haha well last night was hysterical.
and before that, the day was sweet. i can proudly say that i am no longer a 'cien mandetitos' virgin! god, that place is heavenly. its a little restaurant right near the cathedral that has a menu of 100 (cien) little sandwhiches (mandetitos). they go from really simple to more complex, on really good bread, and with potato chips. whats the absolute best is that on wednesdays, every mandetito is only one euro! so i think its going to be tradition to go every wednesday after our later class! even better, on wednesdays with every mandetito, you get a huuugeee pint glass of tinto verano or beer. so along with my jamon and tomate, chorizo y brie, and bacon y pimiente verde, i got 3 amazingly delicious tinto veranos. got a little tipsy off those which was great. so many people showed up so it was awesome, except that place is tiny and it was packeeddd. and next time jose luis doesnt go pick up his mandetitos for a twenty minutes, im absolutley stealing it. yum!
next, we hauled our half-drunk asses to corte ingles (with kayla and alena). per usual, i looked like the typical american drunkard with a bottle of wine and bottle of vodka in both my hands, walking around. oh, and the most delicious chocolate you have ever EVER had in your life, ferrio rocher. its everything you would ever want- its nutty, chocolately, silky smooth, crunchy- basically infinite heaven in your mouth.
but our real night started when we walked over to the residencias right near plaza cuba. they are pretty sweet. its all american kids housed dorm style- they are right by the river and they have little porches- perfect for smoking. our pregame at chris, jeremy, mike, and their spanish roommate alfonso (i think) consisted of a hilarious game of naming movie quotes and drinking wine, along with blasting typical american music. some memorable movie quotes:
"... im pregnant" "...with emotion?" - knocked up
shit, i cant think of the ones from last night... dammit. there was for sure superbad, wedding crashers, dirty dancing, all the best comedies because thats all i know. anywayss, we continued on to calle betis to 'alberquerque' (haha) for some cheap shots. tequila all the wayyy baby- below one euro. probably meaning they are half water. but hey, who cares? the bartender is real chill and sold us weed, so no complaints there. hopefully we get to free shot status real soon. this hoppin' bar usually has quite the display of inappropriate tv shows on ranging from a selection of hard core porn, dick-in-a-hole surprises, violent yet sexy escapades, among others. quite entertaining, in fact. sadly, last night lacked this fantastic aspect.
next stop, bike stop. kayla, chris, jeremy, and i were all happily on our way to cathedral when at one point, kayla and i turned around and -poof!- they were gone. thanks for ditching guysss! finally made it to cathedral- place sucked this time, unfortunately. filled all the way up with straight creepers on the prowl. after several minutes of dancing while feeling on display, we decided to ditch.
on to the next episooddee, da da da da da. spliff time! reminder to self: buy papers. or even better, 'hey moomm, could you just go into that drawer in my room and send me that little orange rectangle box that says zig zags right on over to here..no, no, dont worry what its for, just send it over. thanksss'. after dissecting out the tabacco of a ciagerette, a serious operation by the way, we sat on some lucky person's doorstep and packed it up. hailed down a cab to buddha, and smoked it right outside. 'thats a funny looking cigarette you got there.'
well, contrary to popular belief, or maybe just my belief (?), wednesday nights are not bumpin'. repeat: NOT bumpin'. i had been convinced that wednesdays were the new thursdays (which they technically are, since allyson and i have no class thursdays), but i was miserably proved wrong last night. because as kayla and i strolled into buddha like we owned the placed, we were able to count about 17 people in there. knowing this could not possibly be it, we hiked up the stairs to the other levels, and there was noone, nooonnnee i tell you! bummer. but it didnt matter, cuz high as balls like we were, we parked ourselves in the bottom level, in a nicely cushioned corner, perfect for people watching, and we had ourselves a fucking ball. first, we had the dumbest and creepiest waiter. he comes over, asks what we want for drinks. first request, as always, i ask for a margarita. and dude, im telling you NOBODY here knows what a fucking margarita is. even if its on the fucking menu, they dont have it or know how to make it. the other night, i went to the bar, asked for a variety of drinks, they had none (or couldnt make them), so i just go 'ok make me something good and strong' and the lady, being an expert bartender brings me jager and red bull... are you fuckin serious? like for real? oh, the best part, she charges me 7 euros. riiight, bitch. but anywhooo, where was i? oh yes, our waiter! he knows no drinks, so we just say ok, 'vodka and orange juice', can we make it any simpler for you? he brings it over, basically entirely filled with ice, and were like, wtf?, so hes like ok, free shots! and in the middle of this, when we couldnt understand wtf he was saying, kayla just starts saying 'somos americanas, somos americanas'. i was like ha! duhhh! im pretty sure everyone in the entire world knows we are from america! (but apparently he had asked). so yes, free shots! what do we want, he asks. after more offerings of shots, with him having no clue, i just go ok, tequila, tequila. (love the shit). with a perfect oblivious look on his face, (the one i usually sport- haha homer simpson & duff), he goes 'ok, ok surprise shots!'. so he comes out bringing shots and we are like omg! what is it! and he goes, guess!, TEQUILA!. we are like... sweet surprise. and get this, seriously this place does everything wrong! the shots are in tall glasses with ice cubs in them and the place apparently doesnt have limes, lemons OR salt. for tequilaa, hellooo!?! so we are like, ok whatever, and he awkwardly and creepily stands there watching us as we down the shots. ok byee dumb waiter.
but the night only begins. theres a threesome of 30 years olds, 2 guys and a girl, sitting right near us, most blatantly enjoying our high dumbness, as we are continuously laughing hysterically. "oh look, theres a buddha!' -(which i cant believe i even dared say, since the place is fucking called buddha!) to which kayla goes 'did u just say, oooo barracuudaa'? haha classic. i then understood that wrong but cant remember what in the devil i thought she said. but anyways, this 3some approaches us and after us establishing that no, we are in fact not lesbians, we had some quality conversations about how the girl didnt know how to flirt because she straight up straddles her possible one-night-stands of the night, and we should add her on facebook- she even gave me her card, shits getting serious. truly nice people though. even added it was probably better for us to pretend to be lesbian anyways in order to ward off all the creepy wednesday night guys. well, we have finally experienced buddha wednesday and it is not the same as buddha weekend. hysterial high night.
random thoughts:
things spain needs to be introduced to-
1. toilet paper!
