Update! I am back in the good ol' US of A...I suppose that is a good thing. I mean there's no place like home, right? But I think I am convinced that you make your home wherever you want to make it. It could be sitting outside your locker when you were 13 years old, or it could be the house you grew up in. Either way, I found a home in Sevilla, and leaving it was really hard. When I gave Maria Jose a hug, I barely got the words "gracias por todos" out of my mouth without tearing up. As I walked into the station, there was a wave of bittersweet emotions that crashed into my sleep-deprived self. I dont know If it is just me, or it is everyone, but when I haven't gotten any sleep, my emotions are totally at the surface, and there is no stopping them. So when I sat down with my suitcase and my backpack and my ticket for a train that didnt come for another hour and a half, I was a hot mess. I broke out the tunes and that did not help in the least. Maybe I should have listened to some catchy, Kesha-type music instead of the meaningful songs I put on, but maybe I'm a bit of a masochist. The songs came on, and the tears flowed. They really were happy tears mixed with sad ones, i swear. But that hour was pretty hard, I'll give you that.
Once I got on the train, I thought I would be alright. I could sleep, I could dream, I could NOT cry. Umm no. As the train pulled away from the Santa Justa train station, I started to cry again! Goodbye Sevilla, I will miss you! But I've heard that when something is right, you just cant separate the two forever. So I know that I will see that beautiful city once again, some time.
The rest of the trip was just as expected: wait for one flight, takeoff, land, catch another flight, takeoff, land, wait for Dad to arrive, drive home. The standard. Oh! But just fyi, I hate the Paris airport. It is the most confusing, disorganized airport I have been to in my entire life. Granted I have not been to many airports, but this one takes the flipping cake. I speed-walked around that god-foresaken place for 25 minutes before getting from terminal F to terminal E. I wonder how long it would have taken me to get to Terminal A, my god. I was also in a time-crunch, so my mood was not a good one. So I pretty much growled my way through the whole place. And then, to top it off, my flight was delayed 45 minutes, so there was no need for me to rush in the first place. The only good thing that came out of all that was that I was thirsty and had to buy a water bottle, so I went to the store and also got Tiff a Paris snowglobe. ONLY plus-side of the trek to the depths of hell.
Now that I have recapped the ending, I should jump back to the middle. Yea, I know, this isnt how stories are supposed to be written. But when have I ever done things the conventional, proper way? Not to say I am off my rocker, but really, Im the girl who cant wake up at 11:oo, but must set my alarm for 10:59. Now that we are in agreement, back to Milan!
We had awful pasta (Spinach and Cheese ravioli and a sage butter sauce. It sounds delicious, but it was not). And afterwards, we went to a bar that we had passed the night before. It was a sort of edgier bar than the one we went to the night before, but thats ok. We sat outside and ordered our drinks. Melissa flirted with the waiter so we got free shots of something. It may have been tequila, regardless, it was disgusting. After a drink, we went to the tapas bar across the street because it was always packed. There were people outside in the street outside this bar for some reason and we wanted to know what that reason was. We were on a mission. So we squeezed our way into Il Tasco. It turns out it was a Spanish tapas bar! People in Italy all swarmed the Spanish tapas bar because they are so rare in Milan. Figures, we leave Spain and we end up in a Tapas bar. Well we bolted pretty quick from that place and caught a cab to take us to the clubs. We didnt know where that was, so we just asked the driver to take us to a cool club.
It turns out he had a friend who was a bouncer at the club, so we got to skip the line, but that didn't stop the people from asking for a 15 euro cover charge. When we heard that, we were out of there so fast even roadrunner couldnt have beat us. We somehow decided to go to a bar/lounge across the street which was pretty empty looking, but super modern. It ended up being a Virgin Lounge (as in Virgin Corporation, Richard Branson, not any other kind of virgin). It was so chic and so modern and completely empty. There was a manager, two bartenders and the four of us. Thats IT. We stayed there until close and it was amazing. If I ever go to Milan again (not likely) I want to go back there. By the time the place closed, it was past 2am, and we needed to leave for the airport by 3 or 3:30, so we headed back to the hotel to pack up the rest of our stuff, change clothes, and head out.
