's apartment. Woops.

So it's been a relaxing day, we have a little more orientation tomorrow and classes start on wednesday.

Happiness!

Good news! Things have changed for the better.  Saturday was such a great day. We woke up early around 930, ate breakfast and headed to Italica where the Roman Ruins are. It was pretty cool to see the ruins and arena. Although Andria and I complained most of the time because A. we hate tours and B. I was still upset because my luggage had still not arrived, we sucked it up and walked around. After Italica we got back on the bus and drove to a Horse farm which sounds pretty weird but it was actually awesome. As soon as we got off the bus we were greeted with drinks and flamenco dancing and singing. There were horses and tapas and everyone was enjoying themselves. After trying shark, which was pretty delicious we sat down for a horse show. It was wild. The horses could dance, cross their feet, and do all this other cool stuff. After the show we had a nice lunch then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night because we were going to see a Flamenco show.

Over the past two days we have met some pretty great people. Everyone’s really having a good time, laughing and looking forward to the rest of the semester. We’ve mostly been hanging out with Ryan, Max and these two boys from California that we met, John & Tommy. They remind me a lot of the boys from home, pure entertainment never a dull moment. We probably are having too much fun for people who just met each other a couple days ago. But Hey- whatevs.

Last night we walked to the Flamenco show with all the students in the program, and of course our “20” minute walk turned into an hour walk to this little bar/show place near the river in Sevilla. The show was pretty awesome, the women dancing were wicked good. It’s interesting to see from a tap dancers point of view how the nail every single sound just from their high heel shoes. The guy playing guitar was also SICK. We ended up sneaking out of the Flamenco place after the show because we were starving, and of course us “stupid Americans” manage to make our way to a McDonalds and some sort of Spanish version of subway at 11:30 at night.  Everyone was thrilled because in Spain, McDonalds sells beer. So obviously the boys want to get wasted at McDonalds because its “cool”.

After that we made our way to the strip where all the bars were, we spent most of the night at this bar with a purple sign, No clue what it was called.  Me and Andria started our night off with a glass of Disorono on the rocks (*cheers rose*) then somehow took shots of Absthine? Like wtf is that crap? It’s bright green and gross. I literally had to go to the bathroom and get sick after taking it. First of all I have no clue why it’s illegal in the US but its just gross. Also the drinks in Spain are about 10x stronger than the ones in the US or at least the ones at The Place Boston. Literally 2 drinks and I am a goner.  I’ve felt so sick that I haven’t even had a chance to have a nice glass of wine, hopefully tonight I can manage to get one in.

But anyways we had fun at the bars talking to randos and eachother in Spanish, Andria making friends with some Argentinan man practicing her Spanish. Melonz has officially followed me to Spain,  that nickname will never get old. Also, one thing I don’t know how I am going to deal with is how late everyone stays out. Clubs/Bars stay open til 6am, that’s way too much for me to handle. 2am is pushing it for me sometimes, people don’t even go out around here until 1am at the earliest.  I NEED MY SLEEP. I hope I can get use to this..

Sunday- we all overslept by accident and missed the morning tour--- woopsies.

Around 1:30 Andria and I took a taxi to meet the group for Lunch at LaRaza which was amazing, a long sitdown lunch with delicious food. After us and Ryan walked over to La plaza de Espana and enjoyed the view and the nice weather, took a cab back where we all proceeded to snuggle in Max’s room.

we have our farewell dinner tonight at this gorgeous restaurant then we'll probably go out.  

Still no luggage and it's starting to put a damper on my trip..

So lets see. Does anything want to go my way?  I think not. I don’t know how I’ve been keeping up such high spirits when literally everything has gone wrong since I’ve gotten here. I must REALLY want to have a good time this semester.

Story one: Last night Max and Ryan talked me into going out for a drink near the futbol (can’t say soccer they will know we are Americans) stadium to watch the game. I took the metro over there and we sat, talked and laughed for a couple hours then I headed home, skyped my family then went to bed. 2 hours later I woke up and started getting sick until about 10:30am this morning. Keep in mind that I am getting on a bullet train to Sevilla. I finally get out of bed at 9am and start to pack my “belongings” which consist of a few toiletries, a shirt, a pair of shorts, and 2 pairs of jeans and heels- yes this is suppose to get me by for 4 days. NOT.

A few of the guys and myself took the metro to where the train station is where we met up with the rest of the group. The bullet train was really nice and the seats were very comfortable as well. It was cool to see the sites around as we took the 2 and a half hour journey from Madrid to Sevilla. When we got to Sevilla finally we hiked to the hotel in the heat and had lunch. It was a buffet, so of course us American students indulged seeing as we have been neglected of food for the past 3 days basically. We got our roommate assignments and half of us were paired with a person with the same name as us. I of course was put with another “Gabriela” (with one L).  apparently there are 6 other Gabriella’s at Suffolk Madrid. As you all know this does not go over very well in my head. I AM GABRIELLA. But anyways. Gabriela my room mate is very nice and has an amazing sense of style. Of course since I have no clothes or luggage I look like a homeless bum.