2. the internet
- croquetas are delicious. but not from the hamburgeuseria right down the street from us, which however, still does have delicious hamburgers and fries served until 4 am. how convenient.
- a hookah place is called a 'teteria', which is not to be confused with a tit show.
- having an entire ham leg in your kitchen is considered legit. (side note: our sexy marketing teacher, nano, told us one of his students had wanted extremely badly to bring back a ham leg to the united states and had been scheming for weeks trying to figure out how to put it past the customs point, and finally decided to stick it in a violin case. very creative, i must admit.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
vodka & vespas
this will be a compilation of random thoughts and funny encounters.
Numero uno favorite thing right now: VESPAS! Thought I was gonna say vodka, huh? But seriously straight up obsessed with vespas- slightly not funny ha. I rode on the back of one and it was fabulous- plus it was one of the only days of sun and everything looked so pretty. I need to get myself a boyfriend with a motorcycle- so damn sexy. Allyson wont stop making fun of me cuz they have them all over cali, but this is my new thrill.
Other accomplishment: I sang karaoke for the first time! Can you guess the song? ‘Summer love’ from grease, oh ya. With allyson, caleb, and one of his friends- together for boys and girls parts. Summer lovin, havin a blast, summer lovin, happened so fasstttt. So drunk, so great. Happens every Monday night at Phoenix so something tells me this wont be my last song.
Mondays might become salsa Mondays because they offer free lessons. That would be fuckin sweet. Maybe I can redeem myself from the embarrassment of a show I put on dancing flamenco with caleb.
and also karaoke nights.
we got in trouble with our madre because we are slobs. ha, typical. we know perfectly well that the maid comes every thursday and we are (reasonably) expected to have put out our laundry, taken off the sheets ,and cleaned up our room a little bit so that the maid can clean our room. well, this past thursday, our "ladyships" decided to completely ignore this fact and instead cleaned nothing, put out no laundry, did not even attempt to hide our extensive collection of alcohol bottles, and i simply stayed in bed with the lights turned off. then we skipped lunch with the family. oops.
ive recently explained to allyson upon request that there are several levels to guy creepiness. she, hilariously enough to my enjoyment, gets extremely uncomfortable very quick and i find it all too entertaining. one particular case, which i admit was at the highest level of creepy, took place on calle betis, big surprise. this particular guy waved me over multiple times and thought he was being all smooth with his spanish moves- quite the opposite in fact, but still hilarious. he told me he would marry me and as i stepped away to go order more tequila shots at the bar, allyson joined me and he kissed her arm. hahahha i thoroughly enjoyed seeing her uncomfortable. great moments.
every group of friends has a karen. fuckin karens coming. fuckin karen. thats her name. fucking karen.
Numero uno favorite thing right now: VESPAS! Thought I was gonna say vodka, huh? But seriously straight up obsessed with vespas- slightly not funny ha. I rode on the back of one and it was fabulous- plus it was one of the only days of sun and everything looked so pretty. I need to get myself a boyfriend with a motorcycle- so damn sexy. Allyson wont stop making fun of me cuz they have them all over cali, but this is my new thrill.
Other accomplishment: I sang karaoke for the first time! Can you guess the song? ‘Summer love’ from grease, oh ya. With allyson, caleb, and one of his friends- together for boys and girls parts. Summer lovin, havin a blast, summer lovin, happened so fasstttt. So drunk, so great. Happens every Monday night at Phoenix so something tells me this wont be my last song.
Mondays might become salsa Mondays because they offer free lessons. That would be fuckin sweet. Maybe I can redeem myself from the embarrassment of a show I put on dancing flamenco with caleb.
and also karaoke nights.
we got in trouble with our madre because we are slobs. ha, typical. we know perfectly well that the maid comes every thursday and we are (reasonably) expected to have put out our laundry, taken off the sheets ,and cleaned up our room a little bit so that the maid can clean our room. well, this past thursday, our "ladyships" decided to completely ignore this fact and instead cleaned nothing, put out no laundry, did not even attempt to hide our extensive collection of alcohol bottles, and i simply stayed in bed with the lights turned off. then we skipped lunch with the family. oops.
ive recently explained to allyson upon request that there are several levels to guy creepiness. she, hilariously enough to my enjoyment, gets extremely uncomfortable very quick and i find it all too entertaining. one particular case, which i admit was at the highest level of creepy, took place on calle betis, big surprise. this particular guy waved me over multiple times and thought he was being all smooth with his spanish moves- quite the opposite in fact, but still hilarious. he told me he would marry me and as i stepped away to go order more tequila shots at the bar, allyson joined me and he kissed her arm. hahahha i thoroughly enjoyed seeing her uncomfortable. great moments.
every group of friends has a karen. fuckin karens coming. fuckin karen. thats her name. fucking karen.
cadiz carnaval. epic fail.
Guess Ive decided to revert to my old ways of visiting blackout city, currently known as cadiz. Saturday we went to cadiz for carnaval, which is basically spain’s Halloween. A supposedly real wild time, which from other people’s pictures, I can tell that it was an absolute shitshow. Only downfall: I can probably only recount about twenty minutes of a night that lasted over four hours. Allyson and I both were a little overambitious in our downing a fifth of rum on our way to carnaval. Apparently that is a bad idea when not having had dinner? Oh, ok. Strike one.
