So Much to Do, So Little Time to Write About It!! :p

It’s been a longggg while since my last post I know, and a lot has happened (good and bad) since then haha.  I think I’m going to start off with the bad.  So on the 12^th, I took a trip to Zaragoza to celebrate a festival called El Pilar with a bunch (like 300+) of international students.  It was about  a 3 ½ hour bus ride and on the way there, I talked to some girls who were on my bus.  Their names were Josephine, Nina, and Delphin from Germany, Poland, and France.  They seemed like nice people so I hung out with them all day.  Vicky couldn’t go on the trip because she didn’t have any money at the time =(.  So we get to Zaragoza and we see a lot of people, old and young, dressed up in really beautiful traditional Spanish clothing.  The purpose of the festival was to offer flowers to the Virgin Mary. LOTS of flowers.  There was a huge pyramid in the center of the square with a statue of Mary on the top and the pyramid was made entirely of flowers.  After exploring the town a little bit, my new friends and I decide to check out this huge park that seemed really cool according to what the brochure said.  Little did we know, it was going to take us over an hour to get there, and we were going to walk!  I love walking, but Jesus!  It seemed like an eternity.  It was disappointing too because there wasn’t even anything that special.  It was reallyyy big, but it just didn’t have anything that was worth taking pictures of.  I was glad that we decided to take the bus back to the city square because I wouldn’t have been happy if they wanted to walk all the back. 

It was nighttime and everyone met up to go to the club, so I was excited about that even though I was dead tired.  I met a few more people there—some girls from the states, an Italian guy, and some Portuguese guys.  It was getting super hot and muggy in the club so me and one of the guys went outside for some air.  We were talking for a while and were completely fine, but I noticed a group of kids who were maybe 17 years old who looked like trouble.  They walked away and I was like, ok whatever, but  about 10 minutes later, they walked back and came up to me and my friend and asked if we had a lighter.  And right when I answered, one of the kids quickly snatched my camera that was sitting on my lap and my friend’s bag (she was still in the club and she asked me to watch it for her).  I was in so much shock and for a few seconds, I just looked at them running away and then it hit me that I had just been robbed!! Ohh I was fuming mad and just full of rage.  Me and my friend started running after those little hood rats, but they had already gotten really far.  A guy saw us running after them and he pointed in which direction those kids went, and we turned into a small street and found my friends bag and everything she had inside it, scattered all around the street (her extra clothes and makeup bag).  I thought they took her wallet because I couldn’t find it when I was picking everything up, so I was freaking out because not only did I got my camera stolen, but my friend’s money and identification was also taken.  I’ve never been so angry in my whole life because I thought I’d be smarter than that.  I knew that I was supposed to be aware of my surroundings and keep alert since it was around 2:30 in the morning.  What made me even angrier was that I was robbed by freakin 16-17 year olds!! Ugh!!!  Everyone was supposed to meet at the bus stop at 3 a.m. to get back to Barcelona, but my friend suggested that we talk to the police and tell them what happened.  Then my friend (the one who’s purse I was watching) called me, and I told her everything that happened and that her wallet was missing.  She then told me that she had her wallet and phone on her, and all she had in her bag were extra clothes.  Thank God because I would’ve felt so guilty if they had taken everything from her. 

We got to the police station and reported the incident.  I’m so glad my friend was there with me because the cop that was writing the report didn’t know a word of English and I didn’t know a word of Spanish, so he had to translate everything for me.  By then, our bus had already left us so we would have to catch another bus later.  We left the police station around 3:30, and took a taxi to the bus station where we found out the next bus leaving for Barcelona wouldn’t be until 7 a.m., meaning we’d have to sleep at the bus station on those uncomfortable chairs.  I felt really bad because my friend had an appointment to register for his classes at 11 a.m. at school, and it was likely that he was going to miss it.  It was just like one bad thing happening after another.  Oh and also, my phone ran out of my minutes so I couldn’t even call Vicky to let her know what the heck I’ve been through for the past couple hours. 

I finally got home around 11:30, took a shower, ate, and told Vicky the ordeal I went through.  Even though my camera was stolen along with all the pictures I had taken from the previous day, I guess I was kind of glad that nothing else was taken from me and that I wasn’t hurt.  I was just angry with myself that I let that happen!!  That same day, I went and got myself a new camera haha.  It wasn’t the same as the other one but I guess it’ll do for now.  I was really angry about it for a few days or maybe a week but I’m finally over it now and I’m moving on!!

