October 29

Today started bright and early at 8 am with Jacqueline and Caitlin. We went to the fresh market for our Halloween dinner items. Then we tried Taste of America, but they didn't open until 10...it was 9. We walked back tot he apartments and got a few decorations at the Chino store, then I headed back to Taste of America. When I got back I had just enough time to finish my Spanish homework and eat my left over chicken paprikash.

After Spanish class, we toured a museum today, Jacqueline and I headed to Consum for everything else on our list. It took about an hour, and fifty euros, but we got it done. Now all that's left to get is peanut butter from Corte Ingles. I'm doing that and starting the buckeyes tomorrow.

Overall I walked about 10 miles, 6 of which occurred before 11 am. Therefore, I rewarded myself with gelato tonight. I actually had my left-over frozen chili with noodles tonight...and then I got gelato. I found this place that I just love, it's been my go to for a while now, mostly because they have cherry amaretto and their chocolate is like super, super, chocolatey. So I get both.

I've talked to Becca and Shelby today and I'm calling Mom later...so, yep. Dara and I leave for London in a week and we leave for Rome in two. Happy almost Halloween!

October 27

The most exciting part about yesterday, the 26th, was the planning of our Halloween dinner. We went on a tour of the artwork around Valencia and some museums for English and Jacqueline, Brittany, and myself all started throwing out food ideas. Later in the night, Caitlin and Jacqueline were doing homework and I stopped in, which lead us to more planning. We now have a huge meal planned, for about 8 of us, and we're making steaks, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, buckeyes, and even more beyond that. Insane, I know. We've written everything out as to what stores we need to get what from and we're shopping on Thursday. That was pretty exciting.

Today I got my Spanish midterm back and I got an A! It' a big deal, I didn't even get an A on my last 2 high school French exams...my bad. Ooooooh! And I made chicken paprikash again! This time with gravy! They don't have sour cream, but they've got this creme fraiche, which is basically sour cream, but thicker and less sour...but it worked! That was exciting. And I bought tickets so I can go visit Aunt Betty and Uncle Mike in Florida while I'm stateside! Also very exciting. :)

Additionally, I was informed last night that we were dressing up for our Halloween dinner so I had to figure out a costume that wouldn't cost more than 5 Euros...I've decided on The Queen of Hearts. I've got a red shirt, white shorts, and black tights and boots. Shelby suggested a card crown so I bought cards specifically so I could chop 'em up, and I bought red lipstick and nail polish. So, that'll be fun too. I never watched Alice in Wonderland much as a child, probably because we didn't have it on VHS, but the few times I saw it I always loved the Queen's character. Maybe it's the card playing that run in the family...probably.

Thinking about my costume today also got me thinking of a conversation that I had with Ben before I decided on a school. I thought that it was strange that all 5 universities I applied to had black and some shade of red as apart of their schools colors. I wondered if that had anything at all to do with growing up around card players. He thought that my mind probably just associates red and black with happiness or good memories because of that, and I think that's pretty neat. Just a random story for y'all. :)

The picture of my aunts that hangs above my bed.
(It goes with the card theme tonight)

October 25

Yesterday Dara and I went out shopping, she attempted to take me to thrift stores, but that didn't relly work out. I had to buy sweaters for our upcoming travels to London, and for when it hits 10 degrees Celsius here. By the time it gets to that point, I will be freezing, I'm very used to this 70+ degrees Fahrenheit weather right now, so going home will be rough. Oh! I also bought this really cute, really warm scarf that I'm super stoked to wear.

Also, last night we had another WiFi outage...there is really nothing to do without WiFi here. We can't talk to anyone back home, or everyone in the other apartments. We can't distract ourselves with the internet (duh) but we also can't do our homework or take macro tests, or anything we now had time to do because the internet was no longer distracting. Seriously, I could have done math, or finished macro, but I couldn't because everything is online.

Today was a homework day. I went to church and then came back to finish my English essay, which is awful. We're supposed to write a film review for Tomorrowland and it's not a very good movie, but it's super difficult to explain why without spoiling the movie. After that I did math, which took no time at all and since then I've just been lounging, taking the day off. It's been nice.

