Looking Back....

I was just looking at my ical and thought how funny it was to see the difference between my MCAD and Brighton schedules....
Brighton schedule basically = footie matches
Mcad schedule basically = lack of life due to work

The Rain In Spain...

(this is going to be another long one.... sorry!)

Bright and early (3:30 am) Tuesday morning Alex and I said our sad goodbyes to Mary Ellen and then an hour later also headed off to the train station to get to the airport. Eventually we made it to Barcelona and then to our absolutely wonderful hostel called Mambo Tango. We were warmly welcomed by the owners, Toti and Marina, and shown our beds after meeting a few of the other people staying at the hostel who would all become quick friends in just a few days.

After we unpacked and settled in a little, we were off on a 10 minute walk from our hostel to La Ramblas and the Mercat Boqueria, the famous food market! I was super thrilled to actually get to see the market after hearing so much abuot it and seeing it on tv and stuff, it was so cooooool! I got a delicious strawberry-coconut smoothie thing right away and drank it as we walked around the tons of sellers showing off the fish and skinned lambs heads and fresh fruits and all kinds of crazy foods. After that we walked around the Ramblas in the freezing cold pouring rain which was honestly a little defeating and put a damper on things for a while. But we overcame! We wandered and took in the sights on the unusually empty street before heading back to the hostel to rest a little bit.

Once at the hostel we rested a tiny bit and then headed downstairs into the common room-ish area where we met tons of wonderful people. We also met some girl from Park Ridge and other things that make you realize how weirdly connected things are. Alex and I were talking to one new friend Steve, when we met some other new friends, Maggie and Sarah, also Americans, and Andy from England as well. As the basement got more crowded we met more and more new people, it was great. Steve then suggested we all go out to eat at this place he discovered in his guide book called "Foodball". Haha!! Sounded mildly suspicious to me but who was I to say no, it sounded like a ton of fun! So Me, Alex, Steve, Maggie, Sara, Andy, and other new friend Robin decided to venture back into the pouring rain to find Foodball. After getting to La Ramblas and searcing for a while without luck, we discovered Foodball had been shut down (not enough business...) and so we all headed in to this authentic Catalan place instead. It was a really bizarre and new and fun experience for all of us, I think. All of our food was raw, and it wasn't really what anyone expected but it was pretty good.... Alex literally just got a plate covered in Spanish salami but it was DELICIOUS. After that fun we got some Gelato at some place and went back to the hostel to hang out and watch a movie. Great first night in Barcelona!


Day 2 in Barcelona was also rainy but nice. Alex and I headed over to Parc Guell, the gorgeous nature-y park designed by Gaudi. It was really nice to just wander around it and explore for a few hours. And the sun actually came out at the end! Oh, and there is a kid's elementary school or kindergarten or something literally INSIDE THE PARK! How lucky are they? It was really cute to see the kids playing soccer and having fun in the middle of such an inspiring environment. After the park and getting a very quick lunch, Alex and I took our time and eventually got to the MACBA, the Museum of Contemporary art in Barcelona. Before we got there though we found the world's most amazing bookstore. Well maybe not the world's most amazing but it was really great and we maybe spent something like 2 hours in there haha it was just massive and had an amazing collection of books. Anyway, after that was the museum; the building itself is really impressive and pretty and modern looking, and it's crazy because outside it there is a huge pavement space...courtyard....something, and there are literally about 45 skateboarders there ALL THE TIME! Poor old ladies probably never get to go to the museum becuause they'll probably get run down and killed just trying to get to the door of the place. But heyyy it was cool. The exhbits were nice albeit a little repetitive for my tastes. But it was really cool, Alex and I walked in an installation that you neded to sign a release form to go in because it was a really narrow maze made out of things like wire fences and fish tanks and sheets of clear glass suspended from the ceiling and get this, the floor was made of somethig like 2 tons of crushed broken glass. I was so excited to go in but then once I set foot I was like "oh my goddddd i need to get out of here I'm going to die", soooo I went through that one pretty fast. I think that night was spent watching F.C. Barcelona (whose logo you literally see about 300 times a day in Barcelona, no joke!) and hanging out in the common room meeting more fun people (and fellow Chicagoans!) before calling it a night.

