Fun ding-a-lings

Well, my life is boring, I have some homework, so I thought I would post a couple entertaining videos.
<3



Awesome


awesome too


cute


I'm obsessed with this song!

I live in this place called Madrid, have you heard of it?

Yeah, so sometimes I think that I just live in an average cosmopolitan city (which I do) but I completely forget that I am in a different country, let alone continent. Except I can't understand like 40% of what people say and I don't have my precious trailblazer to drive wherever I please.

My life is pretty dull this week. It would tick off Galileo if he had as much Astronomy homework as I do right now, my Spanish class is retarded, it moves at the pace of a kindergarten class, and my art history class is one cruel, cruel joke. It was so funny because when I got here they tried to scare us into going class and told us that our grade would drop after two unescused absences (which peeved so many people).

Everyone was so grumpy then, but now I realize that it doesn't matter, because the classes are so easy. My biggest problem with them is that they participate in the cruel, antiquated practice of busywork... not even real educational homework, but the kind your professor gives you because he thinks he should.

Sigh, that was just me being a winer, but still, this school is such a joke, I have never had an easier semester and I am thankful for it because I get to spend more time galavanting around Madrid.

I've started taking photos of all the random things in Madrid so you can look forward to that album soon. Also, this weekend I am heading to Lisbon, my roomate just returned from the same trip this morning and she had a blast, I can't wait, luckily school days pass quickly.

<3 the whiner.

Hoy

Today I was supposed to go to Segovia. This cool city about two hours outside of Madrid. I got on the metro and headed to the Cercanias line which is the train station where I intended on buying my ticket.

However, after getting trapped in, what I like to call, "the box of metro death," then running around trying to find the right platform, and finally buying a ticket, sprinting to the station.... then missing the train.

My friend, Sandy, called me and informed me that everyone had made the train but me. And I was sad. I didn't want to wait two hours for the next train so I decided to just explore Madrid, take the bus around, shop, ect.

Then Sandy calls back and informs me that they just discovered they got on the wrong train, and we headed away from Segovia. SO they decide we will just take the bullet train from the Atocha station into Toledo, a closer city to the south of Madrid.

SO I get back on the metro, head to the Atocha station, only to discover, after about 45 minutes of lines and confusing Spaniards... that there is no way we are going to make the train.

So we give up.

We walked to Puerta del Sol, eat, then went to see our first movie in Madrid, Marie Antoinette. I do not recommend it. It had no plot. But it was still fun to watch. But seriously, there is absolutely NO plot.

Tomorrow is Sunday, I might head to the flea market, or explore the Prado. I will let you know tomorrow, chau!

Fun times

I actually stayed up until 7am like a real Spaniard last night! My parents should be proud.

We went to Madrid's mega-club, Kapital. It boasts 6 stories, three different types of music, and the top story is a lounge with a retractable roof! It was so cool. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera, but I will steal some other peoples photos so you can get an idea.

Bad part is that I woke up 5:30pm (oops) instead of 2pm. I guess I turned off my alarm in my sleep! Oh well, I'll just take some NyQuill tonight or something.

Peace out.
<3 Sarah

FIRE!

Well, a few things exciting happened today, but my day definitely ended with me watching someones apartment burn. I felt bad but I can't help but be drawn to destruction... and it's not like I was the only one.
Here is some footage I shot with my camera phone...

This first video they aren't trying to put out the fire, but they are spraying water on the windows of the apartment above to alert anyone who is inside.


This is what I saw when I first got out of the subway

Here is a still shot...


Anyway, it was a productive day, I went running in Retiro, the huge park by my apartment, I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time here (yeah I know, the plucking has sucked!) They did it different too, they didn't put paper over the wax, they just pulled off the wax, AND they had to do it over the same spots a couple times. So I have no idea what that was about.


I also got my ABONO pass for the metro FINALLY. It took me so long because I had to apply for the "Joven" pass because I am under 21. Which works out great for me because then when I actually buy the pass, it is much less expensive than the regular one. The pass is monthly, so instead of having to buy a "10 viajes" pass for 6euro I can have an unlimited amount for around 20euro, which will save me mucho euros because of how often I have to take the metro.
Oh, but my picture makes me look like I am wanted in the Czech Republic for murdering my boyfriend and selling drugs. But whatever, we all know I take convict photos.