That weekend, Vicky and I wanted to look for the Olympic Stadium from the ’92 Olympics, and funny thing is that we only lived like a 10 minute walk from it, and this whole time, we didn’t even know!!   It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, like only half the size of Qualcomm Stadium so I don’t even know how they were able to fit so many people back in ’92 during the Olympics.  The next day, we went out for lunch with Josefine (I found out that she lived only a few buildings down my street!)  We went to this Italian restaurant near the flat, and here’s something I’ve learned about eating out in Barcelona, and maybe even everywhere else around Europe.  If you sit outside, they charge 1 euro per person, which is ridiculous because you’re pretty much paying extra for flies to come and attack your food, loud cars zooming by and just an overall unpleasant experience.  I guess it depends on where you go because sometimes, it’s actually really nice to sit outside and enjoy the sites and people watching, but other times, it’s just not very fun, so I think I’d rather sit inside from now on. 

Monday came around and we both didn’t feel like going to class, so we didn’t.  Haha!  Back home, I would never miss class just because I didn’t feel like going.  I’d go even when I was deathly sick!!  But it’s completely different here and I just don’t really care about it, especially when I’m only taking these 4 classes for credit and not for a grade, so all I have to do is barely get by, yayyy!!  We went out for dinner because Vicky’s getting tired of cooking all time, and I don’t really cook, unless I feel inspired to lol.  Vicky says I can only cook “special dishes” and not “daily dishes” and I think she’s right.  I’ll probably go to an Asian market sometime this week and make my uber delicious garlic noodles.  We get a lot of flyers from restaurants with their menus and the deals they have, so we thought we’d give this pizza/doner kebab place a try since we lived really close to it.  There are restaurants everywhere here so it’s not always easy to decide where to eat because we’re both so indecisive.  But this place had a 2 doner, a large pizza, and a 2 liter Coke deal for 14 euro and we thought that was a deal right there.  Once we were close to the place, we realized we probably weren’t in the safest of places because it was in small dirty street with a bunch of Indians and Middle Easterners. I’m not racist I swear! I’m just saying it was different, and we were probably in India town or something lol.  Anyway, the food there was fantastical and I was even more happy because it was sooo cheap!!  The doner kebab was the size of a burrito from back home and they had this amazing sauce that I really loved, and the pizza was also really big, maybe ¾ the size of a Costco pizza, PLUS a 2 liter of Coke! 

I’m going to skip to Thursday now when the weekend starts again for me and Vicky haha.  Me and a group of my friends were suppose to go out to this bar that this girl suggested I go to (she studied here last semester and we’ve been exchanging emails).  Anyway, she recommended that I check out Espit Chupitos, which is this bar that has over 500 kinds of shots and 200 kinds of cocktails, and I just thought, hell yeah, seems really cool!! I was a little bummed though because a lot of buddies cancelled at the last minute so it ended up being only me and Jessee (Vicky didn’t go because she doesn’t like going out—BOOO!!!)  But  we had a lot of fun, a little too much fun lol. 

The next day, one of our other classmates, Meri, and her boyfriend Raul, took us to this American restaurant that they’ve been dying to show us, and we’ve been dying to try.  I’ve been craving a burger for the longest time so I was so excited to see how they make their burgers here.  Me and Vicky go to McDonald’s maybe once a week to get our “American food” fix, but it’s just not really the same.  Their burgers aren’t even burgers.  AND the only reason why we go there so much is so we can steal their napkins because we don’t want to buy our own haha!  Oh but the McDonald’s ice cream cones that they have are uber delicious because they stick a kit-kat bar in it!  Ok back to the point.  So this restaurant we were at had bbq and burgers and you know, typical American stuff.  I ordered a burger, but not just the regular burger, the king-sized one and I don’t regret getting it because it was perfect.  It was the size of  a Hodad’s burger, actually bigger because the patty was gigantor, there were slices of thick ham or bacon on it, and a fried egg, plus fries and a side of cole slaw.  I was so close to finishing it, and now that I think about it, I wish that I had because it was so good and I probably won’t have it again for a while because it was expensive!!  I’ll probably just stick to good ol’ Mickey D’s =)

