Paris!

Wow, my life has been crazy and is about to get even crazier! I'm trying to be good about updating you all, but other things just seem so much more fun than writing a blog post...haha.

Let's see. Last week on the school front, I had a final paper and a final presentation due. Yikes! It went pretty smoothly now, so that means I'm down to one class: yay! The bad news? It's a history class and the final is going to HURT. We're only learning 3 main themes this whole semester and then for the final he's going to give us one of the topics at random, and we have to write for two hours straight, everything we know about that topic. Ouch. Talk about me being buried in my notes for the next three weeks until my final...too bad my BEST FRIEND is coming in ONE WEEK and then right after that I'm going to ITALY! to see my MOM! and GRANDPARENTS!

Studying? What's that?

So, the 22nd was Thanksgiving. First Thanksgiving really away from family, in another country. It was sort of bizarre. We had a "Thanksgiving dinner" with the program, which consisted of tapas (uhhh), and then some sweet turkey, mashed potatoes with mashed pumpkin (????), sweet gravy, and some weird stuffing-esque (okay, not like stuffing at ALL, more like ground up guts) stuff. Basically, everything was sweet. It was a nice attempt, Spain, but didn't quite meet the 'delicious Thanksgiving dinner' requirements. It was a lot of fun though, and it was nice that they did something for us. Besides, these people are like my family here, so it was nice to all be together enjoying each other's company and being thankful for our experience that we're having here. It was a good Thanksgiving. ...not that they celebrate it here, but whatever. :)

Thennn Friday I took off to Paris with Zoe (and we met up with Diane there). Wooohoooo, Paris!

If you want the short of it: Paris is a beautiful city, but I am glad to be back in Spain.

Now the long of it: Friday we got into Paris in the evening (after taking a train, the tram, a plane, a bus, and then a taxi...) and Diane met us at our hotel. We grabbed some lunch and rushed to the Louvre because it is free on Friday nights for students!! We're all about free stuff! We only got about an hour and little bit in the Louvre, but it's so HUGE that we were overwhelmed anyway. Our mission was to see dear old Mona (you know, Mona Lisa), and we accomplished that, so we were happy. After that, we made plans to meet up Saturday and went to bed. Hahaha.

My beautiful friends Diane and Zoe judging this painting.

Little Mona

Saturday was the day that we discovered that the metro makes it ABSURDLY easy to see a lot of stuff in Paris in a REALLY short amount of time. Go figure! We met up at the Arc de Triomphe and meandered our way down the Champs Elysees and sort of window shopped/people watched for a while. Then we hit a Christmas fair extravaganza thingy. Really, still not sure what it was, but tons of little booths (with outrageously priced things...), an ice skating rink, and Christmasy decorations. Even Christmas music playing! In English! Hahahaha. :)

Our first view of the Arc. :)

CHRISTMAS?

Santa jammin', Frosty chillin', and an elephant...?

After that, meandered our way along the Seine. It is SO beautiful, and all the fall colors were absolutely gorgeous. I almost felt like I was back in Corvallis...until I realized all the buildings around me were WAY more gorgeous and historic than Corvallis, and that the people around me were all speaking French. Momentary nostalgia: broken. Anyway, we meandered our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral, where all I could think about was talking gargoyles and Quasimodo and Esmerelda. Uhhh...my life is a Disney movie? "God help the outcasts...."

The love locks on a bridge on the Seine

After that, we metro-ed our way to the Luxembourg Gardens where we watched a little kid terrorize the birds. Which for some reason got me mentally singing "Feed the Birds...Tuppence a bag..." Again, this weekend...in movie quotes and songs.

The little bird terrorist.

From the gardens, after the yummiest lunch and tart and tea everrr (sandwiches...always sandwiches with us...) we headed over to the Eiffel Tower. It is pretty dang impressive, I'm not going to lie. We waltzed around for a bit and took some pictures...then headed back to the Christmas bazaar and Champs Elysees and just sort of killed some time...enjoyed the city. We headed back to the Eiffel Tower that night for some champagne and to see it all lit up, which was pretty cool...really cool actually. We had altogether too many giggles and good times. Good company, those two.

The tower by day.

The tower by night, all lit up and having a seizure, aka twinkly lights every hour on the hour.

On Sunday, we hit up Diane's neck of the woods, which meant the Moulin Rouge, the Sacre Cours, and various other sights to see around that area. It was really neat! Then Diane had to leave us, and we headed back to the Arc de Triomphe and found out we could climb it for free since we're students in the EU. NEAT! I'm all for free stuff. Really neat view up there, too.

