6 days away! WOOOW

Wow! It's been another crazy week of traveling. Since I left Oviedo last Friday (the 27th?--lost track of the days) I have been back to Barcelona for a night, to Cinque Terre, Italy for 2 nights, and Rome, Italy for 3 nights. 2 other nights were spent on trains, with a total of like 40 traveling hours in that amount of time. But it's been fun! And now, (at least I'm writing this), I'm sitting in the FCO airport in Rome waiting to board a train to Athens, Greece! And watching a downloaded copy of Bachelor Pad. Gotta love those american tv shows. Its the only thing keeping me close to home. It's really nice when there are things that make me feel closer home, even just something as simple as hearing the music in the stores. But I've only got 6 days left! Which is really exciting, but somewhat sad. It's been an amazing 7 weeks already. So in Barcelona, we got to hang out with Emily, Jessica, Leah, and Erica one last time, which was really nice, and walked around more of the city. We saw the sagrada familia this time, and explored around in some park, with tons of stuff, like a giant mammoth sculpture and the parliament building. And of course, more heavenly beach time. Went out to dinner and got to meet up with some friends we made last time we were there, which was nice!

The next evening we went to the train station around 7pm to wait for our night train to depart towards cinque Terre, which would stop in Milan, but not arrive to cinque terre (at the la spezia station) until 4pm...so yeah, a long day of traveling! 20 hours! But once we caught our first glimpse of the mediterranean and of the city, we fell in love, and all was at peace! We spent our next day and a half eating pasta, and gelato, and took an amazing hike along the mediterranean through the towns of Cinque Terre. It was an intense hike!! Lots of stairs and uphill terrain, but it was a good workout, and satisfying, and amazing. It was sad to leave such beauty behind us, but Rome was on our way!

So, off to Rome, leaving the hostel at 8am from cinque terre, and arrive in Rome at 2:15pm. While there were some amazing sights in Rome (such as the colliseum, and the vatican), it was a little intimidating to be walking around, with creeps, and pickpocketers, and the dirty streets everywhere. I enjoyed visiting the famous monuments, but the city as a whole, was a slight disappoinment. High hopes for Athens, and then just Amsterdam, and then I'm home! The time drags on, yet speeds by at the same time. :) WOOO. ATHENS! WOOO. Well, its getting time to bored my train! hopefully I remember to post this today. If I do, you are clearly reading it, so yeah. Have a good day!

So sad...I leave in 3 days!

It has been a good month in Oviedo! I have been to an espicha, eaten authentic Spanish food (paella, pinchos, tapas), tried authentic spanish drinks (sidra), and done Spanish things (go to the beach, party all night at clubs). It has been a good month, and I will miss it here!

While I have been here for school, I have gotten to experience an entirely new lifestyle, that I must say, with the exception of the 2-5 shutdown and late nights, I will miss. Everything is much more relaxed, and my return to the states will also come with a lot of stress. A LOT. Trying to find a place to live, going back to work, getting ready for school, and probably the most stressful, studying for my tests to apply for my master's degree. And as soon as September 28 hits, I will be doing all that at once, as well as some volunteer opportunities. But lets recap my wonderful trip so far (and I'm probably leaving a lot of things out):

In London I visited:
*The London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Picadilly Circus (lots of shopping), Buckingham Palace, Windsor castle
*Went out for a night in a London town, with the locals, and had real fish and chips and English beers.

In Paris:
*I had real French bread, paninis, brie, and other delicious foods. Had a great pub crawl.
*I saw: The Eiffel Tower, Basilique de sacre-couer, arc de triomphe, notre dam, avenue de champs-elysees, the louvre, red-light district

In Heidelberg, Germany:
*Went out for great german beer and tried weinershnitzel, which is similar to chicken fried steak, but porkchopish.
*Saw the castles in heidelberg, awesome days of shopping, and amazing views of the city from the top of the mountain with the castle on it.

In Montpellier, France:
*place de comedie, casual night out on the town during a festival. Got got drinks and good food.

In Barcelona, Spain:
*We rocked out. Went on a walking tour, tried sangria for the first time, did an amazing pub crawl
*Walked down Las Ramblas, went to an awesome outdoor market
*Spent our days on the famous Barceloneta beach--playing beach sports, and swimming in the thundering and lightning, and walking back on the boardwalk at 5am in the pouring rain, with not a care in the world.

In Madrid, Spain:
*We went on another pub crawl (although not as good). Tried bocadillos for the first time. Went on a walking tour
*Saw the famous sites and buildings of the area- palacio real, plaza mayor, puerta del sol, went into the Prado Museum, and the reina sophia museum, palacio cristal

I'm sure there have been many more things, that I just can't think of!!

