0
Spain
Posted by La Belle Vie♥
on
7:37 PM
Hi all,
So I'm sitting here at work in Brooklyn ticking down the minutes until the end of the night; decided it'd probably be a great time to hammer out another blog...
So after arriving back from my soul-changing adventure in Italy (I really feel that Italy has some sort of mystical power, we should really look into bottling that stuff...) I spent a quick six days grading exams, running around and seeing friends, re-arranging my exam schedule (as the secretaries in the department like to assign you exams at the last minute, which will then leave you having to re-arrange your schedule since you've already planned your vacation, it will also leave you picking up extra exams in exchange to make up for the fact that you feel bad that you had to change the schedule around in the first place...THIS in turn will lead to you getting confused and forgetting that you have an exam one day; which of course you will not remember until 15 minutes before the exam starts while you are sitting in your apartment 20 minutes away from campus...FINALLY, that will result in a very ridiculous run down to campus in your platform sandals (because they're the only thing that match what you have on and you don't have time to change) and will render you sweaty, ten minutes late to the exam, apologizing vehemently to you director who just walked out of the room to replace you at the beginning of the exam, and horribly embarrassed as you stumble into the room full of 50 students (some of which are yours), sweaty, red faced and gasping for air.) Not that I speak from experience, I'm just assuming...
So after all of that mis-mosh, I hopped a plane down to Barcelona to go meet up with my mom and dad. Daddy picked me up at the airport because he had to come pick up the rental car...can I just say thank god it was midnight and there weren't a lot of people driving around, because we got horribly lost. Street signs in Barcelona are not on the side of the building facing the road, rather about 5 feet in, behind the tree on the side of the building facing the cross street...Dad and I had a good laugh as neither one of us could read said signs, I even had to get out my old lady glasses and I couldn't read them. Somehow we also ended up driving in the bus lane, which incidentally worked out because I had to get out of the car at every cross street, run 15 feet to the inside of the cross street and then haul ass back to the car before the red-light turned green. Eventually we made it back to the hotel in one piece, headed up to the roof for a beer and then passed out:)
Spain was interesting for a number of reasons...first off being the amount of family togetherness we shared. I don't think mommy, daddy and I have spent that much time in closed quarters together since before I could drive. We rented a car for the 10 day duration in Spain, and covered about 3,000km in that 10 period of time...including a run in with the Spanish police, many wrong turns, myself at the helm navigating the Spanish map we acquired at the first Parador (old run down castle refurbished by the Spanish gov to attract tourists), lots of very very bad food (Spanish food, I am not a fan of, I'm sorry), many bastardized attempts at Spanish (mom had a couple classes back in high school), lots of yelling at night since the majority of the time we had a teeeeeny tiny room and daddy snores horribly loudly (I think he actually threw something at me one night in response to my waking him up by yelling to get him to stop snoring)...anyway, you get the idea...lots of family time.
My favorite part of the 10 days by far was the 3 we spent at an olive and sheep farm in the middle of I don't know where central spain, no internet, no nothing, just us three, a small cabin, a tiny state road off the side of a dirt highway, nothing but olive trees for miles...and lots of bugs. We hunkered down there for a few days after several very long days of driving. We ventured out each day to go somewhere new. The Alhambra, was by far the most validating part of the trip for me (for some reason I've never had the desire to travel to Spain...I know I know). This was a moorish palace from thousands of years ago, the Spanish Taj Mahal if you will. So incredibly beautiful, ornate architecture, elaborate gardens and grounds...please see my FB album if you haven't. Because that was truly majestic. We also wandered over to a town called Ronda one day, which has one of the oldest bridges in Spain, from way back in about 500 AD. I found myself strolling around gazing down at the incredible gorge below as a flameco guitar hummed quietly by. It was enchanting.
We headed down to Torrejevo (spelling?) somewhere on the Costa Blanca, for four days on the beach. We finally stayed in an apt with internet, separate rooms and I got my own set of keys...this resulted in one very late night when I went out to find Spaniards to hang out with after Spain had advanced to the semi-quarter finals of FIFA and I ended up finding Irishmen instead, which of course resulted in me not getting home until about 4.30 in the morning. I swear to god they have hollow legs...I went home, they kept going. wow. just wow. That was a pretty entertaining evening to say the least. I had a lot of alone time at the beach, which I enjoyed.
We ended up having to get up super early the last day there, since we had to return the rental car all the way up to BARCELONA and we were all the way down yonder south (sorry I just couldn't resist myself) and then we caught a plane back to France where we spent the next few days hanging out in Grenoble, hiking in the mountains, eating French food...which was great that I could finally introduce my parents to real french eats, including Tartiflette for my dad and finished off with he and I drinking down an eau de vie. All in all it was a great trip.
Well that's all for now, I've got about an hour left until I get to head home for the night. Being back in the US is certainly odd, I'm still adjusting. But it's great to see old friends and be back in my country. I couldn't resist serenading the NY harbour in a rendition of the star spangled banner as the Staten Island ferry rolled in (and I was on it obviously). It's funny to see how much I've changed in the last year, how different I am, what ways I fit here now, what ways I don't; who is still in my life, who isn't, and who is floating back in...I feel like NY is a city of strangers, since everyone is from somewhere else, and everyone has a different story. So here I am, just a stranger among strangers, trying to make it work. Let's see how we go:)
I love you, I miss you (by proxy, because NY isn't really near most of you)
Sarah
(Give me a call on my American cell if you want! 865.310.7272)
So I'm sitting here at work in Brooklyn ticking down the minutes until the end of the night; decided it'd probably be a great time to hammer out another blog...