We should have known right from the beginning this night was going to be an absolute fail. Per usual, allyson and I left our house late, at the approximate time that the buses were supposed to be leaving. Good start. Thank god that at least there were bikes at the station right near our house- or so we thought at the time. We realized our mistake once we searched for all the closest bike stations and the first 12 we found were all filled up- joke. Finally find a couple empty spots and have to sprint back 2 miles to where the buses are- and we don’t even know the exact location of where we are supposed to meet. Strike two. After running around a circle of a huge building, we see hoards of people and spot two of our friends on one of the buses. Being our considerate selves, we cut everyone to get on this bus. strike three: this turned out to be the lamest bus ever. No one was partying, no one was drinking, the music was terrible (allyson and I ended up jamming to our own beats on the way), the kid in front of us threw up, no one we knew was on our bus. Only possible highlight: the bus pulled over on the highway and about 30 kids got off to pee in the bushes- classy. So we already have three strikes. But please know, the bad decisions only continue from there. Once we arrive, we immediately leave the bus stop to find something to eat, just us 4, Kayla, alena, allyson, and i. we for sure should have stayed to see where else fucking everyone was. I hardly remember this sandwich shop and I think from there, I was just drunk stumbling with the girls. Later, allyson and I separated from Kayla and alena to go find people we knew. Well that was certainly the biggest strike of all because I don’t know where the fuck we went, but we took allll the wrong turns down all the little side streets that led to absolutely nowhere. In the hours that we were way-too-drunk stumbling, we never EVER found the main plaza or ANYONE we knew. How is that POSSIBLE? I have no answers- only vague recollections of asking for water at a bar and being turned away, hitchhiking with my raver outfit and sunglasses on and being denied, stealing a water bottle from a Spanish guy, sitting on the corner of two streets waiting for a miracle, calling everyone in my phone book 17 times to no avail, and walking through a Spanish concert. So overall, epic fail. At least it wasn’t fucking raining, for the first time in a week. Even better, allyson woke up to an empty bag of potato chips in her purse the next morning… when did that happen? Finally, FINALLY, harassed a cab to pick us up and he brought us to the buses just in time for them to leave. Were given a sandwhich and water bottle- thank god allyson had fallen asleep cuz I downed both those water bottles in less than 37 seconds. When we got dropped off in sevilla, I saw hitchhiking as another great option- grabbed a car with Emilio and Pablo, such nice guys who gave us a ride home haha. Upon returning finally in our warm room, I expressed my ultimate jealousy of allysons rainboots and big ass water bottle because mine is half that size and I have to wake up 3 times a night to refill it since I down so much water every night after a night out. The only way we have been able to content ourselves about this night is that it is a fucking slopfest and most of the people who went on the trip were in between blackouts as well. Basically, im ignoring the fact this ever happened.
and also! before going, we looked absolutely fucking everywhere for glowsticks to complete our outfits as ravers, but no luck. we asked a bunch of people and everyone kept recommending 'chino'. blatantly telling us to go to the chinese stores that are all over the place and have all the random shit you never thought u needed but now you realize you absolutely want. we did get a couple light up things but still, no glowsticks. and the chinese fucking follow your every step the second you walk in those stores. all of a sudden, they are like 'oh ya, im looking at this exact section of things, and now as youre moving over here, i also, coincidentally need to get something over here..' fucking hate that shit. im gonna steal something specifically out of spite. cant wait.
on a funnier note, in corte ingles, which is the closest thing to a supermarket here, we were on our way to get alcohol for the trip and in the next aisle over, who do i see but the nerd (his name is jordan i found out) who was dancing in cathedral the other night with glowsticks. i was like holy fuck, no way! cuz i had been saying for the past 2 days that i needed to find this kid to ask him where he got glowsticks and damn, there he is right there! buying some rum, just like us. small world. i hesitate for a second, deciding whether i should pounce on this kid or not, and decide of course to go ahead. he is all startled and nervous, its cute really haha. but he hadnt bought them- the glowsticks had been given to him at the club. damn. strike seventeen. shoulda seen our wreck of a night looming ahead.
we went to cadiz the day before too during the day to visit the town. didnt see much of the town or the beaches due to shitty rain the entire time. instead ventured into a couple bars, had a couple drinks, befriended the bartender. overall, still a good time with some good people... i really need to think about getting myself some rainboots though cuz the rain has been nonstop and i specifically refused to pack anything rain related with the assumption that it was going to be 80 degrees once i arrived in sevilla. apparently, my weather predictions arent quite on point... maybe ill get some from the chino.
We should have known right from the beginning this night was going to be an absolute fail. Per usual, allyson and I left our house late, at the approximate time that the buses were supposed to be leaving. Good start. Thank god that at least there were bikes at the station right near our house- or so we thought at the time. We realized our mistake once we searched for all the closest bike stations and the first 12 we found were all filled up- joke. Finally find a couple empty spots and have to sprint back 2 miles to where the buses are- and we don’t even know the exact location of where we are supposed to meet. Strike two. After running around a circle of a huge building, we see hoards of people and spot two of our friends on one of the buses. Being our considerate selves, we cut everyone to get on this bus. strike three: this turned out to be the lamest bus ever. No one was partying, no one was drinking, the music was terrible (allyson and I ended up jamming to our own beats on the way), the kid in front of us threw up, no one we knew was on our bus. Only possible highlight: the bus pulled over on the highway and about 30 kids got off to pee in the bushes- classy. So we already have three strikes. But please know, the bad decisions only continue from there. Once we arrive, we immediately leave the bus stop to find something to eat, just us 4, Kayla, alena, allyson, and i. we for sure should have stayed to see where else fucking everyone was. I hardly remember this sandwich shop and I think from there, I was just drunk stumbling with the girls. Later, allyson and I separated from Kayla and alena to go find people we knew. Well that was certainly the biggest strike of all because I don’t know where the fuck we went, but we took allll the wrong turns down all the little side streets that led to absolutely nowhere. In the hours that we were way-too-drunk stumbling, we never EVER found the main plaza or ANYONE we knew. How is that POSSIBLE? I have no answers- only vague recollections of asking for water at a bar and being turned away, hitchhiking with my raver outfit and sunglasses on and being denied, stealing a water bottle from a Spanish guy, sitting on the corner of two streets waiting for a miracle, calling everyone in my phone book 17 times to no avail, and walking through a Spanish concert. So overall, epic fail. At least it wasn’t fucking raining, for the first time in a week. Even better, allyson woke up to an empty bag of potato chips in her purse the next morning… when did that happen? Finally, FINALLY, harassed a cab to pick us up and he brought us to the buses just in time for them to leave. Were given a sandwhich and water bottle- thank god allyson had fallen asleep cuz I downed both those water bottles in less than 37 seconds. When we got dropped off in sevilla, I saw hitchhiking as another great option- grabbed a car with Emilio and Pablo, such nice guys who gave us a ride home haha. Upon returning finally in our warm room, I expressed my ultimate jealousy of allysons rainboots and big ass water bottle because mine is half that size and I have to wake up 3 times a night to refill it since I down so much water every night after a night out. The only way we have been able to content ourselves about this night is that it is a fucking slopfest and most of the people who went on the trip were in between blackouts as well. Basically, im ignoring the fact this ever happened.
