Celebrate Good Times, Come On!! Yaahooo!!!

Best Birthday Week EVERRRR

Last week, I turned 22.  I wasn’t too excited about it because I’m not really into birthdays and I really hate celebrating getting older…I just want to be forever young!!  I decided to throw a house party since they don’t have a lot of those here and I was excited to show my buddies some American drinking games haha.  I made jello shots for everyone and it was hilarious because some of them didn’t know what it was so when me and my friend Cristhina brought them out, she threw one at our other friend Jessee and he freaked out, not realizing jello shots are solid LOL.  So we all just hung out for a few hours and headed to the club and had some fun til the early morning hours.  I STILL don’t understand how everyone here can stay up for so long…they’re probably all vampires or something. 

On my actual birthday (Wednesday), Vicky surprised me with some balloons that she had taped throughout the flat.  I noticed that they looked really weird because I saw these two things hanging out of the balloons that made them look like udders.  WTF right?!  I asked her why she bought me udder balloons and she said they weren’t suppose to be udders, they’re supposed to be bunny ear balloons, but they didn’t come out the way it was supposed to.  I guess it’s the thought that counts, right? HAHA.  That night, she took me out to the fancy pancy restaurant down the street from our flat.  I told her I didn’t want to because it was too expensive, but she insisted, so we went.  We had the Russian salad, which was just like a potato salad, but with some extra stuff like salmon eggs and biscuit things.  Then we had steak cubes with garlic sauce and omggg it was delicious because we usually just eat a lot of chicken since beef is pretty expensive here.  Then we had chicken with two kinds of sauces and I’ll say it was one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever had.  For dessert, we had a mango and strawberry custard pie thing.  The top part wasn’t that great because they really burned the brown sugar so it tasted BAD. But the custard was sooo creamy and perfect!  On our way home, we stopped by the store next to the house and bought a lighter because Vicky wanted me to blow out my candles.  The stupid storeowner knew we weren’t from here so he overcharged us because when I asked how much, he stood there and had to think about it for a few seconds before giving us a price.  What a turd!  Anyway, we came home and had my giant puff pastry cake that Vicky bought the day before.  We were already so full from dinner but Vicky said we had to eat it, so that’s what we did!  I already told Vicky, but I’m gonna say it again here…THANK YOU Vicky for one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had =)

The next day, Vicky and I had our 2 presentations, which went ok, we were glad to just get it over with.  Then one of our other friends, Meri took us to her house to have lunch.  I looove her mom’s cooking because it reminds me of my mom and how she always makes a bunch of food and forcing me to keep eating.  She made this sauce to put on our pasta and said it was just mayo with ketchup with a bit of orange juice!!  It doesn’t sound yummy, but it wasss!!! A side not about mayo: I never use to eat it as much, I’ll just put a littttle bit of it on my sandwiches, but since I’ve been here, I’ve been eating it with my fries, or the patatas bravas that me and Vicky always order when we’re eating out.  I think I’m gonna come back and ask for mayo instead of ketchup to dip my fries x__x lol.  Then we had meatballs with potatoes and peas with a sauce that went really well with the potatoes.  I liked it a lot and I wish I could’ve stuffed my face with some more of it but I was so full!!! 

We were waiting for Meri’s boyfriend, Raul to get out of class, so in the meantime, we had some fun playing dress up LOL.  Her parents bought her a kimono from Japan for her birthday a few years ago, and it was reallyyyy pretty, so we all took turns trying it on.  You can see it on facebook ^__^  Her dad and Raul came home around the same time, so there’s this tradition they have here where you tug at the birthday person’s ears, depending on how old they’re turning.  I think I like this tradition a lot more than the one back home where you pinch or punch the birthday girl/boy…it’s a lot less painful!  So the whole family took turns tugging at my ears, and it was so cute and funny.  Definitely something I won’t forget haha.  It was just a whole day of surprises for me because they brought out this apple cake that Meri, Raul and her mom had made the night before.  I guess Vicky told them that she normally makes me her famous apple pie every year for my birthday, so they decided to make their own version of an apple pie, and ahhhh it was sooo gooood.  And to add on to the surprises, Vicky and I got gifts from them.  First gift was HILARIOUS.  They got us 2 huuuge rolls of paper towels because they know that every time we go out to eat, we’ll steal all the napkins (handfuls and handfuls of them) so we don’t have to go buy any HAHA.  Seriously the best gag gift I’ve ever gotten.  Second gift was an uber cute keychain and mug & I loved itttt!!!  So then Meri had to go into work for a little bit, so Raul took me and Vicky around the town of Granollers.  He was telling us there’s this place that has vending machines for anything you can think of, and that includes condoms and sex toys, so we went and checked it out.  Funny because I didn’t know what half of those things were, so yayyy me for still having an innocent mind LOL!