In Oviedo/Asturias:
*Sanctuary of Covadonga, Beaches in Gijon, Luarca; La catedral in Oviedo, Cudillero, Los Lagos, Cangas de Onis, Puente Romano.




In a nutshell, I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity I've been presented with, and while I may be financially stressing now, I know everything will eventually turn out alright. I've seen SO many places, and I'm only halfway through my trip. After seeing 4 countries, I still have 3 more to go, and I hear they are the most amazing places. Italy, Greece, and Amsterdam. 17 days til I'll be home. Hasta luego!

Here we go again...

I have been getting pretty bad at writing in here it looks like. One reason being I've been pretty busy going around and doing things around Oviedo, and the other being that I've been pretty sick. It's unfortunate, but it really has put a damper on my ability to interact and do everything I'd like to do.
Yesterday was a particularly bad day for me, at the end of a bad week. I have been really shaky if I'm not extremely careful with my diet, and I'm hoping its just a part of getting over this nasty cold. I can't really eat any sugars, because then my blood sugar spikes up, and then drops too low it seems. Yesterday I was in tears with how horrible and weak I started to feel, and extreme nausea to boot which got even worse because of a curvy bus ride. But luckily I pulled through, although I did not feel well, and pushed through the rest of the day, which was hell in a handbasket.

But on to more positive things, or things of other topics. It is my last week in Oviedo! Which is pretty sad. I'm not looking forward to hopping around a ton on trains, but I'll survive! There's tons of wonderful sights to see still! I've got a lot to do to prepare myself before my departure, including getting some luggage, and doing laundry, and finding souvenirs, and and and. It's pretty stressful. ugh. Especially because I don't feel like doing any of it because I feel so ill! I'm willing to deal with it as long as I don't feel like I'm going to die during our travels though.

We've gotten to frequent the beach a lot here, which has been nice. Although I have enjoyed the hot weather, I definitely miss my Oregon, and will especially after these 100+ days in italy and greece! Every time I go shopping, I want to buy a bunch of dresses and skirts, but that's just not reasonably, considering once I'm back to the states it will be cold!

I'm all booked up on my flights, trains, and hostels for the rest of my trip, except a place to stay in amsterdam. Which I better do now...gosh, I've gotten bad at writing interesting blogs. Sorry. Only 3 weeks til I get to have a taste of taco bell though. YAY.

Only 2 weeks left in Oviedo!

I haven't written in here for a while...so I suppose I can write a bit of an update maybee. Well, as of today, as my title states, I only have two weeks left in Oviedo. It seems like such a small amount really. There's a 3 day weekend so I only have 7 days of classes left as well. CRAZY! But I also have 4 weeks left in Europe,which makes the time when I come home seem forever away. While I am looking forward to coming home, at the same time, I am not. Because while I'm in Oregon, or Cottage Grove, or wherever, I don't really have a home anymore. And it scares me. Everything is in storage, so even to go back to work I have to rummage through all my storage to find my clothes. And I hate being a burden, so who's couch am I going to sleep on? If I move to Eugene, will I hate living up there by myself? Or will it turn out to be a blessing in disguise? I don't want to live in an apartment at all, but it's all I can afford...Will I be able to get all the classes I need to apply for my masters? Will I have the time to work, take 16 credits, volunteer, do homework, and study and take all my standarized Praxis tests this term? There's SO much to do, it's so overwhelming and stressful to think about! Off to a better topic I guess, so I can get out of my grumpy mood.

I went to see bob marley's band the wailers in concert on the coast of gijon, spain the other night. It was amazing. And I had a good time with some of the girls I hadn't spent much time with before. 4 bottles of wine later, and we were safe and sound in our beds by like 2:30. So not bad.

This week has consisted of classes, a lot of walking, some shopping on monday, and just taking it easy. I got to try paella, and had some spanish ice cream, which is muy bueno. Tomorrow we are taking an excursion to some coastal city in spain I think, if I remember right. It will be an all day trip, but I'm excited, because I have had an extreme lack of exercise here. And my fat belly is starting to show through my shirts hahah. I've been counting the calories, and while not even feeling like I'm eating too much food, I'm easily reaching 2500-3000 calories a day here. And no exercise, so its killing me. The nearest place to buy hand weights or resistance tubing is madrid, which is like 5 hours away on train,and super lame. Because its a weekend, and monday is a holiday here, and tuesday is a field trip, I can't even try to go to a gym until wednesday. If I can even find one, and if they will even let me join for just 2 weeks. Ugh. But oh well.