"It was not, as my father had said, 'A VILLAGE OF SIN!'" was all that was going on in my head.
Also, it's like 200 euro for dinner and a show here. Uhhhh....no.

On top of the Arc de Triomphe, with the Tower in the background

Then we met with my mom's friend, Tammy. She was so nice, and it was neat to meet here and visit for a little while! Afterwards, we did a little souvenir shopping and gift-getting and whatnot, got some yummy desserts and headed back to the hotel.

Tammy and I

On our way home, we had an 8 hour layover in Barcelona. Not fun. Not fun at all. I started to go a little stir crazy, not gonna lie.

This one's a gem...

Overall, everything in Paris was absolutely fabulous but I'd honestly prefer to return to Madrid or Granada. Something about it just wasn't that amazing to me. I'm definitely glad I went, Paris is gorgeous and has tons of history and really awesome things to see, and I enjoyed myself a ton. Maybe the language barrier got to me? Or I had too high of expectations??

Anyway, it was a good weekend. Now, on to a week full of studying. Loooooooovely.

MADRID!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. Oops!

Well, basically last weekend I didn't do much, and last week was uneventful. The one exciting thing was that on the 14th there was a huelga general, or 'general strike' all across Spain. (I wasn't aware at the time, but apparently it was all over Europe too.) It was a general strike, which means it affected everything and every business sector and whatnot. Like, they called for people not to go to school, not to go to work, not to buy anything, not to use public transport, not to buy gas, not to use their cell phones (yeah right nobody followed that one), and everything. There were HUGE manifestations all over the country. The one in Alicante wasn't as big as the ones in Madrid or Barcelona or Valencia (clearly, Alicante is smaller), but judging by some pictures and videos my friends took (I stayed home all day, haha), it looked like there was a pretty good turnout. We didn't have class, which was nice. And it was interesting to talk to my host family about it. There was some violence and stuff in the bigger cities, but overall it was pretty peaceful. It just seems bizarre, because they're just sort of telling the government that they're not happy with all the cuts that have been made, but I'm not exactly sure if they're even sure of what they want. Everyone just wants things to be better, I guess. It's interesting to me that we don't really do strikes in the states like they do here. Hmm...

Well, Friday I was off to Madrid with Zoe and her grandma! It was such a fabulous weekend, and Madrid is SUCH a fabulous city! I absolutely loved it there. It was busy, busy, busy, and there were TONS of people, and I wouldn't want to spend toooo much time there, but it was definitely GORGEOUS and lots of fun.

We got there on Friday and just walked around a bit, saw Puerta del Sol where there were TONS of people, made our way over to Plaza Mayor where there were a bunch of street performers (well, really they were all over...), and then toured the Royal Palace of Madrid. It was so beautiful, inside and out. I decided that I wouldn't want to reside there, though. Way too many rooms. Actually, the moral of this trip was basically that I don't particularly want to be a queen. Go figure.

Palacio Real de Madrid

That night, we somehow managed to find our way to this restaurant that was FULL of Spanish people, we were definitely the only tourists, I'm not sure how we managed to find a place like that but there ya have it! We had pinchos (basically toasted bread with different things on it...like cheese and ham, or bacon and mushrooms, or shrimpies, or other things) and sangria, and it was oh so good. Ohhh so good. I was happy.

People, people everywhere!

Saturday we visited Museo del Prado which was really, really...big. Hahaha. Very impressive, but seriously huge. And there I discovered that I have rather dark and morbid taste in art. The cheery pictures didn't really do much for me, but the dark and somewhat creepy or slightly depressing ones were SO interesting to me. Would I ever want one in my house? No. Would I love to just look at them forever and wonder what in the world was going on in the painter's mind? Possibly.

After that, we walked through the botanical garden and oohed and aahed over the fall colors. Guys, it was gorgeous. I was so happy.

FALL!

Then we took a tourist bus thingy all around Madrid and really got to enjoy the scenery and the BEAUTIFUL old buildings and all of that good stuff. :) Gosh, I loved it there. We shopped for a little while (well, walked around the stores haha). For dinner, we had paella in this really awesome little place where we were like the only ones there (because there was a soccer game that night...the waitress said that usually on Saturday nights they're packed). The waitress was really nice, the paella was really good, the wine was fabulous, and the conversation was lovely. We dined for a couple of hours and it was loooooovely. Seriously. What a life I'm living here!