There was some wine that needed to be finished, so we finished that and got a cab and then a bus to the airport. We waited in the airport in Milan for about an hour or so, and then we were on our sleepy way back to Sevilla! It was a quick weekend, but totally worth the hassle. If not for seeing all the sights, I had the best pizza I have ever tasted. NY has nothing on Italy.
One thing at a time. Now that Milan is covered, I will continue the rest later. This may be my evil ploy to extend my Sevilla memories for longer and longer :)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Regarding the past few weeks. so very late, i apologize
Finally going to blog about the past few weeks. Thank you guys for reading this and making me feel like I should continue writing. It is super time consuming, and although I like being able to (b)log everything about my time here, i would rather be out doing something else.
I realized today, while i was writing my composition in class about the things I have done in Sevilla, that I really havent gone "site-seeing". I mean I walked around, saw the U of Sevilla, Plaza Mayor, el Prado, Plaza de Espana and Parque Maria Luisa, but I havent gone to museums or anything. I suppose I dont want to waste my time in museums about random crap that I wont remember, but I really really really want to go to the art museum. I mean who would I be if i missed all the art museums in Spain? Not that I have gone through the galleries in the ducky museum (aka QAC) over my past three years at St. Bonaventure, but oh well. (Its on my list of things to do before I leave Holean)
So Friday night we went to watch flamenco at La Carboneria, which was up this random cobblestone street a bit further than El Centro. It was old and authentic and had a not so good flamenco show, but the atmosphere was very "summer in spain" if you know what i mean. thats not supposed to be an inuendo in any way, its just that i cant describe what a "summer in spain" type of place is. so we tried this drink called Agua de Sevilla, which is this awesome fruity, creamy-ish drink that consists of champagne, pineapple juice, rum, triple sec and something else. Plus, it was topped with whipped cream, which obviously made the whole thing a hell of a lot better. And, there were straws, and we all know how happy they make me. anyway, this drink was delicious and Im very happy i tried it while here. watch out US, the recipe's coming home with me.
Saturday day we went to La Rabida and Matalascanas. La Rabida is the place where Christopher Columbus contemplated how to get completely lost around the world. There, he spent hours upon hours praying and determining what path to take to India. Good thing he didn't waste his time or anything. Good thing he totally reached the Indian shores. Yea, good one Cristobal. Anyway, my contempt for Christopher Columbus did not change the fact that The Monestary in Rabida was beautiful and the tour was fairly quick. We also got to see replicas of the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria, so that was pretty cool. The ships were fairly small, so it is pretty impressive that they made it all the way to the Americas without being completely destroyed. Plus, they were great locations for some photos.
Saturday night, we went to the oldest bar in Sevilla, called the Rinconcillo. I have to say, in the nicest, most eloquent words possible, that this place was a hole. It looks like the oldest bar, and it probably still has dirt from the construction of the building on the floor. Ok so maybe thats a bit of an overexageration, but i didnt like it that much, and neither did the rest of the group, so we left. After that failed attempt at a fun new place, half the group wanted to go home, half wanted to go to a club and the other half wanted to just chill at a bar. I was in the last half. Whitney, Donavan and I finally decided to go to this Irish pub called Flahertys. There, we were even more incongruous and ordered mojitos (which are still pretty gross to me). We were having a nice relaxing night, planning on going home in a little bit, when this Scottish dude came up to us and starting talking to us about who knows what. He then brought his little buddy too and suddenly we had made two foreign friends. I have never been to Scotland, and I dont know if I will ever make it there, but it doesnt seem like the place for me. Apparently if you have 3 drinks, you are not "on it" and need to be more "savage". They were ridiculously drunk stereotypes of Scottish guys, but they were not creepy, so that was a plus. Eventually, we told them we were going home, and we pretty much got labeled as the most lame youngins in Sevilla. Well, we had reps to preserve, so we decided to go to a club with them.
The place was called Cathedral and it was actually pretty sweet, but it was a total boys club. And by boys club I mean that all the dudes in the place were just standing around with their drinks pretty much waiting for a female to catch. It was a crazy little scenario when I actually think about it. It was like those turtles who wait for the rain to eat worms. They just stand around waiting for the worms to come out of the ground and then they pounce. Well, I guess turtles dont really pounce, i suppose they slowly sidle over to the slimy little critters. Not to get side-tracked or anything...