I've booked my train tickets for the remainder of the trip, so we just need to get plane tickets and hostel reservations, and it will remove some stress off of me I think. Lots more to do, and not much time to do it! Especially in Oviedo. It really is a little gem.

As far as my spanish, I feel like classes are going well. I seem to comprehend everything the teacher is saying, but I guess I won't know until the midterm on tuesday! So wish me luck. I suppose I will do a little bit of studying. While I kind of wish I was faced with more of a challenge, I hope this will be an opportunity to boost my grade and gpa.

If I can't join the gym, I'm still planning on starting this little fitness kick, which will begin monday for running, and whenever I run out of groceries for the food. Because I've been spending a lot of money of food, so I have to suck it up and gain more weight before it can come off I guess. lol. I'm afraid that when I go back to the gym in the states I will be pathetic. And who knows if I can have a job there still, or if I should be looking elsewhere?

I think I want to go eat. hahah...more to come later, when I'm not so pooped. it is like 11 oclock at night here fools.

Being Sick Sucks. Although its not as bad in Spain.

all my groceries are Hacendado. It strikes me as funny, after all my history classes and learning about Haciendas and whatnot. The chips I have crack me up. the whole

package says CRSSSHHHH CRSSSHHH. no vowel. apparentely thats the sound a spaniard makes when eating chips. haha...now a time for pondering my life here, and

comparisons.

What I miss about the states:
ranch dressing
a gym to exercise in
a place of my own
being able to control my expenses more.
Not getting anything stolen there, (besides my car I guess haha)
The consistent summer weather. It's cloudy far too often here. :(


What I will miss about Spain when I leave:
*the packaged food. Much less preservatives, more real ingredients. Can eat more of it, because its not shit!
*the cozy feel of Oviedo. I feel safe here.
*ordering random things at a restaurant because I don't know what they are
*the price of my produce. For instance, I bought probably two pounds of plums yesterday for only $1!
*the variety, and beauty in everywhere that I've gone.

My brain hurts. I've spent the last 3 hours trying to budget out my trip and figure out which classes I need to graduate. It's definitely not fun.

Today I Used a Bouday...

Yes, that's right. I got bored after a long day and decided to see if its really worth it to have an additional fixture in every bathroom across Oviedo. oh yeah, i never even said that...hha. So yes. All of the bathrooms in the dorms, at least in
my building come equipped with boudays. And my verdict is...yeah, I guess it's nice. If you have a cush towel afterwards. haha. or realized you had to poop after you just got done taking a shower lol. People reading this now are probably like
wtf? jenni.fer has really lost it. Or who are in the program with me and thinking...WOW. lol. So anyways, I suppose you
care more about what I've been doing maybe in my town across the pond. Well...my bike at home seems to have been stolen first of all, which I discovered yesterday.
So lets see...hm. We have a local bar that we have decided to frequent often, which is the bar campa. Where we go and get "big beers", which are prob like 32oz, for just 2 euros. (i.e. $2.50). I must say everyone here likes to go out much more
often than I do, although so far I have sucked it up and tagged along. While it is going to be a crazy saturday night, I think I am going to be staying in, because I recently have got a cold. Which has turned into a cough. And after being in the sun all day, I am not feeling too hot.
We went on a walking tour of the old city on thursday, which just consisted of a dragged on lecture of the old cathedral, But on the brighter side, the program coordinators did take us all out for beer and sidra afterwards...so hooray.
Last night, Friday night, was probably the highlight of the week for sure. We went to an espicha, and had our first true Spanish experience. (other then our daily shot of espresso on our break). The espicha was like a party in a building, and
we had tons of food to eat, which came in little courses, almost like tons of choices from appetizers. There was meat, tortillas (which are what we say tasted like a cheese and potato fritata), little dinner pies, corn bready pockets,
calamari, cod, sausage, and sooo much more. And of course, all of the sidra we could dream of!!! Sidra is the Spanish drink, and to me, tastes like green olive juice. But I like green olives a lot better.So we went to the sidra at 7, and then found our way back to bar campa for some big beers, with everyone pretty buzzed by then. And don't worry, we travel in a pack now. lol. there's usually at least 8 of us at any one time. But Oviedo is a very safe place. So after big beers, we
went to a couple clubs and danced, and had a jolly old time, and came in at 3:30am, which is very early for here. I had a
friend carrying my keys, who had left earlier, so I ended up having to sleep on the couch without a blanket in the dorms.
Sad day.
So today we went to the sendero de oso, and walked around for hours in the beautiful mountains of Spain. It was a gorgeous day...probably 80-85 degrees, and laid by the river for a while as well. Lovely time. Although a very long day, and I'm pretty dehydrated now..so I'm not feeling too entirely hot. Ugh. I really hope I can uploads the pictures from my friends camera, since the only photos you guys can see are probably the ones I've been tagged in on facebook. oh yes, I've never even talked about friends! There's a group of 6 of us who are particularly close, but I've been making friends and talking to people here and there. I really like the people in the program. They're all super chill people, and 90% of them go to UO, so hopefully we'll actually be keeping in touch in the fall once we return. There's only one girl from Michigan, and I will miss her when the programs over!
I always have so many things I want to write in here, that I think are particularly funny, but I can never think of any of them. So oh well. signing off!