and also! before going, we looked absolutely fucking everywhere for glowsticks to complete our outfits as ravers, but no luck. we asked a bunch of people and everyone kept recommending 'chino'. blatantly telling us to go to the chinese stores that are all over the place and have all the random shit you never thought u needed but now you realize you absolutely want. we did get a couple light up things but still, no glowsticks. and the chinese fucking follow your every step the second you walk in those stores. all of a sudden, they are like 'oh ya, im looking at this exact section of things, and now as youre moving over here, i also, coincidentally need to get something over here..' fucking hate that shit. im gonna steal something specifically out of spite. cant wait.
on a funnier note, in corte ingles, which is the closest thing to a supermarket here, we were on our way to get alcohol for the trip and in the next aisle over, who do i see but the nerd (his name is jordan i found out) who was dancing in cathedral the other night with glowsticks. i was like holy fuck, no way! cuz i had been saying for the past 2 days that i needed to find this kid to ask him where he got glowsticks and damn, there he is right there! buying some rum, just like us. small world. i hesitate for a second, deciding whether i should pounce on this kid or not, and decide of course to go ahead. he is all startled and nervous, its cute really haha. but he hadnt bought them- the glowsticks had been given to him at the club. damn. strike seventeen. shoulda seen our wreck of a night looming ahead.
we went to cadiz the day before too during the day to visit the town. didnt see much of the town or the beaches due to shitty rain the entire time. instead ventured into a couple bars, had a couple drinks, befriended the bartender. overall, still a good time with some good people... i really need to think about getting myself some rainboots though cuz the rain has been nonstop and i specifically refused to pack anything rain related with the assumption that it was going to be 80 degrees once i arrived in sevilla. apparently, my weather predictions arent quite on point... maybe ill get some from the chino.
Almeria beach weekend getaway
Quick side note: new favorite song: Pursuit of Happiness by Kid Cudi, Ratatat, & MGMT. absolute love.
This weekend was fabulous! Alena, Kayla, pepe, quique, and I hit the road and set out for a weekend getaway at Almeria, a province by the sea that is not especially pretty but has the best beaches and is also the cheapest in all of spain, meaning more yummy tapas! Considering alenas and I lack of sleep due to the other night, we were slightly fading on the what I had been told was a two hour drive and what turned out to be a four hour drive haha. Alena made herself comfortable in the back seat, sleeping, while I suffered trying to stay awake to talk to our driver, pepe, who was probably just as tired as us. Im glad I stayed awake though. The views were incredible- it would go from huge bright green pastures, to olive tree fields, to rolling hills, to big snow-capped mountains- just all so gorgeous and varied. Nothing like the highways in America where all you can see is the highway and rocks on either side. These views made the whole road trip part of it that much better. And the sunsets- oh man, fabulous. However, I made sure alena took the front seat on our way back so I could pass out on our return trip haha.
Got to Almeria around 9 maybe. Chilled for a little while. Started watching a typical Spanish movie, Hitch. Obviously. Really opened my eyes up to Spanish culture. Ha. Starting off our night, we went right downstairs to the restaurant under their apartment, which btw was right on the beach, like step out of the porch and theres the beach! So great. Its pepes grandparents house who had NINE children, god damn, they were busy. Anyways, this restaurant is sweet- we got a bunch of tapas for real cheap. Jamon y tomate, queso y otro tipo de jamon, croquetas, other yummy stuff. And of course, the whole time downing tinto verano, a wine and club soda type mix. We had a couple two three laughs, especially when Kayla told us quique had told her “you can go down now” (patting his thighs) as they stopped on the side of the highway. She was like… uhh, what time is it? But what quique actually meant was she could get out and stretch her legs. Haha you can go down now hahaha. epic ‘lost in translation’ mistake.
After dinner, we headed out to caramelo, not to be confused with caramelA, which we went to after. With pepes extensive knowledge of the streets of Almeria, it only took us 45 minutes to get to our destination, of course after asking several people for directions along the way. Sounds about right to our usual adventures- always plan for 3 times longer than actually ever necessary. And when we finally got there, the first thing we wanted to do was leave! Don’t get me wrong, the place was poppin’- it had bright multi colored lights, was playing lady gaga, had music videos playing all around, had a sweet balcony up top, and hot bartenders. Only little detail: I was slightly terrified of seeing my parents sneak up out of nowhere cuz everyone in there was no doubt at least 20 years older than us. If we didn’t feel like our grandparents could walk in any minute, this place woulda been ballin’. But it still was, because making the best of our situation, we started showing those oldie fools how its done. So dressed in our best high boots and mini-dresses, us three chicas started an epic dance party. Ignoring disgusted and hilarious side glances, we rocked hard to Christina Aguilera on the balcony, mostly also due to the amount of free drinks (probably because we were the youngest in there) we got from the bartender (which included caramel shots, of course, yum!). after resting assured that most everyone in the club had had the opportunity to look up my dress as I was glancing over the balcony, we decided to head out.
