lions and tigers and bears oh my!

It is really strange how long I've been living in Madrid now and as much as I love this experience, it is really making me appreciate home more.  I wouldn't say Madrid is starting to feel like home, but it definitely feels nice to come home to Carmen's cooking and a nice comfy bed all after a long weekend of traveling.  However, I am in the awkward homesick phase where as much as I wanna travel Europe and study abroad here, I wanna bring the American culture with me and my friends and family from back home.  I'm ready to live in my own house or dorm room again and not be a guest in someone else's home.  I'm ready to eat whenever I want, whatever I want.  Carmen's an awesome cook, but my real mom is better.  I want pets in my house again that actually like me and sleep with me at night.  Alexandra is an awesome sister but it's driving me crazy not being with my real sister and having her come visit me at Duke.  I'm missing basketball season.  Enough said.

But my homesick rant is over.  And I am by no means hating on Madrid.  More like loving on American and my homes there (which include Charlotte with my family and Duke).  This is only the halfway awkward homesick transition period.  I sure it is just a phase, hopefully.

Anywaysssss, this week was midterm week.  So fun.  But Friday we took a program trip to Toledo, which was actually very fun and beautiful.  The city was really cool and we did a lot of tours into Cathedrals and Temples and what not.  To me it seemed like a classic, olden days city structured just like you would imagine an old city to look like.   A beautiful river running around it, with the city life high up above the water, and mountains and hills all around.  Real pretty.  It was a nice trip with everyone.

So Pretty!

Also, yesterday I knocked quite a few cultural activities off of my Madrid list.  Brittany Cohen (my roommate next year at Duke) is visiting this weekend.  Yayyy!  Me and Charlie met up with her and her friend and went to the Madrid zoo!  Ahhhhhh I love the zooo.  It was an awesome one too, with almost every species of animal you can imagine.  We had a blast.  There were lions and tigers and bears, oh my! And pandas and owls :) and reptiles and dolphins.  It was very fun!  We also rode the Teleferico over to the zoo which is a big gondola lift that takes you over Madrid.  It's way better than taking the metro.  

After the zoo we went to Plaza Mayor where there was another strike, surprise surprise.  So we headed over to the Reina Sofia museum where we wandered around and saw the Guernica painting by Picasso.  It was really cool.  I never realized how huge the actual painting is.  It was a very very cultural day.  Knocked a lot of things off my list.

The night wasn't very cultural.  The goal was to botellon in the streets outside with everyone.  However, it was like 2 degrees outside and that plan failed.  So we went to Dubliners, the most American bar in all of Madrid.  For some reason we end up there a lot haha.  And almost every duke kid abroad is visiting this weekend so we all met up there.  It was a great time and I saw so many people.  I did not want to pay the expensive fee to get into the really cool club called Kapital so I ditched that and was able to get home a relatively early time and watched Star Wars when I got back?  Random, but I woke up and star wars was playing on my computer.  Smash makes good decisions in the late night.  

I then slept in real nice and late and now I have my first basketball game with the varsity team here in Madrid :) Wish me luck!! Should be interesting.   The coach is a nutcase, but he is great.  I'm pumped woo!

Peaceeee<3

Dukes going bowling! && other wonderful things

Yeah, you heard me.  Duke is playing in a bowl game this year :) I am so proud of my boys and wish more than anything that I was at Duke to cheer them on.  Shout out to Anthony Boone!  I'm proud of you buddy for all of your hard work.  It's all paying off now!  How exciting!
Also, basketball season has started and that's just fantastic.  Can't believe I'm missing half of the games, but something's gotta give.  I'll be watching them all from here of course, probably in Dubliners with the entire Duke in Madrid program.  Then when I return, diving head first into black tenting.  Yeaaaah buddy.  This year is gonna be off the chain.

