quito

alos, there are a lot of mice here, but they are tiny and cute and keeping me company right now out on the terrace.  we named him quito, short for poquito.  :] 

sailing the mediterranean sea.

tonight, i honestly had one of the coolest experiences i have ever had in my whole life.  the girls and i got up early this morning and went down to the coast to make a reservation with a sailing company to sail the mediterranean sea at sunset.  and got the tickets ahead of time.  then, after our time at the picasso gallery, i changed into my new very europeon shorts, accidentally took a nap, and then raced down to the coast to catch the boat.  we hopped on board and stepped onto a large net that is place over the ocean that you can sit on or lay down on, and watch the ocean pass underneath you.  i honestly can not describe this experience.  i sat there on the mediterranean, watching the sun set and the barcelona sky line light up, and it seemed like i was sailing in a dream.  we got sangria (for 1 euro) and sipped it on the net, and with every sip we got to ask each  other a question.  this caused good serious conversation, large amounts of laughter, and an amazing friendship to form.  i couldn't have asked for a better evening in barcelona.  

after we got off the boat, we went to get paella, which is basically rice in a sauce with different seafood on top.  i'm pretttttty sure that the seafood was still alive, and it still had eyeballs.  i picked at mine and mostly ate the rice and tomatoes.  then we headed back to the hostel and stopped at this really cool lounge for some drinks. where we got carded, and i busted out my international student id, which the guy chuckled at, kelly busted out her washington driver's license, which the guy laughed at, and rachel then unfolded a photo copy of any id she owns, which the guy laughed in our faces about. but i'm sure he didn't catch on that we were tourists.  we enjoyed some light drinks and then headed back for bed.

i am aboslutely amazed by this city.  i have never seen anything like it and i can't wait to put pictures up for you.  the picture on here is one i found on line, but it's actually where we were taking off in the boat.  love you!

barcelona!!

today is my second day in barcelona. i have to admit that coming to spain i was incredibly nervous and had no idea what to expect, but i have completely fallen in love with the city and don´t want to leave. the culture is so rich and everyone is overwhelmingly nice. the food is delicious and the language is gorgeous. i have been speaking much more spanish than i thought i would and much more than i thought i knew!

i will do quick overviews of the last two days: (also on a side note i´m using a spanish keyboard right now and all the symbols are all over the place so that colon took me about 30 seconds to fine and learn how to press it properly haha)

day 1:
i arrived in barcelona around 2 with 3 girls that are going to be in oxford with me. we got out of the airport (with another stamp in my passport!!) and caught the bus into town. my friends kelly and rachel (who i was staying with in barcelona) told me that they would be waiting at the starbucks in downtown for me, so we had our destination. on the bus, we saw a starbucks and all hopped off, ran inside and saw no sign of the other girls. we thought it was the wrong one because there was not much action around it. so, we then had to walk about a mile into downtown barcelona with huge heavy traveling backpacks on (my hips are still sore) and no food in us. but we were excited and happy so none of that really mattered. we saw another starbucks and found no one we recognized. so we decided to stop for some lunch. we hopped into this little restaraunt and ordered sangria (amazing!) and 8 different types of tapas. it was absolutely delicious and i could eat all of it! at this point i had given up on finding kelly and rachel and started heading to the other girls hostel with them. as we were walking down the main street, Las Ramblas, we saw another starbucks. i darted in with high hopes, and saw them. with an enormous amount of relief i rushed into kelly´s arms and said goodbye to the other girls. then the three of us walked around the markets, shops and cafes for the rest of the afternoon and had a delicious quaint dinner, saw some more sights and went to bed exhausted.

today:
we woke up this morning around 8, got ready and headed down to a cafe near us for some breakfast. we ordered croissants (sorry mitch...) and cafe americana, which is basically a super super strong espresso watered down. then we did a little shopping and headed down to the coast. we then made reservations with a sailing company for a boat ride tonight at sunset around the harbor, with a jazz band. how cool is that! then we walked towards the museo de picasso, and stopped and a breath taking cathedral that the sailors built 500 years ago. i also read that it was burnt by a kind on 9/11 and the people still mourn over it every year. ironic how we have a sad day like that in common with a completely different culture. after the cathedral we went to a museum which is hallways and hallways of picasso´s artwork. it was incredible. in every room there is a quick biography of a few years of his life and what he produced in those years. then, we stopped for lunch at the cafe in the museum. after lunch we walked the streets and stopped in at shops we thought were cute and stumbled upon a really fun flea market. i got an AMAZING dress that my sisters are going to be obsessed with (you´ll get a picture girls) and some very europeon looking shorts for the boat ride tonight haha. we grabbed some gelato and headed back to where we are staying to freshen up before the boat ride.


all in all it has been breath taking so far. absolutely exceeding all my expectations. i love it here. i´m taking lots of pictures so i´ll put them up as soon as i can! i love you guys and love hearing from you! so keep me updated too!

heathrow and arsenal

helloo!!! i´m so sorry it has taken me so long to update this and if you have been checking it (thanks mom) thank you for being patient.

ok! so! i arrived in london, safe and sound and very jet lagged, on wednesday afternoon. the flight was great and i got a free little sack of my own pair of socks (which i naturally put on immediately), eye mask (which smelled like mold), a toothbrush (which i left in my purse and have been using the flimsy thing in spain because i forgot my regular one) and a tiny tube of toothpaste. everyone on the flight had a british accent which got me so excited. (and on a side note i´ve heard the british accent so much lately that my thoughts are literally in a british accent now ahh!) we arrived in london and our sweet friend kevin lee came to pick me up and brought me back to his house. then we went to a pub in the rain and got typical english food (....bleh.) that night we got to go to the arsenal v. celtic game. it was incredible! i have never seen anything like that in my life. the stadium was enormous and there were 60,000 brits there all screaming the f word. my favorite chant they did was during subs for the other team. the announcer would say which player was subbing and which was coming in and the entire crowd would shout ¨WHO?!?!?!¨ it was hysterical. the next morning i woke up at 6 am and took a train to the airport. the british were friendly but i was ridiculously shy and didn´t want to open my mouth because the second i do its a dead giveaway that ì am a bloody american. then i was barcelona bound!

(pictures to come!)

zooey zooey zooey

ok stop it. this video is adorable. i like it for a couple reasons. first, you can completely tell that they have hardly any dance experience (unless they actually do and they're just not letting it show here). second, it looks like they did the whole thing in one take and they are holding back laughs because they are just having fun. and third, the choreography is hilarious and so cute. my boyfriend has a celebrity crush on her...and i might now too. or on him. can we just talk about how i haven't seen him since my crush on him in 10 things i hate about you? he cleans up nice. enjoy!

city of dionne

i stumbled upon this absolutely adorable blog this morning and i fell in love. i'm living in a fantasy that living in the uk will look and have the same feeling of this blog. and if you think i'm nuts and you know it's not going to be..just let me live in my fantasy..at least for the next 8 days. thanks. http://notesfromdionne.blogspot.com/ 

barcelona

in 10 days i will be sitting here. eating dinner. at around 10 p.m.
looking at this.
and taking pictures of this.

barcelona in 10 days. a first trip on my own, to someplace other than to another state. i am ridiculously nervous, but at the same time ridiculously nervous. talk about an adventure.