FATTTYY Packyyyyyy

Fatty got a package today!

Kleenex
MIGHTY detergent-a little bitty bottle...but it does stain spotting (a life saver for me, so i can do less full loads of laundry)
Two greeting cards with sassy cats on them, maybe ill send them and maybe I wont!
HEADBANDS! Sparkly one!!!!
MY BOOTS! It was like a child coming home to me, now I understand how much you all much miss me ;)
A pair of earings, now i can lok like stylish homeless person.
Pink toilet paper!

Is it a sad day when you gat really exciting bout toilet paper? I think not, and I know my sister understand (and the rest of the family atleast accepts it). I have stolen, I mean borrowed, toilet paper from every restaurant and hotel/hostel I have stayed in (minus Amsterdam). It was a big deal when i ran out of toilet paper and instead of taking it from the University, where they
Fattty got a package today!!foolishly don't lock their dispensers like in America, I went to.... THE SUPERMARKET. Now its big because, if I have to by something, I'll try the euro store first. I was able to get some plush TP with pink flowers for my special visitor (Jen), I usually use the equivalent of a thin paper bag, double-ply. But, you see getting not only name brand toilet paper, but toilet paper that is soft and pink, is glorious. I'll spare you any further details, but pink TP is a VIP for aesthetic and other reasons.

My pasta is boiling over.
Sort of like that bathtub flood I had yesterday, OMG. I'm sitting on bed yesterday half blogging, half working on a little paper. After bit I notice, I don't know, Like a weird slidingy, trickly noise... and I am like..... shit. It ahd happened before, twice, but never to this magnitude. The water was literally flowing out of the bathroom, wich is had already filly with a quarter inch of water. PANIC. But no, I so used to painicky things like this happening here, I don't panic anymore. Luckily I had to huge towels I took from the residencia when my fridge broke last week and defrosted ( see i told you, panicky things). So, I damned it right up at the door and worked up a nice sweat soaking it up wiht my towel and wringing it out. Let me tell you, the cleaning lady DOES NOT mop, or really sweep, the floors. Good thing she is a sassy old lady who talks to me about sciatic nerves.

Now, I don't want some other special things to be lost in all the flood and TP excitment, lke another package i got from my sissy-poo. It was glorious, aside form the beautiful cards (which I provided for selfish purposes) with nice little drawings of sun, that I thought she might hae hada three old do (JK JEN), but thats beside the point. A USB DRIVE, full to the brim with shows!!! Now, for those of you who don't, my internet in ym residencia is complete rubbish, R-U-B-B-I-S-H. I can barely use skype to text chat, let alone video or voice. So you can see how its exceedingly hard to download any shows to watch, on those nice breezy nights when everyone is out partying and I'm , well, not. My hero, plain and simple. Also, my plethora of chocolate and easter candy has helped me impress some people and abuse the rule of supply and demand, GAINING POWER TO DOMINATE ALLLLLL...or just bring some with me when I am hanging with Spanish speakers, especially non-spanish ones, that don;t really get easter sometimes, but totally get delicious chocolate.

Okay, time to eat lunchy. Besitos. And I'll tell you all about Malaga soon.

One trimester down, lots of easter chocolate to eat.

After Roma I crashed and watched millions of episodes of CSI and The Office… don’t judge! I walked a lot and didn’t shower in Rome…I needed to recuperate. I also did a lot of studying for exams the up-coming week. On Wednesday I got a HUGE package that I was NOT allowed to open ‘till Easter. Yes, Mom, I waited patiently. I also enjoyed a thoroughly clean room. Before I left for Roma I even washed my sheets! That marks the second time I’ve done laundry in Barcelona…the 1st of April (right now it’s the 30th, so we’ll see how long I can last this time).


On Sunday I got to open my package!!!!! I celebrated by making toast AND a pot of coffee and watched an episode of the office. Then I opened my glorious package and commenced drooling over the chocolate and new underwear. I bet you didn’t know it
Mom, but you’re an enabler—with these five new pairs of underwear I can wash my clothes even less!!!! Laurel (my favorite person) came home from her spring break trip and we had an Easter fest. I made dinner—chicken burgers, pasta, and bread—and then we colored eggs! It was pretty much awesome and we got very creative despite only having brown eggs to color. I remedied by adding less water to the color and selecting choice light brown eggs, haha.







