Wow it’s been over 2 months since my last blog!! Time is just flying eeeek!! It’s a really bittersweet feeling. I’m really sad that I’m leaving so soon because this whole experience has been so surreal and I’m not ready for it to end just yet! I still can’t believe I decided to not graduate last May and stay in school for another year so I can do this whole study abroad thing. On the other hand, I’m glad that I’m finally coming home because over the past few weeks, I’ve been having some major cravings for all kinds of food I would normally eat at home…like my dad’s pho during the super cold weather, or a big fat greasy California burrito late at night, souplantation for my soup and salad fix, pad thai or spicy noodles from the best Thai restaurant near my brother’s house, or just taking random trips up to Santa Ana or L.A. for my food adventures. Yeah, I really miss that. A LOT. Not only that, I really miss my dog, Bearrrrr!!!! If you didn’t know already, he was attacked by a neighbor’s dog on Christmas and was in the hospital for 3 days. Poor little guy. I found out about it when I was visiting my friend in Rotterdam and it was so devastating because there I was, having a wonderful time and on the other side of the world, my little guy was hurt and I couldn’t do anything about it. But he’s doing pretty well now and my brother told me he’s healing faster than expected so that’s good news. But I don’t know if he’s just lying to me to make me feel better haha. I just can’t wait to see him when I get back. I’m actually much more excited to see him than my own family lol. Actually, I won’t even get to see my parents because they’re going to Vietnam along with one of my brother’s to celebrate Vietnamese New Year for almost 4 weeks! So I’m just going to come home to my brother, how lame. I was so looking forward to have a nice big feast prepared by my mom and dad, the best cooks I know, but that’s not even going to happen =( But that’s ok because I’ll probably just head straight to the first taco shop I see and get my burrito and horchata.
So I have to really talk about the café con leche here. It’s something I’m REALLY going to miss when I’m back home. The Spanish can sure make a mean cup of coffee with milk. Sounds so simple, but after having this for the past 5 months, I don’t think I can ever go back to having coffee from the Living Room or Starbucks. That’s saying a lot. I mean, Starbucks is delicious but café con leche is so much better. There’s no better way I can explain it, I guess you just have to have it yourself so you can see what I mean. When my brother was here, he also fell in love with it and when Vicky’s mom and godsister came, they were addicted to it, too!! Even if I bought myself an espresso machine, I don’t think I can make it the same way as they do here. That’s how good this café con leche is. I’m for sure gonna have café con leche withdrawals. Wahhhhh.
Ok, on to New Years!! I think it was my first time ever going out to celebrate New Years and although it was crazy fun, I don’t think I can ever do it again, at least not in big cities such as Barcelona. It’s just too much madnesssss. I went to the port with Vicky, her mom, godsister, and friend who came over to visit during the holidays. There were a good amount of people there (half of which were already drunk) and that’s where we stayed for the countdown. Once it was midnight, people around us were popping champagne, kissing each other, eating the 12 grapes (a Spanish and Mexican tradition that I learned from Vicky), and of course the usual pickpockets lurking around. So we decided to walk down the Ramblas, which was a big mistake on my part because I suggested it, and DIOS MIO!!! There were SO many people and like twice amount of stupid pickpockets because apparently Vicky, her mom, godsister and friend were all touched and rubbed up on by those turds. Then they went home and I met up with some of my friends and went to the bar with them to celebrate some more. We didn’t leave til around 4 or 5, I don’t really remember haha. But I do remember when we were all walking back to the metro station to head home, this guy that we met got his wallet stolen. I felt awful that it happened to him so me and Cristhina, one of my girl friends from here decided to help him find it. We all knew it was likely that he wasn’t going to find it, but God must have been on our side or something because we walked down a random small street and found his wallet with his ID on the ground. Of course his money was taken but it’s good that his ID was still there. It was a really fun night, but I don’t know, I think next time I’ll just celebrate it with my friends and family in the comfort of my own home where I won’t have to deal with a massive amount of crazy people.
Then the day after New Years, we went to London!!! I was excited because it was my first time and I was glad that everyone spoke English and that everyone was really good looking hahaha. We were there for like 3 or 4 days and even though it rained and was reallyyy cold half the time, I still had a really good time. I wished I had an extra day because I didn’t even get to check out any museums!! And most of them are free!! Shoulda taken advantage of that, ugh. I know I’ll come back to London again, maybe in the next 2 years or something and I’ll make sure I stay for like a week because there’s so much to do there! The highlight of my trip there was having my tea and scones with clotted cream at Harrod’s. Yeah, I was really fancy HAHA…ok, not really. Anyway, it was THE best scones I’ve ever had, EVERRR!!! And the clotted cream, dear God, it was one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth (that’s what she said!!) I made sure I took my time eating it because it was not only freaking delicious, but also freaking expensive, so I wanted to enjoy it as much as I can.
I went to my last two classes yesterday and it sucked saying bye to some classmates and one of my professors. They were really nice people. So now I just have to study for another final on Monday and one more on Thursday, and that’s it! Got another 11 days to live it up here as much as I can, but I’m gonna have to really study because I’m pretty sure I’m not doing very well in both of those classes. I mean, I’m pretty sure lots of study abroad students don’t do very well in their classes anyway, so it’s alright, right? =) I came here for the experience and that’s good enough haha!!
I have to set aside another blog post to talk about my legendary trip to Ibiza LOL. Every time I think about it, I have to laugh and giggle a little bit because that was the most interesting trip I have ever taken and will definitely NEVER FORGET. It was just a bunch of ultimate fails all within 2, actually 3 days. I’ll try to get to it probably Sunday or something hahaha.
Cheers!