OH and I found out that Tara, my roomate is a EU Citizen because both of her parents are Irish. This makes me especially jelous because EU citizens can basically just flash thier passport and be allowed into any EU country. So yeah, that is all for today, I got to go to class, Chau

Oh jeeze Cadiz

I got to dress up like pretty pretty princess, do cool face makeup, spend a great time with my friends, see wild people, hang out in a gorgeous beach town, and I only spent 20 euro! (not including what I paid for the actual trip, which wasn’t bad at all)


Well, I had a great weekend. It may have begun and ended with an almost 9 hour bus ride. But that is okay, at least I was able to view the beautiful Spanish countryside. However there is no way I can forget to mention the annoying girls that graced our bus. It is important to note that this was not a school trip, but done through an outside travel agency, but all the kids were American, just not all from my school. So…. these girls or “sloohas” brought these naked baby boy dolls that were anatomically correct…and did not let you forget it. They were flirting in dirty Spanish to the bus driver and they were yelling the most crude, insane things ever, usually over the loudspeaker and let’s just say we hated them! But we got them back later… you will see

Anyway we arrived at about 6pm on Friday at an amazing hotel outside of Cadiz, and we were given the option of going into Cadiz that night, but we weren’t in the mood so we headed into the nearby town for some dinner. It proved to be a bust. As we later discovered Cadiz was pretty dead too. The festivities didn’t officially kick off until Saturday. So we just chilled out at the hotel and rested up for the day!


Saturday we enjoyed our complementary breakfast at the hotel (we each made a couple bocadillos and saved them for later, this greatly contributed to me only spending 20 euro). Then we headed in to Cadiz at 12, and the bus was going to pick us up at 5. It was the perfect amount of time. We got to check out the town, and I got to spend some quality time on the beach which I have been missing so much! Madrid is in the dead center of Spain mind you. We also had some great lunch on the beach, and I bought a cool leather bracelet.

The bus took us back into town at 8pm where we were fully costumed up. Now although the actual carnivale was incredible, I might just have to say that the highlight of the whole trip was in the bus ride on the way into Cadiz at night. Unfortunately for us those same annoying girls from the bus ride here were on our bus. And I pray, for their sake that they were drunk, because I don’t know how you honestly say, out loud, the nasty things that came out of their mouth.

They got a hold of the loudspeaker and began their antics and continued acting like total sloohas. My friends and I filled up the last four rows on both sides of the back of the bust and we decided we would not stand for their annoyingness anymore. SO we started yelling at them. Basically we told them to shut up because they were dumb hoes and no one wanted to listen to them. Then we started singing… “nah nah nah nah, goodbye” they still didn’t stop, but everyone on the bus supported us. Then we started chanting, “échela!” Which means, throw her out. They couldn’t even get a word in over us, and they had control of the loudspeaker! Words cannot describe, but it was so incredible to finally tell those girls off. If anyone wants to know what kind of foul things they said you can feel free to email me, but there is NO way I will post them. I could write all about what they did once we got off the bus too, but I will refrain. You can just know they were true blue sloos.

Anyway Cadiz was pure madness. It reminded me a lot of Santa Barbara at Halloween, except people weren’t dressed as slooha-ish and more concerned with having a great time than being smashed. But anyway there were loads of people, however there was no music, which was one thing that was really disappointing, because at times it was just like… me in a huge crowd of crazy people. It was still fun, however the amount of people around me got really frustrating after awhile, especially because of how carefully I had to watch my bag.


Luckily there was nothing of much importance in it. I had my money in my bra and my camera around my wrist. The only thing in my bag was some sea glass from earlier in the day, my water bottle, lip gloss, hand sanitizer, and Kleenex. I also was lucky enough to catch a Cruz del Compo hat, which is a beer company who threw out these red hats with blonde hair coming out of the bottom of them (to match their spokesman character). AND although none of that was valuable I still had some of it stolen throughout the night. The hat was stolen, and so was my water bottle, although I am not sure why someone would want my water bottle, except maybe they thought it was booze because that seemed to be how most people were rolling.