Bah. Oviedo is nice...but why'd I sign up for summer school?

Today was the first day of classes at the University of Oviedo. I take 4 hours of Spanish a day, hoping to improve my Spanish speaking skills. So far, the class I have been placed into is achievable, but who knows if it will become more difficult as time goes on. I already have homework, on this first day of school, although its not like I can say it is too extremely difficult. I'm tired. I've been tired a lot lately. Maybe it's just adjusting with the changing lifestyle. I have found I have been extremely weak in the mornings, even when I make sure to eat a good breakfast and snack. It could be stress...I still have a month and a week until I return home. I can only imagine what can happen from here on out, considering the last two weeks I have had already. I suppose I am in the homesick phase of the cultural adaptation.
We get washing machines here, although it is difficult to find one that is empty, and then we have to hang dry our clothes because dryers practically do not exist here. And the washing load takes an hour and a half to begin with, so yikes.
I always forget the keys things I want to talk about when I write these things...bah.

The first night we were here I went on a 30 minute run with two of the girls, which felt good. It has been weird not working out a lot. We did a little bit of abs last night, which, sadly enough, already made them a little bit sore the next day.
Oh yes, onto the Spanish schedule, and my struggles at adjusting. So Spaniards don't normally wake up too early. But, because we have class every day, and have to walk 20 minutes to get there, I usually wake at about 8am to get ready for the day. I found that I get extremely tired at around 12:30, which actually has been a problem, since I have a Spanish writing class, and even worse, a Spanish art history class from 1-2. It was the most challenging thing in the world today trying to stay awake during that class!
So, our classes get out at 2pm, which is the beginning of the Spanish siesta. Spaniards take a 3 hour siesta (which is, essentially, a nap), and so it lasts from 2-5pm. And everything gets shut down, while people go home for their late lunches and siestas. This has been weird, as it is after class that we like to do our errands and go shopping, and so we have to wait. I took my first hour long siesta today even. haha...
Another reason the siesta occurs is because people in Europe have much later night lives. Usually dinner occurs at 9 or 10 pm, and then casual drinks occurs, and the clubs don't even open until around 2am. We went to a club at midnight the other day in Madrid, and it was dead...which would have been like prime time back in the states. There is no alcohol cut-off hour, so people don't even go home from the clubs until like 5 am. Like in Barcelona, when I lost track of time and it was 5am and I had a train at 8. hahah.
Because of losing another camera, I am now officially 350 euros (450 dollars) behind budget just because of cameras. I really need a couple new shirts to wear, as the rest are worn and torn, and the weather here is different than expected, but I cannot afford to do so. Or afford to eat hardly...BAH. So, yes, it's been tough.
I am going to make my way to a fruit store after I am done writing this, to hopefully nourish my body since I feel like poop. I should probably try and find some vitamins or something, since I'm not eating as well as I should be. Milk doesn't come refrigerated often here either, so I haven't been drinking that. And we don't have a stove, so I can't have any meat!! So nutrition is tough. I should probably go find an iron supplement. Ooook. Off I go, to go nourish my body. Miss you all back home.

