Visitors, Carnival, and Cooking

Sooo.... I have an exam tomorrow, but I think a blog post is more important, no?

My spanish class had an intercambio (exchange) this week with an english class this week. Met the nicest spaniards that finally weren't twelve years old. Let me explain...I just exagerrated. The last intercambio we had My friend Laurel and I were with these two guys, I was convinced they were 17 even though that wouldn't really make sense, since they were in college. Laurel stood up for them, give them a few extra years, but lo and behold, I was right. They were 18 yrs old, incredibly shy and had bad english. They were baad people, it was just a very boring and unproductive intercambio ... which is annoying since you have to stay at the Uni till 8:30 for them. This one was different, they cycled through partners more, a was put with another girl, but not from my spanish class and we ended up switching from a guy, to a guy, to a girl. All incredibly nice and actually corrected our Spanish, it was the american I was with that was horrible. God, I really almost pulled out her thin hair. Okay, IM SORRY, I had to vent.  Let's see...

I took a glorious walk in the park today after reading forever in the cafe next door (where i got free flan today, huzzzahhh!). It was beautiful out. The weather is still a bit chilly at times with the wind, but the days themselves are always gorgeous. I would compare it maybe to early April for us, you need a jacket but you reallly wish you didn't. We i go for my walks through the park I walk on every single path atleast twice and then find i nice sunny spot to lay down near some hippies playing music, its great. Different from when Imw orking out in the park, I choose not spot were people will stare at me doing my sit-ups, its like excercising is a faux pau (spelling?) here. Whatevvahhhh. 

I went to Carnival yesterday in Sitges--its a town about forty minutes away, wicked cute, very greek looking on the ocean. It is the place the must have the most cross dressers. Almsot every guy, of all orientations, was dressed as woman. The floats in the parade were verrrry cool. Lots of sparkles everywhere, I love sparkles, Im sure many of you can attest to that :).

My friend Laurel ( the super-funnest-cutest-nicest-Im-glad-I-met girl) and I went as flowers, Or maybe more spring. VERY BRIGHT AND SPARKLY. We wore opposite outfits found incredibly cheaply since its the end the the rebajas (sales) I work purple tight and a yellow dress. And did hot pink make-up and drew flowers on my face. Then we put glitter everywhere, pretty much in a fairy way. Literally, put the glitter in our hands and just blew it at each other. This was after she took a nice nap while I showered and we had a romantic little dinner with bocadillos (sandwiches) and sangria I had made. Sitges was super crowded, we were very good about our buddy system. Everyone was in crazy costumes. There were a surprising amount of 'where's waldo's'-I am not even sure how to write that.  The beach was gorgeous, the streets were cute, but very crowded and there was dancing everywhere. We got home around five and didnt spend a dime the whole time! minus transportation. Pictures will follow as soon as Laurel uploads them.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, the only way to go to mass is in amedieval cathedral. I went to Catedral de la Santa Eulalia. The music is beautiful, they did speak in catalan for the most part (as in not Spanish) and they use real ash, not the manufactured ash that they have in the US. Well, I mean i guess ash is ash, but this was better. So cool, I felt like a lord or lady sitting in mass on a Sunday afternoon with the king and queen.

Ive been doing really well in the kitchen...or 'kitchen' since it is two hotplates and a sink if you've seen the pictures. I have discovered the magic of eggs. I make the most amazing omelletes! I AM NOT LYING. I mean they aren't perfectly packaged an folded, but they are perfectly delicious. Usually I like spinach and mushrooms and cheese if I have it (just their equivalent of cheap american low fat cheese). But I was in all my glory on Monday. I treated myself to salmon, which is unusual I stick to a lot of pasta and tomatoes and bread. So i made mushrooms, garlic and spinach. I made the spinach then took it out of the pan and put the mushrooms in for a bit then the salmon on top because I didnt want it to stick or burn. You have to be pretty resourceful when you have only one pan and hotplates. It was the most delicious thing I have eaten. I have also perfected potatoes, in many forms...mashed and basically homefries i think you'd say. Ugh, so good. This newfound improvisational cooking talent is very convenient BECAUSE JEN IS COMING, WAHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!! And my Mommy is coming the following week and then my bestest friend is coming the next week. A MONTH OF LOOOOOVE. I am so happpppy and excited, and not just because they will be bringing allergy medication and peanut butter.

