Brief summary, well, kinda brief

So as many of you have noticed, I've been horribly behind on my blog for about a month and some. But I am doing great, still have had many travels and plenty of adventures, but unfortunately since Spring Break, my classes had all bombarded me with papers, projects and exams. So I haven't had the time to update as to my travels yet, but no worries, I will hopefully catch up before mi familia come to visit in almost a week and a half! But I figured I would at least give ya'll a taste of what all has been going on for me since my last post!

Well, as you know, I was going to Rome....it was amazing. I saw everything, all on foot (go figure, since it's a big city) which was wonderful and tiring. I learned more about myself and because of changing in plans I had to stay in a hotel room by myself (I later stayed with Grandpa Ron’s friends in their home in Rome). Which before this moment, would have been hard and depressing for me. But I had never felt so at home with myself. I felt that Rome made me into a new, vibrant version of myself and I've never felt so free in my own skin up to that point. I toured with other friends that I knew were going there and although we went into it (Amanda and I) not knowing much about each other, we became the greatest of friends. While in Rome we went on a hiking tour with friends of Grandpa Ron through Etruscan ruins (the people inhabiting the area where the Romans lived before there were Romans). We saw sulfur waterfalls and cool sulfur springs and hiked up to an old Roman village that Napoleon himself came through and conquered during his reign.

Needless to say, Roma had treated us extremely well and then we were off to the beaches in the southern part of Spain for the rest of Spring Break to meet up with some friends. The beaches were great! A little chillier than I’ve experienced but for good reason…these beaches happen to be right next to the mountains, so the cooler current in the mountains would be pulled toward the sea in the afternoons. I’ve never seen mountains and beach at the exact same time, and I have to say it was gorgeous. In the states we think it’s great if we are within an hour to the beach or the mountains but we never have both! Weird to think that here they can have both at the exact same time! While there I became friends with one of the bartenders who happened to be a soccer player on Alicante’s futbol team in Spain. And that upcoming weekend they were to play Barcelona! In all my excitement of hearing this, I mistook a translation of a verb that sounded like the same meaning in English when asking if he was excited about the game. Well me asking in what I thought was the correct form was really asking him if he was ‘excited’ about the game. Another blunder in learning a new language and assimilating to the culture I guess! Back at school I met one of my neighbors on the bus who really applauded my coming here to learn Spanish and said that my pronunciation and speaking was great!

That weekend we went to Paris, my second venture to the city of lights! We had a great time, my friends and I, and this time I actually got to see more of the city of foot than I did when I first went 5 years ago. It was funny going back to the city that inspired me to study abroad in the first place. I remember going to Paris my first time and knowing I would be returning to see it again in the same light. It took 5 years, but I actually did it. All this work to come back and see this city that gave me so much the first time around and see it again as a completely different person! Obviously, I had a great time.

Then that following weekend, my friends and I went to Amsterdam. That city isn’t called Disneyland for college students for no reason. We had a great time there and got to see the biggest surprise of all in the city…Amsterdam is actually one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen and so eco-friendly that I was saddened to come back to Spain where pollution and smog is all over the main cities. And in case you are wondering, yes I did get to see the Red Light District. What an eye-opener that this is people’s daily lives! And short of the few people that wanted to speak Dutch to me, everyone spoke English which was a nice change! I even got wooden shoes!

I had a couple of days at school before my next excursion that I was looking forward to my entire trip. My friend Jessica and I were spending 5 days in beautiful, party-happy Ibiza. Ibiza is one of three islands in Spain in the Mediterranean Sea and has gorgeous beaches with clear blue water. Jessica and I were much like Amanda and I in Rome where we started out knowing each other pretty well and by the end of the trip, becoming the closest of friends. Just relaxing, letting time pass, being bold and becoming even more comfortable in my own skin. I should explain being bold. The beaches in Spain are common to nudity and while I didn’t go sans bathing suit I did go sans top. Fortunately there weren’t any men where we were on the beach unless you count little boys in elementary school with their moms. Probably the strangest and most liberating feeling I’ve ever had. I only did it once with Jessica before we started to become paranoid that guys our age would come around. But we still applauded ourselves for our temporary boldness. We had the most amazing time and I’ve never been so happy to be here in the moment without planning or future thinking…I know, big deal!