Hello Oviedo! Goodbye Madrid

I've got horrible luck with cameras. As if Jesus doesn't want me to document this trip for some reason. This time I feel the worst about though because it could have been prevented. I was leaving a club, which wasn't even busy yet, so I knew for sure my camera was right where I left it, but once you start to leave they make you leave, and stay out. So, I realized as I was walking out the door that I forgot my camera, and turned around to go back, but they wouldnt let me back in. Even when I explained to them, they were just big assholes about it. And I was willing to pay the cover fee again and everything, but they refused. So, I'm VERY very bummed. Madrid definitely had its highs and lows. We went to a pub crawl the first night, which turned out to be an absolute failure. We left after the 2nd bar because it was so lame. But Saturday was much better. After sleeping in until 11am, we went to meet up for a walking tour, with an extremely awkward tour guide, after the tour ended, at about 3, we went with a group from the tour and had beers and tapas. Which, by the way, I love tapas. We got paella, potatoes, bread + ham, and mozarella balls. And I chowed down. We then mosied around the town, picked up a bottle of wine for 2.50 euro, and walked to a ginormous park and kicked it in the 100 degree weather. The wine got way too hot for me to handle. We chilled with an Aussie and a guy from Chicago, who were both pretty cool. After that, I met up with Alyssa and Matt, who, if I haven't told anyone yet, both went to UO and have been traveling around Europe as well and they know Rachel, and we went to the Prado museum and the sophia (?) museum. AND I got to see real picasso and Dali art firsthand, real thing. fo sho. hahah. Sooo, after all the museumish, we were absolutely exhausted, and went back to the hostel to shower and get changed to go meet up with a bunch of people at another hostel. We played King's cup, and then we went to the outrageously priced (20 euro) club, which was 7 stories high, and were having a good time up until the point that my camera was no longer in my possession, and rachel was sick was too much to drink. I'm really bummed about the pictures, because we met a lot of awesome people, and I had taken a lot of awesome pictures from last night. GAY. at least I'm good about uploading them every other time, so all my pictures up until the point we went out that night were uploaded. And, as crazy as it seems, I need to get another camera. I'm now where I will be staying for a month and I want people to see my temporary home, as well as Italy and Greece after the program. But in terms of budget now, I'm very scared, because I'm waaay behind budget, because of these damn camera incidents, and I think I just need to go have a really good cry because of how stressed out I am. good day.

Barcelona is still great, just not the fuckin thieves.

YUPUUP. As you may have already heard, I was partaking in a wonderful quiz night at the local travel bar in barcelona when my purse got stolen out from under me! LAME. it was wrapped around my chair and everything. So, it happened to have my locker key, my license, my calling card, my water bottle, my sun block, 150 dollars cash, and the brand new digital camera that I had bought the day before. So, here I am, now in Madrid. About ready to buy my second camera in 3 days. And extremely broke. And really hating it. But never the less, Barcelona is an AMAZING city. And we will be going back for sure!!
Yesterday we went on a small walking tour, then went to the local produce market, and then played beach sports with the guys, and swam in the ocean during a huge thunder and lightning storm. and it was awesome.
we just so happened to be in the same room as three guys that are from washington, so along with the germans, we hung out with them a lot. And they rock. lol... last night we did a pub crawl, and I had an awesome time there as well! Didn't get back to the hostel until 5 am, where we then set 2 alarms to wake up at 7:45, since we had a train to catch at 9...but no, we woke up at 8:45, and missed the train. haha...but made it on one just two hours later. So here we are, in madrid.
Rachel got her camera stolen last night as well. We've got some great luck.

Moral of the story. Watch your shit. HA
And, I LOOOOOVE BARCELONA!!! And if anyone ever goes, definitely hook up with the travel bar, they've got a lot of good stuff going. Partnered with Sun and Moon Hostel.

I love Barcelona. And it's beach.

Weeeellll. We are officially in Barcelona!! And while we've only been here for say, 6 hours, it definitely has made a great impression on me! We spent our afternoon walking around a bit, checked into our hostel, had a great lunch at a travel bar, met some cool people, and went to the beach for a couple hours. And yes, you can go nude there. And yes, I saw some boobs. hahah..
It has been nice to travel around with a couple German guys, Jan and Clemens. We met them at the train station yesterday once we got into Marseille and decided to travel further to Montpellier. Hotel room has been cheaper, and we aren't as intimidated by the giantness of things. We were able to book a hostel and get our train tickets for the rest of the week as well.
A couple of guys staying in our hostel room are actually from Washington, which is nice. And tonight we shall be going out to a bar, with a full schedule for tomorrow. A walking tour, beach sports, and a pub crawl. HOORAH.
The town we stopped in last night was pretty cool, and was wonderful weather. Yesterday was our first day of excellent weather, as we had experienced rain in Paris, and an insane thunderstorm and rainstorm in Heidelberg. The air at night is probably 70 degrees still. And the southern coast of Spain is BEAUTIFUL! I could definitely come back here. And tomorrow I will know for sure about how much I love it I feel. <3 More to come, I'm sure.

P.s. I have finally gotten my international phone number, so if you would like to talk to me, let me know and I'll get you my number!

Tough on the Traveling, keeping on truckin.

