fotos!!!

mis amores, he cargado nuevas fotos...
porfa, haz clic aqui
besitossssssssss!!
yessi

pooping logs, prince harry, etc etc

well hello!!!!

my lovely family and friends, i know what you’re thinking...i’m the worst “blogger” ever!! I have two (in my opinion) very good reasons for being so...1) i have been extremely busy and 2) i don’t have internet in my NEW apartment!

yes, that’s my number one update: i moved!! I really liked the people I was living with before but they were a little older and our lifestyles kind of clashed. You can ask me for details later on...but I decided to just move because it would have been a long year living there.

So far, so good! I really enjoy the people I live with although I haven’t seen much of them (we all have opposite schedules). They are cousins, a guy (28—Fernando) and a girl (26—Silvana) from Argentina. They’re accents are really different from anything I’ve ever heard but I’m catching on little by little. Silvana is dating a guy, Juan, who is super funny and awesome to be around. Other frequent visitors are Claudio, Fernando’s brother, and Gabriel, Silvana’s brother. Gabriel is super cute but I think he might have a girlfriend. (lame) Claudio and Gabriel, sadly, are moving back to Argentina because they truly can not find work here. The unemployment rate is going up and up and up and it’s constantly harder to find work. It’s really scary. Fernando is also unemployed but he’s not giving up quite yet.

So I love the people I live with, but I feel like I’m living in an ice-box. I am, at all times, wearing the following at home: thick sweatpants, a hoodie (with the hood on), at least one pair of socks, and slippers. I just bought new sweatpants actually and I love them!!!

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before I was in London and I got to stay with Lindy!! She came to Barcelona a few weeks before so it was so great to see her again. Plus, she let me stay with her!! Her and her friends took me out and about in London and I really had a great time. It was fun to be in a foreign country that spoke the same language because it was fun to understand everyone perfectly. Their accents are so cute/funny. I had a little mishap when I got to London. For some reason I forgot the pin number to my phone and I couldn’t get it to unlock. In other words, I had no way of contacting Lindy when I got into London!!! Thankfully, she had given me her address and I found the building okay. She lives in a dorm-like building so anyone can walk in but you have to go through locked gates and stuff. Well I had no way of getting a hold of her and the SUPER MEAN SECURITY guy wouldn’t call her for me!!! It was “too late” even though I had told him 1,000,000,000 times (not an exaggeration) that Lindy was expecting me and stuff. So I lost the first battle but then I turned on the “desperate-sad-exhausted (the 3^rd part was true) face until the other security guard went up to her room and asked her if she was “expecting a visitor” which of course she WAS. ugh! but the moral of the story is that my desperate-sad-exhausted face always works!

It’s so funny how dependent we are on phones. It was a huge bummer not having a phone in London because I met Prince Harry! He told me I was the most gorgeous girl he’s ever laid his eyes on and that I desperately needed to give him my number. WELL I don’t know my number and it’s in the phone’s memory (true story) so I wasn’t able to give it to P.H. I really would have made a great princess.

Anywho, my favorite parts of London were Big Ben, the sauce at this one place we ate at called “the rocket”, and the museums (which were free)!!! We went to the British museum and the Tate Modern museum (it's an art museum). I loved Camden market, which Lindy took me to on Saturday. It’s the biggest market I’ve ever seen with all kinds of fun things to buy...!!! Also, ladies, guys in London are gorgeous.

Here's me in front of Big Ben:

Here's me and Lindy at the Camden market:

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving (duh) and I really didn’t miss any of you at all. HA just kidding, I did. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be because my program made us a great big thanksgiving dinner. We had to carve our own turkeys!!! There was one turkey per 6 people and they were delectable (cool word). Also, my mom and sister made me a great big batch of choc-chip cookies and molasses cookies!!!! It was just like t-giving at home!! I brought them to share (not my idea) but I’m glad I did because my friends and professors LOVED them. Two huge platters were gone before dinner even started...just like at home! I personally hate the rule “dessert after dinner”. I love having dessert before, during, and after!!!! my own little tradition continued....! One of my friends was so happy I brought the cookies, the very first thing she said to me (with a cookie still in her mouth BTW) was “you just made my f***ing day! oh and happy thanksgiving!!” it was so funny. home made anything makes everyone happy...

Then last friday I had people over (which was something I wasn’t allowed to do in my last apartment) for fajitas!! I cooked fajitas for 10 people!! It was so fun. We even had coronas to go with the mexican theme....everyone said the fajitas were good too!! I’m becoming quite the little cook...

Since living in this new apartment I’m also kind of a clean-freak. I dust and mop at least once a day!! And my room is organized!!! I know none of you who have ever seen my previous rooms believe that...but I swear!!! stop rolling your eyes

Barcelona never fails to intrigue me...I recently learned about "caga tió" which is a cataluna tradition. It looks like this:

I think tió is "trunk" in catalan. caga is poop. Starting this upcoming Monday, December 8 (feast of the immaculate conception), each family is supposed to give caga tio a little bit of food every night. Come christmas eve or christmas morning, caga tio "poops" out small gifts like candy or something. isn't that the weirdest thing ever??? I feel like Tim would have fit in well with Cataluna's christmas traditions...