Then I got back to studying till my two big exams on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Then BAM!! It was over. First trimester over….over? OMG. Laurel and I had a very romantic almost last weekend together and had slumber parties almost every night, which included fries from the patatas stand outside (obviously).
The next week my new classes started. Yikes. I never though I would think BC was really well organized. There is no info on the internet, as in where it meets. So I miss one of my first classes for art history, went to the next class on Friday and it was in Catalan. What the heck! I switched out of Art Theory for a Visual Representation class, which sounds weird but it is about the development, through certain movements ( like the renaissance) of visual representation. The other class is a cinema class, History of Cinema, and I love it…despite the silent films in Spanish. So, I’m on to my next trimester and was able to manage a good report from the last one despite perhaps the most stressful exam period I’ve ever had. Then, it was time for MALAGA!!!

When in Roma... (no,i actually get to use this phrase)

I left for Rome on Friday morning. It was a bit of a tight squeeze—since my credit card hadn’t worked on the airline’s website (as they never seem to in Europe), I only had it reserved, so fingers crossed that they wouldn’t sell it on me. But it all worked out, minus the fact that pilot thought landing the plane was the same as race car driving—I seriously thought that the plane was gonna role. I somehow magically figure out how and where to take the train to the city and—YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!—find Charlie meeting my at the train station. Joyous Reunion and we also received lots of awkward stares (you’d understand if you have every seen us hang out…weird voices and horrible jokes all over the place). Our hostel was wicked close, literally across the street and down a block from the train station. They like to play really sassy ‘90s R&B tunes—check out Usher’s ‘Confession’. It was pretty inconspicuous; Charlie and I walked right by it almost every time we were going home. It was in an apartment building that was attached to the buildings on either side. Up two flights of stairs, then you couldn’t miss it-on account of the BLASTING music. Charlie and I were in a room with a Dutch couple, random man from China (that’s all the conversation we got from him), and girl from BC. We happened to be talk about how much housing sucks this year, when the girl pipes up and turn out to be from there, small (creepy) world.
So the adventure commenced the first day we did the Coliseum, the pantheon and then trailed over across the river. We went through this cute little island with a hospital, also apparently around where all the Romans like to sun themselves. The rive has wide pathways on either side. Anywho… we went to this area that is apparently great for pizza, and inexpensive, delicious food in general. Of course we got gelato on the way. Let me tell you, this gelato was delicious…I wish they made ice cream like it in the states. The gelato is so nice and creamy, but it icy too, in a peasant way, so its really light—I had mint, so it was also v. refreshing. The area across the river, whose name escapes me, has an awesome atmosphere (we went back three times). That afternoon/evening we walking around a bit and then sat down for some pizza, I know GHASP I spent money at a restaurant. It was delicious, delicious, delicious…. I just got a simple margarita pizza and we got a half litre of red wine. So relaxing. Then we went back to our hostel, a nice looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong walk ( but hey we burned of the gelato, right?)We settled in for the niht, alarms set for 8:30 because WE MEAN BUSINESS!
By 9 we were eating our complimentary breakfast (coffee and a croissant) at the café next door, then hopped on the metro to go to the Vatican, as we wanted maximum catholic time. On the metro we saw a sassy performer, which isn’t unusual in Europe in general. But it was about a 60 years old woman carting around an amp, I still am unsure as to what language she was singing, and I still think she was horrible and horribly amusing. We got to the Vatican around 9:30 and it was already packed, it was also a week before Easter. They already were setting up for the mass, and we saw alter servers, Eucharist ministers ‘training’ for the coming Sunday. It was gorgeous inside, minus a certain HORRIBLY annoying group of tourists. By the time we go to St. Peter’s it had been hours and my neck hurt from staring up, but it was beautiful. You could stare at the ceiling of St. Peter’s for an hour and not see it all really. After the Vatican we had a nice lunch, of bread and cheap sliced cheese, Saturday was not our splurge day. We walked around that afternoon and hit up the Spanish steps and walk by the Trevi Fountain (it was way to crowded). When we got back to the train station/hostel area we used our internet passes and hit up the laundromat internet combo store (I know, its as weird as it sounds). That night we got some nice gelato and then hit the sac.
Sunday was wander day. We went to all of the sights we missed and found a nice area plaza sort of near the Trevi Fountain, which we went back to that day. We stopped for PASTA!!!! Oh-my-god. It was delicious. I had gnocchi with just olive oil and Parmesan cheese. We also got bruschetta and some red wine. Only ten euro! And possibly the best meal I have had in Europe, so delicious. I can’t stop saying it. We also went back to our favorite area for a bit and then back to the hostel for our dinner of bread and jam, yum. Literally, we would hollow out the baguette and poor in jelly. We went out for dinner/drink that night with two of Charlies friend from where he was studying abroad in Glasgow.
We crashed when we got back to the hostel and I had the weirdest dream that night. I was in the room in the hostel and there was someone standing in the middle of the room, and the person across from me was sitting up in bed. All these car alarm noises were on and the beds were rattling. Charlie and I woke up, all packed around nine-ish and he had the audacity to tell me there he thinks there was an earthquake last night. “No Charlie, it was probably just a big truck driving by”. LIES. There was an earthquake!!!!!! I survived an earthquake. Okay, okay, sort of… since it wasn’t the epicenter and all, but still! After breakfast we got on our respective trains, and it was smooth sailing ‘till barca!! Woohooo