From Tuesday, July 27, at 10:30 pm

wow. what a crazy couple days!! Last time I wrote in here I believe I had talked about all of Paris, and since then, I've been back to Paris, and am still in France...ha...but it's not that simple. So we were unable to get a ticket straight to heidelberg as planned, and were scheduled to have a 12 hour journey. But luckily, once we got into a station in Germany, we were able to connect with some smaller trains, and made it into Heidelberg by 4pm, a good 4 hours earlier than expected, which helped. It has been a tad stressful regarding finding trains that can take us to the place we want to go and by the time we want. So we were unable to get a train back to Barcelona Monday night as we had hoped. So, instead, we spent an extra night in Heidelberg, and here I am now, in Montpellier, France.
We walked around and did some site-seeing in Heidelberg, seeing a beautiful castle, and an amazing view of the entire town from the top of the mountain. There's an awesome stretch of businesses, full of shopping, food, and bars. The majority of our time was spent down that area. We got to experience weinerschnitzel, and spaghetti ice cream, and Kirsten made us a typical german dinner, with sausages, sauerkraut, and potato salad (german-style, it had bacon and stuff...interesting!). Last night we went to Hard Rock cafe and got Euro beers, and then afterwards went to a college bar, and stayed there until 4 am talking philosophy and other interesting things. I got an entire round of applause from the entire bar when I belched too...hahaha...it was hilarious. And, by the way, German beer, is pretty damn awesome. But due to our late return home, I am pretty tired from having to wake up at 7:30 am. We got to the train station by 9, and hopped on a train to Paris Est station, where we got in at about 1 oclock. We then had to take the metro to the Paris Lyon station, and then get on another train to get to Marseille. This place looked like heaven, and I am kinda bummed we didn't stay there. But we will probably get the chance when we come back through after our program heading for Italy. When we arrived in Merseille we just decided to try and see where we could get by tonight, and that is how we ended up in Montpellier, at 9pm at night...after an entire day of traveling. UGH. pooped. but, if all goes as planned, (considering we can't book our train tickets for barcelona until the morning, we will be in Barcelona by 11 am tomorrow!! so yay...
as of now, we are rooming with two german guys, that we met in the train station!!! lol. So we're off to have some beers.

Au Revoir Paris!

Tonight is our last night in Paris, and then we will be embarking on a 12 hour journey to get to heidelberg, germany in the morning. We're pretty bummed, because the trip we had planned on booking, and was shown online, is "booked" (i.e. they don't want to give out any more 2nd class tickets to passholders), and so we have to take 4 different trains, and what originally would have been a 3 or 4 hour trip, has multiplied by four. UGH...But of course, on to Paris.
Yesterday was the day of siteseeing! We took a walking tour all over paris, and also did some adventuring outside of it and got to see: notre dam, the louvre (including the pyramids), arc de triomphe, the concorde, royal palace, champs-Elysees (which is the finish line of the tour de france. AND everything was all set up, and everyone was so excited....it's really sad it finishes sunday afternoon, and we'll be leaving sunday morning. Grrr, anywho...on with the locations I went to), Pont Neuf, Moulin Rouge, the Red Light district of Paris (HAHAH..sooo many porn shops!!), Basilique de sacre-coeor, annndd, hmm..am I forgetting something? OH YES...the EIFFEL TOWER!!! hahah...it sure is big. ho-leee shit. lol.
I have come to the conclusion that the arquitecture here is absolutely exquisite, and shown by the massive amount of photos I have loaded containing building...nearly all of them. lol. I am most impressed with the construction of the cathedrals, such as notre dam, and more specifically the basilique de sacre-coeur. This place, although I was not aware of it before we went, took my breath away. Unfortunately, although spritually awakening, no photography was allowed on the inside of the building, or talking even. There are a couple pictures of the outside at least. AMAZING. so many intricate details. Also, from this place, you could see the entire skyline of paris....which, by the way. I did not take any pictures of. WHY NOT?!?! because, as we were walking up the hill to this place, my camera decided to STOP WORKING! so I'm IN F-ING PARIS AND MY CAMERA BROKE. WTF. Hopefully I can get a camera in Heidelberg, otherwise I'll be pissed. because hello, that's so many visual memories gone.... But anyhow, the day was still good.
We ended the night by doing a pub crawl through the red light district. And boy, was I trashed by the end. Which some of you might have seen with my previous blog post (tastefully deleted I might add). I would have been fine, but we switch bars every 30 minutes, so I ended up having to chug a little too fast a couple times. I met some guys there, who were quite fun to talk to. Firstly an Aussie, short convo though..then a Brit, and then a couple guys from the States, which I ended up staying with the rest of the night. Dave, from Colorado, and Jake from New York, orginally Florida. So yeah...haha..I had a good time.
Today has also been a long day. I felt like shit the first half of the day due to a hangover from the pub crawl...so that's, 2 hangovers this week already hahah. I wouldn't say either of them were too dampening on our parade though. But today was a lot of wandering, walking, went to a flea market, searched for a phone (and didn't find one, so sorry, still can't call home), ate some good food, including my first real panini, which are much simpler than back home by the way.

