TEN DAYS

10 days. diez dias. 10 dae 10أيام 

10 Tage 10 hari 10 jours 10 giorni 10日 10 gün

10天 X dies 10 dagar 10 טעג 

10 dienų 10 ijiem

HALA MADRID

As you all know Madrid won the Copa del rey against Barca the other day for the first time in 18 years. Yesterday I toured the stadium, here are a few pictures.

A list for fun.

A list of things I never want to see or eat again when I return to the United States

• JAMON (ham).. goes without saying, i've blogged about it enough, it's all they eat here. 
• Large jars of olive oil on anything. 
• fried food 
• peanut butter- let me explain this one. I know I was bitching and moaning about how bad I wanted peanutbutter when i first got here, i lasted a while without it then my mother brought me 4 jars and I ate them within less than a 2 month period, that's not okay. not at all. What was I thinking? I over did it clearly. I never want to see peanut butter again at this point. Especially because basically all I have eaten the past 4 months is the follow.. 
• ham
• french fries
• peanutbutter
• oil
• bread
• chocolate
• raisins 
• apples, pears, bananas & oranges (on rare occasions)
• yogurt
• mystery meat 
• fish that tastes like its been swimming in a gutter 
•  gelato 
• tea 
• coffee 
• croissants 
• more bread 
• pasta 
• gross deli meat
• rice 
• salad with chunks of tuna or egg in it and HUGE onions
• random soups with weird shit in it
• So yeah that's about it, I've literally only things I have eaten are above. So add all that to the list of things i never want to see agian 
• I also never want to see a dead pig hanging in a window, or fish heads and guts of animals when I am at the supermarket ever again. I am all set thank you very much.

I'm looking forward to seeing and using ice cubes when I return as well because apparently all spanish people like their drinks room temperature, gag me. I love my water ice cold and I have not had that in months!

17 days people 17 days.

So, I really just want to come home at this point. I've been sick for a week straight, cannot eat anything and what I can eat is so bland and boring that it just makes me want to throw myself off a 90 story building. I actually thought  I was better yesterday since I went to school and made it through the day for the most part but then I got home last night and haven't felt good since. My stomache is in excruciating pain, usually when I am sit I shower myself in treats such as chocolate and icecream  but clearly I cannot do that because this time it is a stomache ailment so I officially have no outlet of happiness. I can't even describe to you how many movies I have watched since last week it's just retarded. Thank god the spaniards are gone and the internet is working! I only have about 5 days left of this happiness so I need to milk it for all it's worth. We have a long weekend this week and seeing as I cannot drink and that's all these people do around here I have no clue what I am going to do, I have cabin fever from spending so much time in baradas and If i  have to eat any more soggy white rice and apples I might murder someone. But on the bright side, the cleaning lady changes our sheets yesterday for the first time in a month and a half. I am thrilled about this. My bed was so gross and crusty I was going to refuse to sleep in it anymore and just stay up all night sitting on my chair staring at the ceiling. But yeah, this has been my life for the past week. Absolute boredum. I could be doing all the homework I have or studying for my finals which I have in a week and a half but that would make too much sense and nothing makes sense in spain so it would be rude for me to go against the norm wouldn't it? I mean i'm pretty much a rule breaker all around with my big boobs and sandals so I might as well follow one thing that they do...

being sick is the worst thing that could ever happen to you when you are in a foreign country

I have been sick since tuesday afternoon and officially want to go play in traffic. I can't do anything, I can't concentrate on anything so it's not like I can even be productive in the area of school which I for sure know that I need to be. I've been in bed since wednesday and the only reason I have even left baradas at all was to go get aquarius(gatorade) which led to a little retail therapy which resulted in me back in bed. I miss america so much it's not even funny. 20 days. This is literally the hardest part. I know that I am so close, it's just such a tease. It's also killing me because the only thing I can eat is bread. seriously? UGH

Santander

This weekend we went on our all paid for school trip to Santander (it's in the northern part of Spain). It was about 30 kids and we had an absolute blast. We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the beach. We were all so excited to stay at a hotel after staying in hostels for the past 3 months, everyone went nuts over the showers. I probably stayed in the shower for a half hour one day. We got pizza hut and hung out on the beach when we first got there then later that night we went out for the weirdest dinner i've ever had in my life which consisted of very weird tapas and my "vegetarian" option which OF COURSE had ham in it... Why wouldn't it? Anyways..... The next day Lizzy, Steph, Shannon & I went on a tour of a couple of towns. We saw a museum of sex objects carved into walls and into stones??? A torture museum, A church, a house that Gaudi crafted and a few beaches. Later on we got drinks and went to the casino.
The next day I slept through breakfast, we checked out of the hotel at 12 then headed to a different village where we had lunch and about 8 bottles of wine before we hiked up a mountain to go tour some cave. It was  pretty cool. We then made our way back to Madrid which took FOREVER. because for some odd reason they insist of taking 45 minute breaks every 2 and a half hours because the bus driver needs  a "break".. COOL SPAIN. So we didn't get home til like 12:30 I have been exhausted all day after my 12 hours of class. It's been a long day and I have lots of work to do this week. But I will be in Madrid this weekend for the first time in Month which is kind of weird, but I'm excited to hang out.

Had an awesome weekend

Had an awesome weekend Will update tomorrow! Just got home at midnight from the longest bus ride of my entire life. 25 days....!!!!!!

Some pictures!