My List

1. Everything bagel from Atlantic Bagel with butter and creamcheese
2. Buffalo Chicken Calzone
- buffalo chicken fingers
- buffalo chicken pizza
- all with extra blue cheese
3. Greek Salad from Harbor House
4. Dinner at Golf Club
5. White and garlic pizza from Roggies, at 2 am
6. Margarita, the cheap kind, pre-made in the bottle.
7. Watch a lot of television
8. Snuggle with my cats while I watch that television, or atleast allt he Harry Potters in succession
9. Go for a drive with fam, get coffee from Circe's or Tedeschis and go buy the beaches and through the Harbor.
10. Wake up to Dad's breakfasts of toasted muffins and sausage... lots of sausage
11. Rent movies and get chinese food.
12. Beach, Beach, Beach!!!
13. S'mores over the fire pit with Jakie
14. Be lazy with my girlies for about 48 hours...including going to the movies, and crap all night, sleeping with Jilly, going to
Jamie's or the mug for breakfast, stop at CTs, lay on my bed for two hours, get coffee again and go to the beach....
15. stop by the liquor store
16. Eat more buffalo chicken
17. Eat Dad's hotdogs and macaroni and cheese (Kraft this time)
18. Mom's crumbly chicken
19. Come home to Lori, Mom, Wynn , Dad and Jen, and wine (red!)
20. to be continued....

Dane's Visit and then some

Okay, so now I’ll try and catch you up on all the rest of everything else (aren’t I good at constructing sentences?).