So enough missing Duke, since I do that plently enough on a daily basis.  Life in Madrid is going grand as well.  I could never actually live in this city unless I had wifi 24/7 and they imported American coffee.  Then I would consider it.  Oh, and if my family came all da time.  Which in fact, they may very possibly be coming for Christmas!!! Best news ever.  I might have convinced them to come for a week to spend Christmas with me and travel some.  My original plans were to stay and travel Europe for 3 weeks, just hooking up with whoever was staying around for that long.  My flight home isn't until January 3rd, which is longggg after anyone else in the program.  I'd purchase a Eurorail Pass and conquer Europe in 3 weeks, which sounds like a fantastic plan as is.  However, a solo Christmas freaks me out.  So now my parents might come and we would do Christmas in Paris :)  I would pretend to be princess Anastasia for the night of course and we would have a lovely Christmas.  So, crossing my fingers, wishing on eyelashes and birthday candles that this works out.

This is my wishing face

Also, my boy Charlie convinced me that going to Mumford and Sons in London for a-price-I-can't-say-on-here-because-it-is-a-little-absurd would be a good idea.  And he is 100% correct.  A my rule is I can't say no.  So I will be in London on December 18th and in Ireland the days before that.  So exciting!!!

Manana we are going to Toledo with the program.  I'm kind of excited, but honestly I want a day to sleep in.  And that just isn't happening lately.  We just finished midterm week here.  It went better than at Duke but still not fun.  It's your standard Duke-ish type midterm and they all suck so the focus of this blog is NOT on midterm week.  We shall skip over all of that.

Amanda and Knierim and other people from Duke came to Madrid this week from Monday to Thursday.  We are all the worst though and never even saw each other.  The phone situation did not work out and I could not contact them at all.  I also was going to class during the day and trying to go out with them at night all while studying for midterms.  Last night was the worst trying to find them.  One of the biggest problems in Spain is communication.  It's old school without wifi on the iphones everywhere you go.  You actually have to call people or sometimes use carrier pigeons.  This is not something I think I will ever get used to.  The point of this story is my friends came to visit and I never saw them.  Haha oopsyy.This weekend my other friends are coming so wish me luck with that.  If I don't see Brittany Cohen I will cry.  But I am pretty convinced we will see each other.  She is visiting from Barcelona and then I go to Barcelona in the middle of November.  In a week I leave for Copenhagen!  Sensation white, what's good?!

I just put on the Sound of Music to inspire me to want to go to Vienna one day and to sing songs about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and all of my favorite things!!  I'm gonna go rock out with Alexandra now and sing without waking Carmen up.  Adios muchachos!

My second favorite place in the world, next to Duke :) My friend on the basketball team at CEU invited me to go with her to her house in San Sebastian anytime.

sam sebastian in san sebastian!

It's official. I am obsessed with San Sebastian and want to live there for ever and ever.  Not only is the place named after me, but it is the cutest beach city with awesome food and cool people.  I love itttt.  2 days was not close to enough time.  Well techinically it is because there isn't a ton to explore in San Sebastian but the beauty of it is just being there and enjoying the city more than the sightseeing.  There is a very cool castle that overlooks the bay, which was a lot of fun to hike up to and explore.  We had some awesome views from up there.  Also, the multiple cathedrals scattered throughout the city are incredible.  One reminded me of the Duke chapel, and when something reminds me of the Duke chapel it is a HUGE deal.  The Duke chapel is my favorite thing in the world and it takes a lot for me to compare something to it.  Also, we stayed in the perfect hostel located in Old Town and like a 2 minute walk from the ocean.  I am so lucky to have found that perfect hostel.  We literally walk outside and booom, there is this awesome, ancient, beautiful cathedral just chillin from back in the day.  No big deal.  And then you turn to your right and there is a street lined up with tapa bars on tapa bars on tapa bars.  Ancient cathedral, good food, and the beach.  I'm set

Also, I went on this trip with Charlie so it was nice having the freedom to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.  No tour guides taking us around explaining how each and every rock was carved in spanish.  Instead, we had Rick Steve's to tell us all of his helpful hints and facts about the city.  So much more backpacky.  One night we decided to do a tapas crawl and we went to about 7 or 8 different tapas restaurants, just eating our way through San Sebastian.  It was fantastic.  We tried all sorts of delicious things including squid, solomillo (the best piece of meat you will ever put in your mouth) and some cool champange drink thing with a strange name.  It was also really cool because we were in Basque country where the culture is a little different than super spanish madrid.  Everyone spoke 4 languages: spanish, french, euskeri, and english.  Also, its the land of ETA and Basque nationalism and all the other cool stuff we are learning about in our spanish classes at CEU.