caramelA was our next victim. Or was it the other way around? Caramela then caramelo? Does it really matter? But really, you guys should have seen the trees lining up these streets- trimmed like cylinders- quite entertaining. But im getting slightly off topic. Caramela, or o?, was not as bumpin as all those 50 years old, sadly I must say. But us dancing fools still jammed to the all Spanish music. It was a much plainer bar and I was already starting to miss my usual environment of bright lights, way too loud music, and possible ecstasy breeding ground. Listen, I like Spanish music, I really do, but they don’t really know what a drum is, and I need a BEAT yo. With my protesting of being in dire need of American music so I could forget about the fact that my shoes were causing me severe pain, and in the hopes of more free drinks, we set out to a different discoteca. And this place sure was sloppy. Apparently its only ‘bitches and drunks’ that go here, am I right? Well, we certainly all fit into that category, fo sho. Upon entering, I was almost dragged to the floor by an aggressive and over eager Spanish guy as he grabbed the hood of my sweatshirt- yeah?, you get many ladies that way? This last stop included more entertaining people watching (we were so lucky as to witness, no joke, a couple stabbing tongues at each other.. whatever floats your boat, I guess), more free drinks (which at one point, I was double fisting, and a guy next to me gave me the most disgusted look- dumb americans. All I could do was laugh, naturally.). at maybe 4 points during the time we were in there, we were able to experience a little taste of home- american music, my lord. But don’t get too excited, only for about ten seconds at a time at intervals of half hours. And every time I heard a beat I recognized, I happened to be across the room and in the time I tried to fight my way back to alena so we could celebrate American beat, the clip was over. Real sad. Also tragically, in the process of a fabulous night, I lost the tie-thing to my jacket. We made it back to the casa around 7, 730. And the night was not over then- alena and I listened to pepes drunk ass rambling, basically to himself, as he was vigorously shaking my contacts case. Entertaining. We took our first opportunity as he stepped out of our room for one second to close the door real quick. Haha. And that sentence does not really make sense but you get what I mean.
My recollection of my sleeping is quite terrible- alena and I were both crunched up in fetal position shivering under too thin blankets. Absolutely freezing. As soon as the sun came out, I took my handkerchief of a blanket and a pillow, laid out on the porch to soak up the sun while being serenaded by the guy playing the accordion- much warmer, plus maybe I got a tan.. hopefully? God, I cant wait for sun! supposedly sevilla gets ten days of rain a year, and apparently we have been here for all of them- way lame. Anyways, we spent the day relaxing, recovering, by watching another classic Spanish movie- forgetting sarah marshall. I had totally forgotten how fucking hilarious that movie is- straight up hysterical. This day was way more relaxed- couple bottles of wine, lunch, walking by the beach- real trippy looking boardwalk, watching soccer game (Barcelona won!). reminder: I need to go to a soccer game in sevilla! Dinner was at the asian restaurant right down the street from us, and since the boys were being lame and were tired, we went back home around 130, 2. We chilled, watched part of ‘jersey girl’ and then fell asleep. Ps- never subject yourself to that terrible movie. Almost as bad as ‘funny people.’ Horrendous.
Next morning, lunch tapas, tinto verano, and ride home. Sweet time.
This weekend was fabulous! Alena, Kayla, pepe, quique, and I hit the road and set out for a weekend getaway at Almeria, a province by the sea that is not especially pretty but has the best beaches and is also the cheapest in all of spain, meaning more yummy tapas! Considering alenas and I lack of sleep due to the other night, we were slightly fading on the what I had been told was a two hour drive and what turned out to be a four hour drive haha. Alena made herself comfortable in the back seat, sleeping, while I suffered trying to stay awake to talk to our driver, pepe, who was probably just as tired as us. Im glad I stayed awake though. The views were incredible- it would go from huge bright green pastures, to olive tree fields, to rolling hills, to big snow-capped mountains- just all so gorgeous and varied. Nothing like the highways in America where all you can see is the highway and rocks on either side. These views made the whole road trip part of it that much better. And the sunsets- oh man, fabulous. However, I made sure alena took the front seat on our way back so I could pass out on our return trip haha.
Got to Almeria around 9 maybe. Chilled for a little while. Started watching a typical Spanish movie, Hitch. Obviously. Really opened my eyes up to Spanish culture. Ha. Starting off our night, we went right downstairs to the restaurant under their apartment, which btw was right on the beach, like step out of the porch and theres the beach! So great. Its pepes grandparents house who had NINE children, god damn, they were busy. Anyways, this restaurant is sweet- we got a bunch of tapas for real cheap. Jamon y tomate, queso y otro tipo de jamon, croquetas, other yummy stuff. And of course, the whole time downing tinto verano, a wine and club soda type mix. We had a couple two three laughs, especially when Kayla told us quique had told her “you can go down now” (patting his thighs) as they stopped on the side of the highway. She was like… uhh, what time is it? But what quique actually meant was she could get out and stretch her legs. Haha you can go down now hahaha. epic ‘lost in translation’ mistake.
After dinner, we headed out to caramelo, not to be confused with caramelA, which we went to after. With pepes extensive knowledge of the streets of Almeria, it only took us 45 minutes to get to our destination, of course after asking several people for directions along the way. Sounds about right to our usual adventures- always plan for 3 times longer than actually ever necessary. And when we finally got there, the first thing we wanted to do was leave! Don’t get me wrong, the place was poppin’- it had bright multi colored lights, was playing lady gaga, had music videos playing all around, had a sweet balcony up top, and hot bartenders. Only little detail: I was slightly terrified of seeing my parents sneak up out of nowhere cuz everyone in there was no doubt at least 20 years older than us. If we didn’t feel like our grandparents could walk in any minute, this place woulda been ballin’. But it still was, because making the best of our situation, we started showing those oldie fools how its done. So dressed in our best high boots and mini-dresses, us three chicas started an epic dance party. Ignoring disgusted and hilarious side glances, we rocked hard to Christina Aguilera on the balcony, mostly also due to the amount of free drinks (probably because we were the youngest in there) we got from the bartender (which included caramel shots, of course, yum!). after resting assured that most everyone in the club had had the opportunity to look up my dress as I was glancing over the balcony, we decided to head out.