Anyway we came back on the first bus… which was at 2am mind you. But still, we were exhausted and there were so many people you couldn’t move! But I had so much fun jumping around with my friends and chasing the people dressed up as pac man ect. It was a great time and totally worth it!





This weekend will be much lower key. I am staying put in Madrid but my roommate is heading out to Lisbon, which is where I will be next weekend. School is going well, we have midterms right now, but it is nothing I am too concerned with. I am also trying to get better at Spanish, because it seriously sucks right now. It is definitely better from when I got here, but I have taken to teaching myself since my Spanish class is a complete joke. I’ll update you all on my regular life next time, but until then, chau!

The last few pics didn’t download, so I will try and update this link later… but if you can’t wait… here you go…

Cadiz Carnivale Picture Slideshow

¡Bienvenido a Càdiz!

Got back from Càdiz last night and I had an amazing time! I will be back to post pictures and tell you all about it in a day or two. Right now I have homework!

But here are some pics to hold you over!

Oh the Places You'll Go!

Well, I am off to Cadiz this weekend, for Carnival, it is sure to be quite exciting, I have a blonde wig, a hot pink and orange boa, and LOTS of sparkles! Also I finished booking all of my weekend trips for the rest of the time I am here....

In this order..
Lisbon, Portugal
Dublin, Ireland
Florence & Bologna, Italy
Amsterdam, Holland
Tenerife, Canary Islands (5 days for my Astronomy class)
Paris, France

Then my last flight is back to Los Angeles!

(oh and those don't include the day trips I am going to take outside of Madrid to all the lovely towns, like Segovia, Toledo, ect)
(cute pic of us in Granada that I stole-->

And to re-cap this is where I have been (although, notably, I have not left Spain yet)

SPAIN...
- Catares
- Merida
- Truillo
- Barcelona
- Granada
- Cadiz

WOOT! So excited!

Happy Valentines Day

Hearts for all <3

Hello Mudder, Hello Fodder, Here I am at Camp Granada!

Though its very entertaining, we'll have more fun if it ever stops raining....

Well, I had a fabulous weekend in Granada, Spain. It did rain a little but nothing too obnoxious. We went to see the Alhambra, of course. And we also got to see the actual mausoleum with Ferdinand and Isabella's caskets, creepy, but cool.




So here is a breakdown...

Friday... after a 5+ hour bus ride through windy mountain roads, we arrived in Granada, we were kinda just told to go find our own lunch, so we just started walking in hopes of finding something yummy. We found a decent looking pizzaria but the people there ended up being huge jerks and not serving us because we spoke English, which sucked. But we pressed on and walked down a little further down and found a wonderfully cheap and delicious lunch at a cute little cafeteria. We headed back to the hotel and got a walking tour of the city. We learned quite a lot about its mixed religious history of Islam, Jewish, and Christian. And believe it or not, there were many centuries here where they all lived next to one another without any problems.


Video of the countryside


Did you know that over 85% of the worlds olive oil comes from the Andalucia province of Spain, where Granda is located? Yeah suck on that Italy.

The street signs here can be confusing... for example, they can be quite tiny. Sandy is grumpily pointing this out.



Saturday... Alhambra day! We got to tour Granada's main attraction the Alhambra, it was so beautiful! My aunt had sent me pictures, and I had been told how cool it was, but you really have to be there to see it. Even though it is winter everything is still green, and there isn't one moment where you cannot hear water running. The only problems I had were that there were so many people there (and got in my pictures) and that it wasn't springtime. After the Alhambra we went out in search of a traditional Spanish lunch, and ended up at a great little restaurant and had the Menu del dia. I actually had paella again, and I am learning not to hate it. Overall it was amazing.



Later that night we were taken to these caves on the hillside where gypsies used to live, but this one had been turned into a restaurant. And although it may be a cave, the outside still looked normal and the only way you could tell it was a cave was inside. The dancers were cool, however I expected it to be a little more hard core Spanish, but I guess that is just what I've seen in movies or something.