So after arriving back from my soul-changing adventure in Italy (I really feel that Italy has some sort of mystical power, we should really look into bottling that stuff...) I spent a quick six days grading exams, running around and seeing friends, re-arranging my exam schedule (as the secretaries in the department like to assign you exams at the last minute, which will then leave you having to re-arrange your schedule since you've already planned your vacation, it will also leave you picking up extra exams in exchange to make up for the fact that you feel bad that you had to change the schedule around in the first place...THIS in turn will lead to you getting confused and forgetting that you have an exam one day; which of course you will not remember until 15 minutes before the exam starts while you are sitting in your apartment 20 minutes away from campus...FINALLY, that will result in a very ridiculous run down to campus in your platform sandals (because they're the only thing that match what you have on and you don't have time to change) and will render you sweaty, ten minutes late to the exam, apologizing vehemently to you director who just walked out of the room to replace you at the beginning of the exam, and horribly embarrassed as you stumble into the room full of 50 students (some of which are yours), sweaty, red faced and gasping for air.) Not that I speak from experience, I'm just assuming...
So after all of that mis-mosh, I hopped a plane down to Barcelona to go meet up with my mom and dad. Daddy picked me up at the airport because he had to come pick up the rental car...can I just say thank god it was midnight and there weren't a lot of people driving around, because we got horribly lost. Street signs in Barcelona are not on the side of the building facing the road, rather about 5 feet in, behind the tree on the side of the building facing the cross street...Dad and I had a good laugh as neither one of us could read said signs, I even had to get out my old lady glasses and I couldn't read them. Somehow we also ended up driving in the bus lane, which incidentally worked out because I had to get out of the car at every cross street, run 15 feet to the inside of the cross street and then haul ass back to the car before the red-light turned green. Eventually we made it back to the hotel in one piece, headed up to the roof for a beer and then passed out:)
Spain was interesting for a number of reasons...first off being the amount of family togetherness we shared. I don't think mommy, daddy and I have spent that much time in closed quarters together since before I could drive. We rented a car for the 10 day duration in Spain, and covered about 3,000km in that 10 period of time...including a run in with the Spanish police, many wrong turns, myself at the helm navigating the Spanish map we acquired at the first Parador (old run down castle refurbished by the Spanish gov to attract tourists), lots of very very bad food (Spanish food, I am not a fan of, I'm sorry), many bastardized attempts at Spanish (mom had a couple classes back in high school), lots of yelling at night since the majority of the time we had a teeeeeny tiny room and daddy snores horribly loudly (I think he actually threw something at me one night in response to my waking him up by yelling to get him to stop snoring)...anyway, you get the idea...lots of family time.
My favorite part of the 10 days by far was the 3 we spent at an olive and sheep farm in the middle of I don't know where central spain, no internet, no nothing, just us three, a small cabin, a tiny state road off the side of a dirt highway, nothing but olive trees for miles...and lots of bugs. We hunkered down there for a few days after several very long days of driving. We ventured out each day to go somewhere new. The Alhambra, was by far the most validating part of the trip for me (for some reason I've never had the desire to travel to Spain...I know I know). This was a moorish palace from thousands of years ago, the Spanish Taj Mahal if you will. So incredibly beautiful, ornate architecture, elaborate gardens and grounds...please see my FB album if you haven't. Because that was truly majestic. We also wandered over to a town called Ronda one day, which has one of the oldest bridges in Spain, from way back in about 500 AD. I found myself strolling around gazing down at the incredible gorge below as a flameco guitar hummed quietly by. It was enchanting.
We headed down to Torrejevo (spelling?) somewhere on the Costa Blanca, for four days on the beach. We finally stayed in an apt with internet, separate rooms and I got my own set of keys...this resulted in one very late night when I went out to find Spaniards to hang out with after Spain had advanced to the semi-quarter finals of FIFA and I ended up finding Irishmen instead, which of course resulted in me not getting home until about 4.30 in the morning. I swear to god they have hollow legs...I went home, they kept going. wow. just wow. That was a pretty entertaining evening to say the least. I had a lot of alone time at the beach, which I enjoyed.
We ended up having to get up super early the last day there, since we had to return the rental car all the way up to BARCELONA and we were all the way down yonder south (sorry I just couldn't resist myself) and then we caught a plane back to France where we spent the next few days hanging out in Grenoble, hiking in the mountains, eating French food...which was great that I could finally introduce my parents to real french eats, including Tartiflette for my dad and finished off with he and I drinking down an eau de vie. All in all it was a great trip.
Well that's all for now, I've got about an hour left until I get to head home for the night. Being back in the US is certainly odd, I'm still adjusting. But it's great to see old friends and be back in my country. I couldn't resist serenading the NY harbour in a rendition of the star spangled banner as the Staten Island ferry rolled in (and I was on it obviously). It's funny to see how much I've changed in the last year, how different I am, what ways I fit here now, what ways I don't; who is still in my life, who isn't, and who is floating back in...I feel like NY is a city of strangers, since everyone is from somewhere else, and everyone has a different story. So here I am, just a stranger among strangers, trying to make it work. Let's see how we go:)
I love you, I miss you (by proxy, because NY isn't really near most of you)
Sarah
(Give me a call on my American cell if you want! 865.310.7272)
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