South of Spain and Portugal

In Spanish, the word “ganas” would translate more or less to “wants” in English. For example, “no tengo ganas de hacerlo” means I don’t have wants to do it or that I don’t feel like doing it.

I have to admit that during the days leading up to this Rotary trip I did not have a lot of “ganas” to go. First, because It meant a week of speaking English (something that frightened me). Second, I would be missing the Carneval celebrations in my town, with my friends. So on Wednesday, March 2, I boarded a early morning train to

Madrid to meet with a bunch of exchange students for what I believed would be a boring 10 days/

Let me begin by saying, in typical Cristina Judith Bricoli fashion, I boarded the train having no idea what I was supposed to do once I got off in the big, capital city of Madrid. This resulted in a 6 am (United States time) call to my mother asking her to hack into my email and find out for me. I arrived safely...and an hour late and was reunited with all the Americans, Canadians, the two Germans, and the one Tawaineise, who I had not seen since September (plus two new Australians). I think I might actually one of only two or three of us here who hadn’t seen another exchange studen

t since the orientation weekend in September. After chilling in the Estacion de Autobus for a little, we got on our bus to embark on our viaje (trip).

The first day was spent on a bus going to Granada which we got to in time for dinner and spent the night. The second day we were in Granada we saw the Alhambra. This same day we stopped in Cordova where we saw a breathtakingly beautiful Mosque. We ended the day in Sevilla.

Sevilla (or Seville for you Americans). We spent two days in this Southern city. I can honestly say that the second day there was more than likely the best day of my life. We began the morning with a short tour, where we saw all the important and historical aspects of the town. They let us have lunch and the rest of the day as free time. First me and some other girls stopped at Starbucks (yes we are lame, we’re aware). Then we went out for lunch at a place called “Baths of Arabia” which ended up being an Italian restaurant. I had gnocchi, which I’ve missed like crazy since being here in Spain. After, even though we were all stuffed, we split this chocolaty dessert. Next came the touristy shopping,

where I had to resist from buying everything “Flamenco” I saw.

We than split up the group and Paige, Marissa, Maddie, and I decided to go for a horse and buggy ride. This consisted of me prostituting my way into getting the creepy Gitano to give us a discounted ride. It started with me saying I’d give his horse a sugar cube, and ended in him inviting me to sit in the front of the carriage where he groped my leg and invited me come back for a private ride the next day. I told him I couldn’t cause Paige(mi rubia) was my lesbian lover...but than later changed the story to my possessive boyfriend wouldn’t let me leave the hotel alone. Well either way we got the discount and no one was raped. Plus my friends found it hilarious.

Of course then we had to see the beautiful cathedral, and finally in the gift-shop there I bought the cross that I’ve been looking for forever. We continued to wonder around the wonderful city of Sevilla. W

e even tried on Flamenco dresses in El Corte Ingles. Later that night we got to go out and have fun at the fiestas.

Saturday we stopped at Huelva Coast on our way to Portufal and saw something that I honestly remember nothing about. Portugal however I remember. It’s fantastic and hard not to love. We spent the first night right by the ocean in a beautiful hotel (with a disco tecca inside...perfecto). Even better though was Lisboa (Lisbon). The Capital of Portugal. Some people here in Spain don’t understand why I loved it so much, since it’s not a particularly special town. But it was on the water, easy to get around, the food was a lot better than Spain, the people were nice and a lot spoke English.

We were in Lisboa longer than any of the other cities and made ourselves at home at the hotel. My roomies and I made friends with the hotel staff (like we did in pretty much all the hotels). We were in Lisboa for the Carneval celebrations and were lucky to be able to salir por la fiesta (aka go disco teccaing...aka clubbing). Don’t worry family and Rotary, I promise we did a lot of cultural things to...like go to the hard rock cafe(hahah).

Really though, we did do cultural things. Besides doing a tour around Lisboa we went to visit some pueblos near by. I loved Cascais, which was your typical little fishing village, with the best ice cream place I’ve ever been to (even better than in Italy).