We spent the rest of the day with Meri and Raul.  They took us to a bunch of places we’ve never been and it was a lot fun.  Me and Vicky feel so lucky to have met them because they’re such a nice couple and they’re so fun to be around.  I don’t think they realize how ridiculously hilarious they are, and they don’t even try to be and I really like that about them.  They came over to our flat because we wanted to make them dinner.  I mean, Vicky wanted to make them dinner, since I never do the cooking lol.  They’ve never had tortillas before, and luckily, Vicky’s mom had shipped Vicky another care package a few days before so we had tortillas from home so they could try.  Vicky made chicken fajitas and they said they enjoyed it a lot.  At least we think they did.  And then to end our Friday night on good note, we got an email from State letting us know that they’ve deposited our financial aid and scholarship money to our bank accounts, so we should have our money by Tuesday!! Wooo hooo after almost 2 months of living like poor people!!

On Saturday, Vicky was just in bed the entire day because she was deathly sick.  And since I knew that money was coming, I wanted to celebrate!!! I did some major damage shopping at Placa Catalunya, spending a good 2-3 hours grabbing anything I could find.  I came home and showed Vicky what I got, and she liked my purchases so that made me happy that my little spree was a success.  Yayy for new clothes!!

Meri invited us over to her house on Sunday to meet her family and have lunch with them.  We were both so excited because Meri kept telling us that her mom cooks amazing food, so we were looking forward to have a home cooked meal.  We got to her house and were warmly welcomed by her mom and dad with kisses!  The Spanish are so friendly here lol!  Then we met their chinchilla, Blackie, and 2 parakeets, Naru and Shiro.  It was my first time seeing a chinchilla and I have to say that they’re the softest little animals I’ve ever touched and now I kind of want one when I get back…

Lunch was amazinggg.  I can’t remember what the first dishes were called, but they were like little appetizers consisting of cured ham and cheese, calamari, olives, and little tiny mussels in some kind of sauce.  After finishing that, we had paella with prawns, calamari, clams, and mussels!!!! Ohhh it was delicious and normally, I don’t eat any seafood back home besides shrimp/prawns and calamari, but now that I’ve had it, I just might start eating them because they’re damn good =)  We both had a wonderful time at Meri’s house, meeting her pets and her family who were so welcoming and overall really nice people.  I’m so glad to have met them!

I’m going to stop here, I still have to talk about going to see Coldplay in Madrid and going to my first soccer, or “futbol” match, but I’ll start on that another day.  Damn, if only I could write papers this fast haha.  Adios amigos!

And I Think to Myself, What a Wonderful World...