After some clubbing time, we left our new friends and got home at around 5:30am. It was a pretty entertaining night to say the least. Those Scots really do know how to drink. Sorry American frat boys, you got nothing on these men.
Monday, Melissa and I got the urge to get our hairs cut. I dont know what the plural of Haircut is. Is it Haircuts? We had the urge to get haircuts? I suppose that works...So we searched (fairly feebly, i might add) for a place to get our haircuts and found a place close to home. It was clean, and looked professional, and anti-tacky haircuts, so we got our hair washed, cut, and dried. I chopped my hair off pretty short (as short as I had it when i was 10 almost). It wasnt as drastic of a cut as Shivani Sharma circa May 2010, but it was big for me. I was pretty happy with the cut, and have finally accepted my lack of edge. Anyone who knows me will know this is a problem in my life (and yea, if that is my biggest problem with life, I have a pretty sweet life). Its ok though, cute haircuts fit me better than extremely dark eye-makeup (see Elliot Reed from Scrubs season __. You know that episode when she gets her hair layered and choppy and then wears ridiculous black eye makeup that was so not Elliot of her? yea that one. I just got a European haircut, no makeup change ensued). Anyway, it was pretty cool getting a haircut and having to tell the hairdresser things in spanish. Luckily the pantomimes for "up to here" are pretty universal...
During the week, we somehow ended up at Flaherty's once again and had a fun night. I am pretty sure it was for the first Spain futbol game, but dont quote me on that. On the way back, we stopped at this tapas place which was probably too expensive for my taste, but delicious (note the reason we stopped is because of my bladder, not for their food). Well, we ordered this delicious solomillo con whisky tapa. It was pretty much a piece of meat cooked in a whisky sauce with lots of soft garlic. Oh man it was good. So tender, so garlicy. So delicious. I think one of my favorite parts of Spain is the food. I dont know what I will do at home without daily gazpacho and fresh bread!
A day after, we decided that the next weekend, we would go to Milan! So we bought our tickets and booked a hotel and had international plans for two days. Friday, the school took a trip to Alcazar, which is the beautiful castle where royalty stays when visiting Sevilla. It was apparently amazing, but I have yet to go. Instead of going on a field trip to the center of Seville, we took a trip to the center of fashion in the world aka Milan. Our flight was scheduled for 1:45 and we arrived with plenty of time. Too bad we (3 girls and a guy) can not pack lightly at all. Our one checkin bag weighed about 6 kilos over the 15 kilo limit. We took three tries in and out of the line and rearranging between carry on bags to finally get an acceptable mass. And still, I am fairly certain that the woman at the desk fudged the numbers and somehow decreased the mass by 1.5 kilos to an even 15 kilos. Still, we got it on the plane and thats all that really matters.
We got there early, and wasted time with the rearranging, but we still had plenty of waiting time because our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes. We took Ryanair, which is the no frills european airline, and I mean NO frills. You had to pay to use the bathroom on the plane. You had to pay for orange juice. You had to pay for your mini bottle of champagne (ok you do that anywhere pretty much). Well Donavan and i decided that the fear for our lives on that flight required some champagne. It was overpriced and tiny, but fairly tasty, and made me sleeeeepy. It allowed me to close my eyes for a little bit before our whirlwind italian adventure. We arrived at some time around 5, i would assume. Honestly, I didnt have a watch, and I didnt check my phone, and I really didnt care.
It turns out that the international Bergamo airport is farther from Milan than I had assumed. We took an hour-long bus ride to Milan before having to navigate the metro without knowledge of the train system, specific geographical location or the italian language. It was a bit more difficult than I would have assumed it would be, so that sucked. But we figured it out with the help of lots of employees and a homeless man. After getting off the metro, it was another 45 minutes until we finally walked to our hotel. Whoever steered us to the stop that we took claimed our hotel was right at that exit. Whoever that was lied. We finally got to our hotel, which was a chic, old looking hotel that had clearly been renovated recently. It was beautiful, but also a bit fancier than was needed for 4 americans taking a weekend trip to Milan. Regardless, after about 45 minutes of room discussion, we ended up taking two rooms for the 4 of us, adding a good amount of Euros to our bill (aka my parents credit card...thanks mom and dad!)