 Sunday we went to el Museo de la Reina Sofia which I really, really liked. It was a bit more modern stuff, which is much more interesting to me. Although some of it is dumb and I'm pretty sure I could do it. Whaaatever. We also saw Guernica by Picasso, which was pretty stinking impressive. Then we went to El Rastro, which is basically a HUGE area of flea market-y stuff. Lots of stuff. Little touristy things at a few places, bracelets, clothes of all sorts, tablecloths, pans, scarves, you name it. It was really neat and I'm really glad we went. Then after some tea, it was time to come home, how sad! I would have loved to have more time in Madrid, but it's also good to be back in Alicante. My home away from home away from home. :)

In a museum full of some of the most famous painters ever, this is what strikes me. Go figure.

On the school front...today I had a final exam in my Social and Cultural Realities class, and I have a presentation and 5ish page paper due on Wednesday that I haven't started yet. Uh, oops? And my history exam is in a month?!? I'm blown away by how quickly this is all coming down. My best friend comes in 2 weeks, I see my mom and grandparents in 23ish days, and my boy in 38 days! This weekend I'll be in Paris (yay!) and then everything is just going so fast! Some of the people in my program are leaving this week and it is making me extremely thankful that I'm here a full year. I just haven't had enough time to soak in everything and be ready to go home yet! (Although I miss you all more than I can put into words!!)

:)

Happy Saturday :)

You guys, I could get REAL used to this whole 4 day weekend every week thing, let me tell you. It's doing HORRIBLE things for my productivity. Ha, as if I've been very productive at any point during my time here. I mean, I'm here to speak Spanish, right...not to do homework. ;)

(Just kidding, mom. I'm doing my homework, I promise.)

Anyway, this week has been lovely, but oh so rainy! I was joking with my family here that everyone had told me that it never rains here and I was so excited, but it's been rainy and gloomy for so long! They laughed along with me and commented on how weird the weather has been lately and how utterly not typical it is. But guys, it's been COLD and rainy here. Okay, I got really used to the idea of it being warm almost the whole time I'm here, so I wasn't prepared for cold and it hasn't been like THAT cold...but there's something about the cold here that just gets straight down into your bones...I'm going to die when I go up north to France and Italy...yikes.

Homework and classes and stuff are really starting to stack up on me. I have so much to do but all I want to do is explore the city or talk to my family, especially when my Tio Jose is here...he's SO RAD. He's this bald guy who is just so funny. Last night when I got home, he and his wife Aurora were home and invited me to sit around and talk. So there I was with my hostpadres and host-tios. Haha. Even though I was tired, they do a really good job of talking to me and explaining things that I don't understand, so it wasn't hard for me to hop right into the conversation. Especially because Tio Jose actually asks me questions about my life, about what I like and what foods I miss from the US (ha, that was a weirdly difficult question). Anyway, today is their 39th wedding anniversary so they're here again. Hahaha and Tio Jose always says things like "Oh, I'm pretty sure Kiersten wants to do blah blah blah...trust me. She's my niece. I know her." Hahaha he kills me...

Also, my mom is making this delicious looking lemon meringue pie looking thing. WIN.

The other day, my mom made this dessert that's called "Tocino del Cielo" which basically means Bacon of Heaven. You guys, it was weird. It was basically egg yolks and sugar, and it just tasted like sweet eggs. Which is weird. And it was sort of a texture mix between flan and jello. WEIRD? Yes. Weird. My hostbrother LOVES it though, along with Pepe, so they ate my share. Hahaha.

WINES OF ALICANTE!

So, uh, Thursday night my gastronomy class was wine tasting. It was so much fun! Although I'm still lost about what people said they were smelling in the wine. "This one smells fruity, like wet earth, a little bit dark." Uhhh, right. It smells like wine and I'd like to drink it now, please, if you don't mind.

Wow, this is thrilling, can I drink it now?

But it was still really fun. Some of the wines were absurdly good. And some of them were really not good, at all. And the red wines were way better than the white wines. At least I thought so. :)

My beautiful friend Shauna contemplating her wines.

Also, I may have been that girl who knocked over her wine glass, which then SHATTERED and sent red wine FLYING all over the white walls of our little cubicle things we were in. Guys, it looked like a murder scene, it was so weird. I don't know how the wine possibly exploded like that. And it scared Harley (the guy next to me) so bad that he ended up spilling his wine everywhere too, haha. Good one, Kieks. Oh well. "No pasa nada", right? :)

Me with my broken wine glass...

Oops...

Yesterday Shauna and I went shopping, that was fun. She really wants to talk in Spanish more so it was nice to actually spend almost a whole day just speaking Spanish. And today I'm making apple crisp with my friend Saki who is Japanese, so the only way we can communicate is in Spanish...haha my brain is getting tired, but in the best way possible!