Day 3 was really fun, though still rainy. After breakfast Alex and I joined Maggie and Sarah on a trip to the Barcelona Cathedral which was spectacular! Really ornate inside and filled with gorgeous opulent golden dioramas and altars and stuff. Super cool. Even better was the cloyster outside. It was really lush and green and unexpected. There were white ducks and fish and turtles swimming around, plam trees and orange trees everywhere, old fancy fountains, and more gold leaf and hand painted stuff. When the church closed for siesta the four of us headed right outside to the Gothic marekt filled with tons of antique treasures. I got a pretty little pendant thing for 2 euros and spent way too much time gushing over the old comic books, FC Barca memorabilia, old Spanish crests and pins, and just about everything else you could imagine. After that we headed back to the hostel where we were going to meet two new friends Sean and Jim for lunch, but they were late and didn't show up so me, Alex, Andy, Sarah, and Maggie went out instead and went to a place Sarah saw earlier that had 6 euro paella. DELICIOUS. It was really nice and fun. After that we all walked over to that great big book store and poured over books for a while longer. After that we all walked around more together and then visited El Ingenio, the most wonderul store EVER, filled with circus things and paper mache masks and confetti and just everything that makes you happy. Such a fun place. Then we continued wandering in the rain and walked around Placa Reial and then down La Ramblas to the pier and stuff. Thennn we split and Alex and Sarah and I decided to go stock up on some chocolate and Kinder stuff from the supermarket before heading back to the hostel to meet back up with Maggie and Andy where we spent the rest of the night hanging out and watching Superbad and talking and having a good time before they all continued their journeys and left Barcelona the next morning.


Day 4 WAS SUNNY! Alex and I headed over to the Bullfighting museum bright and early where we admired the super detailed and amazing bullfighting outfit things and looked at the taxidermied earless bull heads on the wall and learned all about the history of Barcelona bullfighting. Fascinating stuff! From there we walked to the Sagrada Familia and of course we stopped in a local bakery on the way and ate some yummy doughnut like thingies. The Sagrada Familia was hugeeeeeee, way bigger than I ever expected, but it was under construction and had about a ten billion hour long line to pay a ton of money to see construction soooo we skipped it and just walked around it from the outside. After that we went back to the Ramblas area and walked down to the pier and walked all along the pier and stuff for a long time. Then we explored a little and found a really nice shopping area and did that for a while before finding el Corte Ingles which had a supermarket inside Filled with those cookies Alex and I are obsessed with with the chocolate and milk and stuff, YUM. After that we headed back to the hostel where we got ready to go on the "nice night walk" that the hostel owner, Toti does for people who want to go on it. The hostel is right by the park Montjuic, a hugeeeee mountain with tons of stuff to do on it. Alex and I along with friends Caroline, Brian, Jim, Tyler, Matt, Anya, and a few other people went to join Toti on the night walk and it was one of the highlights of the trip! We trekked up the mountain guided by Toti who knew the best ways to go and the best sights to see. At one point he told us all to stand side by side in a line, hold hands, walk sideways, and told us that we could only look straight ahead and that if we looked behind us he'd do us in. So we all walked sideways holding hands very confused until he told us all to stop and said "on the count of three, turn around and say "wow!" hahahha. So we all counded to three and did as he said and behind us was just the most incredible and breathtaking view of Barcelona just as the sun was setting! PERFECT. The we kept walking and finding more amazing views and listening to Toti tell us all about Barcelona and answer our questions and he even told us interesting facts like that his grandmother had all her hair cut off because she was heard spaking Catalan on the street. As we climbed further up the mountain we found a cool old castle and all kinds of other fun things. We made it back to the hostel tired and exhausted a few hours later and then Me, Caroline, Matt, Tyler, and Brian went out for the typical 11pm Spanish dinner which was fun!




Day 5 Alex and I went to Passeig de Gracia and Avenue Diagonal to look at all the Gaudi houses and things. We first saw Casa Battlo which was really fantastical and kinda creepy in a cool way. Then we went to Casa Mila/La Pedrera. We got to go in and walk up it and see one of the apartments that was kept as if it was how it would have been back in the early 1900s, which was cool. There was also a mini gaudi museum in it. But the best part was the roof!!!!!! The roof is incredibleeeeeeee!!! We spent way too much time just walking around the maze of the place but it is just TOO COOL!!! It's so fun and crazy and fantastical and gaudy of course! It was great and had really nice views too. Then we went back to El Corte Ingles to buy more cookies heh hehheh. Theeeen we went to the Spanish Arc de Triomf and walked along that nice street until we got to the absolutely gorgeous Park de la Ciutadella. That park is so picture perfect, a huge beautiful fountain, lakes with boats, a giant wolly mammoth statue, tons of green grass and palm trees, people relaxing everywhere, it was great! We spent quite some time there before heading back to the hostel to watch the Barcelona v. Valladolid game and then Real Madrid game with some other new hostel friends. Then Alex and I went out to find food with Caroline at the wee hours of the morning which showed us an entirely new side of Barcelona haha.