So after Mom’s visit it was Dane’s turn. Dane is one of my most favorite people from school, as well as my Mom’s. But before Dane came it was St. Patrick’s Day!!!!!! I didn’t do too much aside from cover myself with the tattoos from my Grandparents and glitter clovers from the Police Department; I looked quite the sassy lass—or just weird. We got ready in all our green glory, I went with the later group, deciding to pass on the pub crawl, and went to a pub called George Pain/Pane/Paine (idk how to spell it). My gooooosh it was so crowded, Aneka and I decided to leave and I was bumped so hard I got splinters in my arm from being rammed into counter, YOWCH! I finally dragged myself to a Pharmacist on Thursday when the wounds started to look more like aliens had infiltrated my body, no lie. But YAY, DANE CAME. He got here Thursday afternoon and I was under strict instructions to act ‘normal’, as in not be overly hostessy.
That night we went to George Paine for some beers, can you tell I like that place. By the end of the evening we had decided to steel some of their ambiance…they have a wall lined with old looking books for some old world UK charm I guess. Ironically the book we took was Alcohol and the State, go figure. Now PD, don’t judge me…I was merely taking advantage of a situation to remember a glorious evening. Friday was beach day. The weather was amazing so we hauled to the beach with a packed lunch, bathing suits and all. Nice and relaxing aside from the nudity, middle easterners selling you drugs and fanta, and pda (public displays of affection). Next Day was tour day; we did my big walk around Born, Barri Gotic, and La Rambla and up to Plaza Catalunya. Then we had churros and chocolate in the late afternoon. Dane treated me to dinner that night, as in cooked some delish treats in my ‘kitchen’. We laid low that night and on Sunday we hit up the park for a bit after the walk, it was a little bit hippie for Dane, but totally Barcelona culture. Then it was time for the futbol game!!!!!!!!!!! Barca v. Malaga and we nailed them, 6-0!!!! Holla. Our tickets cost 30 euro and we sat in the farthest back row of the farthest back tier, but it was awesome. There was a guy that had this toy microphone thing that he kept yelling chants into. What a trooper, and a group of older men in front of us to the right who rejoiced with every goal as if the 3rd, 4th, 5th,and then 6th world wars had ended. This is just another part of not just Spanish culture, but European culture. They love football. L-O-V-E. Refrigerators, office chairs, clothes, underwear, cell phone covers… it isn’t that different form the commercialization of sports in the United States, but I think it goes a bit further. Then, Dane left me at five am on Monday morning and the two weeks of hell began.
I had four projects and a ten pages paper to do, all of which I had done little four aside from hunt down a few sources. I work my toosh off to get a good solid outline on my paper and one of the projects done by the weekend. But I will say that that weekend was one of the best I have had in Barcelona. I spent the whole weekend with Laurel, a girl in two of my classes from Chicago. Friday night she came over and got ready with me and we went to a club called opium, SO MUCH FUN, it was an all night dance party and meeting interesting (to say the least) people, then to top it off we got those delicious fried my sister fell in love with on the way home. Fatty’s delight. Saturday, I finished up my paper and then Laurel and I commenced the gourmet meal we had planned. It was quite the feast. You see Laurel has an oven in the communal kitchen in her residencia, and I was going to take advantage of it. We had salmon, bread and cheese with avocado, rice and corn, and some delicious saucy thing- I have no idea what it was. That night we went out with some girls on her floor, despite how pooped we were from all the work. We went to a house ‘party’, as in the six of us and, get this…. real life Spaniards!!!!! They were a bit shy at first, but they relaxed as soon as I freaked them out with my Shakira rendition, then we had a dance/sing party while one them played the bongos, how cool. I was dubbed Shakira the rest of the night, and I was totally okay with it. We went to a fun small club, Costa Breve, with them for a bit. But Laurel and I had fully crashed and headed back to her place where I slept (she has a queen size bed!!!!!). We fell asleep to Dirty Dancing 2:Havana Nights (don’t judge us) with piles of bread on the bed. Then I had to face reality the next day and do all the rest of my projects. But finally came Thursday (my Friday) and guess what that meant, time for ROMA!!

Más luego queridos, xx

Mom visits and we wear the matchy matchy

Just as a started to go through my favorite people in the world withdrawal (this is after Jen left. And yes, she is one of my favorite people) it was time for Mom to come!