We went for pizza that night, but got this horrible microwaved imitation crap from an Arab place called Bilal. We were hungry, and tired, and all we wanted was pizza, so it wasnt that bad, but some ON we were in Italy! We needed some goooood pizza. well that was a failed attempt, but we were full, so that was a perk. We decided we wanted to go out in Milan, so we went to a bar called Coffee and Cigarettes (just like the song by Michelle Featherstone) which was really chic, but empty. I think we got there a bit too late for the Milanian rush. Just because two countries are part of a union does not mean they live by the same schedules (aka in Spain we would have been right on time). But we had a drink and wanted to go to a club afterwards.
We went in search of a cab while walking towards the club, but we did not get too far. We encountered an accident between a motorcycle and a car. We heard the cracking and shattering of glass, the skid of metal on the pavement, the voices of the passengers. We were just far enough from the accident to not be part of it. We waited while the cops came, and the ambulance took the motorcycle driver away in the back. His friend who was also on the bike managed to jump off before any large damage, but the driver skid on the ground and had a bit of a gash on his one arm. All in all, they were all ok, and would be perfectly healthy (from what it seemed) in about 3 weeks.
Needless to say, that was a major buzzkill, so we headed back to our hotel to debrief and thank God for our lives. We stayed up until about 5am, i think, talking, laughing, photoing, you know the drill. Also watched a pretty awful fashion show and some Italian MTV (mtv isnt any better internationally). ok I dont know if it was actual MTV or jsut music videos, but whatever. The only exciting part of the TV was the Sean Kingston song that came on. Yea thats right, he was on Bonas property 2 months ago.
Next morning at around 10, after missing our 8am wakeup call completely, we ventured out into the streets of Milan to find some real, live, Italian pizza. After about 35 minutes, we found the place. Apparently, I cant open doors in Italy, and Italians dont know generic hand motions like "push the door dont pull". Ditziness aside, I had the best pizza of my life in that restaurant. It was about a 10inch round pie with mushrooms on it. I was Janice right then with the "Oh My Gawd" that ensued after the first bite. So delicious.
Afterwards, we walked around near Il Duomo in Milan, which is the big attraction. Melissa found a mime guy that was taking pictures with people and fell in love. Then she and Whitney attempted to get into the cathedral, but were rejected due to lack of clothing coverage! that was probably the only culture shock I felt in Italy. But Donavan and I went in while they waited in the impending rain. We didn't bring in cameras because we were following rules (dumb idea, except for the fact that we wont go to Hell...for that reason, at least). The inside of this cathedral was majestic and ridiculously gaudy. but oh man, so beautiful. There isnt much I can say about it besides the fact that each little piece of the decorations must have taken like 4 months at least to complete. And Im talking about the really small things! It really was breathtaking.
By the time we left, it was raining and we found shelter in a cafe that had its dining room 4 floors up. We had to take a narrow set of stairs to get all the way up there, and so did the waiter, with our drinks (poor guy). At least he was in shape (probably because of his job). We did a little souvenir searching and went back to the hotel to get warmer clothes. The nice thing about fancy hotels is that they provide simple things like umbrellas when its raining. We took a few red umbrellas (I wish they were yellow) and set out again to discover milan. We were the ultimate tourists and stopped to buy souvenirs and used a map. We stopped to take pictures everywhere and looked like we didnt belong. it was awesome. We decided that our last italian meal should be pasta, and we should dress nicely, so we went back to the hotel, got dressed, and headed to this cute restaurant.
When we ordered our meals, we were so excited to eat pasta from italy, and when it arrived, we were so excited to get the hell out of there. Ok it wasnt that bad, but it was no where NEAR the goodness I expected it to be. grrr. Oh well, we had amazing pizza!
I will continue this later, because I have been writing this one entry for days and I really dont want it to be like nine pages long. k cool, I'll write later, folks! Probably when Im back in the States... so sad!