caramelA was our next victim. Or was it the other way around? Caramela then caramelo? Does it really matter? But really, you guys should have seen the trees lining up these streets- trimmed like cylinders- quite entertaining. But im getting slightly off topic. Caramela, or o?, was not as bumpin as all those 50 years old, sadly I must say. But us dancing fools still jammed to the all Spanish music. It was a much plainer bar and I was already starting to miss my usual environment of bright lights, way too loud music, and possible ecstasy breeding ground. Listen, I like Spanish music, I really do, but they don’t really know what a drum is, and I need a BEAT yo. With my protesting of being in dire need of American music so I could forget about the fact that my shoes were causing me severe pain, and in the hopes of more free drinks, we set out to a different discoteca. And this place sure was sloppy. Apparently its only ‘bitches and drunks’ that go here, am I right? Well, we certainly all fit into that category, fo sho. Upon entering, I was almost dragged to the floor by an aggressive and over eager Spanish guy as he grabbed the hood of my sweatshirt- yeah?, you get many ladies that way? This last stop included more entertaining people watching (we were so lucky as to witness, no joke, a couple stabbing tongues at each other.. whatever floats your boat, I guess), more free drinks (which at one point, I was double fisting, and a guy next to me gave me the most disgusted look- dumb americans. All I could do was laugh, naturally.). at maybe 4 points during the time we were in there, we were able to experience a little taste of home- american music, my lord. But don’t get too excited, only for about ten seconds at a time at intervals of half hours. And every time I heard a beat I recognized, I happened to be across the room and in the time I tried to fight my way back to alena so we could celebrate American beat, the clip was over. Real sad. Also tragically, in the process of a fabulous night, I lost the tie-thing to my jacket. We made it back to the casa around 7, 730. And the night was not over then- alena and I listened to pepes drunk ass rambling, basically to himself, as he was vigorously shaking my contacts case. Entertaining. We took our first opportunity as he stepped out of our room for one second to close the door real quick. Haha. And that sentence does not really make sense but you get what I mean.
My recollection of my sleeping is quite terrible- alena and I were both crunched up in fetal position shivering under too thin blankets. Absolutely freezing. As soon as the sun came out, I took my handkerchief of a blanket and a pillow, laid out on the porch to soak up the sun while being serenaded by the guy playing the accordion- much warmer, plus maybe I got a tan.. hopefully? God, I cant wait for sun! supposedly sevilla gets ten days of rain a year, and apparently we have been here for all of them- way lame. Anyways, we spent the day relaxing, recovering, by watching another classic Spanish movie- forgetting sarah marshall. I had totally forgotten how fucking hilarious that movie is- straight up hysterical. This day was way more relaxed- couple bottles of wine, lunch, walking by the beach- real trippy looking boardwalk, watching soccer game (Barcelona won!). reminder: I need to go to a soccer game in sevilla! Dinner was at the asian restaurant right down the street from us, and since the boys were being lame and were tired, we went back home around 130, 2. We chilled, watched part of ‘jersey girl’ and then fell asleep. Ps- never subject yourself to that terrible movie. Almost as bad as ‘funny people.’ Horrendous.
Next morning, lunch tapas, tinto verano, and ride home. Sweet time.
Friday, February 5, 2010
all i do is party ha ha ha ha
oh mann.. well, that was fun! ha.
upon returning home last night, or morning really, at 730 am, i had some great skype conversations with kim, and then later with connor, owen, dom, and their new roommate who i knew from before! i loveee small world moments. hahha first thing kim says when she sees i am online, 'are you hammered?'. yes. haha love youu! it was so great skyping with all you guyss.
'oh my goddd, why did i drink so much and smoke so muchh, owww.. fuck'- ahah swear to god sounds exactly like you dom!
last night was real fun! actually this entire week has been great! and its only friday! considering i only have school 3 days a week, going out is a necessity every night! lets seeee. what the hell did i do this week? we went back to 'la carboneria' a couple nights to start off- thats the cool place with the live flamenco music which is really awesome. its pure sevilla. and the bartenders are cool. hold on.. now that i think of it, i think we were supposed to meet up with one of them? the place closed and alena and i got separate from the group- typical. and he was walking out at the same time as us and he helped ward off some creepy that was following us. i think he might have gotten on his motorcycle and was maybe gonna meet us at buddha?.. little blurry. but well see him again another night. so yes, last night was buddha again. so much fun! fucking love that place. tequila shottsss. couple guys, couple dances, lots of fun. met someone named alberto whos chill.
the other night was really fun too. its been raining these past couple days which is sad but whatever. but the other night allyson and i rode our bikes across town to this bar that was playing the soccer game. sevilla won 2-0! we got there real late so we didnt see too much. afterwards, we had planned on going to this club called cathedral for an 80s party, but that didnt end up happening, so i looked like a major dumbass wearing those bright green tights, ha. everyone bailed out on me to go out except for caleb! so we hung out- went to a couple bars. the first one was a little hole in the wall type place with all local people having drinks. it wasnt very busy but it was a sweet place to sit and talk. then we went to this bar the specializes in chocolate drinks which was sooo good. we bought chocolates too and they were delicious. there were only about 3 other people here that night. but the best part of this place though was the owner and her 6ishfriends. she starting dancing flamenco with one of them while another one sang and played music. it was soo cool. and then of course, they made us join them and i felt like a total retard trying to dance it. but it was really fun and we switched partners and redid the whole dance again which has like 4 verses haha so great though. another real spain experience. really cool. then, we waited in the pouring rain for an hour trying to find cabs that didnt exist haha. great night.
a different night we went to this american bar right behind calle betis called fundicion that hosts beruit tournaments every tuesday night. only americans can enter haha. but its real serious- people have to sign up online in the morning and there are like 30 teams and they play all night. 2 guys from api won! congrats adam and partner!
shit, i gtg. im going to almeria which is on the coast. not sure if its beach weather yet but still, it will be pretty. just heard its a 6 hour drive. gahh. kind of a spur of the moment decision.
hasta luego
upon returning home last night, or morning really, at 730 am, i had some great skype conversations with kim, and then later with connor, owen, dom, and their new roommate who i knew from before! i loveee small world moments. hahha first thing kim says when she sees i am online, 'are you hammered?'. yes. haha love youu! it was so great skyping with all you guyss.