School is fine...I got one of my midterms back and I got an A+! woooooo! haha, i hope it will be the same for the other two...duh duh duhhhhh. working at Raval is still so much fun, I hope my schedule will allow me to work there more days a week next semester.

well...that’s what’s new with me! I’m happy in Barcelona. It’s still really hard to be away from everyone but I’m changing (in a good way...i think) and becoming way more independent. It’s a great feeling :)

xoxo-jess

CoOoOoOoOLD weather!!!

My mom and my friend Elle told me that the weather has severely changed back home....I can relate!!! The high tomorrow is 16 degrees :( ....oh wait...that's celsius...haaaaahahhaaha that equals approximately 60 degrees F!!!! Poor babies :(

It was this time last year I really started to get excited to come to ESPANA!!!

I honestly hope everyone stays safe and warm!!!

OH!!! other good news. I've finalized my winter break plans.
Dec 18-24 Skiing in Andora (3.5 hours away) (never been skiing before!)
Dec 24-29 Athens, Greece with Steph!!
Dec 29-Jan 1 Brussels, Belgium
Jan 2 Madrid and I get to see MOM DAD AND AMANDA!!! YESSSS

xo
jess

visitors!!!

I had my first visitors this past weekend!!! Here's me, Lindy, and Pablo Picasso in the background. Last night me, Lindy, and some of her friends went to see the fountain show near plaza espanya. They really liked it because it's a gorgeous view of the city and the show is pretty to watch. Today we went to the Pablo Picasso museum. I LOVE pablo picasso. Plus it was free today! sweet!!! I feel bad for them because it's literally been raining on/off for a week straight so the weather isn't great to sight see.


This past Thursday I got to see Mr. Olson!! For those of you who don't know, he's my friend Maggie's dad, and he's an international pilot. He had a flight to Barcelona on Thursday so we got to hang out!! He took me out and I ate like a QUEEN!! THANKS MR OLSON!!! :)

PS don't you like his hat? We got one free witch's hat for every 3 pints of beer we bought.

oh, but there was drama. We were supposed to meet at 4 right in front of my university. It only takes 10 minutes for me to get there, and I had left at 3:40, PLENTY of time. GUESS whatttt!! the metro STOPPED working (randomly). So I was running around looking for another way to get there. I ended up taking the bus, which took forever. I was 15 minutes late and I was soooooooo scared he was going to leave, but he didn't! and i'm glad, because we had so much fun!!

At this Irish bar, we met a guy named Hans. He was from Holland. At first I didn't understand him and I couldn't tell if he was saying "Ireland" or "Holland". He told us he was going to school for "art" and for "painting", but we figured out he only paints walls...not pictures or portraits or anything. I didn't know you had to go to school for that?? Even though I could barely understand him, he was chatt and pretty entertaining.

Good news: Mari (one of the people I live with) knows how to cut hair!! She gave me a little haircut on friday night and it looks awesome!! I'm trying to grow my hair out but my ends needed some taking-care-of, and she did a great job! yesss

Hope everyone had a great halloween!!!
xo
jess

Excursion, part 2...read the lower post first please!!!

Sorry I had to break this into two parts. Here's me in front of the ruins (Belchite, Spain) I mentioned below.
Me and Sam---throwin up the peace signs!!! (not only because we're cool...but because we were in the middle of a war zone)
This is inside Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza. Pilar is the patron saint of Aragon (or maybe just Zaragoza...but i can't remember). During the Spanish Civil war (1936-39), three bombs were dropped in Zaragoza but only one went off and it is said that Pilar was watching over the city to keep its citizens safe. Zaragoza is a highly catholic city and Franco was a devout catholic, so that's why it was considered a "miracle". Professor Cardona told me otherwise---they were just old/bad bombs. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, but Professor Cardona gave us special permission and he told us to just play dumb and say sorry a lot if we got yelled at...which we did :) He also got yelled at (for talking to loud) inside this cathedral by a priest who was praying...it was SO funny!!!

Now that I think about it the pictures were all over the place in these posts...but blogspot wasn't letting me upload the pictures how i wanted. You can see more pics of my trip HERE. I had so much fun...There is so much interesting history in Spain. It's overwhelming because there's so much information but it's fun nonetheless!!!

Excursion-Zaragoza, Fuendetodos, and Belchite (part 1)

Hey Everyone!!
Sorry it's been a while since I updated. I really hope you were able to sleep at night, even though there was nothing to read in my blog :( (ha-ha)

It was a normal week for me but this weekend I went on an excursion to Zaragoza, Fuendetodos, and Belchite, Spain. All three locations had something awesome to offer. Here's a picture of some of the directors and my professor (in the back). They are all truly great people. The woman in the middle is Pilar, the director of the program I'm in. The guy on the very left is her husband, the guy on the very right is Jordi (another director) and the older guy in the back is Professor Gabriel Cardona. I love them all!!!! The directors are so helpful and my professor is AMAZING!!! I was talking to them a lot, it's not because I'm a brown nose, it's because they are SUPER cool!!! (although I am a brown nose, as well). Professor Cardona is really funny, and he's also famous!!! He has a wikipedia page. That entry says he was part of the civil war (against Franco) and he's written more than 50 books!! He teaches History and makes it really fun to learn. (I love having professors like that...they always inspire me to teach and ALWAYS stick out in my mind).