I realized today, while i was writing my composition in class about the things I have done in Sevilla, that I really havent gone "site-seeing". I mean I walked around, saw the U of Sevilla, Plaza Mayor, el Prado, Plaza de Espana and Parque Maria Luisa, but I havent gone to museums or anything. I suppose I dont want to waste my time in museums about random crap that I wont remember, but I really really really want to go to the art museum. I mean who would I be if i missed all the art museums in Spain? Not that I have gone through the galleries in the ducky museum (aka QAC) over my past three years at St. Bonaventure, but oh well. (Its on my list of things to do before I leave Holean)
So Friday night we went to watch flamenco at La Carboneria, which was up this random cobblestone street a bit further than El Centro. It was old and authentic and had a not so good flamenco show, but the atmosphere was very "summer in spain" if you know what i mean. thats not supposed to be an inuendo in any way, its just that i cant describe what a "summer in spain" type of place is. so we tried this drink called Agua de Sevilla, which is this awesome fruity, creamy-ish drink that consists of champagne, pineapple juice, rum, triple sec and something else. Plus, it was topped with whipped cream, which obviously made the whole thing a hell of a lot better. And, there were straws, and we all know how happy they make me. anyway, this drink was delicious and Im very happy i tried it while here. watch out US, the recipe's coming home with me.
Saturday day we went to La Rabida and Matalascanas. La Rabida is the place where Christopher Columbus contemplated how to get completely lost around the world. There, he spent hours upon hours praying and determining what path to take to India. Good thing he didn't waste his time or anything. Good thing he totally reached the Indian shores. Yea, good one Cristobal. Anyway, my contempt for Christopher Columbus did not change the fact that The Monestary in Rabida was beautiful and the tour was fairly quick. We also got to see replicas of the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria, so that was pretty cool. The ships were fairly small, so it is pretty impressive that they made it all the way to the Americas without being completely destroyed. Plus, they were great locations for some photos.
Saturday night, we went to the oldest bar in Sevilla, called the Rinconcillo. I have to say, in the nicest, most eloquent words possible, that this place was a hole. It looks like the oldest bar, and it probably still has dirt from the construction of the building on the floor. Ok so maybe thats a bit of an overexageration, but i didnt like it that much, and neither did the rest of the group, so we left. After that failed attempt at a fun new place, half the group wanted to go home, half wanted to go to a club and the other half wanted to just chill at a bar. I was in the last half. Whitney, Donavan and I finally decided to go to this Irish pub called Flahertys. There, we were even more incongruous and ordered mojitos (which are still pretty gross to me). We were having a nice relaxing night, planning on going home in a little bit, when this Scottish dude came up to us and starting talking to us about who knows what. He then brought his little buddy too and suddenly we had made two foreign friends. I have never been to Scotland, and I dont know if I will ever make it there, but it doesnt seem like the place for me. Apparently if you have 3 drinks, you are not "on it" and need to be more "savage". They were ridiculously drunk stereotypes of Scottish guys, but they were not creepy, so that was a plus. Eventually, we told them we were going home, and we pretty much got labeled as the most lame youngins in Sevilla. Well, we had reps to preserve, so we decided to go to a club with them.
The place was called Cathedral and it was actually pretty sweet, but it was a total boys club. And by boys club I mean that all the dudes in the place were just standing around with their drinks pretty much waiting for a female to catch. It was a crazy little scenario when I actually think about it. It was like those turtles who wait for the rain to eat worms. They just stand around waiting for the worms to come out of the ground and then they pounce. Well, I guess turtles dont really pounce, i suppose they slowly sidle over to the slimy little critters. Not to get side-tracked or anything...
After some clubbing time, we left our new friends and got home at around 5:30am. It was a pretty entertaining night to say the least. Those Scots really do know how to drink. Sorry American frat boys, you got nothing on these men.
Monday, Melissa and I got the urge to get our hairs cut. I dont know what the plural of Haircut is. Is it Haircuts? We had the urge to get haircuts? I suppose that works...So we searched (fairly feebly, i might add) for a place to get our haircuts and found a place close to home. It was clean, and looked professional, and anti-tacky haircuts, so we got our hair washed, cut, and dried. I chopped my hair off pretty short (as short as I had it when i was 10 almost). It wasnt as drastic of a cut as Shivani Sharma circa May 2010, but it was big for me. I was pretty happy with the cut, and have finally accepted my lack of edge. Anyone who knows me will know this is a problem in my life (and yea, if that is my biggest problem with life, I have a pretty sweet life). Its ok though, cute haircuts fit me better than extremely dark eye-makeup (see Elliot Reed from Scrubs season __. You know that episode when she gets her hair layered and choppy and then wears ridiculous black eye makeup that was so not Elliot of her? yea that one. I just got a European haircut, no makeup change ensued). Anyway, it was pretty cool getting a haircut and having to tell the hairdresser things in spanish. Luckily the pantomimes for "up to here" are pretty universal...
