foyamierdajoder!

sooo, my spanish adventure is nearing it's end and what do i have to show for it? a shitload of cool crap, a minor improvement in my spanish and a bunch of really cool new friends that i will probably never see again...lame. good thing this has been one of the coolest thing i've ever done in my life.

it's just kind of crazy because everyone said this would be this crazy life changing experience that would be unlike anything i've ever done before and i would never be the same and all that...but i guess it just hasn't really phased me that way considering the fact that i've already done the whole move-away-from-home-really-far-and-experience-a-whole-new-lifestyle thing already, which i guess makes me kind of jaded with the whole novelty of it all. that's not to say that this isn't an incredible experience for me, i just kind of feel like it was all that different from what i normally do...i just wish i had more time here, i know i've done a shitload of really cool stuff, but i still kind of worry that i haven't really made the most of my time here, especially considering the amount of time i spend hanging out in my room and going online coughfacebookcough, not that i wouldnt be doing that at home, it's just that i'm not at home, and when i go home, how different is it really gonna be...at least there will be indoor heating cuz i'm freezing my little brown booty off here (inside!)

i guess one good thing that's goin down now is the fact that i have so little money left that i'm not going to be able to travel anywhere before i leave, which isnt exactly good in normal terms, but it does mean that i'm forced to stay in sevilla and try to make the most of the city. hopefully that will start today once i take a shower and get the hell out of bed (its 4 in the afternoon btw, i woke up and ate lunch and that's it, though i did have a pretty entertaining conversation with my host family about pranks you can play on people who double park you)

i cant even speak spanish very much better!!! oh well, i am alot more confident now, and i can definitely communicate and have conversations with people, which is awesome but i still can't like join a conversation between spaniards, i can basically only talk to people who are talking to me specifically and slowing down and trying to understand what i'm saying (and correcting me)..but the whole thing about that that makes me not feel so bad is the fact that when i was with my mom here, i realized that she doesn't speak perfect spanish either..(tho spain spanish and new mexico spanish are pretty different, that's another thing, i bet it'll be easier when i come back too, cuz people here speak with a really thick hard to understand accent)

so anyways, i thought i'd just muse for a moment, i thinks important to get this kind of shit down so i can remember later how i was actually feeling here, instead of only just what i did, cuz the feeling's amazing, i love that i can just switch continents for a little minute and grab a whole new perspective on life and then go right back and do what i gotta do. (which i dont want to do) this did also make me realize that i'm never gonna stay in the same place. i just want to go everwhere and always do something new in a new place...next venture: costa rica for the summer!! ojala!

Cuchinillo de Dios

sorry, i haven't writtin in a while, i've been relatively busy. My mom came to visit last week which was aweome and a half, we did so much fun stuff, i can't even believe it!

she got here on a friday -- the night before i got trashed and a half and then had to get up at six to catch the train to meet her in madrid! so we stayed in a little hostel/apartment place right in the center of madrid where we spent about three days...it was so sweet, Madrid is such a cool huge city. We went to the museums like the Prado which has stuff from the great spanish painters like goya, el greco, murillo and velasquez (amazing!) and the Thyssen which has some of the best works from all kinds of artists like picasso, van gogh, monet, dahli, warhol, georgia o'keefe, chagall it was insane to actually see all that crap, oh also in the thyssen they had some pieces that dated back to like 200 ad...it was insane!

also in madrid we visted plaza mayor, and ate at the worlds oldest restaurant called "el Botin" i ate a roasted suckling pig (cuchinillo), it was delicious! and since madrid has it's own broadway called Gran Via, we saw two musicals; La Bella Y La Bestia, and JesusCristo Superstar...both sooo amazing and fun to watch!

from madrid we rented a car and drove to sevilla (which took 5 hours!!) which was cool cuz we got to see alot of the country side and the place where don quixote supposedly lived, also we ate at a parador (historical building turned hotel) where there was the most amazing buffet that i've ever had in my entire life, it was amazing!

so my mom got to meet my senora, and they loved eachother, especially since my mom brought all kinds of presents! also in sevilla we met up with my third grade teacher Mrs. Valdez, who saw my mom on the plane and they got to talking or whatever, so we saw a flamenco show for her birthday...which was one of the best things that i've done since i've been here, it was sooooo amazing, especially since i'm learning sevillanas, it was really fun to see it in real life put to music (when i do it it's just kind of retarded), also in sevilla my mom stayed in the most historical neighbor hood in town where we got lost and i drove the rental car very erratically (tiny ass streets + lots of people + my driving = disaster) she also sat in on one of my classes cuz i had to go in to take some tests, and afterwards we got lunch and drunk off wine in the middle of the day! boy does my mom know how to vacation!