There is so much I could ramble on about describing my love for San Sebastian, but I'll end it here saying that one day I will be back.  And if someone reading this has not gone, GO.  It's cool I promise, and if you don't agree, then I don't think you're cool.  Word.

And I am forgetting to give Bilbao credit.  The Guggenheim museum was incredible.  One of the coolest buildings I've ever seen, if not the coolest building I've ever seen.  And the city is very cute.  I wish we would have gone on a not so rainy day and a Holiday when everything is closed.  Oops.  But still, such a cute place and the museum is definitely something to check out.

This trip was so much fun because we figured it all out on our own and managed to work the system correctly acting like cute little backpackers.  We started off taking a flight at 6 in la manana.  Someone forgot to wake up (me, oops, sorry Charlie) and we almost missed ot flight.  5 minutes later and I woulda been paying for another expensive ass cab ride home.  Phewww, good thing life always works out.  Then after arriving in Bilbao we had to figure out the bus to the city, then plan the bus to San Sebastian and figure out the tram station and just all of these traveler things.  I loved it.  Preparing myself for my 3 weeks of exploring Europe once this program ends.  Woooo!

And now our trip is over, and next week is finals week.  Lame.  But tonight was awesome.  We went on a tapas crawl in Madrid.  There is this restaurant deal where different restaurants throughout this area in the city have a tapa for 1 euro, drink and tapa for 2 euros.  We went to about 8 different places trying different tapas and exploring new places in Madrid.  Such a fun cultural experience.  There is nothing like it in America.  The closest you get to a tapas crawl is buying the Sampler appetizer plate at TGI Fridays and splitting the nachos, wings, spinach dip and mozzarella sticks with your date.  Tapas take it to an entirely new level.  Tonight was definietly a great bonding time with friends and with Madrid.  I'm excited to be here this weekend and to explore the city I'm living in.  Tomorrow morning I am going to the Royal Palace and doing the tour there.  I should probably go to bed so that I actually wake up in the morning and make it there.  Goodnight world and sorry I'm a blog slacker lately.  If it means anything, I still haven't blogged for my homework yet, however this blog has priority for sure.

Pics coming soon.  Adios.  Miss you mom!

21 feels great.. and i love galicia

So I celebrated my 21st birthday in Espana with mis mejores amigos.  Not sure how much better it gets than that.  Well, obviously if my family was here which I wish was the case more than anything.  However, I still had a fantastic 21st birthday and tore up Madrid.

Birthday Girl

It all began with the tattoo.  Finally I got the tattoo of my dreams.  I've been doing a lot of talking and I decided it was finally time to walk the walk instead of talk the talk.  I've wanted an owl tattoo for a long time now and now I have an owl tattoo that represents my 21st birthday, my life in Spain, and my love for owls.  Epic.  My birthday was October 7th.  I went to the best tattoo shop in Madrid we could find called Tattoo Magic on Friday October 5th.  I made an appointment for Saturday October 6th and met my artist and he was perfect.  Showed up Saturday after my morning hike through Madrid, and BAM, left with the prettiest, most unique tattoo evaaa.  I love it.  Happy birthday to me :)  I drew the bottom half of the tat which makes it even more cool.

So after obsessing over my tattoo for a while, afterwards was my birthday dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant called La Nicoletta.  About 25 people from the Duke in Madrid program showed up and we had a fantastic evening.  The food was delicious and it was great bonding time.  Of course, we took over the restaurant like the loud, obnoxious Americans that we are.  I couldn't have asked for a better dinner than that.  After dinner we went out and everyone proceeded to get me drunk obviously.  They succeeded and I had an adventurous night throughout the city of Madrid.  The best part of this 21 thing is that now I am finally freed from ALE and stupid drinking citations.  I made it folks.  Don't worry mom and dad, now that I am 21 I'm too old for that whole drinking scene.  Just doesn't phase me the same way. Haven't raged the same since.  It's been about 4 days and I've managed to stay relatively sober.  Winning.