I'm going to start by saying that I'm feeling so happy and truly blessed to have met some really amazing people this past week.  I'm not even going to talk about classes anymore because they just bore me so much, although I'm really happy I've found enough classes to take so I can stay here.  I've got a meeting with some lady on Tuesday, so I'm hoping I can officially register for classes, FINALLY. Ok, that's all I'm going to say about school in this post.
So Vicky and I made some new friends (I know, it took a while, but yayyy we have friends to hang out with now if we ever get sick of seeing each other's faces haha!)  Here's a funny story...one of our classmates, Meri, wanted us to meet her boyfriend because they were going to take us to Montserrat during the weekend (I'll talk more about it later!)  Anyway, he approaches us and kisses us on both cheeks (Spanish way of greeting) and we're both in shock but try not to show it.  We totally didn't expect it and it was soooo funny because on our way home, we were just bursting out laughing because we had no idea what just happened.  We seriously had WTF expressions on our faces LOL.  It's something we're definitely going to have to get use to when we meet new people.  I guess no more handshakes for me for the next few months!
On Thursday, I went out and partied Spanish style with some new friends, yeah!!!.  We went to this hole-in-the-wall bar that had really cheap drinks, so we hung out there for a while.  It really sucks that all public transportation stops at midnight, so you'd have to either catch a taxi home, or wait til 6 a.m. when they open again (I went with the latter haha).  We got to the club (they call it disco here)  around 12 ish and it was by the port but I had no idea where exactly because at that point, I was a weeee bit tipsy.  I was completely fine in the club for about an hour, and then when I was outside, you guessed it, I puked everything out--3 times.  Funny because the last time that happened was on my birthday last year, and I remembered telling myself I wasn't going to let that happen again, and for 11 months, it didn't, until that night/morning (can't remember what time it was).  Vicky didn't go, so she wasn't able to hold my hair for me, but thank God, one of my new friends, Cristhina, was there to take care of me.  It reminded me that I'm such a lightweight and it was quite embarrassing but after I was done, two other people in my group started getting sick, and that made me feel a little better that I wasn't the only one =).  We all hung out by the port sitting and laying on benches probably from 4 a.m. until 5 ish when we started walking back to the metro to go home and sleep it off.  I can't wait to do it again, only next time, I'll learn how to control my alcohol intake so I won't be the first one to go down.
Then today, Vicky and I went with Meri and her boyfriend Raul to Montserrat.  It's about a half hour drive from Barcelona, and it was so nice being in a car again and not the bus or metro.  We were suppose to meet them on campus at 9 a.m., but since we're slowly turning Spanish now, we were 45 minutes late. Oops!  It wasn't really our fault though because we didn't know the bus runs every 30 minutes on Sundays, so we had to walk to the metro station instead and catch the train to the university.  We felt terrible that we had to make them wait so long, but they were really nice about it and told us it was fine.  We went on our way, and drove to the mountains to check out some caves where legend has it that some miracles happened there years and years ago and that the Virgin Mary appeared to some shepherds inside the caves.  I was so excited to see this, even though there were 245 steps of stairs I had to take to get to the caves.  I didn't really mind though because it was just like Cowles' Mountain.  Remember how in "The Bucket List," the #1 thing was to experience something majestic?? Well, being inside the caves is definitely up there on my list of seeing something majestic.  I'm just so bummed that they didn't allow flash photography, but it's understandable because they're trying to preserve it.  It was so much fun climbing up and down and crawling and weaving through it and seeing how beautiful it was inside.