Also, right now I am watching Moulin Rouge in Spanish. Guys, it's the best of both worlds. The songs are normal and in English, but the dialogue is in Spanish. Spanish in my brain + Ewan McGregor's sexy singing voice? Can't go wrong.

Miss you all!!!

Morocco!

Hello, people! What a weekend I've had!

It all began Thursday night. :) Zoe and I caught an 11:59 pm bus (that time just cracked me up) to Sevilla. Let me tell you, getting on a bus at midnight and knowing that that's your future for the next ten and a half hours is a really bizarre thing. Luckily there were few enough people (is that anywhere near grammatically correct?) that we each basically got our own seat, so we could sort of stretch out and I managed to get some sleep. Haha...some sleep. Not a whole lot. But better than none!

We got in to Sevilla at like 10:30 or something and had time to kill until 4:30 when we were supposed to meet at a bus stop to head with the group to Morocco. We were a little bit baffled about what to do with that much time. We meandered our way into Sevilla and managed to find our way to our bus stop (eventually...after walking around the park in every direction except the one we needed like 6 times. Go us). We also decided that we're going to go on The Amazing Race as a team because we're FREAKING AWESOME at traveling together and we balance each other out really well. Anyways. There was a cool Festival of Nations thing going on so we got 'burritos' that really weren't amazing and didn't have beans (dumb, I just want some freaking good Mexican food) and meandered our way about for a bit. We went and found our hostel, too, so that was pretty nice that we wouldn't have to be searching for it when we got back to Sevilla in a few days...

Anyway, eventually 4:30 rolled around and we made our way onto the buses along with 100ish other young people. Lovely. Nothing like traveling in a pack. But really, as much as I don't really love big groups, I was thankful for it in Morocco. It made me feel safer for some reason. Hahaha.

Anyway, we got to our hotel that night and didn't really do much. We were EXHAUSTED after the 10 hour bus ride, so much killed time in Sevilla, a 3ish hour bus ride to the ferry, a ferry ride (that I have no idea how long it was because I freaking CONKED OUT. Something about the rocking motion just put me to sleep and I slept hardddd), and another shorter bus ride...so we slept REALLY well haha.

We got up on Saturday far too early and made our way to Tangier where we rode some camels for like mayybe two minutes haha, and then went to some caves where freaking HERCULES supposedly lived. Guys, HERCULES. Hahaha. Needless to say, it was pretty rad.  Then we went to see this lighthouse that was where the Mediterranean met the Atlantic. Pretty cool! It reminded me of when I was in Puerto Rico and saw where the Caribbean met the Atlantic...except this time I was in Africa. Cool!

After that, we went to Assila and had time to walk around and explore. It was a beautiful little city, white and blue and full of shops and people just begging you to give them your money in exchange for some cheapo little thing. :) There was actually some cool stuff there. I bought some neat-o Moroccan things and we had some of the BEST mint tea I've ever had in my entire life. Guys, it was so good. I wish I could ship it to the US so you all could try it. Mmm. I want some more, please.

On Sunday we went to Tetouan (not to be confused with Tatooine) just to see a palace...uh okay? And then we went to Chefchaouen and had lunch and walked around and whatnot. The city is like a maze, I have no idea how people do it! So pretty, though! And then we shopped around a little bit there, but everything was sort of late and we didn't have much time because we had to catch the ferry back to Spain! Which I, of course, fell asleep on again...

Eventually we made it back to Spain (about 2am), meandered our way to where we were staying for the night (which was freaking nice for how much we paid for it), stayed up talking for far too long (I felt like I was back in the dorms my freshman year!), and finally conked out. We got up on Monday at like 11ish and just sort of meandered our way around Spain. We went and saw the Cathedral and somehow managed to meander our way to Plaza Nueva, pick up a free map, and find the DiscoverSevilla office. They didn't have any money to change back our dirham (dangit), but they did give us a tshirt and a calendar (from 2011...that has all the tour guides pictures mostly naked and lookin' all sexy. Bizarre. Hahaha, but funny.) They also were nice enough to let us drop our stuff there, YES!, and then Dani (our tourguide who was really nice) walked with us for a little while and told us what we really ought to do. :) So then we ended up visiting the Plaza de Espana, walking around some more, getting completely lost in some little streets and managing to find our way back, and having a really pleasant day in Sevilla! Even though we didn't get to see Benni, our other tourguide, again...which was a bummer but I think we'll live. :) Eventually we made our way to the bus station and took another overnighter back home. What a trip! Overall, I'd say it was a fantastic weekend, but I'm glad that this weekend I'm laying low and staying in Alicante. I need some time to recover! Hahaha

I hope everything is going well back in the states!!! Happy election day :)