October 23

Yesterday I had my first Spanish exam, it was not that bad. We met our new professor, she had taught with FSU before, it sounds like she had just "retired" of sorts but they brought her back for this. She made a point to tell us she was an American citizen, but she was born here and her English is much more understandable. Good things.

Last night Dara, and her friends Amelia and myself went to a language exchange where everyone wanted to speak English. Instead of us going an exchange for us to speak Spanish and them to practice English here everyone needed to practice English, so I could talk and it was great. One woman we talked to was from Chile and the guys were from Poland and Italy, oh, and Amelia is from China studying here, but she speaks English. It was fun. Amelia was getting hit on by a creepy guy and I hadn't been feeling so hot so we left around 10. I got to sleep by 11 and woke up at 6:30 with a great night of rest. Amazing. I went back to sleep afterward, too, no worries.

This morning we woke up and went on a "mountain walk" which was much more of a hike. We traveled by bus for an hour to this castle, that wasn't actually there. We had to hike about a mile uphill to get there, but the only thing still intact was the prison. The castle was destroyed in an earthquake in 1870 something. But the prison stood. It was not worth it, the hike was fun, the castle was not.

We got back to campus around 4 and I worked on my last macro assignment before the 2nd exam. I finished it once I was asked if I wanted to go the Berklee concerts at the City of Arts and Sciences. The Berklee College of Music has a campus in Valencia that is right near the Arts and Science Center. On Friday nights the students perform on the water and a hundred or so people showed up, it was impressive and they were so good! They spoke English and sang in English and the atmosphere was spectacular and I'm sad we didn't go sooner. We will be back though.


Tonight I made banana cake! But, I made banana cake without beaters (to cream the shortening and sugar), without shortening and instead used vegetable margarine, without sour/buttermilk and instead used yogurt, without baking soda and instead doubled my use of baking powder, without vanilla, and without measuring cups or teaspoons, Like before everything needs to be approximated via the measuring cup thing using milliliters, and baking powder here comes in a box filled with 10 packets that all contain 1 or 2 tablespoons of it, maybe, so I had been using some for my cookie things and I just dumped whatever was left into the mix. It looked like enough for both the baking powder and baking soda use, so I left it. Experimenting. The batter tasted like banana cake batter, which is a good sign, and the cake came out deliciously. Seriously, it's amazing. I will be able to make so many recipes without half of the actual ingredients by the time I get home, it'll be great!

Dara and Caitlin came over for a while. Caitlin just wanted to chill with us but Dara and I actually had to plan. Her friend, Amelia, is planning on coming to Rome with us, I think, so we're trying to figure out hostels, but Amelia avoided answering the questions about Rome and Dara was spazzing. She couldn't decide what to do, because we found this great place, that fairly cheap for being a 9.4/10 rating, so I told her to book it, and after more spazzing, she did. It was rough.

It's 2:30 am here, now, and I'm super tired but I figured I would be shunned if I didn't update this soon. I have some photos of the concert, which are very cool, but later, This was a very, very, quickly written blog entry, just so everyone is aware if it is super rough or very run-on-y, that's why. I'll put the pictures on later. I'm so tired. Buenas noches!

October 20

Today I got my math midterm back and I got a 99%. My professor, Sergio, teaches for a Valencian University, so he grades all of his papers Spanish style. I actually only got 9'9 out of 10 points, with 6 questions. Like, I missed a tenth of point for something, it's so weird.

After math was Spanish, and the unexpected happened. Our teacher didn't show up, we assumed that being such a small school, with classes in our building, that we'd never experience that, but we did! We waited the 15 minutes and the guys started to leave. They were stopped by our academic coordinator here,Tamara, who went to call our professor. Ignacio, the program director, came in to talk to us about what we should do to prepare for the midterm and how we can't complain if we just leave, but he let us go an hour early, so it was pretty exciting.

Dara and I bought our tickets to Rome tonight and I swear by the time that second week of November is over with I will never want to travel again. London, to Madrid, to Rome, we're basically creating another fall break, it's insane, but I'm excited.