After spending almost an hour in the caves, we drove and then took a ziptrain to the actual town of Montserrat, which is on top of a really beautiful mountain.  I think it's one of those really sacred and religious little towns because there were crosses everywhere and there were a lot of priests and monks living in the area as well as a basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary (the one who can work miracles!--yes, I'm a believer ok? Don't make fun of me).  There was a longggg line of people waiting to go inside the basilica to touch the statue and make their wishes or say their prayers, but it was worth the wait because I was able to say my little prayer and ask Mary for some things =).  I'm so happy that Meri and Raul took us here because Vicky and I probably wouldn't have ever gone if we didn't know them.  They're so funny because before going to the caves, they brought us a ton of snacks (energy bars, fruit juices, energy drinks) enough to feed 7 or 8 people, and it was just the 4 of us.  They were like our parents, worried that we wouldn't have enough energy to make it to the caves and the rest of the day haha!  They're such a cute couple and they're already planning our next few trips together and I'm so excited for it!!
One of mine and Vicky's goals while we were here was to go see Coldplay perform somewhere, since they tour through Europe more than the states.  Soooo, I got a text from my phone service provider letting me know that they were going to let their customers buy Coldplay tickets since they were going to have a show in Madrid at the end of August.  Immediately I thought, we're going, I don't even care if it's on a Wednesday, I'm going to fly to Madrid just for that one night to see them and fly back in the morning in time for my classes.  I saw them 2 years ago in San Diego, and it's on the top of my list of the best shows I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot).  However, Vicky wasn't going to be able to go since we still haven't gotten our money yet.  I'm still pretty good with my money, at least for the next 2 or 3 weeks, so seriously financial aid and scholarship peeps, where's our money at???  I was able to get Cristhina to go with me, so we booked our flight and got our tickets (~130 euro).  I can't believe I'm going to see them again, in freaking Madrid!!! How awesome is that??  I'm so sad that Vicky can't go though because we're both ultimate Coldplay fans, and while I'll be having one of the best nights of my life, she'll be at home =(  I'll just try to record the whole show for her so it'll be like she was there haha!
Also, more good news.  One of my good friends from Holland who studied abroad at SDSU last year is coming to visit me in December.  That was such a big surprise because I was already planning to visit her hometown to see her and our other friend again after Christmas.  She'll be visiting for 3 1/2 days and I'm so happy I'll get to see her again after saying a sad goodbye to her a few months ago.  It's gonna be a wonderful December!
I haven't been skyping with my parents for over a week because my brother is in Washington D.C. for some training for his work.  I usually skype with them through his iPhone since they don't have a webcam at home.  I miss them a lot, especially their amazing food.  I'm so sick of eating cereal for breakfast and turkey sandwiches with potato chips for lunch everyday.  I just really miss Asian food!!  Vicky and I went to this Thai restaurant last week because we were craving it and craving Thai tea, but when we asked if they had Thai tea, they said they didn't.  And I just thought to myself, why the hell did you open a Thai restaurant if you don't even have Thai tea??  Makes no sense!! I was not happy about that at all.  I was also not happy that my brother was having fun in D.C., going on his food adventures without me.  Me and him bond over our obsession for food, so I was a little annoyed when he was telling me about all the food he was eating and I couldn't even be there to have some of it with him.  It's ok though because I think he felt bad that I wasn't there, so he said he'll take me sometime next year so I can see for myself.  I love my brotha!
It's Monday tomorrow, meh.  I'm looking forward to Wednesday though because it's a holiday so no classes, yayy!! Soooo, I'm going on this trip for international students to another town called Zaragoza to celebrate some festival that they're having.  It should be fun, but very tiring since they're not taking us back until 3 a.m. and we won't be back on campus until 7 a.m., and then I have class at 8:30.  I'll probably just skip that class anyway haha.
Alright, gonna go shower and head to bed.  Peace and love =)  

