I survived Spain

Well the whole blogging a lot in Spain thing really worked out well, didn't it? This was partly due to the fact that I didn't have internet in my house and partly due to the fact that when I had internet, I didn't want to do it. Oh well. So, since some people have told me that they missed my posts, I have decided I am going to do one big post with short excerpts and pictures to sum up all the events that happened that I never posted about. 

Well, Salamanca was fun. There's lots of bars there, so you know what we did on our weekends. Oh, and the weekend includes Thursday night-Sunday, because we didn't have classes on Friday's. Rough life.

Jessie, Milena and I out in Salamanca 

Meredith and I at the Bull Fighting Museum in Salamanca

Then was the time that Meredith and I met up with Jessie and went to Barcelona. We stayed in this really awesome Youth Hostel, which was themed skater, but was filled with young people from all over the world. It was a lot of fun. We made friends with some other Americans and a few canadians, as well as a French girl and an Egyptian guy. Sometime in person you will all have to ask me about my first interaction with him, dear God. After exploring some of the city, and mostly getting lost in it, we went to the big event -- Sensation Interspace: Barcelona. Oh. My. God. Imagine a huge indoor stadium with a bunch of drug and alcohol ingested college age europeans and people from all over, who come solely to see a bunch of DJ's who have weird names, dance their butts off, and wear all white so when they go home all the clothing is officially ruined. Perfect. We then proceeded to wake up too late from the concert, mostly my fault, and missed our flight to Madrid. So, we got on the eight hour train ride back to Salamanca. Oh, so fun.

Our group from the hostel that went to Sensation

Guell Park - Barcelona

The concert

We came back to Salamanca and I got sick for a while so I couldn't go out that much. But, I got to spend a lot of quality time with my awesome boyfran'. So that was good.

Jim and I

Then came the time where Meredith and I took a trip to Florence, Italy to visit my friend Marisa. We had a lot of fun, and had a really great tour guide. We got to see where Marisa lives and got to look all around the city filled with the most upscale shopping I have ever seen in one place. We also went out with her one night to a pretty hopping club that was apparently on the Jersey Shore. Of course, we ate a lot of pizza. All was perfect, except for our hostel which closed from 2am-6am and then kicked you out from 10am-2pm. Word to the wise: not all things here in Europe have to be specified on the internet, especially huge details about how the hostel is hardly ever open for college kid sleeping hours. Oh well. We also made a short trip to Pisa, Italy for the night. There's nothing there but the tower, but Meredith and I got to explore quite a while when we got lost in the most random part of the city. No taxis either. That's good.

Me in front of the most famous bridge in Florence 

The Duomo

Marisa, our tour guide

Panoramic view of Florence

You already know what this is, I hope.

After that it was the long haul of enjoying our next three weeks in Salamanca until our families came. And enjoying we did! We went out a lot. And when I wasn't going out, you probably could have found me watching movies and spending time over at Jim's house. Classes weren't extremely hard at that point either, so we had a lot of time to do things. During this time I met many new people and enjoyed getting to know people that I had met earlier on in the trip.

Meredith, Alvaro, Pablo and I

Then came the time where my family came to visit. Yes, my entire family -- Mom, Dad and Brad. And they had the same sentiments I had about Spanish food, but I think for the most part they enjoyed the experience. They arrived on Friday and hung out until dinner time where we went to a restaurant and they got to know Jim. Then, the next day we went on a guided tour of Salamanca and a lovely dinner with all my professors, program directors, other parents, and other students. It was literally the most fun dinner I have had in a long time. And it involved a lot of alcohol (they gave us shots for dessert, no lie). Oh, I gave a speech at this dinner in Spanish and Steve gave it in English. That was good. Then the next morning we left for our adventure to the south of Spain. This trip included visits to Cordoba, Granada, Ronda, Sevilla and Merida. I think everyones favorite place was Ronda, just because it was so remote and beautiful. 

Brad, Jim and I after dinner

Mom and Dad at the Windmills of Don Quijote (windmills around the corner, ha!)

Our group at the Mezquita in Cordoba

Brad listening to our tour guide

Ronda 

Me at the Roman ruins of Merida

After saying goodbye to my family, I had to two week homestretch of time left in Salamanca. We made the most of it! Every weekend we went out and during the week we did our fair share of final shopping trips and sites to see. 

...and now I am home. So, call me! 

yellers, cake fights, tequila shots, and old frans

So on Friday night I went out to this new Latin Night Club called 20/20 (or maybe it was just Latin Night, who knows). It was pretty cool, but reminded me of my old colosseum days... which is only because it is the old colosseum. You remember, the place we all went to in order to shake our 15 year old shit on Saturday nights, only because we couldn't get into real clubs. Yeah, that place.

Anyway, I decided to go and meet up with some people from work and their friends, only because Liz leaves for Canada on Sunday night and I won't get another chance to do anything with her. It was actually pretty fun. The music changes from Salsa, to Meringue, to Reggaeton. Obviously, there is a huge dance floor filled with people, although last night wasn't so filled that you couldn't more. Thank goodness! The night was totally calm except for this creepy Brazilian man who did not understand the meaning of personal space. Liz took care of that one for me. Some words of advice: if you say the same thing to me more than three times, give up. I can't hear you and probably won't be able to hear you. And, you're just pissing me off by yelling in my ear over and over. 

Finally we left the club, only to get thrown in some massive cake fight with a group of people that were celebrating a birthday. Gross! Liz and I went back to Lalo and Mariano's house, and spent a few hours talking before I said my final goodbye and came home. Solid night. 

Then, the next night I took a lovely trip down to the ever classy-Comfest of Columbus, Ohio. No, Comfest does not stand for communist festival; it means community festival and is basically Columbus' version of hippie-fest. Always an entertainment, this is one of the summer events I most look forward to each and every year! However, this year I didn't get to see too much of it on Saturday night. Brigette and I are thinking of going today, so if that works out, I will get to see everything.

I started my night at the house of my friends and old roomies, Meredith and Christian. From there we waited until Erin and her friend got there, and walked down to Comfest. We got there around 9pm, and after the pizza line, were a little late for pretty much anything. We stopped by Gas Werks in the Arena District, where I got a tequila with lime on the rocks. You know, gotta keep the drinking calories to a minimum. From there we went back to their house and they all decided to turn in early. I don't blame them, they went out the night before. Also, I never go out so I can't say anything.

I left them and went to pick up Brigette from a house that was surprisingly only two streets over from Meredith and Christians' apartments. We met up with my old fran Brett at Ugly Tuna, and after a round of tequila shots, went to a dub-step concert at Skully's. If I gained anything from the tequila, I lost it after two hours of non-stop dancing. The groups were cool; when we first got there it was some random DJ group (one of them looked exactly like Scott Southwick) and after came on some DJ guys dressed with these really creepy robot masks. I didn't even flinch or think that was weird at all. I don't know, this is my life. By that time we were with Brendan and Nick and decided to take the party back to Brett's house, where Adam was stationed, and we hung out for a good hour or two, talking about life. Everyone left/went home and I ended up staying with Brett in the living room, having him tell me "stories" and jokes, until I finally passed out on his couch watching some ridiculous show on the television.

It was good to see a lot of people this weekend. Now that all I do is hide out in a cave, I hardly ever know what's going on in peoples lives besides what I randomly see flash through my mini-feed. It was also nice to run into some good high school friends; it's funny, even if you're apart and don't talk for a long time, you can always find a good friend and feel as if you haven't missed anything.