Munich

October 16

We arrived in Munich bright and early at 8 am! We walked to our hostel to leave our bags and then headed to a bakery by the hostel for breakfast (which included hot chocolate!). After that we walked across the street to McDonald's (WiFi) and then headed towards the BMW Museum. We didn't go through the actual museum, which I was totally okay with, because who actually spends money to see old cars? Why? We went through the show room and Jacqueline and Brittany sat in some cars and I was tired and not impressed.

Olympic Park is a short walk across the street from the BMW Museum so we walked through there before heading into Old Town Munich. In Old Town we went to lunch and I got some classic German dish that was basically a fancy hash. It had potatoes, beef, ham, eggs, onions...it was delicious. I love German food, no doubt. The bookstore was the next stop, because Jacqueline has decided her "thing" is going to be her getting a book form every country she goes to. The one she bought was one she was torn between in Amsterdam. It's called Look Who's Back. It's a new movie in Germany, which is probably why it's so popular in Europe right now. The plot line in Hitler coming back in 2011 with no memory after 1945...interesting, right? We walked around a bit before heading back tot he hostel and calling it a night.

October 17

Brittany wanted to sleep in Saturday morning so Jacqueline and I headed to Dachau without her. Dachau is a city right outside of Munich that housed the first Nazi concentration camp, and the only concentration camp to be used the entire war. The place was absolutely huge, the map in the front of the gate made it look small, but it wasn't. It is slightly unnerving knowing that you're walking on the ground that prisoners were murdered on. We walked through a gas chamber and I felt sick. This camp was built to house 6,000 people but by the end of the war housed over 32,000. 

The words "Arbeit macht frei," meaning, 
work will set you free are at the entrance of all 
Nazi concentration camps

After visiting the camp we went and had lunch in the tiny town of Dachau. It was Saturday and nothing but bakeries were open. We weren't going to eat pastries for lunch and luckily there was a hotel restaurant open. We got food, and hot chocolate. Jacqueline got roasted pig knuckle (a German specialty) and fell in love with it. She was telling her mom later how they'd have to make it when she got home. Sounds gross, but tastes great, apparently. We walked to the bus station, and in hopes of McDonald's having WiFi we got McFlurries, they didn't have WiFi, but that's okay, because we got flurries out of it. 

Shockingly, we ran into Brittany at the bus station who had just gotten back in from the camp. We all headed to the English Gardens after we got Brittany lunch in Old Town. It was gorgeous. The English Gardens are just a very large, very nice park, and it is beautiful in the fall. After the gardens and dinner, Jacqueline and I headed back to Brittany's hotel to grab her stuff, so she could move to another hotel. Jacqueline and I planned on sleeping in the airport that night. 

The taxi ride ended up being ~ $90, 

which she was not expecting, obviously not realizing how far away this hotel was. Therefore, to help Brittany calm herself, we went out. All right, now it's about 9:30 pm on a Saturday night and there are literally two places open in the entire town. Two. A bar, packed with old people and a cafe. We opted for the cafe. We sat out on the terrace per Brittany's request with that fire place thing next to us, it didn't help. We ended up talking to these 3 guys, for 2 hours, and they were all about telling us how boring this town is and how awful it is. They were interesting. One of the guys worked for Audi and one of the others is his prodigy. The younger two were our translator for when the older guy couldn't understand us. We ended up back at Britt's hotel around midnight and she asked us to stay with her. Jacqueline and Brittany ended up passed out on her twin-sized bed by 1. I decided, why sleep if I have to be up at 4 to get to the airport anyways? SO, I didn't. Instead I basked in the glory that is Netflix, because unlike Spain, Germany has Netflix! It was glorious. 

We headed to the airport at 4, got on our 6 am flight then had an 8 hour layover in Mallorca. We had talked about going out of the airport, but we all kind of crashed once we sat down. So, instead we just chilled and walked in some circles until our flight to Valencia at 4.

