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.