During the week, we somehow ended up at Flaherty's once again and had a fun night. I am pretty sure it was for the first Spain futbol game, but dont quote me on that. On the way back, we stopped at this tapas place which was probably too expensive for my taste, but delicious (note the reason we stopped is because of my bladder, not for their food). Well, we ordered this delicious solomillo con whisky tapa. It was pretty much a piece of meat cooked in a whisky sauce with lots of soft garlic. Oh man it was good. So tender, so garlicy. So delicious. I think one of my favorite parts of Spain is the food. I dont know what I will do at home without daily gazpacho and fresh bread!
A day after, we decided that the next weekend, we would go to Milan! So we bought our tickets and booked a hotel and had international plans for two days. Friday, the school took a trip to Alcazar, which is the beautiful castle where royalty stays when visiting Sevilla. It was apparently amazing, but I have yet to go. Instead of going on a field trip to the center of Seville, we took a trip to the center of fashion in the world aka Milan. Our flight was scheduled for 1:45 and we arrived with plenty of time. Too bad we (3 girls and a guy) can not pack lightly at all. Our one checkin bag weighed about 6 kilos over the 15 kilo limit. We took three tries in and out of the line and rearranging between carry on bags to finally get an acceptable mass. And still, I am fairly certain that the woman at the desk fudged the numbers and somehow decreased the mass by 1.5 kilos to an even 15 kilos. Still, we got it on the plane and thats all that really matters.
We got there early, and wasted time with the rearranging, but we still had plenty of waiting time because our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes. We took Ryanair, which is the no frills european airline, and I mean NO frills. You had to pay to use the bathroom on the plane. You had to pay for orange juice. You had to pay for your mini bottle of champagne (ok you do that anywhere pretty much). Well Donavan and i decided that the fear for our lives on that flight required some champagne. It was overpriced and tiny, but fairly tasty, and made me sleeeeepy. It allowed me to close my eyes for a little bit before our whirlwind italian adventure. We arrived at some time around 5, i would assume. Honestly, I didnt have a watch, and I didnt check my phone, and I really didnt care.
It turns out that the international Bergamo airport is farther from Milan than I had assumed. We took an hour-long bus ride to Milan before having to navigate the metro without knowledge of the train system, specific geographical location or the italian language. It was a bit more difficult than I would have assumed it would be, so that sucked. But we figured it out with the help of lots of employees and a homeless man. After getting off the metro, it was another 45 minutes until we finally walked to our hotel. Whoever steered us to the stop that we took claimed our hotel was right at that exit. Whoever that was lied. We finally got to our hotel, which was a chic, old looking hotel that had clearly been renovated recently. It was beautiful, but also a bit fancier than was needed for 4 americans taking a weekend trip to Milan. Regardless, after about 45 minutes of room discussion, we ended up taking two rooms for the 4 of us, adding a good amount of Euros to our bill (aka my parents credit card...thanks mom and dad!)
We went for pizza that night, but got this horrible microwaved imitation crap from an Arab place called Bilal. We were hungry, and tired, and all we wanted was pizza, so it wasnt that bad, but some ON we were in Italy! We needed some goooood pizza. well that was a failed attempt, but we were full, so that was a perk. We decided we wanted to go out in Milan, so we went to a bar called Coffee and Cigarettes (just like the song by Michelle Featherstone) which was really chic, but empty. I think we got there a bit too late for the Milanian rush. Just because two countries are part of a union does not mean they live by the same schedules (aka in Spain we would have been right on time). But we had a drink and wanted to go to a club afterwards.