Day 6 was our last day. After breakfast we walked along las Ramblas, went to the huge fountain and musum place on Monujuic, went back to La Ramblas and explored and did some more shopping, ate one last heavenly Churros con Chocolate, stumbled upon a Palm Sunday procession on La Ramblas, and just had a nice day before heading back to the hostel to get our luggage. We were leaving at the same time as a few friends so we ended up taking the metro to the train to the airport with them which was a nice little goodbye to Barcelona. Only thing I really regret not having the time to do was visiting Camp Nou where FC Barca plays... you can go on a tour where you get to go in to the dressing rooms and walk through the tunnel into the stadium on the field... ughhh i wish i could have done it. I guess that just means I'll have to do Anfield instead :D hehehe.

Anyway, Barcelona was a great fun trip and I already miss the place and the people a lot. Overall at the hostel we got to know something like 35 different people from 14 different countries. Pretty awesome opportunity, I'd say! Aww and it was nice, one of our friends told Alex and I before he left that we were some of the nicest people he'd met on his whole trip around Europe so far. AWWWW Heartwarming, isn't it? Damnnnnnn I loved staying at that hostel, Barcelona wonldn't have been half as fun without it. HASTA LUEGO, BARCA!

Lots lots lots more pictures here.

The Most Adverb Adjective Few Days Ever!

Last week Mary Ellen and Alex came to England for a visit! It was so much fun and a wonderful reunion although we missed all our other friends from home :(

Friday Meo and I wandered around London doing some hard core shopping and sight seeing. We also saw the Ukrainian national football team walking along Oxford street, COOL!


Saturday Alex arrived and the three of us spent time wandering around London and eating delicious cakes and foods before heading over to Wembley Stadium to see the friendly match between England and Slovakia. IT WAS A BLAST! The atmosphere was incredible! The singing and chanting pretty much never stopped. Anddd there were something like 85,200 people there. Alex and I had spectacular seats, I wish Mary Ellen were near us though! Oh and England 4 - Slovakia 0. Scores by Heskey, Rooney (x2), and Lampard. NICE! After the game we headed back to Frankie's for some cakes and insanely delicious food, Thanks Frankie and Ihab!



The next day we spent also in London doing more shopping and eating and exploring. And after that we headed back to Brighton for a day of fun! We did more shopping, had cakes with Ally and Alex at Choccy Woccy, ate traditional pub food, and relaxed along the beach. Brighton pier was really fun and the day was gorgeous so we had a great time sitting on the rocky beach and inventing "games" of therowing rocks into the water and then throwing rocks into other rocks to make them bounce in to the water. Being in Europe is making me realize how fun throwing rocks is, seriously.

After an exhaustingly fun day we all ate more delicious foods and walked along Brighton and up the hills to look at the pretty houses before packing. Meo went back to Belgium and Alex and I jetted off to Barcelona. More on that soon!

THANKS ALEX AND MARY ELLEN FOR VISITING ME I HAD THE BEST TIME EVER!

EXCITEMENT!

In the next two days, I will be seeing:

These birds:


and these blokes:


Could life get any better?
Probably not.

Oh Stevie G, If I could Return the Favor I Would...

Liverpool 4 - 1 Man United
DREAMS REALLY DO COME TRUE, KIDS!
CLOSING THE GAP.... ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE TITLE!
I had a spectacular time at the pub where I sat with two nice middle aged men who bought me a pint of pop and talked Liverpool FC, Chicago, and Brighton with me. England is so friendly... Liverpool is so great!!!!!

LFC 1 - 0 RMCF

Spain - England Friendly

I went to watch the Spain v. England friendly last night at the pub I always go to to watch games. It was especially great since it's next to a college for people learning english so there were tons of Spainiards and other foreign people there for a really good competitive atmosphere.

Nothing like my love of the Spanish NT to make my like of the England NT fade away. Villa's goal was great, Llorente's made me swoon, and Marchena's save pretty much made my heart explode.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Another fun weeknd in Brighton!

Friday was a busy day, critique in the morning, then Jenny and I went out to lunch with Ally to celebrate her handing in her dissertation. Funny cause it ended up being the same restaurant we ate at in Lewes, but I never knew it was the same, I would walk past it and always say how I wanted to go in! Deliciousss. Then Jenny and I had to go finish up out letterpress so we got that out of the way. After that I met back up with Ally and 3 of her wonderful friends and we sat around in the pub and talked for a while which was nice. After that I got a delicious gooey warm chocolate cookie and then killed some time before going out for the night.