We started our journey around Sevilla walking to one of the largest Gothic Cathedrals in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous. I absolutely hate tours but I sucked it up and enjoyed myself as much as I could as we walked around the holy grounds. After that we split into groups to go for coffee  & meriendas, flamenco and also to so Macarena. My group first went to coffee and I felt so sick and upset after that one of the housing directors walked me and Andria back to the hotel so we could go to the room then do some shopping to find me something to wear.

Shopping was a fail. I got a shirt, leggings and a dress. That’s not going to take me very far but my god damn luggage better get here soon. I don’t feel well so I am not going to go out tonight, but we still haven’t even gone for dinner and it’s already 9:55 here.

I am exhausted and upset. I just want my luggage and I want to feel better. It’s funny because I’m really not even homesick, I am just stressed and tired over not having any clothes.

We have a fun day planned tomorrow in Sevilla which should definitely be a good time. 

To the depths of Hell and Back

I just returned from the first and hopefully the last traumatizing moments of this trip. After speaking with the airlines and being told that my luggage would be waiting at the airport to be picked up by 5pm, Andria and I take the 30 minute commute via metro to the airport to find out my bag is STILL MISSING. After frantically running around from terminal to terminal, which must have been at least 5 miles because one thing is for sure the Barajas airport is GIANORMOUS, checking at least 4 storage closets, my luggage was no where to be found.  I barely cry and I literally burst into head pounding, gut wrenching tears. What the hell am I suppose to do without clothes in a foreign country? We are going on a trip tomorrow for 4 days and I have nothing to wear of my own but a pair of socks and a dirty pink sports bra. Yeah, I mean I could wear Andria's clothes, but lets me serious me fitting into her bra is not happening. It doesn't help that when they let me look for my luggage, there was a suitcase in the closet IDENTICAL to mine with the name Pablo. Eff off Pablo. Why do you have a purple suitcase? After Andria literally screaming at the Iberia workers saying that her "sister" needs her luggage and they better find it because that is their job and me crying for an hour and a half we called the airline and they told me they'd ship the luggage to Seville when it got there and in the mean time I could buy things to get by and they will rein-burst me. Well good effing luck to whoever is paying the bill for my shopping spree. You better believe I am going to buy whatever the hell I want. Need a new pair of boots sure? Jeans? sure. Shirts, Bras, Underwear, Bathing-suites? Yup all of the above.  I am not a happy camper. Doesn't help that I haven't worked out in two days. I am already going insane. Someone wanna ship me a Kettle-bell?

los dias primeros en Espana

So! We are finally here in Madrid. After a long hot flight to London and a shorter sleepier flight to Madrid we finally made it to our destination. Yesterday was a rough day seeing as Andria and I literally were awake for more than 24 hours with no coffee and maybe an hour or two of sleep in each of us. If you know either of us you already know that this is just a terrible combination. Although made it safely to Spain, unfortunately my  70lb luggage did not. Its been 2 days and I have been living in Andria's clothes. This does not seem that bad but it would be nice if I could maybe have my own underwear back. I just got the news though that my bag will be arriving around 5 or so. 

But whatever.

We slept most of the day and night away yesterday so we are up and ready to go today. Still a little jet lagged, we woke up this morning got ready and experienced the "metro" for the first time. These trains put Boston to shame. They are quick, easy to figure out, and extremely clean considering what we are used to. They also have no homeless people begging for change from at least what we saw this morning. I just kept thinking what a sad semester it will be without "spare change man" in my face everyday. We arrived at orientation 20 minutes late, which is Spain does not matter, and sat through a few lectures about adjusting to the culture, sexual encounters and european men, and also of the great adventures and trips that would be offered to us throughout the next four months. I honestly think we had more "breaks" than we did orientation. After every 15 minutes they'd call for a "break". Like, what the hell is a break? We don't have those in America... I can already tell it is extremely different here, everyone is laid back and calm about everything. This is a perfect place for me considering my resolution for the new year. If you know even a little bit about me you know that I am always stressed out, worrying, and in a rush. Here  in the next four months is my opportunity to change the these few things that I don't admire about myself. Also my eating habits that are comparable to those of a "government mule" as my father would say. The portions in this country are maybe a 1/4 of what we eat in the States. I mean it is ridiculous. No wonder why everyone is so fat in America. Spanish people are also on a completely different eating schedule. For insistence, for breakfast they have literally have a cup of coffee and maybe a cookie or two. WHO THE HELL EATS COOKIES FOR BREAKFAST? where are the eggs? where is the oatmeal? what the hell am I suppose to eat for the next four months. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and still the portions are ridiculously small. Dinner comes around 8 and is smaller than Lunch. Last night we had veggies and fish, I can't wait to see what else they have to offer. 

But besides that I am a happy girl. There are so many things to do and so many places that we are going to travel. We are going to Seville for the weekend with the entire Suffolk campus and they have lots of stuff planned for us. I am most excited for Flamenco lessons. 

Classes start on wednesday so we will see how that goes. In terms of our room. I am currently living in the room the size of a small shack with beds sleeping "toe to toe" with Andria. I already by accidently almost kicked her in the face when I was laying down on my computer. Needless to say it's going to be a very interesting semester. Our dorm is filled with Students from Spain and other universities around the area, barely anyone speaks english and we have no clue who is living in our "appt". But it's only day 2 so we shall see! At least we live in the center of the city where everything is. 

We got lectured about "culture shock" today, I wonder when it's going to hit me. Time will tell....