Ooook. time to try and upload all these pictures!!!!

A Much Simpler Day...

Today, was a day for traveling, and to just take it easy and try to get over our jet lag. But perhaps the extreme fatigue is just from traveling so much and being so busy. Today we were woken at 5:30am to go hop on a train in the St. Pancras station, which was to take us from London to Paris. It would be our first experience with running to try to catch the train and being of the last people on, because apparently Eurail has the security of an airport, whilst all the tube (subway) in London did not. Sooo, this wasn't expected, and we we cut it very close.
So we went through the Chunnel and ended up in Caile, France, or however you spell it, where we then activated our eurail passes which will hopefully last us the rest of the trip. England wasn't covered on the passes, so we just took the first stop and then switched over, to save money for our passes. So from there, we arrived in Paris at about 11am, local time, which really was 10 am london time, so 3 and a half hours, given the layover between trains.
We have had our first true experiences with the language barrier. Our hotel is located in Malakoff, which is on the outside of Paris, and therefore, only locals are around i.e. not very many people speak english. Yet a couple saw us looking confused trying to find out hotel, and while they knew no english, and we knew no french, to helped us find it, and even took us halfway. The same occurred when we went for pizza, which was amazing by the way. The people are so friendly and helpful and still try their best to try and communicate with us.
We had to blow a few hours before checking into our hotel, so we had gone for pizza, and lied in the park just a few blocks down from our hotel. Nice and relaxing, and took a nap.
We went a local bakery to buy a baguette, which happened to be amazing by the way, with the brie, that is much cheaper here, and the guy even gave us a free pastry. And then again, I took another nap. While I have been up since 5:30, I have probably had about 6 hours in napping today already. hahaha...and it is, midnight nearly I guess.
The photos from today are nothing too special, just the beautiful architecture of the houses here, and will be posted tomorrow, after we do our walking tour, and possibly a pub crawl. Au Revoir!

Where's all the Ranch?!?!

Well hello!!! this is my first official entry while in Europe! Rachel and I had a smooth journey over, flying out of PDX at 1:30 in the afternoon, and was in london by 11 (2 am US time) the next morning. As a result, we did lose our chance to have a nighttime, but we were super stoked to be in the UK. Pete, being the fabulous person that he is, picked us up from the airport, and was our official tour guide for yesterday and today. it's unfortunate that we had to drop him off here in our journey. I'll miss ya pete, thanks for everything!! So first stop, was arriving at Pete's place, which FYI, is a wonderful little place. And it is a fact that American people are much greedier with their homes and the size of them. So Pete and his friend Chip took us to Windsor castle, where we had our first taste of english ice cream, and a brew at a local pub/restaurant. Carlsberg beer=super light, but super ok with me!!! We spent the afternoon sharing stories and comparing US and UK life, such as word exchange (trainer=shoes, trousers=pants, biscuit=cookie), etc, and things we had in common and did not. Seeing the boys and their first view of American money was fun! lol. After the afternoon at windsor, we went back to take a nap, due to our extreme amount of jet lag, and then went out for a night on the town, and enjoying our time at the local bar in uxbridge. :) It happened to be trivia night! hahah..so we did some trivia, drank lots of booze, and played never have I ever! After one bar, we went to another, and then strolled the streets...hahah...it was a drunken, fun night!!!
Today was our second day in london, and one full of sightseeing!! we saw the london eye, big ben, houses of parliament, buckingham palace, went to dirty martinis, and had an overall terrific day!!
Things I've learned while in London and about Brits: there is no ranch, there's no drinking fountains, they're crazy drivers, they don't know what a corn dog is. Their liquor is like 90 bucks a fifth, and their shots are only like, 1/2 and ounce!!! TONS of skinny chicks have boob jobs. They eat, bacon (i.e. ham), bread, and ketchup sandwiches. They choose to watch American tv over their own. We met an Iraqi, who wanted to bring the boys home. They have black taxi cabs, and red phone booths and double decker buses. They have KEBABs, made of lamb. And they spell hummus like houmous. They have too many frickin coins. a 1 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound, 2 pound....and only bills come in 5's and 10's. Their frickin keyboards are RETARDED! the AT symbol is where the quotation mark goes. All their meals come with PEAS. And they don't know what lima beans are. Salads come with balsamic vinegar and oil only. WTF? no catalina! or the RANCH! Everything is HEINZ!They think lemonade is sparkling water that is lemon flavored. not real lemonade. and their tap water is disgusting. they also have salad cream. and they don't know what a sidewalk is.
Lots and lots of trains here. Great service, with trains coming every 2 minutes. Pretty smooth to operate if u have a pass.
But we've check into our hostel now, and I'm sitting here talking to this cool guy from Czech Republic named Anthony. SOOOO...photos are just about uploaded. I know this was such a mess of a blog, maybe I'll get better at it lol

Not enough sleep!