Flamenco in Action

Sunday... We saw where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were buried. Then after lunch we headed back into Madrid.


Anyway, I had a great time, I was very touristy and I got so many souvenirs! Including my name written in Arabic! and my overall impression of Granada is that it is an amazing beautiful city with an amazing rich past that influences its architecture and food, but the people there are a bit grumpy and it is OVERRUN with American students. I heard more English this weekend than I have heard anywhere else, it was creepy.

Here are all my pictures for my Granda trip! Enjoy.
Slideshow

Chau for now.

Granada!!!!

So I am going to Granada this weekend, and I am excited because it is raining in Madrid, and warm in Granada. I will be sure to post LOTS of pics!

Here are some pictures other people have taken of me.... thought I would share the love for those who cannot access Facebook.

<3


I was feeling quite androgynous with my beanie on, so I decided to pretend to be an "Irish Brute." I think Chante's face in the background really makes this photo special.


Sandy, Rick and I in Lokua, the club I hate.


A pic my friend Matt took in Barcelona


Brian and I at Lokua for the second time. We were waiting to get inside.


Chante and I in Barcelona


A picture of all the candy at the mercado in Barcelona. Yum.

Barcelona PICS!

Sorry for the delay, I forgot I never got a chance to post them.


Barcelona Pics

BEWARE. I had such a hard time downloading these. Little did I know that each time I tried (Like 5 total) it kept sending me a message saying it didn't work. HOWEVER< I just went and re-labled all of them and noticed that in fact the did upload every time!! So there are about 3 duplicates of each pic. So once you hit slideshow they will start repeating after a while. Just a warning. The titles will vary too, bc I re-labled them each time!!! Oh well, Chau

I Understand Why They Hate Us

Give us your poor, your tired, and your huddled masses and we'll give you our loud, our obnoxious, and our annoying...

I know we all think, why do they hate us? It´s not just about war, they hated us before then. So what is it exactly? Let me first share with you, at least the Spanish way of things.

Spaniards...
1. They have been drinking since they advanced past the sippy cup
2. They are very social; however, they keep their social antics within their group and usually do not project their voices so that everyone in the surrounding area knows their business.
3. Spanish men are pigs, therefore Spanish women appear cold and heartless. It usually takes a guy like 4 hours to even get a phone number.
4. When they are in bars, they are typically not loud, and if they are... they are loud in Spanish, NOT English
5. They don´t get drunk. Notably it´s because they can easily drink their weight in alcohol, but if they do happen to get drunk, they usually cover it up.
6. Even with all the drinking I have seen ONLY 2 obese people the month I have been here, no joke. And they weren´t even that bad.

Knowing this, and also knowing that the main agenda of most students here is to be wasted 24/7, ya know, because you can´t do that in the U.S. (wtf?)

So American students, especially give a bad impression... But this list doesn’t just pertain to them.

Americans are...
1. LOUD! I am guilty of it, just try and listen to my mother and I talk on the phone, you would think we were yelling at each other.
2. They get wasted. If there is barf on the ground in the morning, it is most likely from some drunken American.
3. American girls seem like sluts. They flirt, give out numbers in a matter of minutes, and they usually get drunk and make a fool out of themselves.
4. Imagine all you knew of America was The OC and MTV. Yah, I´d think we were retards too. I even had an English woman tell me this was a major reason.
5. You can get into political and socio-economic crud. But I am not.
6. WE ARE LOUD! In bars, in the metro, on the street corner... word of advice to any travelers: if you speak English, just don´t speak it on the freaking Metro. They already stare at you. Don´t make it worse.

There should be an application process or some way in which we can revoke the passports of those incapable of keeping their loud American mouth shut on the metro. I love America, I love Europe, but they are different, people need to realize they are in a foreign country when they come and visit. However most give a horrid impression of our country.

But, I will of course try and be a good example of a cool American who doesn´t weigh over 300lbs, eat 3 square McDonalds meals a day, or who shouts across the metro car.

Chau

Happy Anniversary to Me

Today is the official one month anniversary of me being in Spain! It is so crazy because the first week felt like a whole month. But now, yeah I guess it feels like a month.