Oh, and apparently yellow finger nail polish is very unusual here, because my nails have been getting a lot of attention.

BESOS Y AMOR

Ode to Packages, and all the cards I have with cats on them

I got two letters today from my favorite people, my grandparents. There was one that I will show you here, the other is a cat coughing up a hairball. There is a certain cat....Edie.... who likes to send me letters and bother me, posshhhhhh! Regardless, I feel very cool because I have tons of super valentines day cards and I look very popular. (Which I am because I already have a date for when I get back to the states with a sexy lady to watch Casablanca, hubba hubba). I also have to explain that I don't have a weird obsession with cats, but healthy one, because the background on my compueter is my Benny and I, I have two pictures of Gladys on my wall, and she is the background of my cell phone. I also show people the videos of the cats I get and watch them hours on end, ahem, I mean- wait- who said that..... 

These glorious cards come always at just the right times...when I think about being woken up by a jabby elbowed brother, the long drives on the beach with mom, the sunday morning b-fast from Dad... I dont think about Jen, she smells...lunch with auntie, and anything my grandmother makes with lemon or orange (God I could use some of that right now!) But I am cooking some delicious pasta and today for lunch I had a grilled spinach and cheese. Then I put some apple in a pan with sugar (that i stole from the cafe), water and olive oil and let it cook realllllllll niiiiice and put it on a piece of bread-delish. I digress.....   But those cards are superb. and now i know whats happening in the world.... the world of fashion, celebrity gossip, and that election stuff. I think i smelled the paper in that package from my fam for a good two mintues, caressing the glossy cover. The police department sent me a sweet package too. Now i know how lucky I am to not be in the snow with the pics they included, along with a magnet picture pf the snowman I made-he stares at me longingly while I cook. The other package from fam... I inhaled the Skore bar.... then stopped myself and put the reeces candy bar in the freezer (such a good idea fyi). On valentines day the candy hearts provided a good deal of entertainment while I waited for my date (Bridget) to wake up....I played with them amking phrases for a good half hour, haha. So now I wear the shirt auntie sent me ohhhh 'bout three time week and Im sure the ugly doll Jake sent is covered in drool... you know how pretty i am when I sleep and when I wake up :). 

Time to take the eggs of the stove. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Amsterdam and then some...

So another week had gone by and i found out for sure that I got all the classes I wanted...YAY.

Last week was pretty uneventful but I did discover all the wonder that is gnocci.... not necessarily a spanish food, but I have never heard of it until here. We went out for  a bite to eat, three girls (kate, jess, aneka) and myself, to a great italian place. Very cheap, but I just got bread with tomato. Kate let me finish off her gnocci with pesto, and I went to heaven. Gnocci is a potato pasta, pretty chewy and very filling but such a great texture... so, so , so good. 

Classes are all going well still. I have my first field trip today for the art history class to the Picasso museum and the Comparative Europea Politics course is alright, just very boring at times. I daydream about gladys and Abner to avoid falling asleep in the last half hour. :) On thursday...well, technically Friday, I left for Amsterdam. The flight was at 8:30 am or so, so we had to leave pretty early in the morning, I napped twice during the night. I met my friends Claire and Ben there, and traveled with a girl who also had friends going. Everything went incredibly smoothly despite the fact that it was such a cheap airline ( I though everything would be running late, etc). The flight was pretty quick, under two hours....so weird that such different countries are so close. We got into Amsterdam around 12:00 to our hostel near the central train station there. After we settled in claire, her friend Jai, and I were ready to go. We hit up the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and did a lot of walking through the city. The Van Gogh museum is amazing, especially as he is my favorite painter.It's quite small but has som of my favorite paintings of his, including one of the series he did of his bedroom that I have on my wall at home. Next we did a photo shoot at the "I Amsterdam" sign, I got a little stuck in the "a".  The rijksmuseum was quite cool, too. They had some of the most amazing still lifes, and solid variety of styles too... I have to look up the name of one of the modern painters, he was fantastic. The city itself is beautiful and charming, much more than a lot of student probably expected who just went for what is allowed there. I hadn't realized how many canals there were! And lots of tulips at the markets, lots and lots and lots. Not quite my dream of running through tulip fields with clogs on but it sufficed.