Sadly, we had to leave Portugal (which I’m still convinced is not part of Europe). The last two days of our trip were spent in Caceres and Salamanca. Two towns I’d already seen. Caceres (where my host mom’s from and where we spent Christmas) we only stopped in to sleep, and for some reason, even though it’s a beautiful town, I can’t seem to fall in love with it.

On the contrary, I was glad our last night was spent in Salamanca. I have very fond memories of that town( was there in December for New Year’s Eve of the university students, which is different than real NYE). It’s such an amazing town filled with culture and so much ambiente(is that a Spanish or English word?). We went sight-seeing, ate churros, and had a wonderful fiesta.

....And then we woke up and it was all over and we had to go back to real life. I won’t go into the story of how Friday I missed my train home and got stuck in Madrid and had to stay in a friends house and buy overpriced Mexican Food and buy a whole new train ticket, and now I’m a broke exchange student.

Anyway....to sum it all up. I experienced the best 10 days of my life. And made so many good friends and so many memories that will last forever. Making friends with random Spanish and Portuguese (and Swiss jejej) people along the way. Speaking Spanish with a Portuguese accent or Adulusian accent...or of course Italian accent, playing the lighter game, and so many other things that no one besides the toher exchange students would understand. I miss everybody so frigen much, but like Dr. Sues says. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. So I’m going to try to do that.

posdata: My mother comes in 30 days!!! WADUPPP! Also, I think the next blog post might be a video blog so look forward to that loyal, dedicated followers.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

besos

"We're half way there...woaaah living on a prayer"

154 days ago I hugged my mom goodbye and I blindly bored a plane to a foreign country. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I had a lot of expectations and a lot of worries. And now that I have spent 5 months here I realize the things I worried about were unimportant and the things I expected were unrealistic. But I have however been having a amazing time, and I am so thankful for all of you who are supporting me and letting me experience this.

I look back at my first blog posts or journal entries and it's crazy how quickly the time has gone. Today is my half way mark here in Spain. 5 months down 5 to go. I love reading something I wrote in October and and realize how differently I see things now. Honestly I feel like I've changed and grown up so much. Living with different people gives you the ability to look at the good and bad in both them and the people you’re familiar with. And if we’re smart we’ll pick the good parts from everyone and adapt them to ourselves.

Another thing I have learned is the most important thing is to accept other people. You might not agree with them or how they live their life, but you know what? They might not agree with how you live your live. However, you can’t judge someone else’s life until you’ve experienced it. That’s why you have to go into every situation with an open mind, willing to change, even if the only thing you learn is that you prefer the way you live your life. You’ll never know until you give it a try though.

So I won't lie, since probably September I've planned to name this blog post after the Bon Jovi song "Living on a Prayer". And today while in the car driving to my host granpa's town, the song came on the radio and i just said...."what a coincidence".

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Well, as the time ticks on and I learn more about Spain and it's people, I realize there is(like in everything) both good and bad. No matter where you go I think it will be that way. No matter how much you love the country, there are definitely certain things that just won't make sense to you. It might even make you a little frusturated, but that's all part of it. The purpose isn't to love everything. The purpose is to learn what you love. I've certainly, in Spain, discovered many new things I love(ex.seafood). But even more importantly you learn how much you really do love your family back home and how important they are you to. So here I go with a potpurri of random observations, facts, and comparisons. They're very random, and in no specific order of significance.

-We listen to more american music than spanish, and a lot of what is on TV are american shows dubbed in Spanish.

-Not as many girls have hair extension here

-I honestly believe that in every other country besides the U.S people use body wash instead of a nice bar of soap.

-I drink a lot more milk here than in the U.S

-Meat is eaten in EVERY thing. I do not exaggerate.

-They think things are expensive, that we in the U.S would consider cheap. For example, you can have a blackberry here and the plan will cost you 24 dollars a month. In the states it would cost 60 dollars for the least.

-People here are really big on seat belt wearing. I've had other teenagers tell me to put my seatbelt on in the car.