Birthday Kisses

Obsessed with the tat

The actual day of my birthday was kind of shitty.  21 didn't feel so good for the first couple of hours after dealing with the nasty birthday hangover.  Carmen, my spanish mommy, made me the best birthday lunch ever.  It was so cute and fancy.  We even ate in the living room rather than in the kitchen.  She made seafood paella with all sorts of yummy appetizers, however much to my dismay, I was still somewhat sick and could not enjoy it to the best of my ability.  Which is probably a good thing since I am gaining weight like crazy here.  Gross.  She also made me the cutest spanish birthday cake that tasted so delicious even in my hungover state.  After lunch I opened presents.  Mom and dad bought me the prettiest watch in the world, Alexandra bought me a sweet Real Madrid jersey, which we wore to go out and watch the Real Madrid Barcelona game that night, and Charlie bought me the closest thing to a reeses in Spain that he could find.  I have the best friends ever.  We then watched the big game out in Sol and of course Madrid and Barcelona tied and ended the game very anticlimatic.  So lame.  But also so fun to go out with people and wear my jersey and look all Spanish and watch together.  I was obviously forced to drink a birthday girl beer against my will.  Apparently theres a rule somewhere that you must consume alcohol on the day you turn 21.  Who woulda guessed?

After my birthday we took a trip to Galicia with the program which was the best 3 days ever.  Galicia is absolutely beautiful and I would love to go back and even live there someday.  Not sure if I could deal with the rain everyday, but the land is breath taking.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

We got back from Galicia yesterday, Wednesday the 10th, and today I had 2 classes.  Tomorrow I am leaving for Bilbao and San Sebastian for the weekend with Charlie.  We leave at 5 am so I need to go to bed so I'm not a zombie tomorrow.  Nighttt<3

How to Survive Oktoberfest

This past weekend I went to Oktoberfest, along with every student from Duke studing abroad in Europe.  It was epic.

How To Survive Oktoberfest:

1. Buy a hotel in advance.
If you do not, it will cost you a ridiculous amount of money.  The best way to do this is to reserve your hotel room for 2 people.  Then find as many friends as you can to share the room with.  This usually works out, fortunately for you, but unfortunately for the hotel.  It is very sketchy, but I am proof that it can be done.  The price of what is normally a $100 a night room can be divided between friends.  We squeezed 8 into a 2 person room for 3 nights, everyone paying an equal $98 for all three nights.  Plus, you want to save the money on sleeping since you rarely sleep anyways this weekend and you need extra cash to purchase that super expensive drindl.

2. Buy a drindl
It is worth it, I promise.  You will arrive in Munich and see a ton of people wearing them and think to yourself, "Damn, everyone looks 10 times hotter in a drindl."  Then you will walk into a store and check out the prices and think to yourself, "No way will I spend $100 on a costume".  Then you will try it on for shits and giggles and realize it even has a way of making you look 10 times better.  Your mind will be made up in that split second and all regard for money will be lost.  The other cute German girls in the store will also convince you that simply buying the dress part is not enough, and will even disgrace the outfit.  Therefore, you must also purchase the apron part as well.  Go for the cheapest apron, because honestly no one cares about that piece.  It's all about the chest area.  Make sure to buy it a little tight as well.  It will look better up top and will prevent you from consuming massive amounts of beer and food for fear that your dress will pop open at any moment.  It's the way to go, I promise.
And later, when the doubt starts to set in you need to rationalize this decision, which seems like a poor one at the moment.  But remember these things:
-when in Germany, do as the Germans do
-now you have a Halloween costume for the next 10 years
-you saved money by squeezing too many people in one hotel room
-the foreign boys will be more impressed with you
-you will look hot
-people without drindls will be insanely jealous
-everyone wants a picture with a girl in a drindl
-YOLO

Random germans

3. Wake up early.
Get in line for the tents relatively early.  Especially on weekends.  It gets crazy and the lines can suck.  Your goal should be to get there by 9 and be drunk by 10.  That's the only way to do it right.  Showing up later would be a mistake.  You'd be sober and feel like you needed to play catch up with the other thousand people in the tent.  And we all know that catch up leads to nothing good.