Berlin

October 14

We got off the bus in Berlin around 9:30 am and my first thought was, 'I can see my breath,' that is never a good sign for someone who had packed for a study abroad in Valencia. I had my FSU jacket, my rain jacket, 2 scarves, and gloves and a hat bought in Amsterdam. I wore my leggings underneath my jeans most of the days and my long socks. It was insane. Anyways, we got off the bus and took a look at the bus map and decided it was safest to take a taxi to the hostel.

We got to the hostel and tried to check-in, only to discover that Brittany, being only 17, cannot stay in a hostel in Germany unless she's in a private room. We ended up spending 2 hours at the hostel trying to book Brittany hotel rooms for Berlin and Munich. It was an experience. We left our bags and went to explore. 

We started with lunch, where I got sausage, a classic in Germany but they were cooked different ways, one of which was "Berlin style," whatever that meant. It was pretty good. The Spanish don't appreciate meat enough in their restaurants, so it was great to be in a place that did. We found the Berlin Cathedral and as we walked we found the DDR Museum. We went to the museum, which is filled with the "ins and outs" of East and West Berlin. It was interesting. 

We were wiped by the time it got to be 3 pm so we decided to hit up a supermarket, by some snacks and call it a night. We bought food and headed back to the hostel. We ate (I had a Grandma dinner-vanilla wafers, chocolate chip cookies, and chips) with Brittany for a while before she left for her hostel around 5. Jacqueline and I took our showers, and were knocked out by 8 pm until 8 am the next morning. It was fabulous. 

October 15

The next day was much more productive. We left the hostel around 9 to walk to Brittany's hotel. We found it, but apparently we were pronouncing her name wrong so the front desk lady wouldn't let us call her (but she was supposed to be in the lobby waiting for us). So Jacqueline and I went to wait at a little cafe, where we got hot chocolate, and we got to talk to a lady who was excited to tell us about Germany. She lived in the West. We didn't have WiFi at the place but I could get a small signal from someplace around the cafe. Jacqueline couldn't though, so we couldn't iMessage Brittany, and she didn't respond to my Facebook messages. 

We ended up walking to a McDonald's to get WiFi. It was in the train station in Berlin and the train station is basically a shopping mall with a train underneath. Seriously, three stories of stores and then the actual station. Once we got there we got a message from Brittany who told us she was headed to the Reichstag building. So, so did we.

We also hit the Brandenburg Gate and got lunch, which included hot chocolate, I also got schnitzel, one of our Germany must eats. We met Brittany at Checkpoint Charlie and tried to walk to the Berlin Wall from there. We got lost, so we ended up taking a taxi. We got there at dark, like 7 pm, and left to meet up with Brittany's old Au Pair for dinner.

We ate dinner with Brittany's Au Pair, Beata, at someplace near the bus station. We sat and talked for 3/4 hours to stall until our 11:55 pm bus. Once we left we realized Beata didn't necessarily know how to get there, so we were lucky to get there before 11:45. The bus was much more packed, but we were alright. No stop for boarder patrol this time, but it got in much earlier to Munich.

Amsterdam

October 12

We had our last "real" breakfast for a while and then headed off to the airport. Our flight got us in, in the early evening so we hopped on a bus to head towards town. The bus, we soon realized, didn't seem to be stopping where we though it would so we chose a random stop (kind of, I noticed the pancake house) and we got off. We came across this cute little pancake house and ordered Poffertjes, which was on our list of Dutch food to try. Poffertjes are like minitaure pancakes served with butter, powdered sugar, whipped cream, and we also got ours with strawberries. I could not believe how delicious this was. It was amazing! As we were walking towards our hostel we came across a little bakery where Jacquline and I got hot chocolate (remember this as you read on) because it was freezing there. Absolutely freezing. We got to our hostel around 10 and decided to call it a night.