After Meri got off work, they took us to a Japanese Teppanyaki and Sushi restaurant, ahhhhh!!!!!  I had some gyoza, yakisoba, some rolls and some chicken…just A LOT of food haha.  We didn’t get back home til like midnight or something, and our flight to Milan was at 7:05 in the morning.  We both hadn’t packed yet, and Vicky still had to write a paper so that Meri can turn it in for us, and she only had a few hours to do it.  I’m glad I finished with mine a few days before because I would’ve freaked if I had to write a paper at the very last minute…it’s just too much pressure!!  I was able to squeeze in 2 hours of sleep, but Vicky didn’t sleep at all because we had to catch the bus at 5:30 to get to the airport and make it in time for our flight. 

We landed around 9 a.m. and took a bus from the airport to the city center, which was also where our hostel was located.  We checked into our hostel and our first impression: not bad at all!!  It was a great location, the girl working there was really nice, and everything was very clean.  We literally just dropped our stuff in the room and headed out for some exploring.  But the first thing on my mind was getting some FOOOD!!!  I got a panini and a slice of pizza and the lady working the counter thought it was 1 for me and 1 for Vicky so she handed my panini to me and my pizza to Vicky, but I told her it was for me haha.  Obviously, she doesn’t know that I’m a beast =)  We took a bus tour through the city, and that was about 2 1/2  hours long.  Milan is a pretty small city and their public transportation is amazing, just like any other European city.  I really wish ours was better because I would so take public transportation everywhere or even walk if San Diego was a “walkable” city. 

After the tour, we decided to go back to the places we liked best during the tour.  We went to the castle since it was right next to where the bus stop dropped us off.  There were these African guys walking around trying to sell people these string bracelets.  So as Vicky and I were taking pictures, he came up to us and took my arm and tied it around my wrist, even when I told him I didn’t want it!!  I thought “no” was a universal word!!  I just walked away from him with his bracelet on my wrist without giving him any money because I told him I didn’t want it in the first place haha! 

For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant that was near our hostel and made our bellies really happy.  We had bruschetta, pizza, lasagna, a fruit salad for dessert, and topped it off with a cappuccino.  It was delizioso!!  We were sitting next to this older guy and a girl that looked like she was in her late 20s and the whole time, they kept getting up and sitting down and chatting with the waiters at the restaurant.  Vicky said it could be the owner, but I didn’t think so…they were just odd people.  I think it was a pimp and one of his ho’s haha. 

The next morning, we had to check in to our other hostel since the hostel we were staying at didn’t have any room for us for our 2^nd night.  The other hostel was just about a 10 minute walk up the street.  We got there and see that it’s run by kids!! LOL…well, not kids, they were like 19 or 20 years old.  So we’re in one of the big rooms to check in, and there’s like 3 of them in the room and they’re all just standing there, looking at us, and to make it worse, the girl at the computer talked to us through google translate!! LOL She told us we couldn’t check in until 2 and said we could leave our stuff in the room until then.  Since I already didn’t have a lot of trust in this place based on my first impression of it, I only left my clothes with them, and took everything else that was important to me and stuffed it in my little tiny bag. 

So we left and walked down Corta Buenos Aires, one of the famous shopping streets in Milan.  We passed by this café and 2 guys were outside prepping for something and we saw a HUGE chunk of some kind of meat and fresh bread, so we thought we’d give it a try.  As I’m writing this, my mouth is watering and I regret sooo badly that I didn’t buy more.  It was a good sized sandwich and it was only 2 euro!!!  I could’ve eaten another 2 or 3 of those!! 