We went in search of a cab while walking towards the club, but we did not get too far. We encountered an accident between a motorcycle and a car. We heard the cracking and shattering of glass, the skid of metal on the pavement, the voices of the passengers. We were just far enough from the accident to not be part of it. We waited while the cops came, and the ambulance took the motorcycle driver away in the back. His friend who was also on the bike managed to jump off before any large damage, but the driver skid on the ground and had a bit of a gash on his one arm. All in all, they were all ok, and would be perfectly healthy (from what it seemed) in about 3 weeks.
Needless to say, that was a major buzzkill, so we headed back to our hotel to debrief and thank God for our lives. We stayed up until about 5am, i think, talking, laughing, photoing, you know the drill. Also watched a pretty awful fashion show and some Italian MTV (mtv isnt any better internationally). ok I dont know if it was actual MTV or jsut music videos, but whatever. The only exciting part of the TV was the Sean Kingston song that came on. Yea thats right, he was on Bonas property 2 months ago.
Next morning at around 10, after missing our 8am wakeup call completely, we ventured out into the streets of Milan to find some real, live, Italian pizza. After about 35 minutes, we found the place. Apparently, I cant open doors in Italy, and Italians dont know generic hand motions like "push the door dont pull". Ditziness aside, I had the best pizza of my life in that restaurant. It was about a 10inch round pie with mushrooms on it. I was Janice right then with the "Oh My Gawd" that ensued after the first bite. So delicious.
Afterwards, we walked around near Il Duomo in Milan, which is the big attraction. Melissa found a mime guy that was taking pictures with people and fell in love. Then she and Whitney attempted to get into the cathedral, but were rejected due to lack of clothing coverage! that was probably the only culture shock I felt in Italy. But Donavan and I went in while they waited in the impending rain. We didn't bring in cameras because we were following rules (dumb idea, except for the fact that we wont go to Hell...for that reason, at least). The inside of this cathedral was majestic and ridiculously gaudy. but oh man, so beautiful. There isnt much I can say about it besides the fact that each little piece of the decorations must have taken like 4 months at least to complete. And Im talking about the really small things! It really was breathtaking.
By the time we left, it was raining and we found shelter in a cafe that had its dining room 4 floors up. We had to take a narrow set of stairs to get all the way up there, and so did the waiter, with our drinks (poor guy). At least he was in shape (probably because of his job). We did a little souvenir searching and went back to the hotel to get warmer clothes. The nice thing about fancy hotels is that they provide simple things like umbrellas when its raining. We took a few red umbrellas (I wish they were yellow) and set out again to discover milan. We were the ultimate tourists and stopped to buy souvenirs and used a map. We stopped to take pictures everywhere and looked like we didnt belong. it was awesome. We decided that our last italian meal should be pasta, and we should dress nicely, so we went back to the hotel, got dressed, and headed to this cute restaurant.
When we ordered our meals, we were so excited to eat pasta from italy, and when it arrived, we were so excited to get the hell out of there. Ok it wasnt that bad, but it was no where NEAR the goodness I expected it to be. grrr. Oh well, we had amazing pizza!
I will continue this later, because I have been writing this one entry for days and I really dont want it to be like nine pages long. k cool, I'll write later, folks! Probably when Im back in the States... so sad!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
this is more like a twitter at this point
ay dios mio. im not in the mood to study. midterms tomorrow and thurs boooooooo
Monday, June 14, 2010
Quicktime 1.0
So another six days has gone by in Sevilla and I have not updated narcissistically about my life. I'm too tired to write a lot, but here is a quick update:
Thursday: class, lunch, chilled
Friday: Flamenco at La Carboneria, then Sepo
Saturday: La Rabida y Matalascanas way too early in the morning, then El Rinconcillo, Flaherty's and Catedral
Sunday: Woke up at 3PM, first drink of the day was tinto de verano with lunch, chilled
Monday: class, bought plane tickets for this weekend, reserved hotel for this weekend, shopped in El Centro
Tuesday: plan to go study at cute cafe
Wed: First midterm (language class eeks), plan to study at cute cafe, then watch Spain/Switzerland futbol game, study some more
Thurs: Second Midterm (culture class equal eeks), el centro to return purchases, buy stamps for postcards, flamenco show at Santa Cruz! chilllllll