Then I returned back to school to then venture on my last trip. This one worried my parents, family and friends more than I’ll probably ever know…and to be honest I was stunned a little by me going and by my boldness in being there. But I went to Morocco for the weekend…yes, I ventured to Africa! And I know it sounds silly, but it really was a completely different world! The people, the culture, the customs, and I loved it. I played with monkeys, got a henna, was startled by snake charmers who wanted to teach me, learned to haggle and explored the culture for 3 days there and it was awesome. We stayed in Casablanca (yes, like the movie) and one day traveled to Marrakesh. Unfortunately, I got a nasty stomach virus just before I left for Africa and instead of it passing like I thought, it became worse as the trip went on. I did manage to still explore and have a good time up until my body protested, and by then it was time to venture back to Spain.

At this moment, I’m getting better since I’ve returned to Spain (after an interesting visit to the doctor) and am now taking the rest of my finals here. All my friends here leave on this coming Tuesday and so until then, I’m saying goodbyes and remembering good times. I hope to be able to at least catch up after they leave since I will be in Alcala for a week before my family comes to visit me!

I haven’t had much time to really hang out with my host family since Spring Break and feel somewhat rude, so I’ve decided instead of traveling crazy fast like I have been, to slow down and hang out before I return home. Then my family comes to visit for a week where we tour through the major part of Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) and I can’t wait. It’ll be a great week of fun and much needed time of seeing my family. Then as they fly off to the states, I return to Alcala to pack my things and then I’m immediately off to return home!

And I can’t wait! I can’t wait to see all my family, be in my culture and to really see how I’ve changed when I’m back in my own environment. Looking at it now I can’t believe that all these adventures and experiences I’ve condensed down to four months and now I can count down the days I have left. A little over two weeks here is what I have left, and I wish I could give something back to Spain since it has given so much to me. While in Ibiza, Jessica and I had a conversation that I’ll never forget and it was a reoccurring one. I couldn’t believe how much I’ve opened myself to everything, everyone and more importantly to myself. I feel more like myself than I have in my whole life and more sure of myself as well. I truly feel like I’ve found who I am, and I didn’t even know I was looking for who I was. Not only has my experience here guided this process but it was accompanied by a book that I happened to come across by pure chance but now I feel it was perfect timing for me to have. My friend Shannon needed a book to read since she had read all of hers and in offering one to her, she gave one to me. I never stated that I needed one, but maybe something told her I needed it. Eat, Pray, Love was the book bestowed to me and it really is the quintessential book to have if you are at a juncture in your life where you are in a foreign land looking for yourself. I couldn’t have picked a more perfect book to have guided me through this experience and not only have I grown as a person inside but as a person wholly. It really helped to broaden my mind and perspective toward everything in my life, and I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

When I first came here, everyone would say that when I returned that I would emerge as this whole new person. Which I didn’t understand and didn’t want to happen. I didn’t want it to happen because I’ve always liked myself and I thought it meant that I would change in a way where I wouldn’t be friends with the same people, wouldn’t want the same things, and I would return this totally strange person with crazy stories. But being here, I realize what everyone really meant. Not that you would come back as, for example, I’m Addy and I come back as Janice, someone no one knows and who I don’t even know. But that I would return as a better version of myself. Which would mean a whole different person…an emergence of a vitalized and vibrant me. Possibly the best me I can be? Who knows…only time will tell. But I am most definitely happy with myself and the fact that deep down I felt the need to do this for myself. I never knew I could grow and emerge so much in only 4 months! But I’m so excited to see where my life will take me from here on out and what I make of myself in the future. I’m so happy and thankful also for the fact that I have such a wealth of family and friends who are so supportive of my experience and me. Coming here I’ve realized that many aren’t blessed to have the love and support that I have while I’m here which makes my return home that much greater and more exciting as it approaches. Can’t wait to update in detail on my travels and love and miss you all!

It's been awhile

I know she's meaning to post soon, but between finishing her semester and being sick again, it's been difficult to get everything written. In the mean time, here are a couple of photos to whet our appetite for her adventures.

She hasn't forgotten us

Addy has had five papers to write in the last couple of weeks and figured school was more important. She should have some new posts on Wednesday the 9th. She knows there are a bunch of us anxiously waiting to get the latest installments.

Until then, here's a current picture from when we were talking this morning on Skype.