Things Are Lookin Up!

Good news!!! I'm going to officially register for classes sometime next week AND FINALLY get my financial aid and scholarship money so I can start spending without having any guilt.  Can't wait to eat at nice fancy restaurants and buy all the sangria I want and book my mini trips that Vicky and I are planning to take (Paris, London, maybe Ibiza and Rome??)  Classes have been okay, still not used to waking up at 6 in the morning every Monday-Thursday, but it's nice that we're done by the afternoon.
Last week, there was a huge festival throughout Barcelona called La Merce.  I think it was a festival in honor of Barcelona's patron saint.  Anyway, it was the first time since I've been here where I felt "Spanish."  Vicky and I had some trouble figuring out what was going on because there are stages set up all around the city and the description of what was going on at each stage were in Catalan!  But thanks to Google Translate, we had a good idea of what was going down and where throughout the weekend.  We were able to see the Giants Parade, which is similar to what you see on the Macy´s Thanksgiving Day parade with the huge blow up balloons, but instead of seeing balloons, we saw huuuge giants.  They were maybe 15-20 feet tall, and a real person would be under it, but because it was probably reallyyy heavy, there would be other people around the giant, ready to switch with the person if they needed a break.
The next day, we saw the Castellers.  They were a group of people of all ages who would climb up on top of each other and make "castles."  The stronger men would always be at the bottom, then the women would be in the middle, then the teenagers and the little 5 year old kid would climb over everyone else and go to the top.  I wish I was that brave when I was 5 years old!  Then in the evening, we checked out the Correfoc.  But before that, we found this bakery that had really pretty displays so we thought we'd check it out.  I'm so glad we did because now, when we're craving for a macaroon fix, this is the place we're going to.  They were about 35 cents for one (it goes by weight), which is only like 50 cents!!!  Crazy right?!  I know back home, macaroons are freaking expensive and they aren't even as good as the ones I had at this place.  Definitely going to buy me a box when I get back.  Anyone want to put some orders down?? =P  So back to he Correfoc.  Vicky told me that this thing was pretty dangerous because the brochure advised people to cover their entire bodies, and wear a hate or scarf over their heads, and I just thought, no way can this thing be that dangerous, I'm just going to wear my dress.  I should've listened to Vicky (sorry Vicky haha) because this thing was scaryyy but at the same time so much fun because only in Spain would I be able to see people walking down the streets, shooting sparklers at everyone with the beating of louuud dreams for that extra effect.  It was just insanity, thousands and thousands of people running around the streets, people cheering and yelling, and in that moment, I wasn't sure how to react.  I was excited, but scared as fuck, but also really happy.  The happiest I've ever been since being here.  I was still feeling a little down with not having classes or money, but I just thought, if nothing was going to work out, and I would have to go home, this weekend alone would have been worth it.  I was that happy.
The fun wasn't going to end from there because the fireworks finale to mark the end of the festival was going to be at the Magic Fountains, right by the flat!  Vicky and I saw postcards of what it looked like, but we were excited to actually see what it was going to be like in real time.  I'm going to say that it was one of the most magical things I have ever seen.  The music from the fountains went along with the fireworks and everyone around us had their own little sparklers that they waved throughout the show.  I was a little sad that I didn't have my own sparkler, but it was okay because I still really enjoyed it.  It was so much better than the 4th of July fireworks and the New Year's Eve fireworks combined!  The show lasted about 35 minutes, and we were so glad that we lived only a few minutes walk away because there were tons of people scrambling to get on buses and the metro.
I forgot to mention that while we were hanging out by the pier, we saw some real pick-pocketers in action!  I almost had my camera stolen because I just left it sitting right next to me and wasn't really paying much attention to it.  But Vicky noticed from behind that some guy was approaching us and looked like he was ready to grab my camera and run, and when she took my camera, she noticed that he turned around and walked away.  Scary shit!!  He was hanging around the pier and we kept our eye on him.  We noticed that he had a partner, and they were acting kind of weird, so we decided to sit somewhere else.  As we were walking past them, one of them was talking to two old ladies, asking if they wanted him to take a picture of them, and they said no.  Good for them because he would've just taken their camera and make a run for it.  But then I would've chased and tackled him down haha!
This past weekend, Vicky and I didn't really get to do anything fun.  We knew we were behind with readings and some assignments, so we decided to dedicate the weekend to catch up on all our work.  We decided to go to a park and do it because we had already spent all day yesterday at home and I was going nuts.  I really enjoyed being out in the open and it was nice seeing families out having picnics and taking their dogs out for walks.  It made me miss my little Bear soooo much.  I swear, EVERYONE here owns a dog.  Everywhere I go, I see little tiny puppies and huuge dogs with their owners and it makes me so sad that I don't have my little guy with me.  Anywayyy, the parks here are so beautiful, clean and safe.  And there's wifi!!  Back home, the closest park I live by is Colina or the one behind the Rite Aid on El Cajon Blvd., and I would NEVER go there to do homework, or read a book or just to hang out.  So that's one thing I'll really miss when I go back home.
Later that night, we went to the mall near our flat because there's this really amazing gelato shop I'm really addicted to.  My favorite flavor is the strawberry tart.  Sounds kind of plain but trust me, it's ohhh soooo goooood.  I think it's just vanilla with strawberry glaze and crushed graham crackers or something.  Best thing about is that it's only 2.80 euro for 2 scoops which is like $4!!  Back home at Chocolat, two scoops costs me like 5 something!!  When we got there, I didn't see my flavor so I was really bummed!!  So I decided to try chocolate and churros because I saw some lady eat it and I almost drooled, so I just had to have it.  It was pure hot melted chocolate in a teacup with 2 churros.  They churros here are really different.  It's not cinnamon-y at all.  It's just fried and sprinkled with some sugar, and not even brown sugar, but it was okay because the chocolate made up for it.
Then on Sunday, we went to the museum near our flat because all museums are free every first Sundays and sometimes every Sunday after 3 p.m.  We take advantage of this because we would never pay to go in museums.  It was a nice hike up all those steps to the museum, but so worth it because we got some great views of the city.  Although our flat isn't the best, it's situated in THE best location because we're so close to everything--bus/metro station, grocery store, bakery, fruit and vegetable shop, restaurants, the mall, police and fire department, everything!
This Thursday, Vicky and I are going out for dinner and drinks with some new friends we made!  They're locals so we're soooo excited to get to know them better and hopefully they can show us around the city some more because it's just way too big with too much to see.  Even though we've been here for a month, we've only seen maybe half of the city.  But we're here until the end of January, so by then, we'll probably have seen everything.  Also on Sunday, one of our other classmates (also a local) is going to take us to another town called Montserrat.  I google imaged it and it's a really beautiful mountain city so I cannot wait to see it with my own eyes!!  Things are getting a little better here...all we have to do now is wait until next week when we can finally register for our classes and hooope and prayyy to the heavens above that we get our financial aid and scholarship money.  And then everything will be perfect!