we also managed to take a trip to jerez de la frontera to see some dancing horses, which was pretty cool, we also got horrendously lost in jerez (like two feet away from the horse place) but ended up finding this delicous restaurant that had like the best steak and cuscus ever, also one day we drove to algeciras, a little port town on the gibraltar straight, where we crossed over to one of the last remaining spanish colonies (in morroco) where we drove around for a while and ate lunch...then we got retardedly lost on the way back (if you haven't noticed, there was alot of lost going on)

sooo, finally my mom came with us on a school trip that we took to granada, where we saw the alhambra and also got to hit up some arabic baths (beyond awesomeness) then from there we dumped the rental car (got lost) and took the train back to madrid..then my mommy had to leave the next day...que triste!

lastly, i rolled a joint and went to the modern art museum (Reina Sofia) after i saw my mom off...so i checked out guernica and a bunch more picasso's and dahli's high out of my mind and just stared at them for like three hours...and missed my train back to sevilla, so i had to buy a whole new ticket (like a hundred american dollars!) which was lame but definitely worth it.

so since then things have been relatively tame, just goin to school, got my grades back, looks like i have a pretty decent chance of getting all A's, ojala...our school set up a thanksgiving dinner where we all dressed up and stuffed our faces, it was pretty good, but the yams were kinda wierd and the stuffing was made with ground beef instead of bread...real wierd...the rest was awesome tho, plus it was a really fun time! we went to a little club after and danced for a while too.

lets see yesterday i went to the museum early and got high with carson before we checked out the artes and costumbes then i went home and slept like all day and didn't do anything but play cake mania all night...that was boring...but tonight our spanish friend is making us dinner and we are going to go watch a futbol game (boring) before that...after i think we're gonna go out...soo that should be fun...

we're also trying to get a trip to barcelona organized, which would be really fun before i leave...and i'm leaving sooo soon...boo hoo..it'll be nice to enjoy the comforts of home, but i am getting so adjusted to living here and i'm really just starting to get comfortable here, i am having such a good time and doing so many things that i never thought i would be doing in a million years, and it really just makes me think. it makes me wonder what is actually possible, if i am doing all these crazy unexpected things now, what could i be doing within the next few years, there are so many oppurtunities open to me, it's so exciting and nervewracking to catch just a tiny glimmer of what's out there. I can't wait to find out

America discovered itself

hello.

i had one of the most fabulous weekends in the history of me-ness.

so we had a four day weekend this weekend cuz dia de los santos is a holy holiday in spain so me, annie and jackie didn't know what we were gonna do, we wanted to do something, but we didn't really have that much money so we couldn't go anywhere really cool...like out of the county or whatever (so much for my grand plan of going everywhere! damn the american economy and our worthless dollar!) but i have been wanting to go to nerja (mediterranean beach town west of here) for a while because my teacher suggested it as being really nice and a bunch of people from our program went and really liked it, plus i haven't seen the mediterranean yet...jackie and annie weren't really showing that much interest or initiative so i decided to lift the whole thing off the ground

we ended up leaving to catch the bus on friday at six, the bus was four hours so we got there at like ten, then chilled and showered and watched the end of harry potter which we started on the bus..oh, we stayed at this hostel that was twelve euros a night per person had three beds a huge bathroom (w/biday) and an amazing terrace...by around twelve we started to hit the streets...

i heard of this plaza in nerja called tutti frutti (i know wierd huh?) where apparently all the action is... so we decided to find it...we got there and the first place we see is a bar called maui! of course we thought that was awesome (especially since it said "maui skandonavian/english bar") and we got inside and realized that everyone spoke english! aparently nerja is like some kind of haven for northern europeans! it was insane! they were sooo funny and so nice and the bartender gave us like 12 free shots and these dudes we met bought us drinks..

so we went to play pool, me this dude aaron (a male version of me...aparently..the 17 yr old kind) vs annie and this englishman james...the wierd thing about it tho was that the balls didn't have numbers or stripes and solids...they were all just plain red or yellow plus the black one..apparently they were english balls...needless to say countless jokes about never playing with english balls ensued...ps. we kicked ass!

so we stayed out until 7:30 in the morning getting free drink after free drink and getting flirted with by not-so-cute nerja boys...it was sweet! oh yeah and i met a dude who went to my preschool in santa fe!! it was so insane and i was so drunk that i could not get over it! he remembered so much shit about it too! i so don't remember anything from those days! small fucking world tho huh?!