It started a gorgeous Thursday morning and I dragged my self out of bed. You see, I have class at 11 so getting to the airport by around 10:30 was a bit of a challenge, and I have gotten quite used to the Mediterranean leisurely lifestyle. Anywhooo, I finally get to the bus that brings you to the airport at around quarter to ten, lo and behold Mom’s dumb flight gets in early… just after 10 o’clock! That’s just rude; don’t they know a daughter is trying to surprise her Momma at the airport? See, she had told me not to meet her, just meet her at the hotel. I kept up the façade that I was meeting her there until I go to the airport because I figured I could still make it, and I did!!!!! The hotel was quite cute, despite have issues getting them to do simple things like tell us how to turn the lights on, but hey, who needs lights anyway. After we settled in (I moved into the hotel with her for the weekend) we were off.
Now, I might be a bit rusty on the full schedule of the weekend, its been three weeks, but I am sure she’ll correct me ☺.
We started out with a walk around where I live, Barri Gotic, Born, and over to La Rambla. Similar to Jen’s visit, when I didn’t know hat something was I just said it was Roman. That night we ate dinner at a restaurant, Princessa 23, don the street from the hotel that I had been to before. Again, it was delicious… don’t worry you’ll see the pictures. We had nachos, tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelet), and pan con tomate (bread with a tomato/olive oil paste). It was delicious. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. The nachos were amazing, we concluded that what makes good nachos is when you can enjoy the plain chips just as much as when they are covered in cheese, tomatoes and delicious chili sauce (which we inhaled immediately). Then we were back to the hotel for a relaxing night, and baths of course.
Next we started we a nice cup of coffee, croissants, and juice. Then (I think) we went over and did the ceramics museum, which is in a cute little park… there is a picture of Mom and I there in front of a fountain, but the dopes took the picture about a football field away. It was super cool, ceramics from all over Spain, including some modern ones…. I saved you from the excessive amount of photos I took for ideas. Then we went back over to Plaza Catalunya and walked up Passeig de Gracia, which is Barcelona’s Newbury Street but BIGGER, and we were able to see Gaudi’s building, Casa Batlo, and la Pedrera (I am probably not spelling them right, despite being here for four months). We were extra extraño (strange) on this day. I was able to get Mom to get a pair of nice dark, sharp jeans (This is a quite a feat, I don’t know if you are familiar with here sassy, ripped ones). We got another delicious, and totally reasonable meal at Obama Bar. This is where I went to watch the inauguration and their sandwiches are delicious. We finally reached Gaudi’s buildings, and mom was in love. That night we went to my dorm so I could make dinner... red wine, salad, spinach and mushrooms, and salmon. Finally, I can cook! Then we went to my favorite bar/lounge and had a glass of wine (there is a picture of it, I took Jen there too). Then we were back home for more baths and sleepy time.
Now one of these days we did chocolate and churros, which were delicious and walked around the neighborhood. There is a cathedral in the neighborhood, one that actually isn’t usually open to go into, but it was this time and they were selling tickets to a acoustic Spanish guitar concert they were going to have in their chapel that night. It was amazing! The guitarist was in his own world and it was the best setting, amazing acoustics and intimate (try and find the song Asturias and imagine what I am describing—if you can’t find it, it’s on the Vicky, Christina, Barcelona soundtrack). Oh, and I think it was Thursday night…my bad.
On Saturday morning we went to a little café/patisseria that I have been intrigued by called Caemus. A lot of the goods they sell there are made in a monastery. They had a table full of delicious treats. We finally decided on an almond cookie, with a nice glaze on it, marzipan cake, and something else I can’t quite remember (hopefully Mom can help me out here). I’m not sure in which order, but after Caemus we went to the Picasso museum and to some cathedrals, we were able to get into the cloister at the major cathedral in Barcelona, it was amazing (the pictures with the geese). The Picasso museum was nice.and I discovered the ceramics room, which I had missed before. We had tapas outside my favorite cathedral…the picture with bread sticks and potatoes. They weren’t your typical patatas bravas, at least in my opinion, but they were amazing, from this little place called Bubo. Then we met a cat named Hombre (which means man), he was super big and old and just sat there next to his owner, unfazed by the crowds of people, For dinner that night we went to another spot I really like, La Rosa Negra, they have really good mojitos, but we got nachos and margaritas… I got a quesadilla (delish as usual). Sunday, I was finally able to get mom into the BIG CATHEDRAL. We waited until Sunday because not only can you go to mass, but also you can get in without paying, two good things. After we went and got breakfast outside, close by. Don’t worry there is a picture of this too. We got eggs (a rarity for breakfast here), croissants and coffees. Then we packed up out of the hotel room (since it was her last day), and brought everything to my dorm and spent the rest of the day at the beach. It was a beautiful day, not too hot or too windy, which can happen a lot at the beach here. We took a long walk down the beach, starting by the old Olympic apartments, near my end and walked down to Barceloneta, which is near the end of La Rambla. I got a nice old man’s hat, its very sassy (there are pictures of this, too). Then we got foccaccia pizza (no, I don’t know how to spell it), a piece of blueberry (?) pie, and two cappuccinos. So delicious. We also saw a girl in my year from Scituate sunbathing in her bra...interesting.
Then it was time to say bye-bye! But don’t you worry; they are coming to fetch me in June ☺.

Besitos para todos.