One Saturday we were women on a mission. Our plan of attack: rembrandt house, film museum, photography museum, and heineken museum/factory... along with lots of walking. We hit rembrandt first after an included breakfast of bread, jam, coffee/tea, and hard boiled eggs. I was very resourceful and made us egg sandwiches, DELISH! So we were off to the Rembrandt House and took the long way to take in more of the city, there were some incredibly cute stores. In one we were all looking at the rings and Claire asked if she could try one on, soon we were all ( the three of us) trying them on and they guy kept grumbling about how he didnt now who was going to by anything.... so we left. We also found a cute market area near the Rembrandt house with some funky/adorable hats. I almost got one, but then figured i could make it myself.... (yes, aunt i know i have to finish a certain scarf first :)    ) And don't worry that wasn't the hat I was thinking of getting.

The Rembrandt House was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Everyone that worked there was very nice, we disocvered that we had been chatting to one of the 'guards' who was laughing at us take dumb pictures...and he didnt speak english...thats why he was nodding. The doors were so small! I fit through, apparently I am the size of your average man back then, which is sad.. I'm 5'3". At 11 they had a print demonstration ( Rembrandt made prints out of etchings, fyi). And i got to be the helper! I was very pro, using both hands and feet.

We left there after becoming incredibly claustrophobic...the floors themselves were small but there were about four or five. On we went to the Heineken Museum. At this point we were quite hungry, and were gnawing on a loaf of bread I had brought with me, thus delusional. I also had worn my sneakers because I refused to have a soar back that day... but I also happened to only bring one pair of pants and my
leggings so I looked like an aerobics instructor, so tended to run a had and skip around a lot.  That picture is just a small example of how much I moved. The museum turned out to be 15 euro, but we had waiting in line for a significant ammount of time, and were determined to make the most of it. There was a good deal of history on it, more history than you might think beer would have. I also want to recommend they revert back the the second style of bottle they used...much cooler looking. Then we went through were the whole process is explained with a bunch of inactive tanks...what are those things called again...I dont remember because I was too distracted by the crazy guide....C-R-A-Z-Y. His name was Raoul, and he had a very hairy chest. The hair almost had a life of its on crawling of his shirt and he was so energetic and enthusiastic about his job. He
talked about the process when water is added to the barley and gave us a sample of it...it is so delicious. The water is basically bread flavored water, but sweet and refreshing, they should sell that instead. next was the interactive tour. You go into a room where you stand in rows on platforms-like stairs- and it moves! It was like disneyland. We we fell into a vat of hobs water sprayed and then we were pasurized and warmed and they had a closing scene with music at a bar, and we danced ( though that wasn't mandatory). We might have been the ones who enjoyed it most. Next we had a our first sample, I learned that you should blow off the foam from your bear because it keeps in the bubbles and keeps out the air, I missed why this was important though. Next was what we liked to call the rave room, it was basically a room with videos about heineken playing tu they were sports videos and there was intense music playing, so we danced there for a good fifteen/twenty minutes. There was a bit more history after that about their support for certain sports teams and such and we made our own video singing a popular folk song in amsterdam... once i get it I will post it. And then we had our last sample in a room that was a little useless, but amusing. There were images and panoramas all along the walls of different places in the world, presumably amsterdam but they didnt all look it. Then we were released. 

Next we splurged...it was time for pancakes. We got two, they were BIG  but nice and thin.... one with chocolate and one with strawberries. They were essentally crepes but just so delicious. Then we met up with Ben and his friend and he came with us to the other two museums on our list. One of them, the photography museum had been moved to an old traditional canal house across the street during renovations, it had on of the most unpleasant rooms  I have even been in. The walls, furniture, bed, and floor were done in the same fabric, a jungle motif....but with sheep?weird. It was something like the loon house, with though it was fitting as it would definately make someone go loony. We were pleasantly cheered up by a frog we found outside in the garden. 

We did quite a bit more walking after this and eventually went to the supermarket to get a little something for dinner. I supplemented my bread from home with a mysterious salad... I am still not sure what it was, but the price was right and it tuned out to be delicious. We did go for a walk through the red light district around eight with ben and his friends, much smaller than I had though, then we went to a small place called Heffer to meet a friend of Claires. By eight the next morning I was on my way back to Barcelona. I know I have been here for a month when I am excited to come back. 

This week we are eating a bag of potatoes... last night I made the most delicious mashed potatoes......Grammy would be proud :)

Until laterrrr xxxxxxxxx