Sup, Spain?

I’m sorry, tumblr, but you’ve been nothing but a nuisance ever since our relationship began. Not only could I not find a suitable theme, you were a dick about html cuts, comments and just general composition.

We’re through.

I’ve left you for mynameisalyssa.wordpress.com

Hasta la vista…

baby

Rather, they have begun! This seriously has been the first chunk of time that I’ve had to myself (to update), so apologies for the delay. First and foremost, I just want to mention you can leave me a comment now! Simply click on the link in the upper-left hand corner of each post that says “text post” and scroll to the bottom to where it says “Type your comment here.” Easy cheesy :)

So the big news is I’VE MOVED!!! It was hard to tell my former “family” because they were great, but at the end of the day, I had to stop being so god damn empathetic. And seriously, the mother was like “Were I in your shoes, I would have done the same thing,” and then we spent an hour around the table in the kitchen, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes and just talking. It was great, and I had only lived with her for a week. Crazy cool.

In retrospect, though, moving made me realize that my old “family” was very bougie! They were very proper and clean (immaculate!) and ate well and la di da da, but this new family is much more…low-maintenance. Granted, they’re still clean and proper, but the mother is a kindergarten teacher, the father is an electrician, and there’s a dog!!! Her name is Nana and she’s more of a lady than I am!!! I’ll definitely post pictures of my new home and family soon, but I wanted to dedicate this post to Sevilla because my former family took us there for the weekend.

And, let me tell you, it was BEAUTIFUL! We were only there for the weekend because they have a house near there and the grandma lives there, but my program is taking us to Sevilla for a whole weekend, so I’m chillin.  :D

Grandma’s view:

In the distance you can see the Seville Cathedral. Photos never do great views justice.

Random kid:

Kid was mad chillin in the middle of the sidewalk. He was seriously doing his own thing, playing make-believe or something. :)

The menu:

Classy.

Former seester and grama:

The grandma’s a G! She kept insisting we pull over for a drink on the drive over.

Downtown (?):

I’m very very very fond of this…how could you not be.

Puente de Triana

Trying to give you a 180 degree view. This is an amazing area!

My girl! :

They even love her over here! [Special shout out to my seester Q]

Catedral de Santa María de la Sede

The only  picture of this beautiful thing that came out…doesn’t do it justice.

My new friend:

I forgot her name…but she totally came up to me and started chatting. Little kids speaking Spanish still fascinates me.

Guapo:

Some old man who helped us out when we got lost… ;)

The benefits of getting lost:

I don’t know what this is called…but I like it

Alright, I’m exhausted, and this post took me ALL DAY to finish (because I kept being interrupted, ran errands, etc.).

Say whattup, yo!

I forget how long I’ve been here. Has it been a week? Five days? I guess I’ll compromise and say it’s been 6 days since I’ve been in Spain (I think that might even be right…)

I’ve decided to make this a post of my first experiences here in Spain :) Well, since the first photo was taken in London, I guess this is a post of experiences here in Europe. (I’m still in awe at the fact that I can say that; I’m in fuckin Europe! Wow…)

First photo:

I don’t know why this was my first photo. It was in the London, Heathrow airport and I think I was just surprised by how thin the bathroom seat was. My first culture shock, I suppose.

First architecture admiration:

This is where you go to pick up baggage in Madrid. Why can’t LAX be this compelling?

First purchase:

The metro station in Madrid is AMAZING! It’s more efficient than the Bart system and only costs 1 Euro to go anywhere you want. (Out of the airport, it’s 2, but everything in airports costs more than it should)

First foreign looking encounter:

This is the tunnel that the metro goes through. I love it!

First view of Spain:

Exiting the metro in Madrid. First time breathing Spanish air since the metro is directly accessible from the airport.

First night shot:

The street outside my hostel.

First casualty:

They really don’t understand vegetarianism over here, so this came with my paella. R.I.P. camaronito (It’s fuckin’ huge!!!!)