'oh my goddd, why did i drink so much and smoke so muchh, owww.. fuck'- ahah swear to god sounds exactly like you dom!
last night was real fun! actually this entire week has been great! and its only friday! considering i only have school 3 days a week, going out is a necessity every night! lets seeee. what the hell did i do this week? we went back to 'la carboneria' a couple nights to start off- thats the cool place with the live flamenco music which is really awesome. its pure sevilla. and the bartenders are cool. hold on.. now that i think of it, i think we were supposed to meet up with one of them? the place closed and alena and i got separate from the group- typical. and he was walking out at the same time as us and he helped ward off some creepy that was following us. i think he might have gotten on his motorcycle and was maybe gonna meet us at buddha?.. little blurry. but well see him again another night. so yes, last night was buddha again. so much fun! fucking love that place. tequila shottsss. couple guys, couple dances, lots of fun. met someone named alberto whos chill.
the other night was really fun too. its been raining these past couple days which is sad but whatever. but the other night allyson and i rode our bikes across town to this bar that was playing the soccer game. sevilla won 2-0! we got there real late so we didnt see too much. afterwards, we had planned on going to this club called cathedral for an 80s party, but that didnt end up happening, so i looked like a major dumbass wearing those bright green tights, ha. everyone bailed out on me to go out except for caleb! so we hung out- went to a couple bars. the first one was a little hole in the wall type place with all local people having drinks. it wasnt very busy but it was a sweet place to sit and talk. then we went to this bar the specializes in chocolate drinks which was sooo good. we bought chocolates too and they were delicious. there were only about 3 other people here that night. but the best part of this place though was the owner and her 6ishfriends. she starting dancing flamenco with one of them while another one sang and played music. it was soo cool. and then of course, they made us join them and i felt like a total retard trying to dance it. but it was really fun and we switched partners and redid the whole dance again which has like 4 verses haha so great though. another real spain experience. really cool. then, we waited in the pouring rain for an hour trying to find cabs that didnt exist haha. great night.
a different night we went to this american bar right behind calle betis called fundicion that hosts beruit tournaments every tuesday night. only americans can enter haha. but its real serious- people have to sign up online in the morning and there are like 30 teams and they play all night. 2 guys from api won! congrats adam and partner!
shit, i gtg. im going to almeria which is on the coast. not sure if its beach weather yet but still, it will be pretty. just heard its a 6 hour drive. gahh. kind of a spur of the moment decision.
hasta luego
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
sevilla mi casa
i need to work on updating this thing more often...
allow me to ramble on a little about this fabulous place called sevilla where i will be spending the next 4 months of my life!
its absolutely gorgeous here! there is obviously beautiful art and architecture everywhere, plazas around ever corner with pretty fountains, beautiful people. i love how its a new city but there is still so much old culture with all the little cobblestone winding streets with little shops all lining the streets. i love it! orange trees have become my new favorite obsession lately. there are soo many here- along the streets, in the alcazar plazas (which is ridiculously gorgeous btw), dangerously placed in my path when im riding my bike. before learning you are not supposed to eat the oranges (which doesnt even make any sense!), i tried one out. not too bad, just realll sour.
about mi casa..
we got pretty hooked up. i live in centro, sevilla, with 2 other girls, renee and allyson, from my program in a homestay family. i have a mom, dad, brother named azur, sister named erna, and 2 dogss which i loveee. they are the cutest! they are both mixes but one is a yellow lab and the other is a dark brown haired pointer. so adorable. they would wake up the entire street every time we walked in the door for the first week but they like us much more now. our mom is nice- we got to know her a little the first night we got there. she basically told us the only rule is there are no rules, which is totally fine by me! we have our own key to come and go as we please, which we absolutely take full advantage of, coming back at 7 am some mornings. breakfast and dinner, allyson, renee and i eat on our own. usually cereal in the morning and toast and leftovers at night. she makes a pretty sweet lunch- this is definitely the biggest meal of the day. we usually eat this all together as a family except for when some of us have classes.
allyson and i sleep in the rooms that are connected through the bathroom. yet, even though its been a week of knowing each other, we are completely comfortable sleeping in the king bed in the bigger of the two rooms, falling asleep together to 24, which thank god we finished the season because now we cant give ourselves excuses to stay in! even though, rain was definitely another hater on that. which unfortunately, there is supposed to be a lot of that tonight.. grr.
about school.
i am taking 4 classes at pablo de olavide university. and its pretty ballin. well, actually not the university itself because thats kind of situated in the middle of nowhere with pretty miserable looking surroundings of bare earth, fallen trees, and the bad outskirts of town. and my first impression of the school was that i had heard it used to be a prison and they renovated it into a school. apparently, thats false. but its definitely not the same campus as umass. its muuchh smaller and really only has one main corridor with all the buildings off of that. so at least its easy not to get lost in i guess. but theres not much to do on campus, unlike umass where u can walk to the center of town or whatever. it has a gym i could join.... naahh.
my schedule is pretty fucking sweet though. first of all, no classes on fridays so thats sick. but i also got my schedule to have no classes on thursdayss, bitchess. i have 3 classes mondays, wednesdays from 1030-1 then 4-530. only things that sucks is that kind of long break in between and i dont feel like going back and forth. i think im just gonna read books, sleep, do homework, draw, whatever and lie in the sun when its nice out. so it wont be bad. today i napped in order to make up for last nights lack of sleep.
my classes arent bad, and my teachers are pretty awesome. im taking international marketing, early modern and modern history of spain, spanish cinema, and don quijote (which actually might be slightly brutal because its a huge fucking book, i had no idea! and kind of old spanish, but im making the correct assumption that ill be alot more of skimming than actual reading, so no big deal.) but yeah, i have sweet teachers. they are all young and chill, so thats cool.
about the sevici bike system..
fucking best genius idea ever. and goddam, i always misspell genius. every time! but anyways, this bike system is sweet. there are bike posts literally on the corner of every street and you can ride them anywhere and then put it back and its only 10 euros for a whole year! incredible. only downfall is that the other night i tried about 9 bikes in a row that FAILED TO WORK. not kidding, it was obscene. broken chains, nonexistent chains, blocked wheels, wouldnt come out. absolute joke. i ended up having to walk cuz the bike post had run out of bikes cuz another thing is that half the bikes dont even show up on the computer when you try to take it out. so when you see 6 bikes available, we literally pray for two, just two!, to work for allyson and i. we have seriously have had some of the greatest times on these things though. sadly, current score: bike:3 me:0. these were due mostly to balance and alcohol. still, its been fun, sevici.
i have great sevilla domination plans of riding my bike through every single little street and somewhat knowing every cute little store. ill let you know how far i get.
i have made other goals:
1. go see a sevilla soccer game. it would be sweettt to see the last one that is sevilla against barcelona but thats probably gonna be mad expensive. but i will definitely make it to one soccer game. maybe ill change my other goal into this one. watch soccer, instead of play. ha.