Later that night Jenny and I met up with 5 of our wonderful fun friends and classmates at a new pub, the Fishbowl. It was fun fun fun and then around 11 we went to this club called Audio on the sea front where there was this drawing battle thing. Soooo yeah it was cool there were two sets of two large canvasses, one side for two Brighton based artists and the other for two London based artists. So they had 90 minutes to draw on the canvases with big black paint markers before being judged by the audience and two judges. And first of all, 90 minutes is way too long. It's just too long in general, but how awesome would it be if it were like a speed drawing challenge? C'mon, so cool! Sadly I thought the Brighton team kinda paled in comparison to the London team. At the end, the London team ended up winning even though Brighton obviously got the crowd's vote :D Ooh and then a beat boxer came on stage and did some stuff that was really fun and cool!!! We left around 2:30 am, it was so fun!!! It's nice to be doing things that I probably wouldn't typically be doing back home in Minneapolis or Chicago.


Saturday was a fun day too, I did some shopping and got some GREAT DEALS as usual. And then due to lots of phone confusion I missed some fun times but HEY I cleaned my room instead which feels pretty great. Too bad it never lasts...

This morning was quite the adventure! Jenny heard about this thing called "Seedy Sunday" (seedy as in planting seeds, not as in "ew that area of town is so seedy and gross" haha) through her "Edible Campus" extension study class. Seedy sunday is basically a giant gathering of local Farmers from the Brighton and Hove and Lewes area, maybe anywhere in Sussex county, I'm not sure. But everyone gets together to trade seeds, sell seeds and plants, have little gardening demonstrations and talks and lectures and all kinds of things. It's like a forum for learning about all kinds of organic growing and wildlife and fun stuff like that. So it is in Hove and we decided to walk there, according to Jenny's google maps route it should have been about a half hour to an hour walk or something. So we are walking along the sea which is sooo nice and cute although it is snowing and COLD. And we have been walking a longgggg time but we just haven't seen a street that looks like the main street we're supposed to turn on. After like.... a long time we decide to ask some man on the street and he told us we basically walked WAY TOO FAR because we accidentally passed it hahahaha. So we doubled back and basically ended up walking 3 times longer than we needed to. But it was fun and an adventure so I didn't mind one bit!

Once we arrived at the Hove City Council or wherever it was, we had so much fun at Seedy Sunday! I've been looking into "Walking holidays" or basically nice long hikes that I could do in some spare time around the English countryside down here in Brighton or Lewes or Sussex anywhere basically. So we talked to a few people who had good suggestions on places to go to do those, which was great. We also talked to this lady who ha grown this really beautiful place kind of like a large igloo made of willow boughs in this forest preserve area and they hold meditation nights there and all kinds of stuff, it looks BEAUTIFUL so I can't wait for the warm weather so we can go explore over there. We also just had a good time exploring and looking at all kinds of information about healthy eating and local produce and stuff, and then at 2 we went to a panel discussion/question and answer session for the gardeners. I had no idea what anyone was talking about but it was interesting so I had a good time!

After that we walked back to Brighton (much quicker this time, haha!) and I went straight to the pub to watch the Liverpool v. Chelsea game which I have to say was probably the BEST GAME EVER I've seen since the Euros! And better than some of the games in the Euros even. GOOD GOD IT WAS SO GREAT OH MY GOSH. It was probably one of the highlights of my trip so far, I'm not going to lie. The pub was PACKED, luckily mainly with Liverpool fans, and everyone was SO INTO IT! But seriously, the game was AMAZING and I'm not just saying that because I love Liverpool FC and Fernando Torres. It was so filled with drama!!!! Lampard getting the red card and being sent off made hte pub crowd go insane, singing "Cheerioooo, cheeriooooo". I couldn't help but smile even though I have a soft spot for Lampsy (and all of Chelsea really, thanks to my dear friend Marin). Someone I couldn't tell who doing the backwards kick. Liverpool making a billion shots on target. Torres giving someone (Malouda maybe?) a little pat on the cheek and thumbs up all cheekily. JT and Torres fight. Benayoun in the corner and Bonsingwa basically kicking him down BLATANTLY. So many yellow cards! SO MUCH FUN. And then of course all the drama in the last 10 minutes! 0-0 until Torres scored an AMAZING Goal in the like.... 88th minute or something and preceded to do the funniest goal celebration EVER (as pictured in the gif above). THEN, in the 5 minutes of extra time, HE DID IT AGAINNNNNNNNNNNNN AND SCORED a GREAT header and man oh man did the place ERUPT again. People were singing and chanting and screaming and it was SO. MUCH. FUN. Now Liverpool is back up into 2nd in the league and all they have to do it beat Man United and WIN THE LEAGUE, PLEASE.


Ok I have most definitely gone on WAY too long. Sorrrr-ry. Busy week ahead, should be tons of fun!