Positive Mindset

Okay so I know that I have been very negative lately via my blog and I have been kind of lashing out at a lot of people (sorry you know i love you!)  so I decided that I need to express myself in a more positive manner because I actually am really have a great time and studying abroad is probably the best thing that ever happened to me and hands down the greatest experience of my life thus far.  It's just the little things that are starting to really bother me because lets face it it's friggin HARD to be away from a life you've been used to for 19 years. It's like I got on a plane with two suitcases, a backpack and a pillow and landed in a different country where NOTHING is like what I am used to.  But it's okay I really needed this. Being here has made me realize so much about myself and about life. I now know what is important to me.

Literally the one thing that is putting a damper on my experience abroad is my living situation, as you all know I live in a 2 by 4 box and sleep toe to toe with Andria, get treated like shit by the lunch/cleaning ladies and barely take a warm shower. Instead of being negative I am going to make a list of positive things I have gotten out of this experience.

1. Meeting Kristen- Kristen is our next door neighbor, she is from Miami and is studying abroad here as well but at a different school. If we didn't live here we would have never met her. I literally love this girl so much. She's helped me get through a lot here, she's a great friend and she's fun. Since all the girls at Suffolk Madrid suck I am so thankful I met her.
2. I can say that I have lived in a building with people from ALL around the world. There are kids who live here from all around spain and different parts of europe as well as other study abroad students from the US. I think that's pretty cool. All of the other kids who go to Suffolk Madrid and other kids I know from home who are studying abroad live mostly with kids from their program who are from the US.
3. Tommy- So we met all the boys we usually hang out with in Sevilla and hang out with them all the time bla bla bla. but Tommy is the only one of the three who lives with us. If we didn't live together we definitely wouldn't be as close to him as we are. Although he makes fun of me and we bicker a lot I'm glad we got to be such good friends. He is one of the only people we won't see all the time when we go back to Suffolk Boston( He is from california). It makes me upset that he won't be around but we can always visit.
4. Okay so Andria & I have lived together for 2 years now, but we always had a big enough room where we really weren't in eachothers face 24/7 and we always did our own thing. Being here we literally have done EVERYTHING together and have been together basically 24/7. If you can survive in a room that small and be with someone so much and not kill eachother, that's true friendship right there. I know that we both get on eachothers nerves sometimes because we literally have no alone time (from anyone that is) but I know that at the end of the day our friendship is so much stronger because of this. We've basically been through hell and back together at this point with all the shit we've had to deal with the past 3 months.
(PS forgot to mention that last week on the way to Ibiza I left my passport at Baradas and Kristen had to bring it to the airport (which is 40 minutes away) so that I could get on my flight, see true friendship)
5. We can barely get on the internet but it forces us to all hang out and do stuff together.
6.Getting to know Pete, Joe, Nery, Edvina, Bree and Joe Talluto. These are kids from Suffolk Boston who we either met here or have gotten to know better since being here. It's nice because we're all very differently and probably wouldn't even have crossed paths if we were back in Boston.
7. Appreciation. Overall Baradas just makes me appreciate my living situation at home and makes me realize that I can literally live in a box and survive.


I'm going to try really hard for the next month to just relax and enjoy Madrid. This weekend we are going to Santander, which is in the northern part of Spain. It's a school trip so everything is paid for which is  a fantastic feeling because I have been going through money like water. After this weekend I have no more trips planned so I will be spending 3 weekends in Madrid then I am coming home. It's crazy how fast this semester flew by. I literally feel like I just got here. I also think it's funny how I was totally fine for 2 and a half months then all of a sudden I started getting severe culture shock. Today, Andria & I were reading the sheet of paper that SUMC gave us at the beginning of the semester about the stages of culture shock... we're both in  the "agressive" stage right now...hahhaa oh well.

Song of the day..

Fun Fact: I cannot listen to one Bruce Springsteen song or Hootie and the Blowfish song without getting tears in my eyes. Cannot wait to see my family, even JULIANNA!

Things I don't understand about Madrid

After spending a lovely weekend away from Madrid and basking in the sun in Ibiza I decided that since it is about 70 degrees out today that I was going to wear Sandals. Sounds normal right? Well not to these friggin people. Apparently it is like a cardinal sin to show your feet in this culture so people have been staring at me all day with the most discusted looks on their faces. Picture this: me walking around in flower sandals, a tie die tank-top, obnxious fake ray bands with flowers on them, and a canadian jumpsuit (jeans and a jean jacket). If you saw the looks I have been getting today you would think that I was walking around topless and had bright pink hair, but oh wait thats probably more acceptable here than god damn flip flops. I just don't get it. It's like the top three things that people shun the most in this country are 1. flipflops, 2. eating and 3.girls going to the gym. first of all I AM GOING TO WEAR FLIPFLOPS do you want my feet to sweat all day and in result have my entire body be overheated and I die? okay no you don't so DEAL WITH IT. 2 & 3. Eating & working- oh what sorry I don't go throw up after every friggin like the girls in your country do. I know you think it's not normal for a girl to eat but if I am going to eat i am going to workout/run so you can stop staring when I jog around the park 5 times. and while your at it you can stop caring that my boobs are so big because apparently europe just cannot deal with busty woman. It's not my fault your stupid food makes me fat and makes my already obxniously large boobs get even bigger than anyone would ever want them to. Also sorry that I'm 5'0 and all the godamn girls here are tall and are just about as skinny as my legs. I would also feel more like a human in your stupid food wasn't dosed in 5 bottles of oil and we didn't eat at 10 oclock at night.
I don't even remember what it's like to eat breakfast forget about eating dinner at a normal time like 530 everyones too busy taking friggin siestas.
okay sorry for venting i am just very frustrated. 32 days. I am gunna make it.