-I swear there's always someone with a camera. On facebook normally people have around 100-500 pictures, some 1000. On tuenti(spanish version of facebook) everyone has over 1000 pictures. A lot have 4000.

-The bus is SO much easier to take here and a lot of people use it.

-If not the bus, we walk places. That's a perk of living in a small city. Everythings close.

-I miss random, unimportant things. Like CVS, sports authority, MY BED!, The thing in the refrigerator where you push it and water or ice comes out....but honestly i think i miss CVS more than anything.

-We don't go shopping as much here

Where are you Christmas...do you remember?

I know there has been a lack of blog posts this last month. I've been busy and when I'm not the internet dosen't work.

I'm going to remind back to Christmas. If I hadn't looked at a calander I wouldn't have known it was Christmas. I went with my host family to Caceres, a town in southern Spain to visit my host mom's family there. Christmas Eve and Christmas were spent in my host Aunt's house where we just had a really nice, relaed time. The family was nice and the food was amazing. There wasn't any present giving, in Spain a lot of people do that on the Three King's day instead. Of course since it is Spain, after dinner I went out dancing with one of the younger family members and his friends. One thing I noticed was in the bars there they played more Spanish music then in my town.

The next week of break was spent waking up late, going for a walk and studying a little bit. Then family lunch like usual and go hang out with friends at our favorite place in town el Fox. Get home around 10 pm and dinner with the family, then bed early since the internet wasn't working and TV here isn't that great.

New Year's Eve was obviously a lot of fun in Spain. It mostly follows the same outline as Christmas. Go to host dad's family's town. Eat a delicous meal with the host family and later go out dancing all night and all morning.

And now here we are in the New Year. I've been in Spain for 4 months and it has gone way to quickly. I absolutely love it here and am going to try to keep learning as much as I can and savouring every minute here.

xoxo
abrazos &besos

Mountains, Discos, Boots...oh my!

I am so sorry to all my dedicated blog followers! I have taken a little hiatus(yes family i now know how to spell that word after the 50 emails you send me about it) from my blog writing, but I will try to write a quick something. I'll just share two things that stick out from the last two weeks.

My host cousin is part of the girl/boy scouts. But it is more of a mix between that and a youth group...and semi cooler. I went on a retreat with them last week. We stayed in a tiny pueblo built right beside a mountain. It was nice because the older kids were given a little free time from being the camp counselors to hike up one of the mountain/hills Saturday afternoon. Other than that we played typical camp type games and did a choreographed dance while dressed up like elfs! The most entertaining part was a game we played where you had to steal the flag from someones back. Obviously I was the champion of this game and plowed through everyone by tackling them and wrestling. My host brother is still mad about the fact that I beat him twice.

We returned to the Disco Tecca this week! We went Thursday for the class party of the private school in my town. I went even though I don't go to the school, because my friends do. But this also meant that I happened to have school the next day and therefore had to wake up 3 hours after I went to sleep. It was a costume party and we went dressed up like lumberjacks! We danced till about 4 30 am, then I walked home with a group of people as it snowed. First snow of the year(it wasn't a lot though and only lasted for about 10 min).

Quick Potpurri:

1. I discovered I actually like fish

2. I feel safer here, it dosen't seem as dangerous. And its not wierd to walk home in the dark as long as your with other people.

3. I have officially given my host mom my credit card to hide from me as to prevent me from spending more more...I have a shopping addiction.

4. The boots here are so amazing...I want to buy them all!

5. Christmas is approaching...dosen't feel like it at all though!!

6. Every weekend I find myself teaching people how to fist pump or frollock jajajajaja!

"City Love"...and a lot of other things I love

I am sorry I have been slacking a little on the blog posts. It's just so hard to decide what's significant and what's not. Everything seems so important to me, but I am sure that it wouldn't seem as exciting to you all. I always start a blog and then realize that I am going nowhere with it and just stop. But now I am determined to write this post. I'm listening to some John Mayer and Jack Johnson and am going to write this post! This blog will be named after the John Mayer song I am listening to at the moment "City Love".