First Spanish beer:

Only cost me 1 euro, and the water isn’t free :/

First EAP comrades:

Meet Rachel and Daniel. They’re also from Berkeley (7 out of the 66 UC students here are from Berkeley). I think they speak my language :). I didn’t know them really well prior to this trip, but already, we get along.

First residence (I’ll explain why it’ll be the first later):

This is the entry way; that rug is fake (or at least I keep telling myself that so that I can sleep at night).

First view of the living room:

It’s gorgeous! The artwork on the wall was done by my “señora,” the owner of the house. There’s a balcony on the left. That’s not even the best part though.

First room:

This is how it looked once it was ready (I’ll explain why later). Another shot:

View from my window of the pool:

First closet:

Color coordinated and full! I got very little closet space (And yes, I did bring 13 pairs of shoes…I thought that was normal…)

First “it” spot:

This is the upper part of the house. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and it’s where I’m updating from! The rest of it:

First view from the top:

This is the view from my “family’s” upstairs patio. This avenue is called “Arroyo del Moro” and it takes me all the way to school.

My “family”:

Meet Paula (pronounced Paola), the most mature 19 year-old I’ve ever met (seriously! And she has a 28 year-old boyfriend!):

and Marie Carmen (the spunkiest 51 year-old ever! OMG she’s crazy, and I love it! She cooks well, but she does not understand my vegetarianism for the life of her! I’ll miss her…)

First serene shot:

This is what I pass everyday on the way to school. :)

Things have been great, there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately, there are a few complications, and the frustration of them has been enough to send me up the wall. Basically, I was partnered to live with this other UC girl, and the original lady we were supposed to live with backed out the day—the hour—that she was supposed to pick us up. The lady in charge of the program immediately found someone else to take us in, so we were “set.” Unfortunately, the reason this family didn’t get students in the first place was because they live very far from the University. And aint that the truth: it takes 40 minutes to walk to school! EACH WAY! Okay, I’d be able to deal with that, but one of the reasons I came to Spain was for the night life, and there’s no way I’d be able to go out with friends and then walk home alone at the wee hours of the morning. Most of the students live between my place and the university, which is 25 minutes from my place. Obviously, it is not safe to walk alone at night for 25 minutes!
On top of that, my “roommate” is the most annoying, clingy socially inept person in the program! She’s only 18 and acts so awkwardly that she hardly has any friends yet here (her words not mine). Since we live so far away, we spend a lot of time together and I feel like I’m responsible for her! The first day I walked home from school alone (I had waited for her…ugh…I knew leaving her would be problematic) the family was like “Where is she?!?” I mentioned that I had waited and then left cause I had errands to run, but that our place was SUPER EASY TO FIND so she probably would be alright. After an hour, she hadn’t shown up so we were getting ready to drive around to find her. As soon as we grab our purses, she shows up, mentions she got lost (walked too far). Of course, it was implied that I should have waited (wtf!!) and when I mention that I was going to meet up with girls to buy a phone later, they insisted that I take her! :/

This, my dear dear friends, is why I’m moving.

Aside from that, I’m super super excited about my classes, I’ve met great people and I can’t believe I have more than 3 months left here!

Here’s to making the most of it!

[And I’m so sorry for ranting and complaining so much.]

<3

So I gave in and made myself a tumblr, something I never thought I’d do (LiveJournal OG, whattup!).

Since I couldn’t possibly update everybody individually, I want to make this my official way of keeping you informed and in touch about my experiences here in Spain. Granted, I won’t overwhelm this journal with a post every single fucking day, but I’ll try to keep it interesting.

**Please excuse my horrible grammar and awkward sentences; not only am I possibly jet-lagged (can’t really tell), I’m basically thinking in Spanish…eep!

But yes, this is my second day in Córdoba after having spent a night in Madrid. So far, I can say that Europe, from what I can tell, is HELLA chill, HELLA awesome and HELLA everything I wanted to be…and yes, I just overused HELLA….my bad…

More updates later…it’s about 10:39 am in California and 7:39 pm here! I’m not jet-lagged, just dazed…

Pictures and more shit soon <3 
Miss you all!