2. shit... why cant i remember any of my goals?
3. go out every night unless its absolutely necessary to stay in- this requires extenuating circumstances.
4. go to a flamenco show, might have been mentioned before.
5. ..dammmit, i had a really good one! and i cant remember... freshman year, you did this to me. and sophmore year, you certainly didnt help.
alright, well i guess i will have to leave it at that because i cant for the life of me remember what the fuck i was gonna say!
time to run out, get some hard liquor and wine, since allyson and i feel its completely appropriate for us to down a bottle of absolut in 1.5 nights. classy.
peace
allow me to ramble on a little about this fabulous place called sevilla where i will be spending the next 4 months of my life!
its absolutely gorgeous here! there is obviously beautiful art and architecture everywhere, plazas around ever corner with pretty fountains, beautiful people. i love how its a new city but there is still so much old culture with all the little cobblestone winding streets with little shops all lining the streets. i love it! orange trees have become my new favorite obsession lately. there are soo many here- along the streets, in the alcazar plazas (which is ridiculously gorgeous btw), dangerously placed in my path when im riding my bike. before learning you are not supposed to eat the oranges (which doesnt even make any sense!), i tried one out. not too bad, just realll sour.
about mi casa..
we got pretty hooked up. i live in centro, sevilla, with 2 other girls, renee and allyson, from my program in a homestay family. i have a mom, dad, brother named azur, sister named erna, and 2 dogss which i loveee. they are the cutest! they are both mixes but one is a yellow lab and the other is a dark brown haired pointer. so adorable. they would wake up the entire street every time we walked in the door for the first week but they like us much more now. our mom is nice- we got to know her a little the first night we got there. she basically told us the only rule is there are no rules, which is totally fine by me! we have our own key to come and go as we please, which we absolutely take full advantage of, coming back at 7 am some mornings. breakfast and dinner, allyson, renee and i eat on our own. usually cereal in the morning and toast and leftovers at night. she makes a pretty sweet lunch- this is definitely the biggest meal of the day. we usually eat this all together as a family except for when some of us have classes.
allyson and i sleep in the rooms that are connected through the bathroom. yet, even though its been a week of knowing each other, we are completely comfortable sleeping in the king bed in the bigger of the two rooms, falling asleep together to 24, which thank god we finished the season because now we cant give ourselves excuses to stay in! even though, rain was definitely another hater on that. which unfortunately, there is supposed to be a lot of that tonight.. grr.
about school.
i am taking 4 classes at pablo de olavide university. and its pretty ballin. well, actually not the university itself because thats kind of situated in the middle of nowhere with pretty miserable looking surroundings of bare earth, fallen trees, and the bad outskirts of town. and my first impression of the school was that i had heard it used to be a prison and they renovated it into a school. apparently, thats false. but its definitely not the same campus as umass. its muuchh smaller and really only has one main corridor with all the buildings off of that. so at least its easy not to get lost in i guess. but theres not much to do on campus, unlike umass where u can walk to the center of town or whatever. it has a gym i could join.... naahh.
my schedule is pretty fucking sweet though. first of all, no classes on fridays so thats sick. but i also got my schedule to have no classes on thursdayss, bitchess. i have 3 classes mondays, wednesdays from 1030-1 then 4-530. only things that sucks is that kind of long break in between and i dont feel like going back and forth. i think im just gonna read books, sleep, do homework, draw, whatever and lie in the sun when its nice out. so it wont be bad. today i napped in order to make up for last nights lack of sleep.
my classes arent bad, and my teachers are pretty awesome. im taking international marketing, early modern and modern history of spain, spanish cinema, and don quijote (which actually might be slightly brutal because its a huge fucking book, i had no idea! and kind of old spanish, but im making the correct assumption that ill be alot more of skimming than actual reading, so no big deal.) but yeah, i have sweet teachers. they are all young and chill, so thats cool.
about the sevici bike system..
fucking best genius idea ever. and goddam, i always misspell genius. every time! but anyways, this bike system is sweet. there are bike posts literally on the corner of every street and you can ride them anywhere and then put it back and its only 10 euros for a whole year! incredible. only downfall is that the other night i tried about 9 bikes in a row that FAILED TO WORK. not kidding, it was obscene. broken chains, nonexistent chains, blocked wheels, wouldnt come out. absolute joke. i ended up having to walk cuz the bike post had run out of bikes cuz another thing is that half the bikes dont even show up on the computer when you try to take it out. so when you see 6 bikes available, we literally pray for two, just two!, to work for allyson and i. we have seriously have had some of the greatest times on these things though. sadly, current score: bike:3 me:0. these were due mostly to balance and alcohol. still, its been fun, sevici.
i have great sevilla domination plans of riding my bike through every single little street and somewhat knowing every cute little store. ill let you know how far i get.
i have made other goals:
1. go see a sevilla soccer game. it would be sweettt to see the last one that is sevilla against barcelona but thats probably gonna be mad expensive. but i will definitely make it to one soccer game. maybe ill change my other goal into this one. watch soccer, instead of play. ha.
2. shit... why cant i remember any of my goals?
3. go out every night unless its absolutely necessary to stay in- this requires extenuating circumstances.
4. go to a flamenco show, might have been mentioned before.
5. ..dammmit, i had a really good one! and i cant remember... freshman year, you did this to me. and sophmore year, you certainly didnt help.
alright, well i guess i will have to leave it at that because i cant for the life of me remember what the fuck i was gonna say!
time to run out, get some hard liquor and wine, since allyson and i feel its completely appropriate for us to down a bottle of absolut in 1.5 nights. classy.
peace
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