Friday: Fly away from Sevilla for the weekend (bittersweet, but more sweet than bitter)
Thursday: class, lunch, chilled
Friday: Flamenco at La Carboneria, then Sepo
Saturday: La Rabida y Matalascanas way too early in the morning, then El Rinconcillo, Flaherty's and Catedral
Sunday: Woke up at 3PM, first drink of the day was tinto de verano with lunch, chilled
Monday: class, bought plane tickets for this weekend, reserved hotel for this weekend, shopped in El Centro
Tuesday: plan to go study at cute cafe
Wed: First midterm (language class eeks), plan to study at cute cafe, then watch Spain/Switzerland futbol game, study some more
Thurs: Second Midterm (culture class equal eeks), el centro to return purchases, buy stamps for postcards, flamenco show at Santa Cruz! chilllllll
Friday: Fly away from Sevilla for the weekend (bittersweet, but more sweet than bitter)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Im a cat and other mish-mash
i guess i havent really updated about life since saturday, and that is because life has been a bit relaxed. Sunday, i was a cat. I slept, ate, lounged, scratched posts, the whole nine yards (minus the licking). it was a much needed rest from the weekend, but just got me used to the sleeping in the afternoon thing. So for the past three days, I have taken major siestas. not even siestas, they were like half night sleeps. This makes doing anything a lot more difficult since i end up getting up right before dinner, and then leave the house a lot later than I would have liked.
Also on Sunday, we finally tried tinto de verano, which is red wine with soda. We had ours with sprite, which was delicious, actually. its very refreshing, and not as dry as red wine usually is. Still, it is wine, and it does make me a bit tipsy pretty easily.
So on Monday, we went to this place in the park called Ylang Ylang, which was the most beautiful bar I have ever been to. It is in the middle of the park and is outdoors. I really liked it, but we didnt get back till about 2 and I didnt sleep till later than that. Going out is fun, but lack of sleep in the morning means I am a zombie in class. Note, it is 3:05am as i write this, so even though i realized that, nothing has changed.
im still really excited about the wonders of skype. So much that I have gotten really tired with blogging. I think I have a problem sticking to things. The two things I have ever stuck to in my life are Spanish and Biology. Im a nerd, go figure. But I really will try to keep up with this so that I will have a (b)log of what I did in Spain.
p.s. started watching "the backup plan" with the roomies. it isnt terrible. Predictable, but not terrible. Tomorrow, we will finish it.
p.p.s. sometimes, i think i would be a much more successful tweeter than blogger
p.p.p.s. i dont think i need to write p.s.'s bc this isnt a letter, but i will anyway
p.p.p.p.s. my spanish is getting better! yo entiendo mucho de los frases que mi madre usa, y puedo formar oraciones mas rapido que antes. buenas noches munecitos
Also on Sunday, we finally tried tinto de verano, which is red wine with soda. We had ours with sprite, which was delicious, actually. its very refreshing, and not as dry as red wine usually is. Still, it is wine, and it does make me a bit tipsy pretty easily.
So on Monday, we went to this place in the park called Ylang Ylang, which was the most beautiful bar I have ever been to. It is in the middle of the park and is outdoors. I really liked it, but we didnt get back till about 2 and I didnt sleep till later than that. Going out is fun, but lack of sleep in the morning means I am a zombie in class. Note, it is 3:05am as i write this, so even though i realized that, nothing has changed.
im still really excited about the wonders of skype. So much that I have gotten really tired with blogging. I think I have a problem sticking to things. The two things I have ever stuck to in my life are Spanish and Biology. Im a nerd, go figure. But I really will try to keep up with this so that I will have a (b)log of what I did in Spain.
p.s. started watching "the backup plan" with the roomies. it isnt terrible. Predictable, but not terrible. Tomorrow, we will finish it.
p.p.s. sometimes, i think i would be a much more successful tweeter than blogger
p.p.p.s. i dont think i need to write p.s.'s bc this isnt a letter, but i will anyway
p.p.p.p.s. my spanish is getting better! yo entiendo mucho de los frases que mi madre usa, y puedo formar oraciones mas rapido que antes. buenas noches munecitos
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
skype
let me just quickly mention that skype is the best invention EVER! less than 2 cents a minute to call US phones from my computer. amazing. thank you mr. skype inventor, a tip of the hat to you.
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