This picture of them is in Belchite, Spain, where a Franquista town was bombed by the republic during the Civil war. The ruins still stand as a reminder of how destructive the Spanish Civil War (as well as all wars) is/are. It was really moving. There are more pictures HERE. NOTHING was left after the bombings. Houses, churches, etc. One website said 6,000 died in that particular town (but I'm not sure about that). It all happened about 70 years ago.
me in front of another "building"
We stayed Friday night in to Saturday morning. We stayed in this town: Fuendetodos. Population ~100 during the winter and ~200 in the summer. (that's what our tour guide said...and she lives there!!) There was ONE restaurant in the town...which we ate at for dinner (fri) and breakfast/lunch (saturday). It was so cute!! It is also the town where Francisco Goya was born. The link on his name is a link to some of his works. He was crazy!!! Besides his paintings, he's famous for "caprichos" which are stamped works of art. He carved drawings into heated copper (i think) then put ink on it and stamped them. We saw some of the original works and they were SO detailed!! Some of his works were really disturbing (aka Saturn eating his son) but others are very beautiful.
This is called La Aljaferia. Inside there is the Aljaferia palace, the Islamic palace, the Christian Medieval palace, the Palace of the Catholic Kings, and a new part where the Aragon Parliament meets. It was so gorgeous but each part was built in a different era. Christopher Columbus was inside the Palace of the Catholic Kings when he met with Isabel and Ferdinand to see about funding a trip to america!!! (I stood in the very same room as him!) I don't really like Christopher Columbus, but I thought that was cool.

Lunch on Friday: Paella and wine!!! YUMMYYYYY
Can't see it...but this was so funny. There were like 3 weddings that I saw on Friday afternoon. I saw this couple (on the left) talking to each other and smoking a cigarette all by themselves right outside of the church. I also saw waht seemed to be their family and friends talking/socializing. I just thought it was funny they needed a cig IMMEDIATELY after the ceremony.
Here's Mo, Me, Janeth, Sam, Stephanie, and Derek in front of a pretty fountain. Derek is our main guy friend, but this past weekend he decided to hang out with other guys instead of us girls so we're kind of mad at him. just kidding derek :)
One of the cathedrals we saw in Zaragoza. It's called La Seo. This type of ceiling is characteristic of the Counter Reformation in the 16th century. The counter reformation was the church's fight against Protestantism. The protestants believed in the INDIVIDUAL and the relationship between God and the individual. The Catholic church was powerful (but threatened by the rise of protestantism) and wanted people to believe they needed a powerful, catholic church to feel closer to God. The high ceilings are supposed to make an individual feel small yet part of a powerful group while they were in church.

Me in front of Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza.


OK, now read the post above!!!

San Sebastián-Donostia

This past weekend I made my way up to the Basque country to visit a town called San Sebastián. SS is home to one of the most famous film festivals in Europe!! I think it takes place in September...so there weren't any famous people.

Anywho, I went with 7 of my friends (most of them with whom I went to Valencia). San Sebastián is beautiful!!! I took lots of pretty pics. We took the bus there...it was an 8 hour ride but we took it Thursday night...slept through the ride so we would be ready to go Friday morning. We got to our hostel on Friday morning and rang the doorbell but no one was answering!!! so we just kept ringing it until finally we got in (about 15 minutes later) haha. Here's where San Sebastián is in comparison to Barcelona: (SS is right on the border of France and Spain...Barcelona is SE of it on the med. coast)


So once we got settled into our hostel friday, we took a nap and then ventured out. We sort of hiked/walked up a LOT of stairs to this mountain where we saw an amazing view of the beach and the city:


as well as an enormous statue of Jesus. The guy who was in charge of our hostel called the mountain the "jesus mountain" but that is NOT the real name of it! You can see pictures of the statue as well as many others here. The name of the album is very cleverly called San Sebastian. On the same mountain there was a FREE museum that had a lot of history of San Sebastian. Nothing TOO interesting. Mostly just wars..same old same old

My friends and I LOOOOOOOOOOve gelato so we got that both days we were there. This was a dog outside our gelato place....hahhaa



We didn't do anything AMAZING or see a lot of important places in SS. Part of it is there's not much to do or see in SS but we probably could have planned a little better. we had fun anyway. My friends are the besssstttt. Here's a picture of all of us in front of the beach the night we went out to eat.

Well I am exhauuuuusted! My classes today were kind of boring but I had the cutest substitute teacher for one of them so it ended on a good note. I was thinking about ditching that class too!!! good thing i didn't

i'm going to take a nap...hopefully i fall asleep. ernesto keeps singing "beautiful girls" which is a song that was popular about 2 years ago...he only knows the words "beautiful girls" and just makes noises for the rest of the words haha. i think it's funny but now that i think of it i do that to songs in spanish...darn it!

if you have time write me an email!
take care...jess