I work at 5am, but I'm in full swing of packing. EVERYTHING must be out of my house tomorrow. I've gotten all my laundry done and am trying to shove it all in my bag for europe. I think it will fit, along with some toiletries...but I forgot about wanting to put my laptop in there too....so shit. Not enough room! I'm really sad I'm leaving this duplex, it was good to me. heh. ok, I'm waaaay too pooped to keep my eyes peeled. two days of work left. one day of moving left. 3 days til I get my deposit back. and 5 days til I leave. hooray. Don't know if I'll be able to write in this until europe, so if not hasta luego.

Just a Couple Giant Hills to Climb, and then I'll Be on My Way

Things are getting stressful! Still trying to juggle 40 hours of work and packing my things, while not packing the things I need for the trip, and moving everything into storage, and scrubbing down my duplex. It's hard work. Rachel and I booked our hotel for Paris yesterday, and have also finalized our train ticket booking for traveling between France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Now just to book the hostel that I found in London, and we'll be on our way! Only 11 days til we leave, it's so crazy! It's discouraging trying to pack up for the trip while everything else is in boxes, because if I forget something, I have to rip open my boxes to find it, or drive over to storage to get it. But it will be worth it hopefully. And I'll worry about where to live once I get back. Until next time!

departure: 3 weeks from today

I leave in just three short weeks! I've decided to just pack up all my things and worry about finding a place to live after I get back, unless an opportunity jumps out at me. If I'm getting a small place, I've pretty much decided I should just live in Eugene. I need to get away from memories and desires that will never happen.

So I've got my hiking backpack purchased that I will use for the entirety of my trip, and I've also purchased a snazzy new laptop which I happen to be on right now! Good timing, since my desktop computer took a poop and won't even load completely. I went on a long hike Saturday morning to test out my backpack and how it felt, and to make sure I could handle a heavy bag all the time. Things went great, and I'm very confident about that bag. Fits great!

So from here until when I leave, I will be packing my things in boxes, which has been a very sad task. I plan on being moved out and having all my things in storage a week before I go so I can have my carpets cleaned before then and hopefully get my deposit back by then.

I've got to have faith, and hope everything will turn out okay once I get back. Financially speaking, in terms of finding a home, and even my love life. That's a long road...but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Hasta Luego.

5 weeks away...

I leave in a month and 4 days! There's a lot to do until departure still, including getting a backpack and laptop to travel with. I might just borrow one from a friend if I can. Plans have changed a little bit, with regards to moving after I get back. I don't know where I'll be living...there's a lot to plan out. But I do know, that by the time I leave I will have my entire house in storage and be officially homeless. And hopefully I'll find a place to live shortly after I return home. Somewhat scary, somewhat liberating. I can't wait to start my trip! This last weekend to San Francisco just confirmed that I love to experience new things. This blog isn't too entirely necessary yet, but I figured I should get in the habit of writing in it, and to let people know it exists! Hasta luego.

I'm Leaving Next Month! WOW!

It's hard to believe that next month I will be in Europe, all on my own with a backpack traveling around having the chance of a lifetime. I'm nervous of course, afraid I'll be homesick or things will be different once I get back. But definitely hopeful. I hope the month of studying gives me the opportunity to greatly improve my skills in Spanish, since I'll be able to be fully submerged.

Rachel and I will be traveling buddies through it all! We bought our main plane tickets a week ago, but still have a set to buy that will get us from Rome to Athens, and then Athens to Amsterdam, so we can fly home. Then there's the train tickets we need. It sucks having to predict ahead of time how many days I think I will jump on a train. While it costs more to buy more days, I don't want to waste money if we don't use them. OR get stuck with a giant ticket because we run out of travel days (these passes allow you to travel in any of 4 countries unlimited on 7 different travel days, etc.)But it should be fine.

This last week of school is absolutely killing me, with the extremely large amount of work I have. But I've got to focus and put this trip on the backburner so I can do well on my tests. Then BAM! summer! Hopefully I'll be able to save a little bit more money before I'm gone, even with the dent of having to purchase a laptop so I can keep in touch while I'm gone.

47 days til departure!!!