Mar 13th – Day of Missing the Plane

So today I am so stoked to be going to Rome with my friend Amanda who is from Auburn and in my arte class. She’s really cool and the two of us together work really well. So I’m happy to be traveling with her and am excited for a great spring break. I can barely concentrate in my classes and before I knew it, they were over. I booked it to my host home, where Ana made me a sandwich to go and wished me a good trip as I ran down the street to catch the bus with my suitcase. I met up with Amanda at the bus station and told her we can take the buses there since I took them when I went to Prague with Rachel and it was easy and fast. We got to the area where we connect for our bus to take us to the airport but it took 20 to 30 mins to get there. Then we were going to the airport and thought it was going to take us straight to terminal one, but it only goes up to terminal two and then you have to trek it to one. We didn’t know this until the bus went back on the highway toward where we waited for the bus!! Oh no, we asked if there was a bus that went to that terminal and the driver said yes, the one across the street. I ran as fast as I could with my suitcase and told Amanda to catch the bus. Good thing she did, because it would’ve left. The bus driver was threatening to leave but Amanda straddled the door and the street as I ran up. We finally got to the airport and the Ryanair check in was miles long and they only had one open booth to check in all of their flights everywhere!! It was 15 mins until our flight and then they close the flight if you aren’t there by that time. We missed our flight…I was crushed, and I felt horribly guilty because I suggested that we take the bus. How stupid of me! I apologized profusely to Amanda and we went outside where I called Dad sobbing on the phone because I didn’t know what to do and I felt so bad. He told me it was okay and it happens. Not to worry, we can look for another flight and he would check online right now to see when the next flight out leaves. After Amanda pretty much did the same with her dad on the phone, she told me it was okay. She wasn’t mad at me, and it was just as much her fault as it was mine. I didn’t know they would be late and much of the time in Spain things work out by chance. She knew of another way, and should have said something so not to feel bad because she knew of another way just as much as I did, or thought I did. She was being so nice which helped make me feel better but I still felt guilty. Dad found a good flight leaving first thing the next morning and booked both our flights. Amanda called her host mom who had a friend that drives cabs to pick us up tomorrow morning and he may give a discount. Not to worry, we were still going and had only missed being there the first night. We would make up for it. We took the train back to Alcala, I took my bus to my host home and told Ana what happened. She said she was sorry but heard on the news there was a short clip about how today all the buses are being called in during certain times for training sessions. They are spread out throughout the day and the buses in Madrid would be running late during the exact times we needed them. Figures. I guess it is as Amanda said, Spain is sometimes run by chance. Maybe this wasn’t ours but tomorrow was going to be. I crawled into bed and went to sleep.

Mar 12th – Day of Sushi

So Olivia has decided that I am her go to person for shopping and wants my help with getting new close and wanted to go to the mall today. Of course I’d never say no to shopping, even if it wasn’t me getting anything. Plus I needed to get some shampoo so sure, I’ll come! Olivia, according to her, has lost a lot of weight before she came here and wants to keep it off because she really likes her size now (which she does look really healthy now) but now a lot of her clothes don’t fit. Plus, she doesn’t know what to look for that will look good on her now that she’s in her new body type. So, turning into a mini-mom, I pull clothes left and right for her to try on, give my opinion and help her decide what to get. She’s pretty happy with what all she’s gotten and thanked me for coming. No problem. After I grabbed my shampoo, we took the bus back and I went to my host home. When I walked in I had thought I was late for dinner and came in the kitchen about to apologize when I found my host family waiting for me. My place at the table was set up and I saw a bamboo mat for forming sushi on the counter and a huge plate of sushi rolls in the center of the table!! Oh yea!! They were huge and they were your standard salmon, rice and seaweed rolls. I started to drool until she then put my own plate in front of me with 8 or 10 pieces on the plate. I thought I might hypervenalate. Oh my gosh, this was awesome and I pretty much inhaled them! Pepe asked if I was hungry which I said yes and he laughed saying I must have been really, really hungry. To which I replied, after eating another roll, that sushi is my favorite food above everything. Ana chimed in, “more than pasta?!” and I said yes. Their shocked faces were hilarious I think because they couldn’t believe I loved a food group more than pasta and also because if I eat the massive amount of pasta that I do, how much sushi do it eat!! Which the answer to that question, if you are anyone who has taken me to eat sushi you know this fact that, I have an unlimited capacity for sushi. I don’t ever get full, maybe for the temporary 30 minutes and then I can keep eating more and more. Yes, I know, I’m an expensive sushi date and it doesn’t help that I eat them like candy. But they are so good!! I can’t help it. After I finished my plate, Pepe said that he was full and I could eat the rest, which there were 8 more rolls left!! Oh yea! As I stuffed my mouth with more sushi, Pepe told me that Ana made the sushi. Which I looked at her and she said yes, as if she just woke up today and decided to make sushi, just like that. I swear she pulls magic tricks from a hat, I never know what all she has tried of knows. But she did laugh at me because it took so long for me to be convinced that she made it.