October 13

Caitlin had a 2pm flight this day so we tried to fit in as much as we could before she left. We paid for museum tickets for the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum at our hostel so we didn't have to wait in line (lies). We went to the Rijk first, and once we got there we discovered that those under the age of 19 get in free so we were slightly (super) bitter that the lady in the hostel didn't tell us and made us pay 17,50 Euro for those tickets. The museum is not worth that. Then we headed to the Van Gogh Museum, where we had to wait in a line (in the freezing cold) to get our tickets. We still had to wait. Dumb. This museum was much better than the Rijk, much better. Caitlin left from the Van Gogh Museum so it was just Jacqueline and myself for the rest of the day. We split french fries, which were on the list, as we walked to Anne Frank's house, to stand in the freezing cold. We stood in line for a little over half and hour, not bad, right? Well, as we got towards the very front of the line there was a sign telling us we couldn't bring large backpacks into the house. So, we ended up waiting in line and not even getting to go inside. We'll be back though, definitely

Once that was over we headed to McDonald's, the once place in all of Europe that for sure has free wifi, to wait for our other friends to get done with their adventures. We told them, Brittany, Lia, and her roommates, to meet us outside of their hostel at 7. We couldn't go inside and wait because we weren't staying there. So, we waited, and waited, and waited. We waited until 7:45 to go back to McDonald's, where there was warmth and wifi. They finally contacted us around 8:15 and it ended with  very annoyed Becky and Jacqueline. We all headed our separate ways after we met up. Jacqueline, Brittany, and I went to dinner and then to the bus station to catch our 11:30pm bus, while the other girls went to experiment.

The bus was a night bus to Berlin that would get us there around 9am the next morning. This saved us on a days worth of travel and a stay at a hostel. The bus wasn't packed so I slept band bus style and actually got quite a lot of sleep, not very good sleep, but a lot. The bus stopped at the border between the Netherlands and Germany and Boarder Patrol got on around 3am to check our passports. That was an interesting experience.  

Barcelona

Caitlin and I took a bus from Valencia to Barcelona to meet up with Jacqueline, who was traveling with her parents, to fly out together. Caitlin and I went to the Sagrada Familia and then Park Güell where we met up with Jacqueline and her family. I had already been to both before, so no super exciting news there. All of us went out to dinner at this amazing crepe place and then headed back to the hotel to plan. We spent a solid 2 hours attempting to plan for Amsterdam and Germany, and honestly, I think we did pretty well. It wasn't a set "be here, do this," list, but more of a general idea of what we could do, should do, and what we need to eat, of course.

We came across this Monday morning. A Celebration of Spain's National Day.

October 9

Valencia Day!

Happy Valencian Day! I walked outside of my building at noon to watch, what looked like the Bonofest, taking place. There were benches set up and tents lining the walkways and bridge. The smell was absolutely amazing and there were flags lining hanging above our heads.

Our first adventure was out to the parade where, when it ended, the Valencian's sang the Valencian Hymn. The parade itself was very scattered and not that spectacular, but it was very cool to hear everyone sing (in Valencian) with their flags waving in the air. After that we walked to the Plaza de La Reina to "watch" fireworks, yep, fireworks at 2 pm. It was INSANE. They had strung the fireworks throughout the center of the plaza and when it was time to start they ignited the string and the fireworks went of accordingly. You couldn't see anything of course, they do it more for the rhythm of the noise. Personally, I felt myself trembling from the powerful explosions. We were up close and could see them go off.The smoke cloud covered the square and it sounded like bombs were going off. Dara and I got a photo, of course, in front of the debris and then we strolled back to Garnet.

The Serrenos Towers, which were once the entrance to the city, are right in front of our apartment and were free to visit. Naturally, Dara and I ventured our way to the top to finally say we've been up the towers. We made it just before the man started kicking us out. Once we got back on the ground we went to the bridge, where there were people selling jewelry, bags, candy and anything they thought had value. Dara went to scope out her parents after that and I went in for a nap. :)

Once I woke up it was after 6pm and I 

assumed I missed the 2nd parade, because everyone left to watch it at 5. I was wrong. I went out in search of food and I had to plow through crowds of people standing on the sidewalks of all three plazas. I could hear the bands playing in front and behind me, that was nice. Earlier in the day the parade consisted of a "band" of what looked like mini oboes, not an appealing sound. These bands however, were all brass, it was much better. There were also several camels and people riding the camels through the streets. The parade that started around 5 didn't end until I started walking back around 8.