Living in a city is so amazing. Even if it is a small one. I could 100 % see myself living in a European city when I grow up. That was something I always thought I wanted, and being here has only confirmed it. I definitely don't see Miranda de Ebro where I will end up, maybe not even Spain. But I would love to live in Europe, whether Spain, Italy, France, Belgium. I just love walking down the street and there always being people out in the streets. I love how easy it is to catch the bus and go from one place to another. I love how we hang out in the streets. Just walking around, going from cafe to candy store...just walking and talking. And I love how last saturday I went dancing with people, like in crowded bars with amazing music!

Side Note: I have some sad news. My fellow exchange student/australian friend got switched into a different city. So now I am once again the only exchange student in Miranda. It was really sad when she left. When me and some friends from school said bye to her, I said how now I am all alone here. They then all exclaimed "'CRISTINA!! You are NOT alone! We are here for you....we can even speak english if you want!! Badly. but we can speak it!"' That made me really happy.

I love the people here! Another thing I love. My friends are so great. The ones from my school and the ones from the other school in town. Friday I went out with my friends from the other school and we ate a humongous bag of sunflower seeds. I know sunflower seeds are SUPER popular here, but the amount of sunflower seeds consumed was a little ridiculous. Then Saturday I went to see Harry Potter with my friends from school. The movie theater is a lot smaller than what we're used to in the States. We had to wait outside until it opened for that showing of Harry Potter. It's not just open all the time, playing a bunch of different movies. I do have to say though...the chairs in the theater are a lot better than in the U.S.

side note: why is John Mayer so frigen amazing. I wanna see him in concert!!! I want to see Shakira in concert too! Shakira is SOOO popular here. Her Spanish songs and her English songs. Honestly though I don't why I only realized how amazing her music is until this year.

Oh and last but not least...I LOVE SPANISH. I love how people ask "Cuanto tiempo llevas in espana?" (how long has you been here). But literally would translate to how much time do you wear/carry in spain. And I find myself telling random stories about my brother, solely because I love to say "hermano", I love the way the pronunciation sounds!

And to round it out. I love journaling, I love when Concha makes Arroz con Leche, I love my Host grandpa and how he walks with two canes. I love after school when I drive home with Fernando, I always learn something new about Spanish grammar. I love how when you back into someones car, you just say "screw it" and park somewhere else!

Just living in Spain

Well here I am sitting at my computer on this Sunday evening. Another week has come to an end and another one is begining. Today was a lazy day. Took a nice walk to church, came home and had lunch with Concha and Rodrigo, then skyped with my mom, grandparents, and Anna. Anna was drinking a Dunkin Donuts coffee and it made me a little jealous. Now I'm just relaxing. School tomorrow, the normal routine. Been here for 2 months, 60 something days and it starts to feel like real life, like life in NJ seems foreign. I haven't posted in over a week, so I'll just share some significant things that have happened.

Halloween was celebrated on here on Friday the 29th. I went with my friends to the nightclub in our town. It was a lot of fun, everyone dances...no exceptions! The party goes on until 6 in the morning, but I had to leave around 4 to get a ride home with someone. Not many people dressed up and the people that did weren't dressed up slutty like in the states.

After Halloween I went away with my host family for the weekend. We stayed in Fernando's family house in a small town outside of Leon. It was a very old, creepy house and we all joked around how it was the perfect place to spend Halloween. Patricia, Rodrigo and I all slept in the same room cause we were scared to sleep in the other rooms all alone. Above is a picture of me and my host siblings is the courtyard of the house. Sunday we visited Olviedo, which is a beautiful city in Austurias, Spain. It rained the whole day, which made it hard to do much but it was beautiful. Monday we visited Leon, which is another great city. The weather was good that day so we had a good time walking around and seeing the city. Below is a picture of a church in Oviedo.

Some other news. I am now not the only exchange student in my town. There is a girl here from Australia. She came this week but is only here for 3 months. Luckily she is super nice. We went out Saturday night and ran into people from our school so we hung out with them and talked with them in Spanish. My spanish seems to be coming along well. It is definitely easier to understand what people are saying then to speak though.