Mar 11th – Day of Book Swapping

Today in my classes not much happened except for I met up with my friend Shannon from Arizona to make a book swap. She was saying the other week, how she has read all of her books that she brought and asked if I had any. I told her I had a great one she should read called Marley and Me, which when my friends overheard, they chimed in saying it was so great. So then she would bring a good book for me to read. The book that she brought is called Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and is about a woman who has been through a terribly painful and horrific divorce followed by an immediate heartbreak with a new love. She decides that the only way to try to piece back together her already broken soul and find herself again is to travel for four months each in three countries; Italy, India and Indonesia. When my friends heard that she brought it for me chimed in again saying it was awesome. Funny. I was eager to read it and thought it would probably be good to bring to Rome this weekend. Later in my spring break, side note, mom told me that it was supposed to be a great book that has gotten a lot of street credit. Obviously she didn’t say it like that, but that’s how I would say it. J

Mar 10th – Day of the Strange Movie

Still on a high from the great weekend and anticipation of my fantastic Spring Break coming, concentrating in class was difficult until…we finally got our midterms back in civ. I was most nervous about this one since it was the hardest and I felt like I guessed on the majority of it. Olvido started talking about how we overall did pretty good, but not great. And I asked “Is it bad?” and she stopped, turned to me and said “actually, you did perfect”…what?! I don’t understand. She said, no there were only two people in between her class and Carlos’ class for this class that did perfect and I was the one in her class. I looked at her dumbfounded and said “Are you serious? Is this a joke?” and she said “No!” my friends laughed at me because I still didn’t believe her. And she said that she was serious and she was surprised too because I’m always joking in class and have my laptop but I must have studied hard because she thought I would do well but not perfect. Kary, Olivia and Elise turned around and gave me the I hate you look. Geez, I’m still stunned…I even look through my exam for notes or anything. Not one, all complete marks with a 100 and a smiley face at the end. Awesome! Then in my film class we watched a movie called the Bad Education; which is a movie by the same director that did Volver. It has to be one of the darkest movies other than Miracle Alley (which btw there was no miracle to be found in that movie at all) and I’ve seen quite a random assortment of foreign films from several countries. It was about a homosexual man who owns a film company and the man that was his first love comes in with a script about his life (the man, not the company owner). The man he is in love with has had a very dark life where as a boy he was an altar boy and the priest would molest him and make him have sex. I also think he was castrated because he was the highest soprano in the choir…the translation was a little strange. And in boarding school is where he met the film company owner. They were each other’s first love until the priest caught them in the bathroom together. The boy was kicked out of the school and not castrated if he promised to the priest that nothing happened and he was still faithful to him. Then it fast forwards to when he is working as a burlesque drag queen and uses all his money for coke. That’s where he, without knowing until later, meets his school love again and gets him drunk until he passes out and rapes him. Then finding out it was his school love, the film company owner, leaves love letters. The company owner decides to do the film and wants to rekindle with his old love but he has no interest, he just wants to make money for drugs. Well then it turns out that it’s the twin brother that gave the script of his twin’s life and led the company owner on. The money was to get away and to make it big in films and not for drugs for his brother. He killed his brother by giving him an overdose of heroine and tried to cover it up until the owner found out. The priest from their childhood came to the company owner and told him what happened and how they killed his love because they were getting tired of him and were falling in love. So the owner threw the brother out and that’s pretty much the synopsis of the movie. At the end of it, the entire class was just flabbergasted…not because of issues with homosexuality (thank goodness because I was worried about my friends being more conservative than they realized) but because the movie was just so out there and dark. That’s when Grant said “man, I feel great about life after the mood that movie put me in!” which made the class burst into laughter. Good thing. After class, I went back to my host home, ate dinner, and worked on figuring out what to pack for Rome this weekend.