Caitlin and I got gelato together, once I got back, and then we stopped in to see Mike, the guy with the place that doesn't open until 8pm and closes around 4am. We'll be gone this week and he'll be gone the next week, so no greasy food at 3am for us for awhile...

October 5 and 6

Monday
I slept in, went to class, got lunch with Dara and went shopping. It was super exciting.

Tuesday
I got you bright and early for my math midterm that went alright-ish. I dunno how I feel about it. I couldn't figure out simmering that was probably super basic, but I figured it out using calculus...and some people are just, euh, in that class. I got out early and had a break before Spanish. That class went by quickly and later i meet up with my group for our project. It's a project for an online course, required for all FYA student. Lia and I got dinner and ended up at McDonald's for McFlurries where e ran into Jacqueline. I just got done with another chapter of macro and an assignment (I'm trying to bust out the entire module before I leave on Sunday. Hmm. And tomorrow I'll get up and run, but because the sun rises later now, I get to sleep in some :)

October 3 and 4

Sushi for dinner Saturday. This is how
we paid...

Yesterday I finished all of my work for Econ, that had to be done before I took the exam. My roommate is in Italy so I took advantage of my empty room. I believe it was pretty successful. It is, however, the week leading up to Valencia Day. That means parades, concerts and loud noises outside of our apartment all week. So, today, Sunday, when I made it about halfway through my Econ exam a band marched by and now they are setting off fireworks...at noon. It is highly distracting and super annoying to say the least. Everyone is walking down in their pajamas now to figure out what is going on...It is literally the sound of 100 bombs going off right outside. We just had to be placed behind a historical monument.

UPDATE: They are shooting muskets, right outside of our apartment. Sounds like a scene from a Civil War movie.

Dara and I went to a crepe place for dinner (they take cheques!) where you could draw on the wall and they give you crayons at the tables and the crepes were filled with chocolate, not nutella, chocolate, it was the best!

October 1 and 2

Thursday
Yesterday I made myself chicken parpikash for lunch, kind of. I attempted to make the gravy but lo and behold they don't use sour cream over here. It's very difficult to make the sauce without sour cream, so I just ate chicken and dumplings with butter and it was well worth it.

Later that night we had to finish planning four our fall break trip and it was not going well. One of the girls coming with us (maybe) didn't show up and ended up not booking half of our hostel or bus reservations before she left for the weekend. Nobody seemed to care that we didn't have transportation to half the places we needed to go, like our flight is out of Munich, but there was no way to Munich...but they weren't worried. Halfway through planning Brittany had us come to jazz bar with her, to watch someone she met perform. I didn't want to be there to begin with, I wasn't dressed to go out, I stood for an hour, and I had to buy a 2,50 Euro bottle of water because we had to buy something. I got a 1/3 liter of water for that price, and at the Chino store I could get 15 liters for that. I was not happy. Also, she wasn't very good and the pianist was alright, but I personally think it's not very good jazz unless you've got some trumpets, saxes, and trombones on stage. I was not having a pleasant night. We finally got back and done planning and my budget on food while we're traveling is super limited, but I'll survive. It's only a week.

Friday
We went to a winery today and it smelled of rotting fruit then entire time. It was super strong and nauseating and the people that went hungover were having problems. We got to taste 3 different wines and had the chance to buy them...I bought wine but not the kind we tasted. It was buy 2 cases get 1 free so half the students looked like they were alcoholics getting on and off the bus.

We spent the afternoon in a town that was on our way back. We ordered hamburgers and fries and got a patty on a plate surrounded by fries...it was terrible. So we went to Consum and bought a 6 pack of ice cream cones and split it between 3 people. I spent 55 cents on two ice cream cones it was a great decision.

Now, Dara and I are planning a trip to London and possibly Rome. I've decided those will be my last trips for the semester, because, money. London before our FSU Madrid trip and Rome right after. I'm excited and if we start planning now, which no one else is really good with, flights are super cheap. It'll be set in stone by tonight, I'm sure of it.