4.  Start off in Hofbrau tent
Here you will find every person you know at Oktoberfest, and more.  Being American makes it very difficult to communicate with others abroad, especially without wifi, which is non-existent basically everywhere.  Go to Hofbrau where you will run into every one from your college, high school, church, kindergarten... It's a reunion.  Then decide you'd rather hang out with people you already know anyways instead of meeting new foreign people, and stay in the American Hofbrau tent for the entire day.  Plus, you know the second you leave you will never find another soul that you know and will probably end up passed out on the hill outside anyways.  It's just better to stay inside and drink until you can't stay awake any longer, or until you get kicked out by the crazy security.  There is even a small chance of wandering around and meeting some good looking boys from Switzerland and taking awesome pictures with them in their lederhosens.

5. Wear a diaper.
If I could redo Oktoberfest, I'd invest in some diapers.  The bathroom line is also terrible, any time of the day.  It is not easily avoided due to the excessive consumptions of beer.  Therefore, if you do not have a diaper, be prepared to aggressivly elbow your way through the crowd.  The best tactic: appear innocent, but be the pusher.  Others will respect you and you will eventually make your way through.  Those who are passive do not stand a chance.  Also, be friendly with the security guard with the whistle.  He is not afraid to blow it in your face, so either flirt with him or stay away.  Sometimes you can get lucky and he will help you to the front.  Once inside the actual bathroom, find papertowel before entering the stall.  Usually you can find some on the table in front that is covered with people's beer mugs.  Don't be the girl who brings her beer to the bathroom.  That's gross.

6. Don't mess with security.
I mean this.  They are intense.  It seems that Munich hired the most hardcore, ex-military men they could find to keep order at Oktoberfest.  They are not afraid to put you in a headlock if need me.  I witnessed a guy throwing up, security came over to him, slapped him, and yelled in his face to leave.  Also, trying to dance on the tables is risky.  They will find you and slap your legs until you get down.  Alexandra personally experienced this, unfortunately.  Trying to sneak out a mug pass these men is also risky.  Beware, if you get caught you are going down.  I regret not attempting though.  So my advice would be to grow a pair and sneak out a mug.  Just whatever you do, DON'T GET CAUGHT.

7.  Befriend the drunk finland/ viking man.
He will be your favorite part of Oktoberfest.  Find the man with the longest hair, in a ponytail, and the longest redish beard, that is obviously braided.  Make sure he is big, and loud and drunk.  If you sit next to him beware.  He does not accept sleeping at Oktoberfest, drinking water, or complaining about beer.  He will become very aggressive if you make him angry.  As long as you keep drinking and do what he says, you will become his best friend.  Yawning will trigger him to launch his finger into your mouth, so don't do it.  Also, if he really likes you (like he did me) he will help you order your food in German.  The pork leg was fantastic, thanks to his recommendation.  Also, he may invite you to Finland to sauna with him or his wife and he will feed you beers.  If you play his game right, you will have an awesome cultural experience with this man who appears to have come from the Lord of the Rings.

8. Eat.
You need something to absorb the alcohol, plus trying German food is an important part of the experience.  Definitely order the Kase Spatzle (aka mac n cheese).  You will love it.  The chicken is fantastic and so was the previously mentioned pork leg.  Stay away from the rubbery mashed potatoes.  Also, don't eat too much.  It is important to help endure the entire day, but too much can lead to throwing up, spending too much money, and getting fat.

9. Do what you want!
This weekend is going to be one the best weekends of your life.  Do what you want and make the most of every second.  It's possible you may forget some parts of the weekend, but make as many memories as you can.  Spend all your money, meet people from every country, drink until you throw up or pass out, ride the rollercoaster black out, dance on tables, do everything.  Don't have any regrets when you leave.  Because honestly, you probably won't make it back.