We arrived at the public park of Milan and there were a bunch of trees all in different colors.  I’ve never seen leaves change colors before, so I thought it was so beautiful to be able to experience the seasons!  But I’m really not looking forward to winter, though, because even though it was fall, I was freezing my butt off!!  Then, I wanted to go to this other famous street called Montenapoleone (something like that), which was like the Rodeo Drive of Milan.  As we were walking there, this man stopped us and told us that we had good auras, and asked if he could read our palms because it would make him very happy haha.  My first impression of him was that he was very….eccentric.  We didn’t feel threatened by him or anything, he seemed like a very nice man…and I think he was gay (well, he told us he was a transgender), so I think he was harmless lol.  We spent around 15 minutes with him and the only thing I remember him telling me is that I was going to be doing a lot of travelling for work, specifically in Australia and England (yayy!!).  So I hope he’s right =)  Oh and he said my aura was blue and yellow.  I don’t even know what that means, but I hope it’s a good thing. 

After that, we walked through Montenapoleone, but just to window shop because there’s no way I could ever afford anything in there, but maybe someday I’ll be able to!  Instead, we found a really fancy pastry/coffee shop, so we went and bought ourselves some bite-sized pastries.  We got 5 kinds and it was 7.50 euro.  Expensive, but whatever, it was damn good!!

When we got back to the hostel to check in, we found that our bags were already put in a room.  The room was bigger than the room from the night before, but Vicky found out that there were 4 different light functions for the room, and one of them was a blue light that lined the walls…kinda strange lol.  That room must have been used for some sketchy stuff hahaha.  We ended up getting dinner at McDonald’s because I wanted to try their menu.  I got a burger called the 1955 and it came with a real-tasting beef patty, grilled onions, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, special sauce AND barbeque sauce.  It wasn’t bad at all!!  But there was one problem.  Vicky and I have an addiction to ketchup, so when we asked for ketchup, they said they charge 20 cents per ketchup bag.  We loooove ketuchup, but not enough to pay 20 cents for each freaking package!! I’d only be able to dip like 10 french fries with that!!  So we ended up eating our food without ketchup =(

We got back to Barcelona the next day at around 3 and we were welcomed by the rain. Yayy.  I had a great time in Milan and I would go back in the future, but not until I make some good money so I can do major damage on Montenapoleone =)

My brother just got here tonight, yayyy!!! I’m so excited because I really want to show him the good life that I’ve been living, and of course to eat some amazing food for free, since he’ll pay for everything muahahaha.  I’m going to take a week off of school and go to Paris and Rome with him.  It’s his first time in Europe, and it’ll be my 2^nd time going to Paris and Rome and I’m so so sooo happy that I get to go back and spend it with my brother.  We’re both in love with travelling and food, so it should be a fun trip.  I know I shouldn’t be taking a week of school off because I found out a failed my exam for my Brit. History class yesterday and I got a 5/10 on my 1 page paper for my Teaching Methods class HAHA!! My excuse is that I’m a business student and I know nothing about teaching or the history of anything! =P  I guess I’ll put in some extra effort next time…it’s just so hard to focus on school because I have MAJOR senioritis and I’ve been having it since last year!!  Not only that, I’m in freaking Spain!  Gotta live a little, or a lot!!!

Can’t believe I’ve already reached my half way point…2 ½ more months to go and I’ve got so much planned out until then, there’s just not enough time!!!  After my brother leaves, 2 weeks later, my friend  Merel from Amsterdam is coming to visit, and then I’m going to Andorra with my buddies the following weekend for a snowboarding/ski trip, and then it’s Christmas, and I’ll be flying to Amsterdam to spend it with Merel and her family, and then I’ll be back in time to celebrate New Year’s in Barca, and then me, Vicky and her mom and god-sister and friend are planning to go to London for a few days after New Year’s, and then my childhood best friend is coming to visit for a few days, and then I’ll only have 2 weeks left before I go home.  Ahhhh it’s so sad to think about it because I’m loving it here so soooo much and it just sucks that I’m going to leave the friends that I’ve made, I’m just going to stop now…goodnight/morning =’’’’(