the next day we slept through breakfast and barely woke up in time to get some lunch and check out the beach for a little while...then we rested in the hotel room for another few hours till we went back out

that night was like a marathon of free shit...first was the free drinks that kept coming from all directions...then some dude was like "i heard there was some american girls in here looking for pot yesterday" we never said anything of the sort but there were no other american's there so it must have been us...either way he had me open my purse and just shoved a huge handful of weed in there! awesomeness huh?!?! oh yeah and then jackie found a full box of cigarettes on the ground...i didn't think it could get better until we went into a bar that was having an eighties night! i asked for micheal jackson and they played billie jean immediately! it was the shit!

we went to bed a little earlier that night (scoring a free cab ride) and then went to see some caves the next day...those kind of sucked and i like almost had an asthma attack from the lack of oxygen down there but after that we ate some delicious calamari and paella and sat at the beach eating ice cream until we had to catch our bus...

i guess it was really nothing that special..but..it just was...perfect company, perfect environment, perfect price (free)

also i thought i had lost my pony express sweatshirt but then i found it later! (i am one lucky bitch!)...and my near asthma experience got me to reasses my quitting situation

so anyways..yeah i'm happy and my mommy's coming and i'm gonna make her buy me presents! woo hoo!

5.4.3.2.1....Someone pee!

i know i haven't posted in a while, i've really been meaning too, alot's been going on that has been pretty interesting, but i haven't really felt the initiative to post, most of the time when i'm online i just like to stalk people on facebook and watch degrassi..but anyways, i'll just give you a current synopsis on what has been goin on lately in the form of bullet points:

• I went to the sevillian theme park, it was awesome, i rode a the roller coaster twice and drank a slurpee with rum in it...it was f-ing sweet...i haven't been to an amusement park since disneyworld
• me, annie and jackie have taken to watching degrassi in the park across from my house, i have converted them into new obsesees..muhahahahahaha...we just watched season six!
• i smoked my first spanish joint and got sooo high! it was awesome! spanish weed is slightly hard to come by, but amazing!
• i learned that it's about 8.7 billion times harder to not smoke cigarettes than to not smoke weed...living proof that marijuana is not addictive!
• i stayed drunk for around 30 hours straight (i lost count)..in honor of my little orphan Annie "bananie in my grannie pannie" koerner's birthday. It went like this:
• we started getting drunk at midnight the day of her birthday, we each drank a bottle of champagne to our face and hung our with our fave gay couple in the universo
• we had about four hours of sleep before waking up for a school trip to an ancient roman city...
• woke up still drunk...toured the city for about two hours then went to lunch, where we got all the beer and sangria we could drink included, needless to say we replasterfied.
• we got home from the trip and ron and marcel joined a degrassi love fest in the park with beer champagne and box wine..mmmm
• me and annie ate dinner (i talked to my host sister so drunkenly!) and afterwards went out to celebrate some more...with tequila and more boxed wine
• i chased some tequila with box wine and barfed (for the first time in spain! amazing!)
• we found a kareoke bar where some fat spaniard tried hitting on me so i made him buy me a drink but then when he asked me to dance i said no! lol! all the songs were in spanish so we left
• we went to the calle to meet up with some spanish friends, drank some more there (how was i able to do this you may ask...the answer is i have no idea) then we finally ended up retiring at around 6 or so...
• we had another school trip the next morning, needless to say, we slept through our alarms and missed it
• soo, what else has happened..
• last night i dressed as a demonia (devil), annie was a china(chinese girl) and jackie was a lenadora (lumberjack)...we went to a spanish party which was pretty lame at first (though he did make all his own decorations which was awesome) but then we taught them how to play kings cup (which is really difficult to teach in spanish, but they all got the hang of it really well) that had to be one of the funnest games of kings cup i've ever played
• we went to calle betis where not very many people were dressed up and i was wearing the skankiest outfit in all of spain...it was really embarrassing but still so fun...drunk dudes were hollering at us like every two steps
• everyone here dresses really scary, there were alot of elaborate costumes, but they were all really covered up, which was smart because it was freezing
• note to self: do not dress in spain as you would in hawai'i for halloween

sooo, i've been eating alot of delicious food (especially in italica! mmmm steak!) and enjoying the company of some really awesome people...i took some midterms, which was lame, but i did ok...tho i dont think i'm gonna be able to get an A in spanish... :( but whatever who cares...my mom's coming out here next week which should be awesome and a half...and it should be good for her cuz she's been really sad lately cuz she's all alone and has to deal with joe stress and my poor ivy just died and she really misses him...but this trip will be good for her and i'm gonna get to see madrid too, i also think we're gonna be going a few other places too so that will be awesome...damn summarizing my life is a bit harder then i would think