I also got my hair cut and I didn't end up with a mullet or puffy 5yr old girl bangs!! here is the result...

Today I also finished Atlas Shrugged! I got my first cup of Starbucks coffee in Spain (I have avoided it for so long because coffee is so good here, and bc it is SOO expensive) I wanted to finish my novel outside somewhere pretty, so I sat in front of Starbucks facing a famous fountain in Madrid.

ignore this link please


Atlas Shrugged is the longest novel I have ever read [1069 pages], but it was also the best. It had such an amazing plot that perfectly described her philosophy, and told a freakin' good story. She over explained it just a tad towards the end, but that is my only critique. I am going to start One Houndred Years of Solitide, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez tomorrow, and I am quite excited.

In other news today I went to the Escher Exhibit. If you have ever taken a geometry class I am sure you have seen at least one of his drawings in poster form up on the wall of your classroom. It was really cool and actually included this area you could walk into that made you feel like the room kept going when really it was just the way the mirrors were angled. It was creepy but cool.



Other than that, I bought a cute pair of boots for 20€ and I am going to Tapas Night at school tomorrow! I will let you know if the food is any good in my next post.
Until then, Chau.

Dirty Gypsies & Slooha Stealers

AH, yestarday, Tara and I watched a dirty gypsie steal a womans wallet.

There was a parade going on in the middle of Puerta Del Sol, I am not sure what it was for, but it was pretty big. We stopped over to watch, VERY aware of our belongings. I had my purse zipped up, and the zippers were near my hand, so I wasn't worried.


But this woman had her wallet in her camera bag over her shoulder and this guy turned around and walked passed her, and snatched it out of her bag. But she saw him!! So she turned around, grabbed him and yanked it out of his hand!!!!!! Then she swore profusley in Spanish. The guy just walked off, the chick was just glad to have her stuff, so he wasn't afraid of being chased.



But as Tara and I left the parade, we wondered how much was stolen from those people while they watched?

Also, we saw this sign today near our house. It is attached to the fence that closes off an area where they are doing construction. It is so cute, however, for some reason everyone thought it was kinda weird but we didn't know why. Today I realized the reason it was wierd was, it is in ENGLISH! Why a spanish construction area would have a message in English is beyond me. But it is still cute. I kinda wanna take it.

Lokua Sucks

There is this club in Madrid, called Lokua, that we have been to once before. The first time it was okay, but I still wasn't a fan of the music, it was 100% American Hip Hop, and that's just not my style. But last night when we went the DJ was SOOO bad, I could have mixed a better set together than that guy, and I have no musical talent what-so-ever! He would just mix one track into the next and he just played like radio music. I think the high point of the night was when the club dancers got on stage. There were these two hoe-ish girls and this one very muscular effeminate man, and the girls were dancing, then out of nowhere they just pulled each others tops off. They just kept dancing with no shirts on! It was disturbing, that was when we decided, it was definitely time to leave. Besides the bouncers were grumpy jerks, however we did get in without a cover charge. So luckily the only money they got out of me was 1€ to check my coat.


But we still had a good night, we left the club and walked to Puerta del Sol, found this funny little bar where the owner kept asking us questions about America. When I told him I was from LA he started talking about the LA Riots and Michael Jackson. They he talked about Billy Joel or something and played us 90's music all night. My roommate and I left early and walked the block back home. I love Madrid, because walking home at 5am is like walking around in America at 5pm. There are just as many people out. It's great!

Tomorrow I am going to get my hair done! I am going with a native Spanish speak just in case the hairdresser doesn't understand- No Mullet and No Bleach! I have no idea what I am going to do today. I just wrote some postcards and I am doing homework. I don't think I will go out tonight, unless people just want to relax somewhere. Anyway, until next time, Chau.

Practice for Cadiz

Last night there was a costume party! It was a "Wild Wigs and Shocking Shades Party" or something like that. So naturally we had to attend. It only took us four hours of wandering around Madrid to find a place to buy wigs, but we did. I already had crazy sunglasses. So we were all set. And it rocked.